If you loved New Vegas for it's deep and interesting characters, well designed open world, strong writing, and versatile game design - expect absolutely none of that in this DLC which answers the question: What if FONV was a corridor shooter with dick and fart jokes?
Old Wolrd Blues is in every way the exact opposite of the base game. It kicks off with a 20 minute non-stop exposition fest from a group of badly written unfunny characters who make at least 3 dick and fart jokes before you even start the DLC proper. Your objective is to travel 3 paths, find 3 items, and beat the cartoonishly evil bad guy.
As I've mentioned in the main game review, Fallout's shooting is the weakest aspect of its design. There's no mobility, the vats is clunky and interrupts, and shooting is more RPG than simulational making it feel like you're trading numbers with bullet sponges. So treating FONV as any other FPS game of its time and inserting a bunch of shooting corridors is one of the worst directions to take the game. It's laborious, slow, and un-fun.
Meanwhile all the content that made FONV is entirely absent. The open world is replaced with a small domed city with 3 main paths and a few extra labs to explore. The extra areas are themselves incredibly mundane and have little to discover. The characters are incredibly shallow, unfunny, and cartoonish so there's no depth to explore there. You have no companions. Your skills do not factor into the mission design. But you do get a new gimmicky sound gun which does nothing to spice up the awful combat.
I get that whoever made this wanted to produce a light-hearted silly low-stakes story that gave players a break from the bleak serious tone of the base game but it gave me whiplash coming into this off the ending. It actively erodes the nuance, seriousness, and depth of the game - entirely evaporated by the end of the opening monologue. It nosedives into the most banal and generic FPS action imaginable of its time, discards every strength of the core game and wallows in it's weakest design aspects. It actively undermines the creativity and effort that went into avoiding that with the base game. It feels lazy, uninspired, and tonally divorced from the core game.
I couldn't stomach even finishing this DLC and, since I can't go back to the main game without finishing it, if I ever play the other DLC it will be on a new play through of the core game. I hated this experience and it actively harmed my appreciation for the base game. Do not recommend.
Old Wolrd Blues is in every way the exact opposite of the base game. It kicks off with a 20 minute non-stop exposition fest from a group of badly written unfunny characters who make at least 3 dick and fart jokes before you even start the DLC proper. Your objective is to travel 3 paths, find 3 items, and beat the cartoonishly evil bad guy.
As I've mentioned in the main game review, Fallout's shooting is the weakest aspect of its design. There's no mobility, the vats is clunky and interrupts, and shooting is more RPG than simulational making it feel like you're trading numbers with bullet sponges. So treating FONV as any other FPS game of its time and inserting a bunch of shooting corridors is one of the worst directions to take the game. It's laborious, slow, and un-fun.
Meanwhile all the content that made FONV is entirely absent. The open world is replaced with a small domed city with 3 main paths and a few extra labs to explore. The extra areas are themselves incredibly mundane and have little to discover. The characters are incredibly shallow, unfunny, and cartoonish so there's no depth to explore there. You have no companions. Your skills do not factor into the mission design. But you do get a new gimmicky sound gun which does nothing to spice up the awful combat.
I get that whoever made this wanted to produce a light-hearted silly low-stakes story that gave players a break from the bleak serious tone of the base game but it gave me whiplash coming into this off the ending. It actively erodes the nuance, seriousness, and depth of the game - entirely evaporated by the end of the opening monologue. It nosedives into the most banal and generic FPS action imaginable of its time, discards every strength of the core game and wallows in it's weakest design aspects. It actively undermines the creativity and effort that went into avoiding that with the base game. It feels lazy, uninspired, and tonally divorced from the core game.
I couldn't stomach even finishing this DLC and, since I can't go back to the main game without finishing it, if I ever play the other DLC it will be on a new play through of the core game. I hated this experience and it actively harmed my appreciation for the base game. Do not recommend.