AdderLore
4 reviews liked by AdderLore
I'm honestly pretty mixed on Lonesome Road overall. Dead Money, Honest Hearts and Old World Blues were all building up to this final DLC by mentioning a character who's known as another Courier. The previous Courier before you and he wishes to meet you at the end of the Lonesome Road. For one, I still honestly don't understand what was fully going on. Ulysses is just an extremely confusing character that I did not understand his motivation at all until I looked it up online. Don't take this as me not being observant enough, he speaks in extremely confusing patterns that almost just feels pretentious. I do not enjoy playing this DLC without having any idea what the hell is going on. I don't care that Ulysses has a cool voice, he doesn't make much sense to me.
The name of this DLC really says it all. This is a lonesome road. No NPCs to meet, barely any exploration, devastated urban landscapes and the atmosphere felt very eerie. I will say the best part about this DLC was The Divide. It was such a fantastic and atmospheric setting.
However, walking the Lonesome Road through gameplay is where my issues arise. This is by far the most difficult Fallout: New Vegas has been. Since it's one long road you're walking on, it's very linear and I wanted this to just be over and move on to more dialogue. The enemies were annoying and tough, but it was never fair. Who thought it was an idea to put Deathclaws in the middle of the road? Seriously, this shit lasted for 2 hours. At the very least the new weapons were really cool.
While this DLC wasn't awful, it's so highly overrated and i don't get the love for it.
5/10
My ranking of the four Fallout: New Vegas DLC is this:
1) Dead Money
2) Old World Blues
3) Honest Hearts
4) Lonesome Road
Review Updated on Monday, July 3, 2023:
Looking back on this review two years later, I don't like the way I worded it. I said my review, "it's so highly overrated and i don't get the love for it" but I take that back. I do get why people love this DLC and the Divide's setting is enough of a reason for me. It is a great setting and I understand why people are invested in Ulysses' character even though I find him to be insufferable.
Unfortunately, I still feel the same about Lonesome Road. I think it's boring and the writing feels intentionally convoluted, pretentious, and abstract for the sake of being abstract. It also doesn't help that it isn't fun to play. However, there are tidbits of interesting lore, dialogue interactions with Ulysses, ED-E, and some admittedly interesting arguments the player can make against Ulysses. It's just a shame he always prefers responding in metaphors.
I haven't played Lonesome Road since writing my review for it back in 2021, but I have looked more into it via YouTube videos. Maybe I'll return to it whenever I decide to commit to replaying New Vegas, but this is still by far my least favorite DLC and I have a hard time discerning any point from it. There's no real stake or choice in letting an ED-E clone sacrifice himself or choosing to nuke the NCR, Legion, or both. Yeah, sure, It has an impact on your karma, but that doesn't make any sense. How the hell is either faction supposed to know that YOU nuked them?
I understand Ulysses' motivation a lot better now, but I find it to be really, really stupid and irrational. To me, it feels like the player is being punished for an action they had no control over. Yes, I understand my courier mistakingly destroyed Ulysses' home prior to Benny shooting him in the head, but it doesn't work. My character has amnesia from being shot in the head. I don't have a problem with writers creating a backstory for blank slate protagonists, but making said backstory an essential plot point to an entire DLC story? That's just cheap and contrived.
4/10
The name of this DLC really says it all. This is a lonesome road. No NPCs to meet, barely any exploration, devastated urban landscapes and the atmosphere felt very eerie. I will say the best part about this DLC was The Divide. It was such a fantastic and atmospheric setting.
However, walking the Lonesome Road through gameplay is where my issues arise. This is by far the most difficult Fallout: New Vegas has been. Since it's one long road you're walking on, it's very linear and I wanted this to just be over and move on to more dialogue. The enemies were annoying and tough, but it was never fair. Who thought it was an idea to put Deathclaws in the middle of the road? Seriously, this shit lasted for 2 hours. At the very least the new weapons were really cool.
While this DLC wasn't awful, it's so highly overrated and i don't get the love for it.
5/10
My ranking of the four Fallout: New Vegas DLC is this:
1) Dead Money
2) Old World Blues
3) Honest Hearts
4) Lonesome Road
Review Updated on Monday, July 3, 2023:
Looking back on this review two years later, I don't like the way I worded it. I said my review, "it's so highly overrated and i don't get the love for it" but I take that back. I do get why people love this DLC and the Divide's setting is enough of a reason for me. It is a great setting and I understand why people are invested in Ulysses' character even though I find him to be insufferable.
Unfortunately, I still feel the same about Lonesome Road. I think it's boring and the writing feels intentionally convoluted, pretentious, and abstract for the sake of being abstract. It also doesn't help that it isn't fun to play. However, there are tidbits of interesting lore, dialogue interactions with Ulysses, ED-E, and some admittedly interesting arguments the player can make against Ulysses. It's just a shame he always prefers responding in metaphors.
I haven't played Lonesome Road since writing my review for it back in 2021, but I have looked more into it via YouTube videos. Maybe I'll return to it whenever I decide to commit to replaying New Vegas, but this is still by far my least favorite DLC and I have a hard time discerning any point from it. There's no real stake or choice in letting an ED-E clone sacrifice himself or choosing to nuke the NCR, Legion, or both. Yeah, sure, It has an impact on your karma, but that doesn't make any sense. How the hell is either faction supposed to know that YOU nuked them?
I understand Ulysses' motivation a lot better now, but I find it to be really, really stupid and irrational. To me, it feels like the player is being punished for an action they had no control over. Yes, I understand my courier mistakingly destroyed Ulysses' home prior to Benny shooting him in the head, but it doesn't work. My character has amnesia from being shot in the head. I don't have a problem with writers creating a backstory for blank slate protagonists, but making said backstory an essential plot point to an entire DLC story? That's just cheap and contrived.
4/10
ulysees is the original rantsona. can't you just imagine him standing with crossed arms on a youtube thumbnail going "The PROBLEM with THE BEAR AND THE BULL". he even has the mauler mask it's all here
I don't mind that the story is stupid as hell and pulls out random lore out of its ass that makes no sense, because at the very least I found it enjoyable.
But what it does highlight is just how boring Fallout is without a strong open world and RPG mechanics. You walk in a straight line and shoot anything you see, and the game gives you so much loot that you don't even have to account for your resources at all. The only time I ever felt really challenged was a part in which you had to take down two Deathclaws right next to each other, and it was just a matter of remembering that I was carrying a nuke up my ass. I'll probably only play this DLC again to get all achievements and forget this ever existed.
But what it does highlight is just how boring Fallout is without a strong open world and RPG mechanics. You walk in a straight line and shoot anything you see, and the game gives you so much loot that you don't even have to account for your resources at all. The only time I ever felt really challenged was a part in which you had to take down two Deathclaws right next to each other, and it was just a matter of remembering that I was carrying a nuke up my ass. I'll probably only play this DLC again to get all achievements and forget this ever existed.
Fallout: New Vegas
2010
Dated gameplay and an unplayable PC port with windows 11 have unfortunately tainted this otherwise brilliant RPG. I hope one day Bethesda remaster this for a new generation.