I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me, and I walk alone.

Jokes aside, Lonesome road is probably my favourite FNV DLC, which seems like an unpopular take in contemporary critical discourse surrounding the game; on the internet anyways.

I do GET what others find objectionable about the DLC, I'm not super on board with the characterisation of Chris Avellone's pseudo-rantsona and the cardinal sins the game committs in regards to roleplaying are at best misguided attempts at narrative subversion and at worst break the entire game's foundations in half.

Its one of those things, where, even though I myself had not heard of this discourse I intuitively felt something wrong when I played the game for the first time. "You, the courier came through here before and indirectly caused the devastation of the divide" - Ulysses said calmly

"No I didnt. My character didnt do that at all. My courier was a common drifter before he stole a mojave express courier's identity just in time to be shot by a claymation chandler bing". I was mostly confused. I do think its a mistake to take everything Ulysses at face value, and if you listen to his soliloquoys scattered about the various holotapes you come to realize hes a disturbed, traumatized individual who's maybe not quite meant to be taken as gospel. He reminds me of Measurehead's backstory from DE if you do the fascism sidequest.

That being said, the reason for Lonesome Road being my favourite is the gameplay. Its an amazing gauntlet that puts the player's abilities to the test with the various tunnelers, deathclaws, marked men and the like. Chris Avellone's hatred for the post-postapocalypse shines here, albeit appropriately for a recently nuked area, there are nought but the remnants of those who tried to rebuild the divide but were cut down by radiation. FNV is a bit too easy, but Lonesome Road is a nice mix up in this department. This last playthrough I played using the JSawyer mod and a revolver build, both of which made the game more challenging and I had a blast making it through the titular road.

Its unfortunate how the DLC also implies that the mojave will just get fucked again by tunnelers because again, Chris Avellone hates the post-postapocalypse, but my headcanon is that the indomitable will of the player character overcomes this to make sure the future inhabitants of vegas can put up a fight. I mean, a drugged mailman took care of dozens of them with a few hollow points, it won't be that difficult to mount a defensive line against em

Absolutely floored by how good the AI in this is. Today, Monolith are probably more well known for Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system or the fact that F.E.A.R.’s AI is so clever it had a short MIT paper written about it, but you can see their talent for this sort of thing on full display in No One Lives Forever too. Ideally, when we wheel out the phrase “feels like it’s from the future,” we should reserve it for special games like this which genuinely outclass stuff being released over two decades later in crucial areas like these.

“Enemy variety” is often conflated solely with the number of different types of enemies a game has, and NOLF’s enemy AI is a good showcase of why that’s misleading. The vast majority of NOLF’s enemies are humans, mostly being differentiated via the weapons they’ve equipped or which parts of their body are armoured (accentuated by a really cool limb-based damage system), but it never, ever feels stale because of how versatile their behaviour is. They can duck, lean, dodge roll, sway from side to side, knock over environmental objects to create some makeshift cover, blindfire over that makeshift cover, work together with other enemies to flank you, even run in a zigzag motion to throw off your aim if there’s no cover nearby, and probably more that I’m not aware of. Combine these kinds of dynamic behaviours with level design that often presents you with more than one path forward plus all of Cate’s weird gadgets, and the sum is a game where any given encounter can play out in any number of ways. Bear in mind that this also came out an entire year before Halo CE flexed on the competition with its similarly brainy AI. The boss fights aren’t quite as flexible as the enemies, but considering how few FPSs even attempt to have bosses at all, it’s nice to have them here for the occasional breather. Y’know?

When it comes to sneaking about in NOLF, enemies are less consistent – their line of sight varies between a few feet and what feels like miles depending on which level you’re playing – but not nearly to the point where stealth should be a point of derision for the game. I can’t imagine looking at NOLF’s stealth with the mindset of “this doesn’t work as well as it could” instead of “it’s impressive that this works as well as it does.” Again, bear in mind that 3D stealth games as we know them had only existed for about two years by the time NOLF came out. Taking that into consideration along with the fact that it’s not even a pure stealth game, it’s ridiculously ambitious. We’ve got different sound levels depending on the type of surface you’re walking on, gradient light/dark levels, various gadgets to misdirect specific kinds of enemies, and don’t get me started on its sound propagation – apart from Thief, this is the only (pseudo)stealth game I’ve played in which you can rely purely on audio to reliably tell where enemies are. It’s pretty conspicuous that you can’t lean around corners (something Monolith themselves must’ve noticed considering they added that in the sequel), and more grapple points to reach higher places would’ve been appreciated, but those are about all it lacks.

What NOLF doesn’t lack is charm. Do you love anything as much as the guys who made this clearly love spy movies, funky basslines and the 1960s? Don’t be so sure. The writing’s so witty at times that one of my favourite parts of the game consists purely of dialogue choices, where you interview one of the clumsier villains who’s clearly in over his head with this whole terrorism business. The swing-y music’s a pleasure to listen to, but it also serves a helpful purpose since it dynamically switches between a bunch of remixes depending on whether or not you’ve been spotted. Cate’s a great protagonist and bounces off the funny, visually distinctive supporting cast really well. It even has a silly post-credits level of dubious canonicity themed around monkeys. Why do games not do fun stuff like that anymore?

Basically, if you’re hankering for an old-ish school single player FPS in the vein of Return to Castle Wolfenstein or Half Life which is absolutely dripping with soulfulness, you owe NOLF your time. The trouble is you can’t buy it anymore, but fortunately there’s a top notch fan revival site where you can download it, the sequel and the spinoff all for free, with support for modern resolutions and glitch fixes among other stuff. I don’t think the publishers will be too bothered if you do considering none of them are sure who owns it anymore. No One Lives Forever™, but thanks to the fans, this series hopefully will.

God Hand’s critical reception has become a notable moment in gaming history. IGN famously gave it a three out of ten, citing bland environments, repetitive enemies, and dumb humor as reasons why this was one of the worst action games ever produced. The game was so poorly received that it lead to the shuttering of Clover Studio, home to some of the most legendary talent in the industry like Hideki Kamiya and Shinji Mikami. Fans of action games still burn at the unfairness of it all, and will gladly take any opportunity to explain why God Hand is actually one of the coolest games ever.

I’m not an action game fan though, so I have to concede to both sides. I think that for a large amount of people, God Hand will legitimately be a three out of ten game. The environments are just as bland as IGN said, and the enemies are just as repetitive. The camera can be extremely annoying, and you’ll die repeatedly from times where it just wouldn’t move fast enough to show you what’s going on. The extreme difficulty can also be a massive turn-off, but this is a point that leads straight into my next thought, which is that this game kicks ass.

The important thing to realize about God Hand is that the intended experience is getting your ass kicked. In most games, death means you failed, but that's not the case in God Hand. This game has a dynamic difficulty system that’s put right in front of your face, and you can watch the meter ratchet up as you land attacks or dodge enemies. At the first level, you can beat up enemies easily and feel like a typical action game hero, but the fourth level is called Level Die for a reason. Enemies will block your combos and throw you off balance, with two hits being enough to send you back to the checkpoint. This enforces a pace where the game is always pushing you one step beyond your current limit, with death serving as a difficulty recalibration. The clarity of the system mitigates frustration, and it can be used to judge how effective your combo strategy is. The build-your-own-combo system seems like it would have a few setups that are objectively better than the rest, but this isn't the case. When checking out streams and let’s-plays, I was shocked at how differently everyone had set up their move list, a testament to how the system is perfectly balanced for anyone's unique style. Making changes and exploring the full potential of each move was incredibly satisfying when I could tell that the changes let me stay on Level Die longer than ever, even when it still meant I would die in under a minute. The frustration with repetitive death is mitigated with cathartic moments like unlocking special God Hand attacks, or in the beautifully absurd cutscenes which release some of the built up tension. I wish I could share some examples of some humorous or rad moments, but considering how rewarded I felt when beating a level and seeing more insanity unfold, I wouldn’t want to give any of it away. I implore that you try out this game, as it’s in my top 5 best games of the year, and there’s nothing out there like it. Play at least through the first boss, and if you aren’t charmed, then I’ll be satisfied that you gave it a good try. That’s what me and the designers have in common: we both want you to beat God Hand, and won’t let you quit until you've shown that you're truly doing your best.