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Old 07-19-2011, 02:54 AM   #1546
JemyM
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Fallout: New Vegas DLC1 Dead Money
The first DLC for Fallout New Vegas brings Survival Horror to the Mojave Wastelands.

Story
Dead Money follow the formula "Boxed-In Sidestory". The Courier recieves a broadcast from the Sierra Madre casino, a huge skyscraper resort built on a mountain far away from New Vegas. Of course, things aren't as they seem and following this call turns into a horrible nightmare that you can't leave until you are done with the story.

Without giving too many spoilers, Dead Money contains some of the darkest moments of the entire game and the creepiest and deadliest place in the entire Fallout-series. In fact, Dead Money feels like a Survival Horror game with plenty of similarities with Silent Hill. The entire experience is distressful and creepy. Sierra Madre is covered in deadly mist, it's streets are filled with zombies, the sound of radios means you are in danger, you have very little inventory to begin with so you have to go by with what you can scavenge. You have no way to leave.

You are going to meet characters you heard about or seen throughout the regular game if you been listening. The companions you meet are all very dark. Even if they might be very rude to you, you must cooperate as your fates are linked in more ways than one.

Gameplay
Like I said, Dead Money is Boxed-In. As soon as you enter the DLC, you will stay there until you are done. When done, you cannot return to Sierra Madre again. You go in without companions and inventory. Everything you do in Dead Money relies on what you do within the DLC's own landscape.

The landscape consists of two major areas. Moving from the first to the second area locks you in and you can't go back. I found the second area somewhat better than the first. The first suffers from the "every wall looks the same" syndrome as well as feeling "empty" thanks to few unique areas and little in terms of unique loot. You also often get lost because of the confusing look-alike streets and the in-game map is almost useless since you can't see what floor passages you see in the map are in (what seems to be a straight path on the map often isn't). I could often run around for 15 minutes at one street to find something. There are also lots of running back and forth in quests, especially in the first area. The streetsigns aren't enough. Greater variation and more landmarks would have improved this quite a bit. There aren't much of unique loot either so trying to explore and scavenge like I did was a complete waste of time.

With it's really nasty environment and very limited equipment, Dead Money plays like a Survival Horror game with outspoken emphasis on Scavenging. I kinda like that idea. Fallout 3 had plenty of opportunities to make scavenging important but quickly gave you too much stuff making it meaningless to bother. Fallout NV improved this with a hardcore mode and lots of customization, but still end up giving you more than you need. However, I might have entered at too high level (37, 20 is recommended) because I had no problems going by with tons of food and water. I do play with 4 endurance though and I almost ran out of stimpacks once but only thanks to going to areas filled with mist (drains HP). I guess I also have to thank the fact that I got the best Energy Weapon I have seen in the game right away, which my character is focused on.

Dead Money has it's own economy, it's casino chips can be found everywhere can be used in the casino or in special vendor machines. You can access one of these when you leave so you can still purchase this stuff after leaving, you can even get more tokens if you like. However you can't go back to find the "unlock codes" for more stuff. You can also not go back playing at the Casino so if you leave as soon as the story is over without breaking the casino you can't do so at a later time.

Once you leave, it's over. Stuff you didn't take with you are lost forever, unlock-codes you didn't found are lost forever, achievements you didn't do is lost forever and if you didn't play at the casino you can't go back to do so.

Final Verdict
Compared to other DLC's I played, I still rate Dead Money above average. It's not great, in fact it can sometimes be rather tedious, especially the first area that could have been fleshed out more. But it's still above average among DLC's, much thanks to it's advanced storyline with tons of unique skill/perkchecks in dialogue, moral depth and multiple endings.

I do not like the fact that you can't go back and explore the DLC areas after finishing the storyline. First the vendor-codes you haven't found are lost to you forever. Second you cannot go back later to play at the casino. There are mods that make it possible to go back but you shouldn't have to. As a boxed-in experience you won't get much out from the DLC once you are done. Except for the tiny starting-area of the mod, there is only one thing that affects the regular Fallout game involving one of your companions, but that's it. You do get a +5 level cap and more perks however.
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