A standout package in a weak field
Fans can be forgiven for being more than a little bit sceptical of Old World Blues. After all, Dead Money annoyed us with its Rusty tinge and persistent enemies, while Honest Hearts was deprived of meaningful choices and exciting locations.
Old World Blues has none of those problems. Out of all the modern Fallout DLC (including FO3's DLC), this is the one to get. This is the only one which I can say is absolutely worth your time and money. This is quintessential fallout.
Old World Blues begins crazily enough - after receiving yet another "mysterious broadcast", inviting you to attend a midnight screening of a film at the Mojave Drive in, you find yourself knocked unconscious and transported to the Big Mountain facility (also known as The Big Empty by less well-read wastelanders). The old pre-war scientists are still very much alive and very eager to experiment upon any unfortunate that falls into their grasps. Upon waking, you'll find that many of your organs have been scooped out - including your brain, which has also unfortunately been misplaced. With a robotic heart, artificial spine and THE TESLA COILS in your head, you begin your quest to get back your brain, defeat an army of robo-scorpions and find a way out of the mad labs of Big Mt.
Old World Blues is ridiculous. It knows it's ridiculous because it directly drew its inspiration from the most ridiculous aspects of the old 50's schlocky sci-fi films. This package was very obviously made by people who were fans of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. And it revels in its ridiculousness, in the form of dog-guns, disembodied brains, mad scientists and talking sinks. This is by far the most irreverent, funny, and in some cases, extremely dark of the New Vegas DLCs. It's also the most story and dialogue driven of the packages, almost to a fault.
With 6 distinct, partially insane, partially senile disembodied scientists who have been locked in a mountain facility for over 200 years, it's safe to say that there is no shortage of weird equipment and personalities. Talking stealth suits, advanced laser cannons, lobotomites and forbidden zones with forbidden domes, Big Mountain doesn't skimp on the equipment side of things, or the amount of locations. For those looking for a Point Lookout Equivalent, this is it - a relatively large area is yours to explore, with plenty of abandoned labs, sites, caves and facilities. There is some variety to the enemy types, but at the end of the day, you'll also grow bored of yet another robo-scorpion or yet another lobotomite.
While I wouldn't call OWB colourful, there is a decent variety in the art styles of the various sections of Big Mt. Don't get me wrong, you'll be seeing plenty of the same old doors, catwalks and textures that typify New Vegas, but here and there you'll see a new texture, a new enemy or a new colour to brighten things up a little.
In terms of it's length, OWB is decent enough, clocking in at around 3 to 4 hours for the main quest line. The package is intended to be moderately challenging - the game itself warns you to not attempt it unless you are level 15, but if you had NV for this long, chances are you'll be more than well equipped to handle OWB. OWB also has a large amount of side quests and hidden locations - if you are determined to explore everything Big Mt has within it, it will easily add another 2 to 3 hours to your time spent.
Now, there are some problems with OWB - the dialogue, while hilarious, is not quite as hilarious as it thinks it is. It also drags on in many sections - be prepared for a lot of listening during the first sections of the game. Being based on the "venerable" Gamebryo system, OWB also contains, would you believe it, a fair number of bugs - enemies can randomly spawn out of thin-air, and the game will crash if you fast travel to certain locations around Big Mt.
If you like your Fallout experience to be funny and dark (and in many ways that was the biggest strength of the first two fallout games), then you'll enjoy OWB. If you like science-based humour, a wacky storyline and if you really, really enjoyed watching MST3000 and old silly sci-fi films, then OWB is absolutely worth your money.
I can understand why some would be hesitant: Dead Money was annoying and Honest Hearts was just.... bleh. But this, this one, is good. Really.
