This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
If you enjoyed the previous DLC's for Fallout: New Vegas then you might find Lonesome Road to be a disappointment. First off, your reason to even venture The Divide is to find a guy you've never met, so you can answer for something that you (the player) never did. Lonesome Road tries to crowbar in a backstory for the player's character, The Courier, so he/she has a reason to meet with Ulysses, the main antagonist of Lonesome Road. Ulysses was the courier that left you with the job of bringing the Platinum Chip to Mr. House, something the player is aware of during the main quest, but this has very little to do with Ulysses's plans.
Ulysses blames The Courier for accidentally bringing a device to The Divide, back when it was a supposed prosperous society. The device held launch codes that remotely detonated dormant warheads that laid underground throughout and brought devastation to The Divide. All of this, however, was unbeknownst to The Courier and to the player. This falls flat because of it, and throughout the DLC you'll be questioning why you're even continuing (other than the fact that you purchased it). The only upside to playing this DLC is ED-E. No, not your robot companion from the main game, technically. While it does seem to be the same robot, it is also a different one, sort of. This isn't explained well enough through dialogue but it boils down to this: same software, different hardware. Throughout your travels ED-E will occasionally play a recording of Dr. Whitley, his creator which gives you some insight into ED-E's history up to the point you encounter him at Primm (if you even do). The audio recordings are fun and interesting to listen to and ED-E does have a lot more personality here than in the main game. Unfortunately, this the only personality you'll get from any NPC in this DLC.
It doesn't help that Ulysses is also **** crazy. When you first encounter him, or at least his voice via ED-E, he talks in vagueness and obscurity which is somewhat intriguing. However, a few conversations later you'll realize that Ulysses only talks vaguely and has very little to actually say. This was a major detachment from the game for me, as his dialogue became long and monotonous- it went nowhere. Even after meeting him face to face, his dialogue still felt padded as if whoever wrote his dialogue had to meet a quota of a certain number of pages of dialogue. And I still didn't even know why I made the trip!
The ending doesn't offer much in the way of satisfaction, other than choosing to bomb either NCR, Legion or both, there's not really much payoff for what was a terrible build up anyway. The ending video leaves you questioning your entire journey through The Divide- whether or not you should have made it. While most of the ending was blabbering dribble like the rest of it, there was a small, tiny sliver of what it might have all meant. It shown a different light on the line that Fallout is known for- War. War never changes. But men can change. While I think this would have been a decent wrap up and end to the DLC, they never truly got the point across. Unfortunately, the only thing that needs to change, is their writing. Other than a few new weapons, an increased level cap and a couple Perks, this DLC offers very little to those who have the other story-based DLC's. Approach with caution.… Expand
Fallout: New Vegas - Lonesome RoadYour Score0 out of 10User Score
