

That said, Old World Blues does have three things in its favor. Blindly exploring the too-similar lab-type interior environments or going from one place to another in search of random doodads is basically the opposite of what makes New Vegas as enjoyable as it usually is, and I was surprised to find that this DLC was made up of such dull stuff. They're also not juicy enough to justify what (to me, anyway) felt like numbingly flat content for the majority of my playtime. Unfortunately, although these things are great to discover, they aren't well-integrated into any of the quests. Even better, the player can trace the cat-and-mouse footsteps of Father Elijah and Christine Royce in several instances of environmental storytelling. Learning the origins of the cyber-dogs and some of the strange mutations in the Vegas wasteland was great. For example, there are several places that reveal secrets or call back to events in the main game or other DLCs.


The banal nature of the quest design is a real shame because there are shining moments of brilliance to be found in the Big Empty. I found it hard to care about what I was doing, and if not for the quest log kept in my Pip-Boy, it would have been a challenge to even remember. There are certainly quests to undertake, but almost all of them are boring fetch-this affairs or other menial tasks that tried my patience. In contrast to the other three downloads, Old World Blues isn't so much a structured mission as it is a large area to explore.

Upon arrival, the Courier is subject to a few nasty surprises and must work together with a collective of disembodied brains to put things right for everyone involved. The third in a series of four Fallout: New Vegas add-ons, Old World Blues takes the Courier and transports him/her to the Big Empty-an enormous crater walled off from the outside world and home to the last bastion of scientific knowledge left from before the apocalypse. LOW Most missions are dishwater-dull fetchquests. HIGH The toaster who wants to burn the world in nuclear fire.
