Review: Fallout: New Vegas “Dead Money” DLC

Posted by: 12/23/2010

Welcome to the Sierra Madre Casino! The casino’s mythical contents are lusted after by desperate wasteland scavengers, who tell stories of intact treasure of the old world buried deep within its vault. Lured here by a mysterious radio signal advertising the long-awaited grand opening of the casino, you are thrown into a high stakes game where you’ll have to work with three other lost souls if you want to survive. ~ Xbox.com Official Release

On December 21st, Bethesda released their first DLC for Fallout New Vegas. It takes place in two primary locations. A town called the Villa and a Casino that has been frozen in time, the Sierra Madré. The courier is faced with ruthless new enemies, treacherous puzzles and obstacles, and countless manipulative ploys. To sum this DLC up in a nutshell, it plays perfectly into the Fallout universe. Oh, the name you ask? Dead Money.

Dead Money follows suit like most Fallout DLC that has been released. After the appropriate progression through the story, you will pick up radio signal telling you about the wonderful promises the Sierra Madre has to offer. And, for everyone that has wandered the Mojave Wasteland, you may have stumbled upon an Abandoned BoS Bunker. Before purchasing the DLC, this location is nearly useless. No items. Locked doors. Empty footlockers. Only beds to help with sleep deprivation.

Now, post-DLC installation, you will find it is the source of your newly acquired radio signal. And, because I don’t believe in super spoilers, I’m going to skip over some story progression and introduce some of the enemies, weapons, NPCs, and perks. Not necessarily in that order.

Dead Money has two main enemies. The Ghost people and Holograms. Both enemies are difficult in their own right. Ghost people cannot die, unless you dismember them. Which, can become bothersome when you have five or more attacking you. My suggestion, make sure you have the Bloody Mess perk. Holograms are a completely different story. They cannot be killed, only avoided. They shoot very strong lasers from their foreheads, just like cyclopes… that could shoot lasers from their eyes.

Personally, I’m very disappointed in the new weapons introduced in Dead Money. Three or so new guns, and plenty of melee weapons. For the list of weapons, visit here. It wouldn’t bother me so much about the weapons if I didn’t get all of my gear taken from me when I entered the Villa.

Looking at the achievements, you’ll notice you have one called “Assemble Your Crew.” The crew consists of Dean Domino, Christine, Dog and God. Unlike the Mojave Wasteland, you can only have one companion in the Villa. Very frustrating. Each companion, just like the Mojave, has their own perks. You’ll get familiar with them, believe me.

While mentioning the perks, I will say the level cap has been raised to 35. So, you do have two more chances to get those perks you’ve been wanting. For a quick list of them, visit here. Most aren’t that special, unless you are working on some specific builds.

Now, I will quickly say, Dead Money is a great improvement. The bugs that got fixed really help with the overall game play. But, with fixes come new problems. One such bug really annoyed me. I had to make my way across some steel beams. And, let’s just say my acrobatic abilities suck. I fell. And I noticed I was going to die, so I reloaded my last save. BUT, to my surprise I just died all over again… and again… and again. Apparently, something kept telling the game to reload my death, even after I told it not to. So, I was forced to shut off, and reload the next previous save. It finally worked and I had to progress from that point instead.

If I could bestow some wisdom and parting thoughts, I would say this, be prepared to scream, save often, and have your melee weapons skill up to a decent level. Dead Money strips you of your gear. Most Ghosts have Bear Trap Gloves or Knife Spears. You may find some guns and ammunition in crates, but nothing beats the infinite ammunition of a melee weapon. Also, the story behind Dead Money is one worth taking your time and investigating. It fills in story holes that you didn’t know or didn’t remember.

Be sure to check out the Fallout Wiki for a complete list of Dead Money related goodies.

Score: 9/10 : Despite the DLC being frustrating, it was incredibly great. My suggestion, go out and get it ASAP.

Fallout: New Vegas “Dead Money” was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda software for the Xbox 360 on December 21st, 2010. A copy of the Downloadable Content was provided to us by Bethesda Softworks for review purposes. 

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