Fallout: New Vegas – Dead Money DLC – Reviewed (PS3)
Wondering around the Mojave wastes with a gun slung over my shoulder and my partner in crime standing beside me I hear a radio signal coming in through my trusty Pipboy. With a marker set up I go off to investigate where this signal is transmitting from.
Nestled in some dunes I see the opening to a bunker. A small, grey hatch which is enticing me to enter. My exploration senses kick in, feeling the need to find some stimpaks to bolster my inventory with, perhaps some ammunition if I’m lucky. Everybody needs ammunition when travelling in such a hostile environment as this, to leave it be would be foolish. You’ll only end up dead!
I venture through into the bunker. I see a body lying on the floor. I have seen many bodies and many have been laid to rest with my own hands. Searching the body I turn to see a set of stairs. A new area to explore? Continuing down and though the door I am greeted with a message. ”Do not continue unless you are level 20+” it says. I continue.
Exploring the initial area briefly, I see something in front of me in a slightly open area. I head towards it and then bang! The lights go out ………
Welcome to the Sierra Madre Casino, the stuff of legends and keeper of unimaginable wealth. This casino and the surrounding villa plays host to the first DLC released for Fallout New Vegas called Dead Money. The story begins by stripping you of all your armour and weaponry and puts you at the mercy of an overseer called Elijah. An old man possessed with greed and consumed by opening up the Pandora’s box of the Sierra Madre Casino. A casino built for the rich and famous to enjoy with surrounding areas that provide comfort and accessibility, that is, until a very unfortunate nuclear war took place that made the area uninhabitable and never used.
The stories of the casino and its treasures are the stuff of legend and adventurers have tried and failed many times to unearth it’s secrets. Now, you are tasked to gather up a party and loot the place to bring all of this glory back to Elijah himself. To make sure that you don’t fall prey to the casino’s spell, Elijah has devised a collar that will keep you and you party in place. A crude device built from old pre war radios that will explode if you do not do what he says. Try to escape and instant death, go against his wishes and it is instant death and because of the crudeness of the contraption the collar is also vulnerable to signal interference so to go too near a speaker system, a radio or anything that can transmit a signal then a beep will occur to notify you of you impending doom. That is, unless you can switch off the source of the interference to provide some much neeeded breathing space and I will tell you now. There are some tense times ahead of you.
This type of interaction sets the tone and pace of the gameplay, bringing it down into a slow and methodical feel. The narrative also serves as the main hook for this DLC and with many an RPG, linking the gameplay mechanics with a compelling storyline either makes or breaks a game. With this in mind, Dead Money, for the most part, does its job although some may consider it a chore to gather up your party and head for the casino to finish the game. The DLC itself, if played properly, will give you excellent value for money for the time spent completing it but to fully understand the game will mean you have to draw in conversations from the characters you meet which will enable you to discover excellent and intertwined back stories as well as understand fully the ending to the game with a lot of twists and turns in between. I will not go into the story as I feel this will ruin the experience for you. You could rush through the whole episode and complete it in a few hours but if you do that then you not treating the Fallout experience properly.
I said that the Dead Money DLC is a lot slower paced and although there is combat, mainly fighting off Ghost People and the Casino’s holographic security guards, most of your time will be spent finding your way around the various traps that have been set by previous adventurers, the toxic red cloud that enveloped the Sierra Madre Casino and its district and also figuring out how to overcome the radio signals that will try to take your head off if you leave that beep going for too long. It is a serious undertaking but the challenge is rewarding. Battling to keep your party together and make them do what is needed takes some thought as well as digging deep into your conversations with each other to get the necessary responses. Your collars are also synched so if one is not compliant then it could spell the end for all of you. If one dies, you all die. If one tries to escape, you all die so it is of utmost importance to keep everyone happy.
The traps themselves need to be approached or evaded with caution so your usual running antics may have a bit of a negative effect here. Being able to navigate safely around any area is paramount to your survival. Entering the red mist will take your health down at a fast rate as you get poisoned. Switching off radio signals through either shooting semi damaged ones or trying to switch inpenetrable ones off via terminals provides some buttock clinching moments with a real sense of relief afterwards but needs must for you to move on and not regress into the die and reload scenerio which will occur from time to time.
The Casino and its surrounding areas also come with their own currency. Gone are you bottle caps that have been replaced by casino chips that can be used in automated vending machines. Currency is very tight here so being able to trade the odd piece of metal here and there will get you that extra item you may need. Hoarding certain items will also set you up to craft various items to use in combat. An example is applying mods to create new ammo and weaponry that will provide a more devastating effect than your usual items found
Dead Money is more puzzle DLC than the hard combat and exploration that you may be used to but is a breath of fresh air and challenges you in different ways as well as providing a solid script as well as adding some interesting little mini challenges and tasks. The £7.99 that you will pay for Dead Money is very well spent and has hit on a great concept that is fun as well as engaging whilst making you think a little harder than you may want which is a good thing and serves as a very fine first piece of DLC from what could be a few that Obsidian will put out.
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