My feelings about Fallout New Vegas: Dead Money, expressed through the medium of text and owl photos
I've spent my Christmas poopsocking my way through Dead Money.
It could've been better.
When I began, my first thought was, 'I'm trapped in Silent Hill with a bitchy zombie, Ms. Jigsawface, sinister George and self-harming Lenny! I like Fallout! I like abandoned resorts! I like mystery! I like survival horror! I like The Mist! I like unnatural abominations that wear gas masks! IT'S LIKE FALLOUT AND BIOSHOCK HAD A BABY! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?'
I was like this:
Then I got to the vault, and I was like this:
And then I completed it, and I was like THIS:
Admittedly, I've not played any of the other DLCs, so I don't know how Dead Money compares to the rest of them. I've read that it's relatively good. Still, I can't help feeling a little let down. Dead Money was okay, but not quite as awesome as it appeared to be at first.
My biggest problem was the sudden difficulty spikes that kept cropping up here and there. I played the game in normal mode, not hardcore, and I found the difficulty okay until I reached the Sierra Madre's vault. There was a section that involved shooting radio loudspeakers that nearly made me bite through my controller in rage.
Some background: the Courier is fitted with an explosive collar that beeps and detonates when he/she spends too long in the presence of radio signals. In the vault, the player is required to shoot the radios down from the walls before he/she explodes. Unfortunately, it's very dark and there are often beams overhead, making the radios difficult to see (especially if you don't have any Ghost sight). There are 'silent' spots where the signals don't reach, but finding these spots is a matter of trial and error, and you can run straight past them without noticing if you're in a hurry... which is often, because the collar's beeping makes you inclined to panic. The extra challenge provided by the explosive collar seemed novel at first, but quickly became tedious. If I had a bottle cap for every time I had to watch my character's head explode, I could probably... well, I could probably make a lot of bottle cap necklaces.
I was also disappointed that the Sierra Madre casino wasn't as creepy as I expected it to be*. I thought the Sierra Madre town was great, with lots of crazy graffiti, traps, and stabby weirdos in gas masks everywhere, but the casino was pretty bland in comparison. When the characters mentioned 'ghosts', I half expected them to be like the ghosts in Bioshock - leftover memories of a lost age, shades of people doomed to repeat themselves for eternity, etc. Instead the ghosts were just a bunch of indestructible holograms who fired lightning bolts from their foreheads. They could've been menacing, or sad, or unnerving, but instead they were just a pain in the ass.
Still, despite my beefs with Dead Money, I liked the little background details it provided about the Courier(s), the casino's history, Christine, the Big Empty, etc. (Tragic confession: it took me right until the final fight before I realized that Elijah was the same dude mentioned in New Vegas.) The NPCs/companions were definitely one of the stronger aspects of the DLC, although I would've liked more opportunities to work with them. It felt as if they had important roles at the start of the story while you're stuck in Sierra Madre town, and then they became useless and required rescue/disposal once you'd entered the casino itself. Granted, they still provided interesting dialog** and performed their duties as plot coupon dispensers, but I was hoping I'd get another chanced to explore with them and make use of their Perks.
SPOILERS: And I'm a little peeved that you don't get the option to ask Christine if her lost love's name is Veronica. COME ON MAN, I want the chance to do some post-apocalyptic matchmaking.
Oh well. I'll die happy if I never have to hear an explosive collar make ominous beeping noises ever again, at least.
---
*To be honest, I probably ruined things for myself by having too many preconceptions. Towards the start of the game, when people were mentioning holograms and a casino dedicated to a dead movie starlet and a vault full of untold treasure, I kept thinking of Magnetic Rose*: I imagined that the vault was really created to be a tomb for the owner's girlfriend, Vera Keyes (I got it into my head that she was dying after reading one of the medical reports), and that the vault would memorialize her by containing holograms that continuously reenacted moments from her life/films. Also, when the characters discussed the treasure inside the vault and the effect it had on people, I... I sort of wanted the treasure to be some sort of VR 'Lotus Eater Machine' that sucked people in, granted everything they ever wanted, and trapped them in a dream forever. IDEK. Part of me still wants to throw a copy of Otomo Katsuhiro's Memories at the lead writer while shrieking, "Have you seen Magnetic Rose? HOLOGRAMS COULD HAVE BEEN FUCKING AWESOME."
While I'm waffling about this stuff, I heartily recommend watching this Magnetic Rose AMV. Tell me that it wouldn't make an awesome setting for a video game.
**The voice acting was pretty decent, although I'd swear that the script contained a frightening amount of Shatner-speak.
It could've been better.
When I began, my first thought was, 'I'm trapped in Silent Hill with a bitchy zombie, Ms. Jigsawface, sinister George and self-harming Lenny! I like Fallout! I like abandoned resorts! I like mystery! I like survival horror! I like The Mist! I like unnatural abominations that wear gas masks! IT'S LIKE FALLOUT AND BIOSHOCK HAD A BABY! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?'
I was like this:
Then I got to the vault, and I was like this:
And then I completed it, and I was like THIS:
Admittedly, I've not played any of the other DLCs, so I don't know how Dead Money compares to the rest of them. I've read that it's relatively good. Still, I can't help feeling a little let down. Dead Money was okay, but not quite as awesome as it appeared to be at first.
My biggest problem was the sudden difficulty spikes that kept cropping up here and there. I played the game in normal mode, not hardcore, and I found the difficulty okay until I reached the Sierra Madre's vault. There was a section that involved shooting radio loudspeakers that nearly made me bite through my controller in rage.
Some background: the Courier is fitted with an explosive collar that beeps and detonates when he/she spends too long in the presence of radio signals. In the vault, the player is required to shoot the radios down from the walls before he/she explodes. Unfortunately, it's very dark and there are often beams overhead, making the radios difficult to see (especially if you don't have any Ghost sight). There are 'silent' spots where the signals don't reach, but finding these spots is a matter of trial and error, and you can run straight past them without noticing if you're in a hurry... which is often, because the collar's beeping makes you inclined to panic. The extra challenge provided by the explosive collar seemed novel at first, but quickly became tedious. If I had a bottle cap for every time I had to watch my character's head explode, I could probably... well, I could probably make a lot of bottle cap necklaces.
I was also disappointed that the Sierra Madre casino wasn't as creepy as I expected it to be*. I thought the Sierra Madre town was great, with lots of crazy graffiti, traps, and stabby weirdos in gas masks everywhere, but the casino was pretty bland in comparison. When the characters mentioned 'ghosts', I half expected them to be like the ghosts in Bioshock - leftover memories of a lost age, shades of people doomed to repeat themselves for eternity, etc. Instead the ghosts were just a bunch of indestructible holograms who fired lightning bolts from their foreheads. They could've been menacing, or sad, or unnerving, but instead they were just a pain in the ass.
Still, despite my beefs with Dead Money, I liked the little background details it provided about the Courier(s), the casino's history, Christine, the Big Empty, etc. (Tragic confession: it took me right until the final fight before I realized that Elijah was the same dude mentioned in New Vegas.) The NPCs/companions were definitely one of the stronger aspects of the DLC, although I would've liked more opportunities to work with them. It felt as if they had important roles at the start of the story while you're stuck in Sierra Madre town, and then they became useless and required rescue/disposal once you'd entered the casino itself. Granted, they still provided interesting dialog** and performed their duties as plot coupon dispensers, but I was hoping I'd get another chanced to explore with them and make use of their Perks.
SPOILERS: And I'm a little peeved that you don't get the option to ask Christine if her lost love's name is Veronica. COME ON MAN, I want the chance to do some post-apocalyptic matchmaking.
Oh well. I'll die happy if I never have to hear an explosive collar make ominous beeping noises ever again, at least.
---
*To be honest, I probably ruined things for myself by having too many preconceptions. Towards the start of the game, when people were mentioning holograms and a casino dedicated to a dead movie starlet and a vault full of untold treasure, I kept thinking of Magnetic Rose*: I imagined that the vault was really created to be a tomb for the owner's girlfriend, Vera Keyes (I got it into my head that she was dying after reading one of the medical reports), and that the vault would memorialize her by containing holograms that continuously reenacted moments from her life/films. Also, when the characters discussed the treasure inside the vault and the effect it had on people, I... I sort of wanted the treasure to be some sort of VR 'Lotus Eater Machine' that sucked people in, granted everything they ever wanted, and trapped them in a dream forever. IDEK. Part of me still wants to throw a copy of Otomo Katsuhiro's Memories at the lead writer while shrieking, "Have you seen Magnetic Rose? HOLOGRAMS COULD HAVE BEEN FUCKING AWESOME."
While I'm waffling about this stuff, I heartily recommend watching this Magnetic Rose AMV. Tell me that it wouldn't make an awesome setting for a video game.
**The voice acting was pretty decent, although I'd swear that the script contained a frightening amount of Shatner-speak.