The time has come for the release of the final piece of DLC for the latest edition of the Fallout franchise, Fallout: New Vegas. In this adventure, you meet up with the courier who rejected the job you ended up taking. Of course, this is the job that got you shot in the head and buried just outside of the New Vegas strip. The courier tells you that he knows things about your past but will only tell you what you want to know if you agree to travel to the area know as “The Divide”. You spend the rest of the time uncovering pieces of your past as you travel the Lonesome Road.

So let’s start out by talking about what you should expect when playing this piece of DLC. This DLC pack starts out like all the previous ones: with the detection of a stray radio signal. However, this is a little different to your standard Fallout DLC, as this time you remain in the Fallout: New Vegas map, and this allows you to fast-travel to anywhere in New Vegas. This gives players full access to weapon-smiths and stimpacks whenever they are needed, since they are found in abundance on the New Vegas map. This has been a source of controversy amongst Fallout fans, but we personally like this change. When playing previous DLC packs that transported the character to a brand new map, it was often difficult to find the supplies you needed to finish the mission you were on, especially in Old World Blues , and this led to a number of sticky situations where the player was almost unable to finish the DLC. With this change, we found access to supplies to be much improved, making it easier to enjoy the journey to the end.

Another enjoyable aspect is the player’s interaction with your DLC companion, ED-E. You gain access to ED-E fairly early on, and although there isn’t an incredible amount of depth to the character, there is still an endearing quality to the relationship between you and it. ED-E fills in crucial story elements concerning your character, which is always a good thing.

Something Fallout fans should pay special attention to is the sheer amount of content contained within Lonesome Road. There is much more than just the main storyline, such as lots of side missions and challenges, for those inclined to try them out. We estimate there is at least 15 hours of additional content for players who move briskly through it. Anyone who plays the game at a slower pace and really explores the environments will find there is much more there than meets the eye.  Some of the lengthier side missions include locating all of ED-E’s upgrades and finding all bomb locations – just two missions among many others.

Unfortunately, the story of Lonesome Road is not as compelling as some of the other DLC packs such as Honest Hearts and Old World Blues. The story, while interesting in terms of Fallout: New Vegas‘s main story, just isn’t all that interesting on its own, and this may have something to do with the shift of focus from story-intense packs to packs focusing more on amount of content. Also, since the developers had to stick to fleshing out the main storyline, it limits the story-telling, leaving this pack a little flat. The story is very linear, which is disappointing considering how other DLC packs had an open-world feel to them, which is what Fallout: New Vegas DLC is all about. Despite its shortcomings, this is still an excellent DLC pack and we think that most Fallout fans are going to appreciate what Lonesome Road is doing for the New Vegas story.

All in all, Fallout: New Vegas – Lonesome Road is a worthwhile investment for the Fallout fans out there. This isn’t the best piece of DLC released but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth playing. We feel players will appreciate the storyline extension as well as the sheer amount of things there are to do in the expansion. Considering this as a total package, we would recommend it to all Fallout fans despite its shortcomings. You won’t be disappointed.

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 

 

This review is based on a review copy of Fallout New Vegas: Lonesome Road played on the Playstation 3 provided by Bethesda

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About The Author

Joe Marchese is the founder / Editor in Chief of New Gamer Nation. He has been a gamer for his whole life but has been focusing on his passion to deliver the industry's new to New Gamer Nation. He is an expert of video game culture and has been featured on Fox News Online. Don't be shy to reach out and let him know what you think!

  • Blaine Howey

    This blog is excellent. Especially when you look at the quality of this article in particular, I couldn’t see myself getting my video game news from somewhere else. I am a huge Fallout fan and it is good to know that the DLC was good. In fact, I am going to buy it based on your recommendation right now. Many thanks and keep up the excellent work!