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Blunderbuss Since: Jan, 2001
11/07/2011 00:11:00 •••

DLC #4: Lonesome Road (SPOILERS)

After having an impressive build-up over the course of the game, Lonesome Road finally allows the player to embark on a quest to confront the enigmatic Ulysses, the man responsible for your 'kick in the head'. But the problem with hyping up a future 'battle of couriers' is that the story needs to deliever everything it promised. And does it?

The setting of the Divide is a fascinating battleground to fight in. Not since FO 3 could you see such utter devastation of a city, filled with listing skyscrapers and crumbling highways. It's stunning to look at, which does make kinda disappointing that you really can't explore it. True, the DLC is called Lonesome Road, but FNV is all about fun exploration.

The enemies is where the DLC really starts to disappoint. Sure, deathclaws are terrifying, but we've seen them before, and dumping a bunch of them around just creates Fake Difficulty rather than an actual challenge. The Marked Men have an interesting origin, but are otherwise generic fighters. The Tunnelers, though, are visually interesting and tough with just enough of a weakness to make them challenging. It does feel like they were a bit forgotten though, because despite Ulysses's warnings about them, they're not mentioned again.

Finally, the story, where this DLC ultimately fails. The whole reason why the courier walks the road is to find out why Ulysses set them up. FNV has been very skilled thus far in telling the player a story about past events in ways that are still poignant and meaningful despite it happenings centuries before. But here, the entire story is dictated to the courier by Ulysses. You have to take his word for it about what the Divide was, what happened to it, and why Ulysses hates you. There is not a single scrap of real evidence about this community that the courier apparently destroyed - no rotted bones, no holotapes, no terminal entries. Without any real links to those people, to what Ulysses lost, his anger and pettiness seem meaningless, a mere excuse for a boss fight instead of a story. And considering how FNV has done so well in humanizing their villains and creating tearjerkers from terminal logs, this is deeply disappointing. The battle between couriers was only 'epic' because of nukes that were targeting places you actually had reasons to care about.

In the end, a real disappointment.

Benjayman Since: May, 2010
10/19/2011 00:00:00

While I did enjoy the Lonesome Road immensely. I do have to agree with you, it could've been so much better, much, much better, although at the end of it I'll never forget the epically cinematic fight I had with Ulysses that was just epically awesome (although that was only because I let his drone heal him for ages)

"The best way to lie is to tell the truth." Attelus Kaltos Check me out on FF.net https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1489301/Adrassil
Blunderbuss Since: Jan, 2001
10/20/2011 00:00:00

There was one other problem with this DLC that I didn't have room for - the way the DLC detects what faction you are. Apparently it's judged entirely on how much fame you have, which is frankly ridiculous; just because I'm idolized with the NCR doesn't mean I wasn't going to stab them in the back with the Yes Man path. In a game that's all about factions, this is a major misstep.

Also, there seemed to be no way for me to talk Ulysses down without using my NCR fame. As someone who followed Yes Man because I honestly thought it was the best for the Mojave, this annoyed me. I'd like to represent my chosen faction with pride, thank you. (Although if I missed something, let me know).

Thexare Since: Jan, 2001
11/07/2011 00:00:00

Blunderbuss: Alternate Fame options exist for other factions, I believe, but it only shows whichever is highest (rather sloppily done, but there's an equally-sloppy workaround - faction armor sets your rep with that faction to Neutral while you wear it, overriding it for conversation purposes.) Might be wrong about the other options, though. There are other ways - if you find all of Ulysses' holotapes, or if you trigger all of ED-E's recordings, I believe either of those works.

That said, I don't think there is one for Yes Man specifically because it's largely tied to faction fame - Yes Man doesn't really have an associated faction.


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