Fallout New Vegas Post 3! Yes I know I'm reviewing the DLCs out of order. Guess what? I don't care! And this one says it's for level 20+ while Old World Blues is level 15+ so it's later game anyway, so suck it.
Pop quiz: What's the term for a poker hand with two pair aces and eights? Dead man's hand. That's not really related, though there is a challenge to collect the five cards to make the dead man's hand.
So then Dead Money brings you to the dazzlingly brilliant casino Sierra Madre... or it was supposed to be dazzlingly brilliant. The great war happened just before the place was set to open. When atomic fire is raining from the sky, big fancy trivialities sort of take a back seat. This means that all the treasure in the casino's vault is just sitting right there, waiting for someone to come along and pluck it up. Enter Elijah. Elijah is a crazy old man, obsessed with getting into the vault and taking that treasure for himself. But he can't do it alone. However, no sane person would attempt to break into Sierra Madre, the surrounding area is covered in a toxic red fog known only as "the cloud". In addition to being lethal in large quantities, the cloud has slowly twisted the people who once inhabited the area around Sierra Madre. Now they stalk the desolate streets looking for anything that still breaths and hunting it down. So as I said, no sane person would willingly walk in here. Unfortunately, you are not willing. Upon being taken to Sierra Madre Elijah straps an explosive collar around your neck and tells you that you must help him with his plan or he'll kill you. Nothing quite like threats of certain death if you should disobey.
Now one thing that certainly makes this DLC more difficult than the others is that you are allowed to bring precisely nothing with you. Any and all gear and items you may be holding upon traveling to Sierra Madre are taken and cannot be reclaimed till you have finished your business and returned home. This means you are forced to survive with what you can scavenge. This is an interesting challenge, but actually winds up being a bit less of a problem than you might think, provided you have any skill with melee weapons. A suit of reasonably decent armor can be found early on in the area. There are easily obtainable guns, a holo-rifle is given upon your arrival, and a revolver can be found soon afterwards. Though ammunition is in fairly short supply. But in truth, you're not likely to want to use the guns anyway. The main type of enemy is the "ghost people" who happen to have a terrible habit of not staying dead when you kill them. You can put them on the ground with bullets same as everything else, but after a bit they'll likely get back up and resume trying to kill you. How rude. Thankfully they can be rendered permanently dead. This is achieved by destroying one or more of their limbs. That, and the limited ammo, is why being up close and personal to your murder victims is going to benefit you here. Provided your hacking and smashing doesn't ruin a limb in the course of a normal murdering, you can give one or two additional strikes to the fallen foe and make sure they're no longer a threat. Thankfully melee weapons are in no short supply as most of the ghost people carry a knife spear and if unarmed is more your thing don't fret, we have a bear trap fist for you.
So the gear issue, while somewhat limiting, isn't overly crippling. But rest assured there are other things to worry about in Sierra Madre. As I said, the toxic cloud that hangs heavily in the air can be lethal, should you stumble into one of the denser pockets of it. And if that wasn't enough, your bomb collar isn't exactly grade A technology and will suffer potentially fatal interference from various radios and speakers around the villa. Thankfully such lethality isn't instantaneous, that'd be just cruel, and would actually render the mission impossible. If you should wander too close to an active speaker or radio your collar will begin to beep and give you a few seconds to either move away or eliminate the source of interference. The radios can be activated to turn them off, and most, though not all, of the speakers can be shot to ruin them. But just in case the enemies that don't like staying dead, the toxic air, and the constant worry of stepping to close to a stray speaker and blowing yourself up aren't enough there's more. In addition to all of these things to concern yourself with there are also holographic security guards that somehow manage to hurt you physically should they spot you. These guards are completely impervious to all forms of damage, one of the perks of being composed of nothing but a projected image. The only methods of dealing with them is running, sneaking, or disabling the emitter (either directly or via a terminal). Oh and add in to all that an utter plethora of mines, tripwires, bear traps, and pressure plates to stumble over and ruin your day with. Seriously, having the "light step" perk is sooooo helpful here.
So difficulty certainly isn't an issue with this one. But it's not perfect. One criticism I do have against the DLC is that it's significantly less open than either Honest Hearts or Old World Blues (I still haven't played Lonesome Road so I can't comment on it yet). It's not terribly linear dragging you by the nose from point a to point b. There are little side areas and there is some control in what objective you do when, but it is a much more focused experience. Whereas I just didn't want to explore in Honest Hearts, there really just isn't much to explore here. Logically this does make sense, the Sierra Madre wasn't an entire town. It was a casino with a small-ish villa surrounding it, and even if it had been a full on town, Elijah isn't likely to let you wander far from your goal. So I understand why it's a confined area, but I will say there is certainly the least content for your money here (again with the possible exception of Lonesome Road).
All in all I do think it's a well made, if at times slightly bothersome experience. The list of things I mentioned earlier can push you out of you normal means of doing things which I do enjoy when games do, if they do it well. And this is mostly well done. There can be some slight annoyance when trying to locate a speaker or radio causing issues and you have to keep going into the danger zone frantically looking around then darting back before your neck goes boom. The pockets of thick cloud mess with your vision making it rather hard to see properly, meaning you often have to stand at the edge of such areas and try and locate what you're looking for before going in. In addition, just walking around outside, while not in thick cloud, will cause your vision to pulse occasionally for a moment.
So in the end, it winds up being a decent, if short and occasionally mildly irritating experience. I will reiterate if you're really interested in getting the best bang for buck this might not be a particularly good choice for you. But if you do like New Vegas and want something new and different that will provide some interesting challenges then Dead Money should provide that.
Gameplay: 7.5 out of 10
Story: 7 out of 10
Visuals: 7 out of 10
Audio: 7 out of 10
Overall: 7 severed limbs out of 10
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