Not much can be said about this DLC for Renegade Ops. This closes off the story with just 3 levels and a couple of new enemies, but everything is the same, and that’s not really good or bad. If you couldn’t take any more after the end of the main game, then three extra levels may or may not kill you. The biggest change is the ice-cold scenery, but the overall design of the levels remains the same.
The final boss fight with Coldstrike is very challenging and even harder than Inferno was. The same problems consist of the repetitive nature of the game. The objectives are not any different from the main game, but if you really like the structure of this game, then this DLC is a must-buy for you.
The new enemies consist of a new huge bad boy called a Golem (who replaces the Juggernauts) as well as turrets that fall from the sky and just “re-texturing” of old enemies. There are a few scenes where you are running from missile drops that will break the ice for you, but that’s as exciting as it gets.
For the low price, you get an hour’s worth of fun activities, but you can go back with friends to experience it all again. With just 3 levels and barely anything new, it doesn’t add up to a “campaign” and more like, well, DLC.
With this being the final DLC in the New Vegas saga, this one is about you. You finally get to meet Courier Six, and this journey is a true test of your skills leading up to this release. This lonesome road doesn’t allow you to take companions (you do find an old friend inside, however); you also get new weapons, enemies, and probably the most destroyed-looking area in any Fallout game so far. The game is very linear, but not like Dead Money, where you just run around in circles completing stupid tasks. You go from point A to point B, but it’s a long road (about 5 hours, actually), and there are some surprises along the way.
First off, you get a detonator gun along the way that allows you to blow up nuclear warheads along the way (30 in total) to kill enemies from afar or make new paths. This is exactly what I have been waiting for since Fallout 3, and we finally get to do it. Hell, you get to launch two different huge nukes in this DLC. The ending also makes a huge impact on the story (even if you did finish the main story). You do get new weapons that are mostly energy-based, but there are some awesome melee weapons, so there is something here for every type of player.
The new enemies are Marked Men, which are NCR troops that got stuck out here in this nuclear site and turned into ghouls. These guys have many different weapons (the new Glare gun is my favorite since it acts like a semi-automatic rocket launcher). The tunnelers are pretty tough little guys that are fast-moving, but you only run into them when you are underground. Deathclaws make an appearance and will cut you down fast if you don’t have some good armor. Overall, the game will provide a great challenge, especially the final boss fight (which required several restarts and quick saves for me).
Overall, Lonesome Road provides a great challenge, new weapons, and environments, but there are no real quests since you are only going in one direction. There are also only two characters in the whole DLC, so overall, the DLC may feel empty to some people and too straightforward. I liked it since it really made you feel alone, and everything was up to you: survival, as the ending turns out, and saving the Mojave from mass destruction (once again). The DLC feels like the exact opposite of Old World Blues (tons of brilliant characters and quests), but not nearly as linear and hard as Dead Money.
New Vegas has been struggling to have solid DLC that stands up to the Fallout 3 releases. Old World Blues is the best of the three so far, even for the excellent dialog, great characters, and huge new world. Old World Blues has you going to a drive-in that teleports you to Big MT. Once inside, you meet some strange doctors who lobotomized you, and you are on a quest to stop the evil Dr. Mobius and find your brain. Old World Blues takes a whole new approach to Fallout DLC by removing your spine and heart and giving you perks at the start. There are new weapons, enemies, and a whole new world to explore.
There are also a lot of great dungeons to explore, such as the X facilities, which have things such as new armor and testing facilities that run you through a series of courses, as well as other hidden items like new recipes. My favorite part of the whole DLC is the excellent new characters that are inside The Sink, which is your little safe hub inside the dome. All the appliances have hilarious personalities, such as the evil toaster, the crazy miniature robot, the perverted fertilizer, and the seductive light switches. Sound strange? That’s what makes this DLC brilliant. Even the doctors have great personalities, and the whole story has some twists at the end, so you really get a punchy, fulfilling story and ending.
The new weapons are some of the best yet, such as the K9000 Cyberdog Gun, which actually barks when you shoot it thanks to the dog brain attached. The Sonic Emitter pistol is probably the best, thanks to the upgrades you can find for it to enhance its power. Unfortunately, this DLC is really best for people who specialize in energy weapons and melee because guns are hard to come by. Old World Blues also raises the level cap, so you will have a chance to maybe dump some XP into energy if you are weak in that area.
The new environments are great, such as the canyons that have giant red crystals, which are a huge change from the brown wasteland. The new enemies are challenging, such as the robo-scorpions, lobotomites, and other weird creatures lurking around. I highly doubt you will be bored with this DLC due to so many things being different from the other ones. All I have to say is that the dialog and characters are probably better than the main game and are just top-notch.
There are a few problems, such as the fact that the initial dialog with the doctors will take you a good hour to get into its entirety. While the characters are very interesting, you’ll start getting antsy to start exploring. Most of the quests are fetch quests, and this really kept the score from getting a solid 9 because I wanted some pre-scripted stuff or just more unique quests. Most of the quests consist of getting technology for The Sink and Dr. Klein. This kind of gets old after a while, but the quests drag you through most of Big MT, so it’ll help you encourage exploration. The usual New Vegas glitches and bugs are still ever-present, but the dated Gamebryo engine can’t really be saved at this point. Old World Blues is a must-buy even if you skip the past two because the good 12 to 15-hour storyline is just brilliant.
It seems the New Vegas DLC just can’t balance itself, right? First Dead Money was full of cramped environments and brutal difficulty with game designs that worked against the game. Honest Hearts has a very open area to explore, but the characters are pretty underwhelming, as is the overall story. You meet some travelers who are part of a caravan trying to get across Zion National Park, and they hire you to protect them. Of course, there’s more than that, so when you enter, you see three rival tribes fighting against each other. You have the dead horses, white legs, and sorrows. The White Legs want to prove themselves so they can work for Caesar’s Legion, but the Sorrows want to stay, and the Dead Horses are a rogue “extra” tribe. Of course, in Fallout, there’s some sort of third-party hand in the pot, and that’s where Daniel and Joshua Graham come in.
Joshua wants to fight the white legs, and Daniel wants to run. Without getting into their backstory too much, you help each other out on various missions, but most of them are fetch missions and aren’t very inventive. I was really disappointed with this and kept expecting some more exciting missions. Even Dead Money had some exciting missions, despite its major flaws. The characters seem interesting at first, but after the initial dialog stuff, when you meet them, you never do much more with them. This is due to the DLC’s short length, running at about 10–12 hours. There are hardly any side missions, and it feels like the huge area gets wasted since you don’t really get to explore it much.
The area is full of huge canyons and cliffs that surround a lake and a couple of rivers. The area is a pain to navigate because it’s hard to find how to get to high-up areas due to all these layered cliffs. Some of the areas are great to see, and they really captured the national park feeling with abandoned camps and cars on the road right when the bombs fell. So there is a nice charm about the area, and seeing some trees and rivers is a nice change from the dried-up Mojave. Other than that, the environment is full of vicious animals instead of just people, so that’s also a bit different than the Mojave and Dead Money.
Other than that, the DLC is worth a purchase, but don’t expect 15+ hours and tons of new weapons or extra stuff. It’s the best New Vegas DLC so far, but it’s also not the best it could be. I hope the third and fourth DLCs are a lot better and are finally on par with the excellent Fallout 3 DLC add-ons.
I have a feeling the Fallout series has a curse that the first DLC release isn’t very good. Dead Money tries to do things with the game that it can’t do, and it makes the DLC very hard and sometimes boring, but the story, characters, and underlying reason why you’re in the Sierra Madre are great. You start off by following a signal to the Sierra Madre Casino, but then you’re knocked out and a collar is put on you. You’re told to find three people to help you open the casino and bypass its defenses.
The three characters are great to talk to and learn about. Dog/God is a super mutant with schizophrenia; Dean Domino is a British stage actor turned ghoul; and Christine is a mute who was tortured. After you find each character, you must take them to their designated spots in the villa. This is the second part of the DLC, but by the time you get here, you’ll have cried up a storm. The game features heavy stealth and hand-to-hand combat, so people who put points into the classes will breeze through it. There are guns, but the ammo is scarce, and people who invested in energy weapons have no shot here.
The ghost people are extremely hard to kill, even if you are at level 30. You’re mainly forced to use melee with bear trap fists, spears, and knives. If you invested in guns, you’re going to have a real hard time here. It doesn’t help that all your equipment was taken away and you stuck with the few armor pieces in this whole 8–12 hour DLC. It’s light armor, and it sucks, but it’s better than nothing. There are no vendors here, just vending machines. Oh, but wait, you can’t use caps. You have to use Sierra Madre Casino chips that are scattered everywhere to buy stim packs, ammo, and everything else. Yes, why would they work against the system that’s already made and working? It’s very odd and makes playing the game so frustrating because you’re scrounging and looking for exploits in the game design to not die.
It doesn’t help that the DLC is very maze-like, and this is bad for this type of game. Where are the open areas? Nowhere. It’s just corridor after corridor, and it’s dark, bleak, and boring to look at. Everything looks the same, and it’s not very nice to be in either. Not in a good way either; I felt cramped throughout the whole ordeal, and it gets worse when you get in the casino to figure out how to get into the vault. I hope Obsidian doesn’t force us to do things the engine can’t really do next time. Part of the frustration comes with the beeping collar. Let it beep too long, and you blow up and die. There are speakers everywhere that emit a signal, and you have to run around until it stops, but this is trial and error. Run down the wrong path, and the signal won’t stop there, so you die. Yes, save constantly, or you will tear your hair out.
This mechanic is probably the most flawed since Fallout isn’t meant for this kind of stuff. I started hearing the beeping in my sleep; it goes off so many times. Some speakers you can shoot and others you can’t, but good luck that you do not get tired of this. Overall, the story is excellent, and I really felt attached to the characters. The ending is probably one of the most interesting I’ve seen in a game, and I’ll say this part because it won’t spoil anything. There are gold bars, and you can carry as much as you can, and they are worth over 7,000 caps each!! I saw these and tried to stuff my pack with them, but they weigh you down quickly. I decided to drop everything except one weapon and my armor to carry about seven of them. People who have the Rat Pack perk will take advantage here.
With two different endings and choices being a big part of the three characters, you should enjoy this part of the game. You can only get this if you are a hardcore Fallout fan; otherwise, you should just pass. It’s way too hard, and the mechanics work against what’s already established.
The Signal was a continuation of the main game and showed Alan fighting himself in his story and not knowing why. Following the signal from Zane, Alan must stop himself from killing himself in his story and wake up to reality. The Writer continues this with Alan trying to reach the lighthouse and get back into the cabin to stop himself. The story is very strong and answers some questions that you may have had at the end of the main game. The end boss fight also feels like a huge finale and comes to a nice close without a big open cliffhanger.
The episode isn’t as combat-heavy as The Signal, but it has a lot more unique platforming and adventuring sections than The Signal, plus it’s not nearly as hard. There are more words you can burn up to create things in the environment to kill the dark beings, and these tend to be more useful and unique. There are no driving sections in this one, unfortunately, but it makes up for it with more varied gameplay.
The Writer really mixes up all the elements in the Alan Wake universe very well and gives us one final shake-up of all the things we’re familiar with. This is what makes The Writer stronger than the last episode, plus the conclusion of the story really helps as well. If you just so happen to have waited almost a year to get this, you’ll notice some minor things, like the slightly aged graphics, but other than that, this DLC is strong and solid. I still wish the DLC would introduce new weapons or something in here, but at least it doesn’t recycle the same areas from the main game. The price is a bit steep even for something better than The Signal, but fans of the game need to get this to conclude the story.
Mass Effect 2 has a slew of great DLC, but Kasumi’s Stolen Memory is probably the shortest of them all. The DLC has two short parts to it. The first is you trying to find Kasumi, which doesn’t really make you feel so much, and the second is sneaking into Hock’s safe to find Kasumi’s stolen gray box, but it all seems pointless in the end.
There’s a good boss fight at the end, and it gets pretty intense, plus you can pick up a new weapon as well as some other things like credits, salvaged parts, etc. It’s your typical standard ME2 affair, and there are no gameplay changes, of course. Kasumi is a great character, and her stealth abilities really shine in combat, and she can get you out of trouble in a pinch. She’s a very mysterious character and has a lot of sarcasm to her, so she’s great to listen to and has an interesting past.
I would have liked to see more than just a little infiltration mission since there’s so much potential with her, and hopefully we’ll see her in Mass Effect 3. The whole DLC can be beaten in just one sitting, so you might feel like your $4 was wasted, so this isn’t the ME2 DLC available. It’s great for hardcore ME fans, but casual players of the game should pick this one up.
BioShock 2 was a great successor to the original but didn’t live up to the hype or the cinematic quality of its predecessor. It suffered from repetition (loot, go through the section, save Little Sister, gather ADAM, rinse, and repeat), and it didn’t have the scripted events that made BioShock so epic. This, in turn, made you want the game to just end after a while, and the developers played it very safe by making the entire game almost exactly the same. It did have an excellent story, though, and this is what made the game great.
Minerva’s Den has you playing as Sigma, who is a Big Daddy sent by Milton Porter to destroy The Thinker. The Thinker is a computer that runs Rapture, but you are also being told by Reed Wahl not to destroy the computer. Along the way, you are able to meet six little sisters and a couple of big sisters, loot to your heart’s content, and experience the excellent dialog, story, and pacing that should have been in the second game. There are two huge levels in Den, with little things hidden everywhere, as well as a new plasmid, Gravity. Well, new splicers and upgrades are found by finding them on dead bodies instead of Power to the People stations.
The story is really excellent, with you being completely clueless and just following Porter and Tenenbaum’s voice to do as they bid. You discover most of the things going on down here through audio diaries, and some can be pretty haunting. There are a few scripted elements, but the level design is also well done, and there is enough to do here to keep you busy for a good 4-5 hours. You will really want to savor every moment by looking in every nook and cranny as well as completing all of the great achievements.
What BioShock 2 was lacking is made up somewhat in this little DLC that could. While the art style and objects are recycled, there are a lot of new ones that haven’t been seen anywhere in the world of BioShock, such as computer-related objects. It’s a good change and really helps mix up the visuals. With a surprise twist ending that makes you slap your forehead, Minerva’s Den is well worth the money, and I hope it isn’t the last BioShock 2 DLC.
DLC has only become important in this new generation and can really extend the longevity of game months beyond its release date. Good DLC consists of keeping true to the original game, adding solid content, and making the player feel satisfied with the money they spent.
Undead Nightmare (Red Dead Redemption)
Yeah, yeah it’s zombies, but in Red Dead? It’s perfect! The DLC even packs in a great story and is tons of fun to run around on horseback shooting zombies. The co-op multiplasdfasdfayer is also a hoot, but it’s the fluidity of the DLC and the perfect match that pits it over the others that just feels like chapters or extra missions.
With the second expansion for Oblivion come some great quests and some loot that are well worth your time. Knights of the Nine starts out in Anvil, where you overhear a crazy priest ranting about an order of crusaders that protected magic armor but failed, and some evil dude is trying to steal them all. It’s a little more detailed than that, but the story is so deep and involved that it would take me forever to explain it all.
One thing about Nine is that all your first objectives aren’t marked on your map; you have to find them yourself. Oh, don’t worry, you get another map handed to you, and you have to compare it to your map and mark it. They aren’t hard to find at all, but this means no warping to them. You have to travel on horseback all across Cyrodiil and find these temples to pray at. This can take anywhere from one to two hours, depending on how you play.
Once this is done, you head to the Priory of the Nine and get the whole scoop on all the armor pieces and their locations. This is the most time-consuming part of the expansion, but it can take you about 2–3 hours or more, depending on how you play. The armor pieces are special and have magic attached to them. You can also find two weapons and a shield, so you can deck your character out in the powerful crusader armor.
There aren’t any new enemies or anything that is really new, like in Shivering Isles, but it’s $10 that will last you a good 5 or more hours. The whole expansion is very well done, and it keeps you hooked and makes you never want to stop. Looting the 8 or so dungeons is great and allows players who may have beaten the game and skipped out on this to squeeze some more Oblivion awesomeness out of their disc.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.