Does anyone know of a good, detailed walkthrough for dead money? No videos, i need something i can print out and give to my internetless friend.

And just for the hell of it, rate the DLC real quick.

Why use a walkthrough?
Play it as it is instead.
A walkthrough just spoils things.

And I give Dead Money on it's own merits a 7 for a DLC.
The reason for only giving it a 7 is cause it has no real reason for The Courier to go there.
The story is pointless and doesn't add to the main game what so ever except for one perk for Veronica and some new dialogue with her.

As a "Fallout" piece of work on the other hand I give it a 5.
The writing is good, might even be better than most (but not all) writing in Fallout as of yet.
But the DLC's atmosphere and gameplay does not feel like Fallout in the least.

Walkthrough? Do as the man says.

I rate it 3/5. It really doesn't feel like Fallout. IMO it could have worked perfectly as a standalone game. The writing and atmosphere is something I haven't seen in a while, just beautiful. It also offers a welcome change in the cakewalk known as the Mojave, the DLC is alot harder (and I mean alot) than the base game. I would have given it 5 points, but as I said, it really doesn't feel like Fallout.

5/5 from me, I loved it.

Anyway, best bet for info is from The Vault

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Dead_Money

DLC's aren't always going to be exactly like the game. Look at MZ, and OA. Not even close to the feel of Fallout.

Ya, but its kind of a pain to print out.

Then use Alt-Tab while playing. Or, use the in-game browser that Steam provides.

The Courier was there because he is lured by the Radio signal.
All story is pointless if you just dismiss them.
Adding plenty of new items, new recipes and new purpose for junks is a lot to the main game.

By a radio signal is a good reason?
A radio signal that spouts crap about Sierra Madre?
[censored] no.
DLC was completely pointless for the Courier.
Would've made more sense to me if it was a brand new character named The Puppet who in the end closes himself into the vault room.
Only reason I could find for the Courier is that he/she hates radios and has to put the signal down at all costs.
Then when you're actually there it's like it's expected from the PC to be as greedy as Elijah or Dean when looking over their dialogue lines.
Well what if I'm not?
I could never get the option to say "I don't [censored] care about the treasure I just wanna get out of here!"
And at the end, nothing happens.
You've gone through a great epic adventure and barely escaped with your life intact and now... *building suspense* You go back to doing postal work for NCR...
After it's all done I'm like "Now what...?"
What was the reason for me to go there?
What did I learn?
What did my character obtain except for the toybox weapons/armor/misc?
Nothing.
For The Courier it was pointless.
For "us", the players, on the other hand it was a 10$ DLC that we bought and want to play through to get the cool weapons and nice new story.
But for the actual Courier it was completely pointless IMO.

Here's a way that the DLC could have made sense: You HAVE TO obtain information of Elijah in the main game (The DLC gives a few more options) then the radio signal has Elijah interrupting the signal every once in a while to say something to lure people there.
That way the Courier could have:
1. Curiosity.
2. Finding this great man/peculiar man and meet him in person.
3. Find him for Veronica.
4. Hating radio signals.

As it stands I see nothing to attract the actual Courier there.
"I" want to go there for the story, exp and weapons.
But that's not very roleplaying esqe now is it?

And no, it doesn't add anything to the main game.
It adds content to the DLC, which you have to go to and collect and then bring back to the main game.
Like the game is a slice of pie and the DLC is vanilla cream, you feel you need some more cream on it so you go away from the pie and get some whipped cream back with you.
I don't consider that to add to the main game.

All it is is a tiny game within a game.
I don't consider that to "add" to the actual game.

It did add new lore.
But the only lore connecting to the game is Elijah which isn't enough to stand up on it's own.
And then the "Things to come" challenge.
But honestly, they could've skipped that completely.
It's only there to build suspense.
Suspense that will later be canonized in the Ulysses DLC.

(I had a far better way to express this argument in an older thread. )

I don't get the "it doesn't feel like Fallout" thing. I know it's your opinion, but why? It was very dialogue-heavy, had a lot of skill/stat checks, the Sierra Madre was totally desolate, and the story was morally grey and choice-heavy. It seemed pretty damn Fallout to me. And yes, it may be a bit different from anything we've seen in Fallout before, but with the way the DLC was presented, I don't think that's a bad thing.

Too heavy focus on survival.
Don't get me wrong, I loved everything in the DLC (on it's own merits) but I didn't think It'd be some SAW/Fallout hybrid.
So to me it's not very Fallout with it's gameplay.
But yeah, it's opinion, some feel it's totally Fallout but for me it was too focused on trying to make everything around you try to kill you for me to enjoy it as such.

I mean, when I go to Klamath no one tries to kill me really.
When I go to Glow there is lethal doses of Radiation and some minor traps but nothing as comparable.
But in Sierra Madre everything felt too much like some kinda action/horror flick. (Great writing for a action/horror though. :laugh: )
And uh, yeah back in FO1 I don't remember any horror, I remember the oh crap moment of getting hit by a deathclaw for the first time, or the "Oh this is gonna be hard"/unease when going to Mariposa and Cathedral.
In FO2 I remember the Ghost Farm which was eerie, I remember going to Navarro and getting in on the first try only to realize I was at an Enclave base which was more panicky.
And in FO3 we had the shock treatment of random Yao Guai and some ghoul right next to you screeching when on max volume.
But I don't remember anything (but the Dunwich building, but honestly I don't understand everyone else about it being scary.) in any Fallout game really trying to be horror themed.
And ghosts honestly scares the piss outta me, and the holograms more so, and tripping a beartrap when trying to carefully watch after ghosts makes me have a heart attack.
So the theme of the DLC is wrong for "me".
Might not be that way for everyone but it was too SAW/randomhorrorflick#4091 for me.

Honestly, I didn't even think the theme was horror. It didn't come across that way to me, at least. The Ghost People were just shufflers that were hard to kill. It was more survival than horror, how I perceived it.

And I like the survival aspect in Fallout. I felt it in Fallout 2, especially. Getting a stim in that game was a godsend until you hoarded a bunch of equipment or got Power Armor.

Even while I love the survival aspect it felt too over the top which makes me connect it to horror films. (especially SAW)
So survival is fine but too much all the time didn't feel very Fallout to me.
True enough that FO2 was brutal but even then you could still chicken out of fights or when alone just use the rest function to gain health and stuff like that.
So basically, Dead Money had the most influence of survival aspect than any other Fallout product...
Just remember that Mothership Zeta had the most influence of a alien aspect than any other Fallout product too. :whistling:

I thought the same thing until I read the developer's blog. Check out the Wiki and you'll see a link to Avellone's blog -- horror was what he going after, though he seems slightly disappointed in the end product.

The notion of laying down all your burdens and beginning again is a pretty compelling one for most people. And that's exactly what the Vera promises. Beyond that, there is simple curiosity. There's this prewar radio broadcast that's still going, even after two hundred years. Who's maintaining it? Is there anything still there?

Come to think of it, is there even anything that indicates that it's prewar, instead of an actual new casino opening? I didn't think of this before, but seeing as how there's already four casinos open in the Vegas area, couldn't it be possible that the Courier went to the Sierra Madre to try and and play some cards and relax in one of those exclusive presidential suites ala Ultraluxe, only to find that it's really a hellish nightmarescape with ravenous mutant-cannibals?



...I got dialog options that let me say that. Granted everyone was like "Oh you want to escape now, but eventually your greed will overcome you just like it overcame everyone else," when I tried those options, but I definitely got them.



You've learned a valuable lesson about greed and about how a new beginning isn't something a place can give you, but rather, it's a mindset. It passed my writer-senses as something I could buy, especially considering how Chris equated it with a short story.



To be fair, a lot of the prewar lore was really interesting to me. It gave us a relatively detailed look at what exactly the prewar US was capable of, techwise, if you were willing to spend money. And not all lore in DLC needs to have a direct connection to the main game. I mean, in PL there was plenty of lore about swampfolk that had nothing to do with the Capital Wasteland.

By that logic isn't every quest pointless for the courier? Other than maybe punching Benny in the face.

@Lord_Kain: you don't have to print the Wiki, you can save the pages using your browser and then put them on one of those obsolete spinning thingies... what do they call it, CD?

And those were the crappiest FO3 DLC's.

Nonetheless, Dead Money is the best Fallout DLC up to date, IMO.

err, you didn't read the first post did you?

I did. I was just saying, it didn't come across that way to me. I forget, is the lack of horror what Avellone was disappointed in?

Seemed to me it didn't come across the way he wanted; something got lost between conception and execution. Not sure if the horror element being diluted was the major disappointment; I'd have to read it again.
Sorry, that wasn't helpful.

1. So a new casino? Only my character Jimmy T has a reason for that.
Escape from the wastes in luxury? I could just go to Ultra-Luxe for that, no need to find a casino with a creepy radio signal.
Sorry but all those reasons seem very thin.

2. You got? With who? (Need to see the dialogue and response myself but yeah, I stand corrected.)

3. But neither of my two characters were greedy nor did they care about the "beginning again" stuff either. :/

4. When I buy a DLC what I "hope" for is that it actually adds to the main game.
Sure, it added a lot of new lore, and new gameplay, and a new story.
Soooo... I guess it's a minigame? Within the game? Meaning it didn't add to the actual game?
Sorry but I'm just pissed off at how DLC's are treated as 5 hour toy-box epic adventures and then we get thrown back to the main game and nothing has changed.
When they could actually be used to flesh out the real game with tons of content.

Dan, don't be an A hole.

Facehugger sums it up pretty well, the motive to go to Sierra Mandre is either or combination of: greedy, ego or seeking for a fresh start.

Sierra Mandre vending machines flush out the value of cigarette, fission battery and scrap metal. It also add a decent player house.

And if you disagree with the idea of "short-story" style of the DLC, you don't have to buy it ASAP.

1. Thanks?

2. Greed, ego or seeking fresh start, got it, none of that applies to any of my characters nor do I have enough backstory for the Courier to understand why he'd want to go there either.

3.The house is a neat addition so I stand corrected, the DLC added a player house to the main game, still not enough. And the vending machine did find it's use, unfortunately it's unbalanced and needs patching up.

Honestly though, I feel I've been being a bit too negative lately, probably cause I shot my internal clock to hell and are in a pissy mood all the time.
Gonna try to cut back on the negativity.

The main consensus seems to be The Vault Wiki. I have it bookmarked on my Blackberry so I can get help when I need it
As for the whole "don't use a walkthrough" argument, I think whilst it is ultimately more rewarding to play the game "blind," I prefer to use The Vault when I get stuck, especially since Fallout games in general tend to scare the crap out of me and I like to know what's waiting for me at a certain location or whatever.

And I like Dead Money from what I've seen (only bought it recently), though it annoyed the hell out of me that I had like 40 stimpaks in NV then promptly got them taken away as soon as I entered the Sierra Madre, and I HATE using food to regain health. Also, the Ghost People are creepy as hell. But for story, companions and overall interesting-ness, I'd give it a 3/4 so far. It is quite difficult though, I think.

I'll give it a 4. I love the guns and the story I liked but it won't get a five because of all the gods-damned radios all over the place!