Alright then, so I started playing FO:NV again, and just last night finished going through the Old World Blues DLC for it, so I thought, fuck it, let's talk about it.
So then, the premise for this DLC is that the player character finds a crashed satellite in the Mojave wastes. Looking closely at this satellite around midnight will magically teleport the player to Big Mt. Shut up yes it will! Okay I know that bit doesn't make sense but well.... save your "I don't fucking believe this" card. You'll want it later.
So then Big Mt., or the Big Empty, is an old pre-war science and research station that used to be deep under the earth in a mountain. Things stayed that way till a nuke fell on the mountain and now we have the mostly still intact ruins of the site in a crater. The player wakes up on a balcony in Big Mt. feeling slightly wrong but not seeming to be much worse for the wear of whatever happened while he/she was out. Upon walking down into the building you are greeted by a collective of what used to be a group of scientists. Now the "think tank," as they call themselves, are a small collective of scientists' brains in jars connected to robots that enable them to see, hear, speak, and continue doing science. The player is informed that his/her spine, heart, and brain have been taken out and replaced with old world tech that allows you to still function but that without a brain, which they conveniently lost, you are not capable of leaving. And thus we have our objective; go get our brain back. No I'm not joking. The central quest of this DLC is running around an old science station to try and get your brain so you can put it back into your skull and leave.
Now before I say anything about the gameplay I am going to forewarn you all, I do have some mods that tweak various things about the game so the experience was slightly different for me than it would be for some others who don't have the mods I do. Now there is some randomization with what enemies spawn exactly where and what loot people get so my playthrough will inherently be slightly different from one you might have anyway, but I wanted to be up front about the fact I am using a few mods.
So then, gameplay wise, I actually found Big Mt. quite fun to run around. The game says you should be level 15+ before going there, I believe I was about 20 or so when I showed up. I did find the place slightly difficult, but that was in no small part due to my lack of good available weapons. Now you are allowed to bring whatever you want without when you go to Big Mt. so could just bring an armory with you, but as I knew I'd be bringing a lot of stuff back I wanted to be traveling light, so the only gun I brought with me was my .44 revolver. Now had I speced into energy weapons, I'd have had zero issues with weaponry. The player is promptly given a sonic emitter pistol and energy cells for it are IMMENSE. In addition to the plentiful ammo, this pistol also has boosted damage against robots, which most of the enemies in Big Mt. are some form of. However my skill with energy weapons was quite poor. Now I was able to convince the group of scientist to give me a gun that used .357 ammo. The problem is the gun they did give me was a fucking minigun ie it was weak, heavy as hell, innacurate, and burned through ammo. Thankfully I found a lever action shotgun and more importantly an axe with a blade made of electricity. Yes you read that correctly. That axe became my best friend as I repeatedly introduced it to the skulls and circuitry of my foes.
One thing I think is worth mentioning is there's a lot of unique enemies in this DLC. Let me try and remember here; A robo-brain, a spore carrier, a spore plant, 2 protectrons, 3 mister gutsies, a securitron, a deathclaw (wild wasteland only), a bloatfly, a cazador, a nightstalker, a cyberdog, a robo-scorpion, a sentry bot....... I think that's all of them. But that's 16 unique/boss enemies to find and kill.
The place is cool to explore and see the strange expirements that the mad scientists were up to once upon a time. If you pay attention they actually explain why Sierra Madre, the location of the Dead Money DLC, is the way it is and the player can obtain one of the suits the enemies from that DLC wear as well. This DLC also explains the existence of Cazadors so you finally have someone to blame for unleashing those hellspawn on you... seriously fuck you Dr. Borous. Fuck. You. I'm glad your dog is dead. Should have killed you too.
Oh and in addition to all the other cool shit this DLC has, if you take a bit of time to sort the place out, you get a really cool player home with all sorts of neat little robotic friends to keep you company who provide a rather large array of uses.
But I digress. Now I haven't yet played Lonesome Road (you may be getting a post about the one when I do (and maybe the other two as well *wink wink*)), but between this, Dead Money, and Honest Hearts, I'd say Old World blues is definitely the best DLC. The story for it is interesting, it melds right into the lore of the universe and shows off some dirty secrets. It's really quite fun.
Gameplay: 9 out of 10
Story: 8.5 out of 10
Visuals: 7 out of 10
Audio: 7 out of 10
Overall: 9 removed organs out of 10
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