Review by Nathan Hardisty
UK Certification 18 | Region PAL | Developer Obsidian Entertainment | Publisher Bethesda Softworks
Not often does downloadable content either live up to its main predecessor or incorporate the same ideas. However, 2010 saw something completely different, we were seeing DLC that even surpassed the main body of the game. Bioshock 2 is a prime example, with the main game being a mish-mash of gameplay improvement but story sacrifice, but its single-player DLC, Minerva’s Den, stretched the limits of what to expect from downloadable content.
Its story was thoughtful; mixing in thematics and showing a political and ideological struggle. We saw segregation and unity, the blurred line between man and machine, all in a six-hour downloadable chapter. At the end of the year we had Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare; a separate episode of the cowboy shooter that added zombies to the fray and a story that didn’t rely on pre-determined relationships with characters.
Consider then the new downloadable episode for Fallout: New Vegas. It sets out to achieve a common goal: to further expand the story of New Vegas and enrich the overall experience. Dead Money does something spectacular, though: it starts a separate story thread and hints at revelations pointing towards a future battle taking place after the main story. I like the way Obsidian is treating the downloadable volumes as a separate story thread altogether, rather than stretch the game by trying to add to the original story, as Fallout 3’s Broken Steel add-on tried and failed to do.
Dead Money takes place in the Sierra Madre, a casino hailed as the greatest beacon for humanity and one that displayed their future. Ironically, it opened the same day as the bombs fell and so has been left untouched for hundreds of years. A strange red cloud has contained the city, poisonous in concentrated pockets and able to preserve the landscape. The game takes you from a decrepit villa and into the heart of the casino, all at the whim of an old man.
This old man is Father Elijah, who haunts the main story of New Vegas with whispers within the Brotherhood of Steel about his whereabouts. It's fun coming back and exploring the wasteland to hear his name so obviously babbled about and even his current location hinted at.
Obviously, the player wouldn’t go into a casino full of terrors willingly (there are invincible security holograms and the new strange faction of Ghost People who haunt the land and are filled with glowy substances). So, naturally, the player is lured into a bunker in the Mojave Wasteland and knocked unconscious. He’s dragged across to the casino, fitted with an explosive collar (which will explode if he tries to escape or if his partners die) and then forced to work for Elijah.
The story is certainly a highlight here. The chapter opens and closes with a slideshow, the first one setting up the main event and the final one giving resolution to all the people and things you touch during your time at the Sierra Madre. The heist of the century requires more than one man so it’s up to the player to recruit three other people. They’re massively varied in their character structure; one being mute, one being a super mutant and another being a witty ghoul with mysterious ties to the Sierra Madre itself.
Various themes of revival, impending death, schizophrenia and many others are at play here. What I found so surprising is most of the narrative is more well-written than the original New Vegas narrative, which was already a great feat of writing itself. The voice acting is probably near Bioshock quality and the whole story has this rhythm to it and pace that makes it perfect for a downloadable add-on.
The main gameplay doesn’t deviate from the usual taking and stealing and crafting and V.A.T.S-ing. There are new weapons to try out, although none of them quite pack as much punch as expected, and there’s even a five-level boost to the levelling cap (bringing it up to 35). With this comes new, useful perks that will benefit both your time in the Sierra Madre and when you return to the Mojave.
There are a few faults such as at near the end where there is a limited choice of how the player approaches the situation (having to sneak past security holograms), which is somewhat hypocritical when you think of how approachable the main game was. It’s what made it so brilliant and engrossing, to be able to play and choose and conquer in any way. It’s not a lot less present in Dead Money, but there are just fewer choices of how to approach certain situations.
As a whole though, I cannot recommend this downloadable content enough. I just cannot. I have to say... you need this if you own New Vegas. It’s an exciting, vast narrative condensed into a six-hour adventure full of treasures and discovery. The main story and characters are fascinating, the ultimate focus of recycling Old World materials to combat the new world works very well and it even ends on one of the most powerful notes I can think of. You do not want to miss out on what will be the start of perhaps a whole string of DLC linking into each other as a full narrative, which could well challenge the inaugural story of New Vegas.
The Sierra Madre awaits you at the cost of 800 Microsoft Points.
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SECOND OPINION | Adam Stephen Kelly ??? The first chapter of downloadable content for Fallout: New Vegas is a trying affair that sees you essentially starting from scratch. Entering the Sierra Madre casino without the aid of all of your weapons, equipment and supplements, which presumably would be of a pretty high class if you're attempting this difficult and ever-draining mission at the suitable level (we're talking 20 here), the Battle Royale-tinged story of Dead Money's grand old location is brimming with ghosts, ghouls and other nasties who just outright refuse to stay down.
The replacement of bottle caps with casino chips as the recognised currency coupled with the constant need for food, health and ammunition, which requires plenty of searching, makes for what is ultimately a game of survival with a horror sensibility.
Dead Money seems a world away from the DLC packs of Fallout 3 and is a pleasingly story-driven addition to the main game that goes in a new and engaging direction, but its frustrating nature has this five-hour yarn constantly switching between it being both a joy and a burden to play.
• Game reviewed on both Xbox 360 and PS3