Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money

 Xbox 360
User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 83 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 83
  2. Mixed: 31 out of 83
  3. Negative: 22 out of 83

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  1. PurgeTheXenos
    Oct 29, 2013
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Horrible attempt at gameplay with a story that might be interesting if you weren't too pissed off to pay attention.. Your head explodes a lot (in the game, though it feels like it might in real life after a while), the only interesting part of the gameplay is removed through a perk, and the ending mission is almost entirely trial and error rather than anything that remotely involves skill. Well, unless skill involves finding randomly placed traps whose areas of effect overlap. Go buy Old World Blues or Lonesome Road instead. Hell, buy Honest Hearts if you have that much money to burn. Just avoid Dead Money unless you are either a completionist or a masochist.… Expand
  2. johnryansbody
    Dec 30, 2010
    4
    Huge Fallout 3 and F:NV fan here, and I have to say that for the first time, playing this game felt like a chore. Dreary, unattractive settings, repetitive gameplay, and a difficulty curve that just gets stupidly hard and frustrating. Most of the devices designed to build tension - the poisonous fog, the stupid beeping collars - are just irritating.
  3. elbrucio
    Jan 9, 2011
    4
    While I truly love Fallout New Vegas, I'd recommend taking a pass on this expansion. The setting/technology is interesting, the story behind everything is compelling ( and tragic ) and your temporary companions have good back-stories and voice acting. The rest of the game is a void of tedious suckage scrambling around a bleak resort designed for agoraphobics reminiscent of the subways youWhile I truly love Fallout New Vegas, I'd recommend taking a pass on this expansion. The setting/technology is interesting, the story behind everything is compelling ( and tragic ) and your temporary companions have good back-stories and voice acting. The rest of the game is a void of tedious suckage scrambling around a bleak resort designed for agoraphobics reminiscent of the subways you had to traverse in the previous Fallout 3. This actually could have been an excellent expansion, but my guess is that during development there were complaints that people were completing it too quickly. It was obviously too late to make extra content, so instead they introduced no less than seven plot elements designed specifically to slow your progress to a crawl. Those extra hours of gameplay they've stretched in are not enjoyable ones. Be prepared to reload often due to your untimely death happening with alarming frequency. And while there were new weapons and gear, none of it was as good as the stuff I already had from playing the regular game. At most, it provides extra money - but that was never a problem in New Vegas either. The new perks went unused as well.… Expand
  4. TheSoup
    Dec 29, 2010
    2
    This DLC is simply not worth the money. Dead Money is a very tedious and linear quest. While it is challenging, it is not a fun challenge. The exploding collar thing gets extremely annoying about 10 minutes in and the poison clouds needlessly degrade your health. The lack of variety in enemies and weapons was very disappointing. The layout of the Villa is unnecessarily complicated, andThis DLC is simply not worth the money. Dead Money is a very tedious and linear quest. While it is challenging, it is not a fun challenge. The exploding collar thing gets extremely annoying about 10 minutes in and the poison clouds needlessly degrade your health. The lack of variety in enemies and weapons was very disappointing. The layout of the Villa is unnecessarily complicated, and even more so by the poor waypoint directions. The only redeeming aspects were the decent storyline (at the end) and a higher level cap. After playing Broken Steel and Point Lookout for Fallout 3 (Dead Money plays more like Mothership Zeta), this DLC doesn't even come close to the quality I was expecting.… Expand
  5. SamWasKing
    Jan 16, 2011
    4
    As a big fan of the series this episode was disappointing, tiresome and even exasperating. The dialogue was clichéd to the point that great effort was needed to sit through it all and the characters ran the gambit from annoying to irksome and even the ones that seemed interesting grew dull very quickly as a result of the hackneyed dialog. Although the setting was intended toAs a big fan of the series this episode was disappointing, tiresome and even exasperating. The dialogue was clichéd to the point that great effort was needed to sit through it all and the characters ran the gambit from annoying to irksome and even the ones that seemed interesting grew dull very quickly as a result of the hackneyed dialog. Although the setting was intended to be dark and noir however for me it didnâ… Expand
  6. peoplewhomatter
    Feb 9, 2011
    3
    After playing new vegas and loving it i was really looking forward to this DLC. but as my score says it was horrible. it was just about the same thing i have been doing in fallout since fallout 3: searching the wasteland for whatever your looking for. not that thats a bad thing it's just this DLC didn't add anything to it.
  7. RS13
    May 29, 2013
    3
    Dead Money is bar none the most frustrating DLC that I've ever played. It may be the most frustrating segment of any game I've ever played and it's certainly the most frustrating that I've ever finished. The fact that it's a DLC makes it all the more frustrating since you can't get back to the main part of FNV until you're done with Dead Money.

    So, first and foremost, SAVE BEFORE YOU    Dead Money is bar none the most frustrating DLC that I've ever played. It may be the most frustrating segment of any game I've ever played and it's certainly the most frustrating that I've ever finished. The fact that it's a DLC makes it all the more frustrating since you can't get back to the main part of FNV until you're done with Dead Money.

    So, first and foremost, SAVE BEFORE YOU START DEAD MONEY! Otherwise, there's a small but real chance that half way through you'll find yourself wondering whether it's better to start FNV all over rather than finish Dead Money.

    What makes this so frustrating? Where to start? First things first: Dead Money plays differently than the rest of FNV. That's not necessarily a bad thing (just usually), but it must be noted. Now, when you enter the Sierra Madre Villa (the area outside the Sierra Madre casino) you are stripped of all your weapons and equipment (excluding quest items--keep that in mind). This is almost always a bad idea, but Dead Money handles it as well as possible, giving you the new rules of the game right upfront. 1) you have a slave collar around your neck and it will explode it you get too close to any speaker. They'll beep first, so there's some warning. 2) the are clouds of poisonous gas all around and they'll kill you if you stand in them. 3) The villa's filled with "ghost people" (people in dark biohazardesque suits that WON'T STAY DEAD!! unless you blow off a limb). Sounds cool right? So why is it so frustrating? 1) the villa is all very similar in architecture and thus difficult to navigate 2) There are traps everywhere. Everywhere! 3) The gas clouds: deadly, impossible to see through and just a general hinderance. Add in the fact that beartraps are often located in the impossible to see through, but killing-you-as-you-disarm-the-trap gas, and controllers will fly. But the biggest frustration comes from 4) Speakers. Are. Terrible. They are everywhere and clustered together. So you'll walk out of range of one speaker only to be a step from being in the range of another. Or they overlap completely. And they are often impossible to see. And they seem to be placed at random.

    Some other gripes: Ghost people are actually pretty creepy and force you to adopt new strategies until you almost immediately get a perk that keeps them from coming back from the dead (unless you already have the bloody mess perk, then they're almost no different than non-ghost people.)

    Also, while you're required to get three companions in order to break in to the casino, they don't really do anything to help you break in. At least not anything on screen. So you're hopes of pulling an Ocean's Eleven FNV-style are left unfulfilled. Instead you're just fetching companions. So the whole time that your lost amongst the trap-filled poison gas and radio-lined corridors yeah, that's just filler.

    The pros:
    There is seriously good loot. The holorifle is awesome. So is the gun you can take from the main baddie. Or if you're willing to leave that gun, you can steal up to 389,943 caps worth of stuff. Also the casino deals in pre-war money so if you max out your winnings you'll have another 100,000 caps worth of loot.

    If you don't care about that, then there isn't a lot to recommend here. Most reviewers seem to have liked the characters and story, and while they were good, they weren't speculator.

    All told, then, only loot nuts and completionists should bother with this and only then if they are willing to deal with the frustration of it all.    … Expand
  8. BrutalSax
    Oct 14, 2012
    3
    Personally, I hated this DLC, it almost ruined New Vegas for me until Old World Blues. Took too long to complete and then if you complete the DLC it won't let you return? Why not? Only the Sierra Madre locked up... I literally went through this because I felt obligated to...
  9. Flyk3
    Jul 29, 2023
    3
    Completely different gameplay than the main game. A lot of sneaking, many traps, narrowness, confusing corridors, invincible enemies....

Awards & Rankings

48
#48 Most Discussed Xbox 360 Game of 2010

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 25
  3. Negative: 1 out of 25
  1. GameCritics
    Dec 28, 2011
    90
    The adventure is of a satisfying size, the writing and characterizations are strong, and it offers an experience that is uniquely different from the main campaign. As a matter of fact, it even includes some surprising revelations that will entice players to play through the other three DLC episodes that follow. From every angle, Dead Money is a winning hand.
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  2. Gameblog.fr
    Mar 8, 2011
    80
    Obsidian delivers a first DLC that matches their Fallout: New Vegas : tense, captivating, despite its linearity. With a tiny bit more difficulty! Once more, we'd almost forget about the aging 3D engine of Bethesda and the poor AI. I experienced it like a little pen & paper RPG scenario of a single night. My thanks to the Obisidian Game Master.
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  3. Games Master UK
    Feb 14, 2011
    75
    Dead money is all about the companion interaction and offers a decent addition to your game time for 800 points. [Mar 2011, p.94]
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