elbrucio

Beautiful expansive vistas are somewhat dimmed by an uninspired storyline. The landscape in this expansion is gorgeous and like wandering through a national geographic documentary on the desert. Rich oranges and reds for the sandy landscape, a starry sky that goes on forever, and weather effects that aren't present in the regular game. The downside of all the nature of course is that the interiors are less than interesting and are mostly caves, and there is only so much you can do with caves. The storyline wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either and I couldn't help but think a western theme would have suited it better than a native one. So be prepared for an enjoyable game, but alas, not an exciting one.

Surprisingly good. While Dead Money was wandering a hateful maze and Honest Hearts was an extended nature walk, Old World Blues brings back the excitement of exploring new and interesting places. The landscape, locations and interiors seem to have a lot more effort put into them than the previous downloadable content. The plot is like a b-grade sci-fi movie, which in this case is a good thing. The enemies are all re-skinned versions of other enemies already in New Vegas, but they are good nonetheless and don't detract from anything. Given the Science theme, players may want to have higher than usual science and energy weapons skills before playing the expansion for optimum enjoyment. As for faults, OWB is lacking in the NPC companion areas for which DM and HH excelled at despite their other problems. Also, sneaking in this expansion doesn't appear to be nearly as effective as the regular game or expansions, with enemies noticing the player from rather surprising distances at times despite 100 sneak and the silent running perk. And while some of the locations are indeed quite detailed, they become less wonderful after you are required to navigate them multiple times in item fetch quests.

While I truly love Fallout New Vegas, I'd recommend taking a pass on this expansion. The setting/technology is interesting, the story behind everything is compelling ( and tragic ) and your temporary companions have good back-stories and voice acting. The rest of the game is a void of tedious **** scrambling around a bleak resort designed for agoraphobics reminiscent of the subways you had to traverse in the previous Fallout 3. This actually could have been an excellent expansion, but my guess is that during development there were complaints that people were completing it too quickly. It was obviously too late to make extra content, so instead they introduced no less than seven plot elements designed specifically to slow your progress to a crawl. Those extra hours of gameplay they've stretched in are not enjoyable ones. Be prepared to reload often due to your untimely death happening with alarming frequency. And while there were new weapons and gear, none of it was as good as the stuff I already had from playing the regular game. At most, it provides extra money - but that was never a problem in New Vegas either. The new perks went unused as well.