I just finished both DLCs. I was going to do Dead Money first, but it mentioned something about a recommended minimum level (like 20+), and I was only 16 at the time (and playing on HC), so I did Honest Hearts. I really liked HH. The whole tribal/missionary thing. It had this neo-old-west feel to it, which was great since I was mostly using Lucky and a CR at the time. I liked the characters (though I wish their backstories/subplots were further developed), and it was actually difficult to make that last decision at the end (I won't spoil it). So, then, I went into Dead Money expecting to be disappointed in comparison. I liked HH even more than the vanilla campaign, which I've yet to finish. I didn't think Dead Money was going to be able to top it, and surprisingly, I think it did. The first half was just freaky, especially playing on HC with the cloud everywhere. The second half came together really well, too (but a little short, IMO).

Anyway, I finished both of them, and now I'm thinking I have to go back to the vanilla campaign dealing with a bunch of jackwagons vying to claim some crap town in the middle of nowhere. I think I got more out of the DLCs than I did out of vanilla. Is this true for anyone else?

I thought Dead Money was absolutely horrible. Honest Hearts was decent but I see the DLCs for what they indeed are, a diversion from the main plot and an excuse to throw in a few extra guns and some more XP to make you that much more of a Bamf before you face down the final battle. The Mojave is ALWAYS where it is at.

Better than Vanilla?
Nope.
Honest Hearts was a sightseeing DLC and Dead Money was a 9 hour interactive movie.
Love Dead Money though, but it's hardly better than vanilla.

I hate dead money, sometimes I wish there was a skip button, so I can just get the gold and weapon repair kit schematic and get out.

Honest Hearts, different story, I feel sad when the story is over, so I take my time with it. R.I.P The Survivalist.

To OP: Better than vanilla? Not really, I don't think they are meant to since they seem to be short "escapes" from the Mojave.

My favorite DLC is still The Pitt though, as much as I love Honest Hearts, it still doesn't top The Pitt.

I agree with Punk and Gabby, Dead Money and the whole Sierra Madre scene was amazing.
A lot of fun, nice twist on FO gameplay it's just a shame you can never go back. (Although I do understand why you can't)

HH was okay, the map marker glitches kinda put me off a lot though.
That area is fairly hard to navigate as-is without the map/compass misleading you.

I hate going back to the mw after a dlc. It makes me wish for a nuclear winter.

IMO the dlcs are destroying the main game in terms of fun. DM was just badass HH messes up cl motives with no choice to help the White legs, which in a pack pack a faction game dlc should have nothing to do with main faction motives.

I didn t like HH as much as DM, but I did like it. I have had more fun in those two dlcs then I have back packing factions in the main game.

Yeah, that did annoy me, too. I know I didn't find everything just because those nav triangles kept appearing/disappearing or just jumping around.




lol, and yeah, I agree. It was pretty hard, skulking around The Villa with nothing but a police pistol (my guns skill wasn't high enough for the automatic rifle). And the way that the Ghost Seekers/Trappers moved was just creepy. There were a lot of intense moments. And, Ghost-of-She from HH was easily the most intense fight I've had in any FO game. Nothing I've yet faced in vanilla comes close to this (though I haven't done Sloan or Quarry Junction yet, and I hear those can be hard).

In terms of story and setting (and probably challenge), I like them better than New Vegas. I can see why some folks are put off by the XP/power boost provided by DLCs (I kinda am, too), but the next DLC will fix that anyway. Not to mention, you could always download the GECK and fix it yourself.

I love the story, characters, and setting of Dead Money, but the gameplay was absolutely infuriating. Tedious, irritating, and just plain aggravating in the end.
It's a shame, really, because the Sierra Madre is such a gorgeous environment and the plot is so good. I want to love it, but I just can't because of the gameplay.

My opinion of it, as well. The entire villa section of it was drab, repetetive and tedious. The only animated enemies you get to fight are those goofy spastic ghost hunters- all the while being annoyed by bear traps, radios and jumping puzzles. Oh boy.
And then you get to 'fight' your way through the casino, which hardly even has ANY real enemies to fight, just radios and unkillable holograms that turn the entire casino section into one big running and jumping puzzle. Yay for Super Mario Bros DLC! Oh, that's right- you do get to shoot a few more of those ridiculous and never-explained ghost hunters near the very end, in the lobby. Hoo boy. If you're into some fun action and variation in your combat, the whole thing was a wash. Oh yeah- it had a story. :shakehead:

lmao. I might consider putting that in my signature.

For me, Dead Money was absolutly spectacualr the first time through. The Ghost People were creepy, and there's no radio to keep you company (unless you listen to the companion radio frequencies, which make things a thousand times creepier)

I also loved the story, Dog/God was such a brilliant dichotomy, Dean's general malicious nature combined with his need to keep you around, and Christine's back story and her involvment with things to come were great forshadowing tools. Elija was a very good "man behind the curtains." And his voice acting was done brilliantly, very mad scientist.

There's a lot of hate for the DLCs. Wow. I wasn't expecting that...especially the jumping puzzles bit. Then again, I really liked Half-Life and Portal, too, so that kind of stuff is cool to me. I don't know...I think that a lot of discussions would go differently if PC gamers and console gamers had different forums. I mean, I'm not saying that console gamers tend to be more twitch-nerve-shoot-em-up-mindless-action-action-action kind of gamers...





Yeah, I totally did. I was a little worried about what might happen with Dog/God and I'm glad there was an option for a happy ending. I liked Christine, too. She's probably the only BOS character that didn't irk me. Dean, I was only keeping alive for the achievement, but that didn't work out so well. He was kind of a [censored] anyway (especially when you learn the rest of his story), so I'm cool with having taken him out. His ending slide was a little eerie and sad at the same time, though.

As for HH,