Fallout New Vegas’ newest DLC, “Old World Blues†boasts the best combat and array of weapons of any of the previous additions to the series, but the amount of bugs prevalent ruin a more than solid gameplay experience.
Had these glitches not reared their ugly heads, “Old World Blues†could and would go down as one of the best add-ons for any Fallout title.
However, right from the start, the game locks itself in first person mode. This wouldn’t usually be such a big problem, but considering how difficult many of the enemies are in this DLC, you’ll desperately need as much visibility as possible.
In spite of this, it’s impossible to not eventually fall in love with the story [After a lengthy amount of dialogue through the first hour or so, which sets the tone, but nearly bores the gamer to death.]. Ultimately, the characters are funny and grow on you like fungus. Much like the early missions with the Brotherhood of Steel in the main game, even though you’re being held against your will, you develop a sort of Stockholm syndrome with this bunch of robotic misfits. Intelligent, yet incredibly naïve, it’s a blast to use a high speech skill to your advantage here, earning yourself added ammo and other items. Through this, you’ll quite possibly get more attached to the characters here than any other add-on for the title.
The fact that we’ll learn more about the back-story of the courier who failed to deliver the platinum chip makes this DLC an important one in the history of the series as well.
But again, the bugs come into play. In a weird twist, a few quests fail to register as completed throughout the course of gameplay, which creates an utter disaster for anyone who wants is achievement score hungry or a perfectionist. One mission in particular, which has our courier get files off of a computer in a rundown school, will continue to repeat itself. It will never tell the gamer the mission is completed. While you’ll get the experience points, every time you reset the test, the quest will go back to uncompleted on your pip-boy.
Big problem. Add in a lack of stimpaks and health items on this DLC and many gamers will find themselves frustrated, to the point that they may consider giving up on the DLC all together.
At this point, the novelty of the current generation of Fallout games being amazing, but riddled with bugs like these, has worn out its welcome. In spite of the great story, excellent combat and an additional +5 level cap, the staffs at Obsidian and Bethesda are all out of excuses. It’s time to polish these games and release them when they’re as close to perfect as possible. They’ve gotten away with this for way too long.
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