Fallout: New Vegas Old World Blues DLC Reviews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on July 27th, 2011

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Fallout: New Vegas - Old World Blues' primary flaws are those that carry over from the main game. Entering VATS (the Vault-Assisted Targeting System) could result in a minute's worth of slow motion in which you never take a single shot or swipe at your target. Voice-overs might interrupt each other--a shame, when you want to savor the funny dialogue and fantastic acting. And the poor lighting and indistinct textures can make it difficult to spot mines or even quest items. But there's a good amount of content in here for enthusiasts--along with some new perks, a five-level increase to the level cap, and various weapons and clothing to take back with you into the Nevada wastes. You even earn a device called the transportalponder, which allows you to freely teleport between the crater and the desert. But the best reason Old World Blues gives you to return to Fallout: New Vegas is its nonstop humor, which is so outlandish as to make you laugh out loud, yet restrained enough to never be tasteless. At one point, you are told, "I have very good raisins for everything I do." And there is no better raisin to return to Fallout: New Vegas than this hilarious add-on.

Old World Blues, outside of the main quest, feels directionless. In an open world that can be both good and bad, depending on the kind of person you are. And while the main quest takes you all over, it doesn't really encourage much exploration outside of that. If you love wandering around and finding new places, this is a must buy. If you just want more story content, weigh your options but either way, the additional content works wonderfully with the core game.

In all, you'll get about seven to eleven hours of gameplay out of this cheaply priced content. Considering how you'll spend you'll time, it's more than worth it. Things aren't perfect. The glitches that are present in New Vegas do occasionally make annoying appearances here and there, but the experience isn't ruined for it. If you like a good laugh and prefer your humor on the dark side, you'll be able to overlook the minor flaws and take Old World Blues for what it is; an engaging and deep addition to an already solid game. The quirkiness of the characters you encounter along the way is awkwardly funny and filled with the best writing seen in Fallout in a very long time. I honestly can't remember the last time I laughed at a toaster and that's one of the lesser strange moments. If you're looking for the best DLC available for New Vegas, you'll find it in Old World Blues.

While Old World Blues is the best of the DLC so far, it still has some minor issues. Fighting the same enemies at such a high frequency can bog down the experience, and there is only so much you can do with a post apocalyptic testing facility, so exploring all of them one after the other gets a little old. As far as bugs go, my game froze twice, enemies popped up out of nowhere a couple times and sometimes none of my bullets would hit a particular enemy while I had a 95% chance in V.A.T.S. That could be my bad luck, but it happened about half the time so I think it's a little more than that. There are other bugs out there, but I never experienced them personally.

Despite the minor hiccups, Old World Blues is the first great addition to New Vegas. The new, free roaming atmosphere combined with the funny dialogue and the cool new equipment make it a must buy for any fan of Fallout. While Honest Hearts and Dead Money are still fun to play, if you can only get one, get Old World Blues.

The only complaint I have, besides the standard Fallout glitches and bugs, is that the dialog sequences can be rather long. As funny as they are, I really want to move on and go explore and play the game. This is mainly just at the beginning and very end of the DLC, so I can't really be too harsh. They do have a whole new world to introduce, after all. Originally, this DLC was suppose to be released sometime in June with the next pack, Lonesome Road, to come out this month. I am not sure what caused the delay in this DLC, but I would like to believe that after Honest Hearts, they took a good long look at how they could improve Old World Blues. Kudos to the delay which resulted in an outstanding product. Now, I am going to go back to playing Old World Blues, because after 12 hours, I still have areas left unexplored. I did all of the quests but some of the characters in my ending seem to indicate that I missed some hidden stuff in some unexplored areas that may trigger a new quest or two.

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