Final Impressions: Dead Money

[theLeeHarvey]

Ok, I just finished Dead Money and I have to say, I'm fairly disappointed. Let me start with the things about it I liked.

I like the Level Design and the new environments. I think they really captured the correct atmosphere for the Sierra Madre and the surrounding Villa. I like the architecture. I also like the design of the Ghost People. They are sinister and sufficiently creepy with their stilted, shuddering walk. The Design of their apparel is also very good, I like the look of their masks and the glowing eyes. I also like that they are more of a challenge to kill because of their ability to stand back up after taking a beating unless you actually decapitate them or sever a limb. I like the back story about Sinclair, Dean and Vera. I also like how everywhere you go, you can find a terminal or note which, while maybe not directly related to the quest, gives you insight into the Sierra Madre Casino during construction and in the days before the bombs fell. It draws you in and immerses you in the story. I like the characters you have to work with and how their stories all fill out as you progress through the quest (I particularly enjoyed Christine's story). I like the new equipment and I have to say, the one item in the DLC that impressed me the most? The Cooking Hotplate. Now why didn't they think of that before?

Now that I have laid out the good, let me speak on what I see as the bad. Father Elijah. I found him a very 2-dimensional badguy. He was devious, I'll give him that, but he was incredibly annoying in my opinion. The casino itself and the damned Speakers everywhere. I found it incredibly frustrating constantly having to dart back and forth trying to find the speakers that would cause the constant beep-beep-beep-beep and subsequent brain-splattering from the bomb-collar. I hated the Hologram security. Supposedly, you could find an emitter for every hologram right? Yeah, not so. Not only that, but even with a sneak skill of 100 and a Stealth-boy, they can still find you. The vault under the Casino. The whole time I was in there, all I wanted to do was finish the damned quest so I could go back to the wasteland. Between the speakers, the holograms, the gas clouds and the security force fields, I just felt it was slapped together quickly by the developers without really any consideration for making it a fun sort of challenge. It became more than challenging for me, it became a frustrating endless parade of things trying to set off my bomb-collar. I didn't feel like I was accomplishing anything, just running through a gauntlet for the hell of it. Finally the end. There is really no good reward for completing the quest and the ending seemed very anticlimactic. You get to shoot Father Elijah or sneak past him. Hmmm....I guess if you spent the entire time in the Sierra Madre nursing a hatred for the guy manipulating you with the explosive necktie, putting a bullet in his head is a reward in itself. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it myself, but it just seemed like after having gone through all the obstacles and trials that the actual end, breaking into the vault and taking the gold, was a pittance. You can't even carry it all anyway! I know, there was a morality tale being told about greed through the entire DLC, but If I wanted to listen to one I'd crack open my Bible. The hideout in the brotherhood bunker as you get back to the wasteland is the best part of completing the quest.

 

Ok, so that was a lot of bad noise. Like I said, there are quite a few things I like about the DLC. There are also a lot I don't. Overall on a scale of 1-10 I'd rate it a 4. Mostly because of the constant frustration, lack of reward/motivation and the moral preachiness. At first I really liked it but, as I played through I just felt like I was playing through the quest so I could get it over with.

 

This is my opinion of Dead Money and it's not one I expect anybody to fully share. I guess I'm just hard to please, lol.

[WastelandAssassin]

well, i haven't got to play that yet, but i would like to ask you about something similar

 

seeing as i remember you from FO3, i know you played it, at least to some extent

have you played the DLCs of Fallout 3?? if so, do you think differently of them??

 

i have seen a complete walkthrough of Dead Money, a few days after it was released on the xBox, and i liked what i saw

it looked like a challenging DLC, where the environment is equally as dangerous as the actual enemies, which is in my mind, a huge plus

in terms of story, even though i didn't get the full experience of it yet, it still seemed like the DLC with the best story in both of the new Fallout games

 

like you, i didn't like the holograms, but they are an essential part of the whole experience

without them, it would be really lacking (or so i think)

 

all in all, after playing all the Fallout 3 DLCs, and seeing a complete walkthrough of Dead Money, i would probably place it in second place, after The Pitt

i really think it looked much better than the other DLCs (though it may be because in a way, i got tired of the FO3 DLCs)

 

i guess i'll have to see if i feel the same, after i actually play it in full, and see for myself how it really is

[theLeeHarvey]

Of all the DlC's for both games I'd have to say I'd put it at the bottom. I liked Point Lookout the best. I liked the fact that it was an open world unto itself. I liked Broken Steel because it opened up Fallout 3's ending and expanded on life in the wasteland after the critical events of the main quest. I liked it because of the added content in regards to the additional equipment. The Pitt I liked because it was an engaging story and you felt like you were accomplishing something in the game world. I liked Zeta because of the level design and visual effects employed and that they were used as part of the story and not just flash to get you there and then string you along with a lame story (I must admit though that I liked it less than the other DLC's for fallout 3 though). All the DLC's for Fallout 3 felt like they had expanded on the game in some way, making it larger and more immersive. With Dead Money, I just got to a point where I felt like I was progressing through the quest just so I could get it out of the way and continue playing the real game when I got back to the wasteland. Like I said, I did enjoy the hostile environment and it's denizens. Dead Money certainly has it's pros, but for me the cons started to outweigh them by about the halfway mark. I think maybe I'd rank it as equal to Operation Anchorage.

[Fonger]

You knew it was a spoiler

 

and yet you insisted upon posting this in the general forum

 

thereby bringing your entire assessment under doubt.

[theLeeHarvey]

Sorry about that, I forgot there was a spoiler section to the forum. It's been a long time since I was active on the board. My apologies to the Moderators.

 

Fonger, at least I gave a warning to readers in the description though. You can't call someone's opinion bogus because you don't like where it's posted. The location of a post has no bearing on the validity of an opinion. Besides which, the purpose of the post is to discuss players thoughts and impressions of Dead Money. Spoilers are incidental. I am not intentionally giving away the story or the plot line.

[Gashjackel]

I found the DLC highly entertaining. Unlike other people I didn't go into it screaming "I WANT THE PHAT LEWTZ!"

I went in looking for adventure. I got that adventure. I got a story, I got characters who were interesting (although Dean was poorly developed up front and you couldn't delve into his past with him much) and I got a villain whom I could appreciate.

 

I loved the collars and gas clouds as they served to make the ghosts genuinely dangerous. Without them I'd have had no trouble at all. The collar especially was entertaining as I would often stop and go "s*** can't go this way" forcing me to turn away from my objective and pursue a different path. Killing Elijah was rather rewarding as well and I through some cunning and patience managed to cart away all the gold. Bwaha.

In the end I even got the armour of my dreams thanks to modding up some ghost people armour for my own use. On top of that I got an excellent gun in the form of the fully upgraded holorifle which replaced my old unique laser rifle.

 

I didn't get a vault full of rewards. Which I didn't want.

I didn't get a big open area to explore at my leisure and plunder. Which would have been nice and I have downloaded the return to sierra madre mod so I can go back and have more fun.

But I did get what was advertised. An adventure. A casino heist.

[theLeeHarvey]

You have some very good points and I have to say, your post has caused me to reevaluate my opinion of Dead Money. You are right, it was satisfying to kill Elijah after all the crap he put me through. Although I still think the constant use of speakers to make me backtrack, and the what seems like thousands of traps to disarm became very repetitive, I agree that overall there was a good amount of challenge built into the DLC and that it was better for it. As an example, I would have liked to see more Ghost People and less traps and traps that trigger ghost people ambushes. I don't know how many times I heard that ghost people used prizes to stage ambushes while I was playing, from the companions and Elijah. Another thing that would have been cool was if ghost people appeared in greater numbers at night, hordes of them choking the streets even. Dean makes it sound like there are thousands of them in the Sierra Madre and surroundings. Why didn't we see very many?

[Gashjackel]

Exactly those are some problems I had. Not enough danger from the ghosts. I never had to run from them for example

[kevikev]

In terms of replayability and further locations to explore w/o the constant spectre of the explosive collar, is there much more to explore beyond the locations that were necessary in order to complete the various side quests? I, too, have returned to the Villa, but haven't really explored much aside from appearing on top of the Police Station signpost.

[ita]

No, it's pretty pointless unless you really want to find all of Dean's secret stashes or find any remaining codes for the vending machines.