GB Feature: Fallout: New Vegas - Lonesome Road DLC Review
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I hesitate to touch on Lonesome Road's story, because, as the prime focus of the experience, even small spoilers would hurt the sense of discovery. More generally, though, Lonesome Road is an introspective piece - it's smart enough to remain understated, and lets the Divide and its inhabitants speak for themselves, rather than forcing exposition and monologues down the player's throat. The narrative, while generally straightforward and sparse compared to prior New Vegas DLCs, isn't content being self-contained - its themes of the role of individuals within history, the nature of nationhood, and the unforeseen consequences of actions all provide food for thought, and more often than not claw at the fourth wall, speaking not to the Courier, but challenging the player instead. That it's also able to smartly tie in and shed new light on a prior companion character, and in doing so weave its A and B plots together so tightly, is yet another testament to the quality of storytelling on display.
Much as how Dead Money was driven by its ensemble cast and the stressful situation they were all forced into by a mysterious figure, Lonesome Road's focus is dead-center on another mysterious figure testing the Courier's limits. Ulysses is one of the most effective, well-realized, and refreshingly non-standard characters in any game I've played in quite some time - a complex man whose very nature is tainted by a label like "villain". Fans of Chris Avellone's prior works, whether that's Fallout, Planescape, or Star Wars, will find his trademark all over Ulysses, and the result is a character who can stand comfortably beside the RPG genre's finest. That said, Ulysses is also of the "philosophical, vague, and esoteric" school of antagonists, and most of the storytelling falls on his shoulders; combined with the fact that many plot points are left open to interpretation, some players may find him more frustrating than intriguing.
