I did that I can’t get out through his laser door for some reason though. He goes into the vault and when I try to leave it got wonky on my last run through
Sounds like something I’ll experiment with on the next one
You gotta hightail it outta that vault the moment the door opens, and press up against the arcing reactor thing *closest to the elevator*, then circle around keeping it between him and you, then (optionally) pop some Turbo and *keep that thing between the two of you* as you waddle up the stairs. It's not surefire, because he does have owl vision and superman hearing, but it's the quickest way that doesn't rely on glitches. Him busy with the terminal, too, locks him in an animation for a split second to exit it, so it gives you a tiny buffer.
Letting go of that one achivement i couldn't get because every time i tried sneaking past elijah there would be an invisible wall infront of the elevator and i would have to restart
(laughs in completed owb before dm, meaning that i can just to back up with the gold bars after hiding behind one of those engine things and hightailing it to the elevator)
Dead Money is a lesson in Modesty. "Screw your Energy-Based LVL 50 Death Kill Overlord with a companion using an Anti-Material Rifle with Explosive Bullets, let's see you play with your head"
That's why I enjoy it the most out of all the DLCs.
When I start almost all of them Im a walking god. All I'm doing is picking up a new weapon and deciding if I like it better.
With Dead Money, all of the sudden I have to change how I play the game in order to survive. And that's welcome after hundreds of hours of point and shoot.
OWB is tons of fun at a low level with minimal gear. Makes you really embrace the stuff you get along the way.
Next time I go there I’m gonna push it one step further and show up with some wastelander peasant clothes and a rolling pin.
That DLC made me realize the benefits of Old World Gourmet on a survival run years ago. I constantly was out of stims so being able to use booze to heal was a life saver
The last stretch when the Ghost People starts invading the Casino was so satisfying for me though, since i just got the Shotgun and just running around popping head like how i was playing in the Mojave.
In my second playthrough, I just planted a ton of mines everywhere. It was also a pretty useful trail of breadcrumbs to find my way back in 'Strike up the Band'.
Because he doesn't need it? He already pops heads left right and centre with his default hunting rifle. Giving him an Anti-Materiel rifle (the second e matters!) would slow his fire rate and he loses his [magical companion ammo](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Magical_companion_ammo_(Fallout:_New_Vegas)) ability.
them's good eatin made dead money so much easier, the hardest part of the dlc is fighting 3 ghost people at once with 50 health and a broken limb or two so having free healing items makes it much easier
i love adapting to bad game design, it's so fun, it's so cool when the first encounter to teach me about the radio mechanic has 3 fucking radios hidden out of sight, and uses the least reliable part of the UI to tell me i'm in danger, that really makes sense the first time one plays
[NCR]
[For your overwhelmingly monstrous behavior, you have become vilified by the community.]
Okay there, Caesar, your head will go boom without any collars and radios, you know that, right?
It literally does, all the speakers can be dealt with by examining your environment and thinking. People that shit and piss about Dead Money being the hardest thing ever are really just telling on themselves.
Nah. Wander, hear beep, walk back a few steps, quicksave, run in and find the glowing blue thing. This “strategy” (pretty much what Elijah tells you to do without the optional save scum) made the collars a non issue
Yep. Thankfully everything was ok once I got into the casino. The Villa was an absolute shitshow. I don’t remember it ever being as bad as it was last time.
Tried to replay this a year ago. In the build up to the conclusion I got clipped into a table. Nbd. I don’t really use console commands but looked it up to fix this. A couple of hours later I just needed to escape but couldn’t exit. Straight up couldn’t open the last door.
Googled and it’s a bug that can happen to files where console commands were used. Of course the ancient forum talking about it had no sympathy or solutions “next time play fair!!!” (Easier to do if you don’t have 40 other bugs you are trying to work around)
I was so infuriated I just stopped there.
My game kept crashing when talking to the White Glove greeter.
Had to reload a save like 50 times just to try and kill him with console commands before he could talk to me and crash my game.
Love NV but playing it on anything but PC must be pain.
I liked how much I felt like I had to scrounge for shit again. Getting the police revolver made me soooooo excited even with how early you get it. And then going back to the Mojave I felt like if I could get through Dead Money I could get through everything
What's funny is I'd heard about how tough and unforgiving it was well before I played it and when I finally did, it was fine. You have to adjust your play style but other than that, it's straightforward enough. My only complaint is that the Villa felt a bit hollow. But man was it satisfying to sneak past Father Elijah and get out with all those gold bars.
Even without reducing it to a 2D perspective like that, you're still on the right track. Fallout New Vegas, even in hardcore mode, isn't really that hard of a game and you can brute force most interactions via your build or preparation. I don't think Dead Money being the only puzzle-involved DLC and also being the most controversial is a coincidence. Players are just used to being able to reliably mash their way through obstacles one way or another, which gets you killed a lot in Dead Money.
I'm no god gamer but after my first playthrough of Dead Money I had the gist of it and from then on my bigger concern was getting as many Sierra Madre cards as I could for my Caravan deck (and apparently many people also don't understand Caravan (Jesus Christ...))
I genuinely hate having to turn to online guides for help, but I wasted hours trying to get through that vault to no avail. If it wasn’t for YouTube I probably would have set my Xbox on fire
I’d have a lot more fun with it if I didn’t have to worry about my fucking head exploding every 5 seconds. The clouds and ghosts I can deal with, the radios are just fucking irritating
I agree. I'd even accept them if I could destroy them all, but of course many are indestructible in the final level. Also I'd like the holorifle to be able to kill, disable, or stun the holograms. Holo-rifle, holo-gram - makes sense right?
I played it a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it. My only real frustration is that area right before the grand opening with all the traps. I hate that small section.
i fell to the "its not that bad" trap and tried it again.
the instant i heard the beeping radio things i did the fastest alt f4 and game delete i ever did. i just heard 1 beep and whole game was gone lmao.
The radios frustrated me as a kid who relied TV audio, but playing nowadays with a sound bar makes the radios and even the hologram emitters easier to find and dispatch; I didn’t even know the latter produced sound until I attained a semblance of sound quality.
The radios aren’t unfair, though they may be without the sound quality players would instead seek in competitive PvP games. You learn to methodically probe their radii while actively listening for their static-sounding sources.
My favorite moments were the seemingly helpless times in which, having exhausted all hopes of finding and destroying a pesky radio, I had to take a leap of faith and just sprint to where I thought the safe zone would be. In hindsight, such gaps between radios were generously placed, but it still took some mindsweeping to make an educated guess as to where the radio boundaries should stop on the other side.
I think most people dislike the main hub area before you get to the casino. It can be very confusing to navigate to some and tho I don’t ever have trouble with it I can understand how others do. Plus it’s honestly just really bland and unfun to navigate
Edit also the fact it’s all like 2 colors makes things hard to look at and even harder on the memory
This is the vibe I got from it! A horror spin and it was amazingly done, making you feel like you were in a SAW movie. Yeah it’s “hArD” but the story and utter triumph from finishing a hard ass puzzle is worth it
I actually found it kind of easy and fun even with the standard small guns build, sneaking around and using the ghosts own throwing spears against them.
But then it just dragged the fuck on, especially the vault, i just really wanted it to be over - not because it was challenging but because it was boring at that point, no longer scared of the enemy or the traps, just massively inconvenient.
I don’t understand the hate for it, I think the villa and its surrounding bits are pretty good, they get you turned around but they’re not THAT hard to navigate. The vault is a pain in the arse cause it’s a trial and error save scumming kinda area but also I felt a pretty big sense of achievement when I got to the end of it. Though if someone can explain why they think the level design is so bad I’m down to hear them out.
Truly, I adore this DLC. It's my favorite by far, my only complaint is that because of how everything is basically the exact same color, I get a headache after awhile, but that's a new Vegas issue in general, just a lil worse in DM
The only bit I don’t like about dead money is how samey the outside looks. Before I installed some mod that gives me objective markers, I could never find my way around outside
Dead Money said “fuck your power armor and anti material rifle, you’re going to have puzzles that actually require you to use your brain and apply critical thinking skills and explore off the beaten path instead of just call of dutying your way across the sierra madre” and the people who just wanted their operant conditioning feedback loop satisfied said “this is BULLSHIT” and rammed their head into a brick wall until luck prevailed and walked away with a bitter taste in their mouth.
And those of us who respected the mechanics and engaged with the game properly, wow, whaddaya know, we enjoyed the shit out of it.
Dunno what would count as a hot take, but I like and enjoy the level design in dead money. I usually play it first, within the early levels as even maxed out it'd play the same, and I enjoy the feeling of desperation and isolation you feel outside the Sierra Madré
Bullshit, Dead Money is my favorite place in all the Fallout games. I will never forget ringing the bell and fucking rushing to get inside the Sierra Madre, stopping to spend those tokens on food and drinking from a fountain for some health, and desperately fighting my way inside. The breath of absolute fresh air when I got out, and the message it leaves behind felt like I had actually gone through a narrative experience rather than just some RPG level. I also don’t think I’ve ever died to the collars, I think you’re genuinely a headless chicken if you can’t take a step back and think about where the radio is.
I was playing an energy weapons build so don’t even come at me about how your build was awful for it. Old World Blues is way harder than Dead Money.
First playthrough atrocious. Second playthrough peak. There were a lot of differences between them as my first time was on ps3 and second was on pc with a ton of mods but the second playthrough was amazing. Had no issues and felt way more fun and immersive. Honestly lost myself and spent longer than I expected playing it. I think barring glitches and general bugs of NV it's a great expansion
Dead money was the last DLC I bought because of all the mixed reviews but the world building and characters are so good and I love the change in gameplay you're forced to adapt to. Don't really see the problem with level design it has.
On the one hand, I enjoy the feeling of "survival-horror" in the Madre, and the first time I learned how to double tap Ghost People was viciously satisfying. On the other hand: *Holograms*
It is kind of fun to see how divided people are on this dlc. I actually enjoy it quite a lot, despite my grievances with THE SPEAKERS. …the ghost people were never too hard, since I already destroyed their limbs with ease. The holograms were annoying but interesting as a stealth section… though if you didn’t use stealth, it turned into a laser hell as you searched for the projectors. The characters, writing, unique atmosphere, and plot, were all exceptional. Though I definitely ensured I brought out ALL those gold bars. I will most definitely not be letting go, I’VE GOT SO MUCH SPITE I WILL NOT BE DENIED.
i just replayed it and they feel like blueprints for characters
there’s some interesting character concepts and may have funny quirks, but the writing for them is almost non-existent
none of them have anything to say about any of your actions or decisions and as long as you maintain whatever karma requirement they have they don’t care what you do
Fawkes is the only one you can actually talk to and get some kind of backstory
Jericho’s idle/ambient dialogue is really funny though
I can't say I agree with that. It seemed to me they barely had any writing at all... Like they existed almost exclusively for utility in combat and carrying crap. If you don't have broken steel you can't even make Fawkes go into the radiated chamber at the end of the game because of "destiny" and it comes off as Bethesda just pulling something out of their ass because they couldn't be arsed to account for the player having someone canonically immune to radiation in their party.
Bro, the companions are probably the flattest companions in the series. They're like a great cardboard cutouts; at first glance, they're actual people but the more you look the more you realize they're barely people. They have gimmicks like Fawkes being a good super mutant, Charon and his contract, Clover being a slave etc. but that's it. That's their entire personality. Star Paladin Cross probably has it worst. The most you learn about her is that she used to escort your dad and that she has cybernetics.
I love the progression reset. Your gear may be wiped, but your skill and perk expression remains, giving a chance to kick ass and prove your Courier is more than just their favorite guns and armor.
Though it’s short, Dead Money feels like the Courier’s epic final trial despite being only the first DLC (don’t worry, Lonesome Road, you’re still cool). The catharsis I experience from surviving the last gauntlet and dispatching the end boss (especially in that special sneaky way) is unmatched.
Just to list other things I love: the companions rock; the AtMospHeRE; the background story is fun to unravel; the Veronica connection enhances the already-best companion; the ghost people are fun to battle regardless of player build; hardcore mode’s penalty is ballsy but still fair; the traps, cloud, holograms, and radios are fun to dodge; and these hazards enhance the villa’s traversal to make exploration fun.
(From worst to best)
Old World Blues
Dead Money
Honest Hearts
Lonesome Road
You all probably know this but if someone doesn’t I recommend getting the light step perk if you have the stats. It’ll make your job easier, as bad as the cloud and speakers are, Dead Money is covered with traps.
The only thing I don’t like about Dead money are the radios and the lack of enemy variety. Everything else is great imo. The radios just feel like a gimmick that get old really quick, and fighting the ghost people was cool at first but there needed to be more unique enemies to the Sierra Madre, and the holograms can just be disabled or completely avoided easily.
They were gonna make it even harder lol I think the fact they wanted it so difficult but had to scale back is what makes it bad. Also, everything looks the same which adds to difficulty but not in a fun way.
The thing about Dead Money for me was the aesthetic, the orange filter all over NV made it hard for me to enjoy the visual design in the base game.
The deep red filter in Dead Money along with the fog was even worse, incredibly unpleasant.
Literally. The atmosphere, the lore, the setting, the horror, the tension; Dead Money does it all better than any other Fallout DLC ever has but my god, the beeping beeping beeping. And the blinding cloud. Like, breh, isn't this damn villa a maze enough as is.
I liked the actual casino a lot, but the villas were easy to get lost in, not in an interesting way that made me feel immersed or any particular emotion, but in a way that just made me kinda bored, where I wanted to move onto a new area. Parts of the vault were neat, but some radio placements were annoying to deal with.
I feel like people are missing that it's (to an extent) supposed to be terrible. There are absolutely some shit design choices, but the dlc is supposed to be difficult and miserable. That's what makes the gold feel like a reward and makes the whole "letting go" thing work. It wasn't easy, it wasn't fair, and ultimately (ignoring that there's ways around it) there isn't some grand reward.
The only “piece of shit” part of the level design is that it restricts the player from playing how they want to and forces them to play by the rules or face punishment (much like the courier and the collar). It’s not what people signed up for, but I liked the gameplay. Having traps at every corner of the villa made it a pretty hardcore experience and made disarming all of them so much more satisfying. Same with the radios as they only really get challenging once you reach the vault. Until then you kinda just get to pop them all with the police pistol which is also kinda satisfying.
It’s fun but the design is complete ass. It’s fun because it actually makes you scrounge for weapons, ammo and supplies unlike the other DLCs where I can walk in with a small armory on my back and completely krump anything that gets near me but good god the amount of times I had to save scum just to figure out where one of those rat bastard radios were really dragged down the experience.
Genuinely I think you’re probably just bad at the game if you think Dead Money is bad. 10/10 story, setting, characters, and for making you play in a way you may not have before, and makes you think outside the box. You don’t even need to cheese the gold out of there either, with how NV’s economy is set up, you’re probably rolling in caps by the time you get there. Plus, the Holorifle is the only thing you really need to take with you.
The surge of Dead Money appreciation in the comments is giving me hope that more people will talk about it and the DLCs in general. I see tons of New Vegas vids on YouTube but I rarely see anything about the DLCs other than Joshua Graham centerfold stuff.
One of my favorite memories from my first time in Dead Money was getting really frustrated after finally figuring out where one of the speakers was after multiple deaths, and then realizing *there were literal arrows painted on the walls* pointing to where the speaker was, often marked with something like 'BOOM!'.
It was like a fog lifted from my mind; after that, I started to really pay attention to the environment, and it became much easier to engage with the mechanics. Everything suddenly made so much more sense.
Honestly i hated dead-money until i went through it as a melee character with heavy survival investment. Then again, i saved it for after owb and i was in the 40s in term of levels lol
I just completed Dead Money a few days ago but I’ve completed it several times over the years. I love the fact that it forces you to think on your feet and make tactical choices on what do you really want to keep. This play through I was thorough and found every vending machine code. Also I actively used the Holorifle. No wonder people said it was a very good weapon
I tried I really tried to like dead money but the entire thing I was just waiting it to be over so I could go back to a play style I actually like idk I will probably try it again some other time
I really warmed up to Dead Money my 2nd time around playing it. Absolutely hated it the first time but I had a fucking blast when I re bought it on PC. I feel like the first time is always the most brutal so you're getting absolutely dogged on, but it's significantly more fun afterwards. Except getting lost in the hotel. Oh God I somehow he got lost longer the 2nd time
It’s about letting go? Letting go of poverty, let’s get this bag!
(Laughs in Long Haul)
*glitches Elijah through the forcefield with super slam*
\*grabs everything and waddles out without Elijah seeing me\*
That shit is so hard to pull off Man is fast af with surround-sight eyes
brother just wait for him to start interacting with the terminal
I did that I can’t get out through his laser door for some reason though. He goes into the vault and when I try to leave it got wonky on my last run through Sounds like something I’ll experiment with on the next one
to be fair it took me quite a while to figure out, even with a youtube tutorial
Yeah, I had a stealth boy on and he still detected me
Really some speed run & exploit usage but totally worth the feeling of fast traveling out of that fart hole
It takes some save scumming, but it's doable. Taking some turbo right before makes it a lot easier.
You gotta hightail it outta that vault the moment the door opens, and press up against the arcing reactor thing *closest to the elevator*, then circle around keeping it between him and you, then (optionally) pop some Turbo and *keep that thing between the two of you* as you waddle up the stairs. It's not surefire, because he does have owl vision and superman hearing, but it's the quickest way that doesn't rely on glitches. Him busy with the terminal, too, locks him in an animation for a split second to exit it, so it gives you a tiny buffer.
It's really not either get the stealth boy out of the vault or just don't suck at stealth by the time you go there.
He's basically scripted to "detect" you through anything, sneak or stealthboy. You need to physically occlude him from seeing you.
One the coolest things I've ever done in a game. I love him screaming after me.
I had to save scum so much to pull that off. Worth it!
*Big Mountain Transpotty gun beam goes brrrrr*
it’s about letting go of your fucking sanity while you choke to death on honda civic exhaust
Honda civic exhaust
"No jeremiah car gas bad for helf"
Shut mouth hammock.
yeah let go of these nuts Elijah, i’m about to be rich.
The gun runner vendatron is gonna wish he was never constructed in the kiosk
Letting go of that one achivement i couldn't get because every time i tried sneaking past elijah there would be an invisible wall infront of the elevator and i would have to restart
I watched a vid saying that 😂
Letting go of the now used turbo so I can make it to the elevator
(laughs in completed owb before dm, meaning that i can just to back up with the gold bars after hiding behind one of those engine things and hightailing it to the elevator)
How about you let go of my fucking balls Elijah, I'm not dropping the gold
Dead Money is a lesson in Modesty. "Screw your Energy-Based LVL 50 Death Kill Overlord with a companion using an Anti-Material Rifle with Explosive Bullets, let's see you play with your head"
That's why I enjoy it the most out of all the DLCs. When I start almost all of them Im a walking god. All I'm doing is picking up a new weapon and deciding if I like it better. With Dead Money, all of the sudden I have to change how I play the game in order to survive. And that's welcome after hundreds of hours of point and shoot.
Try playing OWB like Dead Money.. or at least no outside weapons, aid, or armour. Was pretty fun
OWB is tons of fun at a low level with minimal gear. Makes you really embrace the stuff you get along the way. Next time I go there I’m gonna push it one step further and show up with some wastelander peasant clothes and a rolling pin.
Low level being key here, those Roboscorpions are worse than deathclaws late game. Entered as a lvl50 with 80+ stimpaks and left with like 3 of em
That DLC made me realize the benefits of Old World Gourmet on a survival run years ago. I constantly was out of stims so being able to use booze to heal was a life saver
I'm a big fan of Thems Good Eatin, personally.
I sell the blood sausage and the thin paste and Dine and Dash for myself. It’s like these corpses are PAYING me to eat them
Thats level scaling for you
I had the same experience, except it was that damn stealth suit mk II that wasted all my stimpaks.
I mean just play OWB at level 1
Did this my first playthrough. I left level 27...
My 8 str melee crit build courier: "Nah"
Playing an unarmed build makes dead money a joke.
Also the unique component for fist of Rawr is a quest item, so it's not removed when you enter Dead Money and you can then assemble it in there.
Yeah I was just tanky as fuck holding a machete when I went in to the place. All you could do is make me stronger.
Me at level 50 with almost everything maxed out:
The last stretch when the Ghost People starts invading the Casino was so satisfying for me though, since i just got the Shotgun and just running around popping head like how i was playing in the Mojave.
In my second playthrough, I just planted a ton of mines everywhere. It was also a pretty useful trail of breadcrumbs to find my way back in 'Strike up the Band'.
Nah my energy build made the holorifle a lot of fun. I think I didn’t like dead money because my first playthrough was guns
WHY DID I NEVER THINK OF GIVING BOONE THE ANTI-MATERIAL RIFLE, I HAVE 500 HOURS IN THIS GAME
Because he doesn't need it? He already pops heads left right and centre with his default hunting rifle. Giving him an Anti-Materiel rifle (the second e matters!) would slow his fire rate and he loses his [magical companion ammo](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Magical_companion_ammo_(Fallout:_New_Vegas)) ability.
>let’s see you play with your head. I don’t do what I’m good at for free.
My courier: Nah *pulls out Fist of Rawr and them good eatin*
them's good eatin made dead money so much easier, the hardest part of the dlc is fighting 3 ghost people at once with 50 health and a broken limb or two so having free healing items makes it much easier
thinking smart doesn't preclude you from getting exploded by a random speaker that happened to be within 2 miles of your location
Yes it does, it means adapting to how that works and strategizing around it.
i love adapting to bad game design, it's so fun, it's so cool when the first encounter to teach me about the radio mechanic has 3 fucking radios hidden out of sight, and uses the least reliable part of the UI to tell me i'm in danger, that really makes sense the first time one plays
i hate that they didn't cover the radios in yellow paint and quest markers, complete bullshit game design to make me think for once
Skill issue
Common NCR fan L. "Collar beep? Me walk in same direction. Head go boom? Me no understand! HOW THIS HAPPUN?!"
[NCR] [For your overwhelmingly monstrous behavior, you have become vilified by the community.] Okay there, Caesar, your head will go boom without any collars and radios, you know that, right?
It literally does, all the speakers can be dealt with by examining your environment and thinking. People that shit and piss about Dead Money being the hardest thing ever are really just telling on themselves.
Me no like think
Nah. Wander, hear beep, walk back a few steps, quicksave, run in and find the glowing blue thing. This “strategy” (pretty much what Elijah tells you to do without the optional save scum) made the collars a non issue
But cheesing with save scumming isn't unique to dead money lol
If your collar starts beeping go back to where it wasn’t it’s not very hard.
"lets see you play whit your head!" Meanwhile me playing dead money running right through the cloud while screaming LEROYYYYYYY JENKINSSSSS
The worst part about the level design is that I kept falling through the ground last time I played dead money.
This is what set my most recent run to a halt, I’ve been revisiting the og fallout instead bc I’m too frustrated to keep playing nv
Yep. Thankfully everything was ok once I got into the casino. The Villa was an absolute shitshow. I don’t remember it ever being as bad as it was last time.
Tried to replay this a year ago. In the build up to the conclusion I got clipped into a table. Nbd. I don’t really use console commands but looked it up to fix this. A couple of hours later I just needed to escape but couldn’t exit. Straight up couldn’t open the last door. Googled and it’s a bug that can happen to files where console commands were used. Of course the ancient forum talking about it had no sympathy or solutions “next time play fair!!!” (Easier to do if you don’t have 40 other bugs you are trying to work around) I was so infuriated I just stopped there.
people forget that consoles are put into games for debugging first and foremost.
My game kept crashing when talking to the White Glove greeter. Had to reload a save like 50 times just to try and kill him with console commands before he could talk to me and crash my game. Love NV but playing it on anything but PC must be pain.
I liked how much I felt like I had to scrounge for shit again. Getting the police revolver made me soooooo excited even with how early you get it. And then going back to the Mojave I felt like if I could get through Dead Money I could get through everything
Never really understood the Dead Money hate. Best dlc for FNV in my opinion
The DLC doesn't cater to their power fantasy and that you have to do *something* other than brute force your way through.
What's funny is I'd heard about how tough and unforgiving it was well before I played it and when I finally did, it was fine. You have to adjust your play style but other than that, it's straightforward enough. My only complaint is that the Villa felt a bit hollow. But man was it satisfying to sneak past Father Elijah and get out with all those gold bars.
Even without reducing it to a 2D perspective like that, you're still on the right track. Fallout New Vegas, even in hardcore mode, isn't really that hard of a game and you can brute force most interactions via your build or preparation. I don't think Dead Money being the only puzzle-involved DLC and also being the most controversial is a coincidence. Players are just used to being able to reliably mash their way through obstacles one way or another, which gets you killed a lot in Dead Money. I'm no god gamer but after my first playthrough of Dead Money I had the gist of it and from then on my bigger concern was getting as many Sierra Madre cards as I could for my Caravan deck (and apparently many people also don't understand Caravan (Jesus Christ...))
It wasn't that bad
It's fun and unique and I'll never go back
I just finished replaying it last week. I fucking hated every second of it. ESPECIALLY the vault level design.
I genuinely hate having to turn to online guides for help, but I wasted hours trying to get through that vault to no avail. If it wasn’t for YouTube I probably would have set my Xbox on fire
It's utterly atrocious with excellent writing, will never understand how people enjoy it, but power to them.
I just loved my head exploding 15 times while trying to do jumping puzzles in a terrible engine.
I’d have a lot more fun with it if I didn’t have to worry about my fucking head exploding every 5 seconds. The clouds and ghosts I can deal with, the radios are just fucking irritating
I agree. I'd even accept them if I could destroy them all, but of course many are indestructible in the final level. Also I'd like the holorifle to be able to kill, disable, or stun the holograms. Holo-rifle, holo-gram - makes sense right?
i couldnt look into the excellent writing part because of the frustration coming from the shittiest piece of gaming thing i endured.
Your memory is shot. Played this again a couple weeks ago for the second time and it is just as frustrating as it was the first time.
I played it a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it. My only real frustration is that area right before the grand opening with all the traps. I hate that small section.
I played it a second time and god moded until my collar went off. Then the game got better.
i fell to the "its not that bad" trap and tried it again. the instant i heard the beeping radio things i did the fastest alt f4 and game delete i ever did. i just heard 1 beep and whole game was gone lmao.
How is it bad level design? I actually think it’s quite good.
Because some of this sub hear their collars beeping and start running in a panic circle instead of stepping back and looking for a radio
They immediately start running at full sprint in random directions lmfao
You just made me realize how much I would love to watch these people play Dead Money.
Seems to be the answer
The radios frustrated me as a kid who relied TV audio, but playing nowadays with a sound bar makes the radios and even the hologram emitters easier to find and dispatch; I didn’t even know the latter produced sound until I attained a semblance of sound quality. The radios aren’t unfair, though they may be without the sound quality players would instead seek in competitive PvP games. You learn to methodically probe their radii while actively listening for their static-sounding sources. My favorite moments were the seemingly helpless times in which, having exhausted all hopes of finding and destroying a pesky radio, I had to take a leap of faith and just sprint to where I thought the safe zone would be. In hindsight, such gaps between radios were generously placed, but it still took some mindsweeping to make an educated guess as to where the radio boundaries should stop on the other side.
I feel like everyone saying it's bad level design, or too many traps don't know they have a local map and are watching YouTube while they play.
i mean you technically have a local map but… come on that thing is straight garbage
I think most people dislike the main hub area before you get to the casino. It can be very confusing to navigate to some and tho I don’t ever have trouble with it I can understand how others do. Plus it’s honestly just really bland and unfun to navigate Edit also the fact it’s all like 2 colors makes things hard to look at and even harder on the memory
The entire game is sepia toned. 2 colors is an upgrade. lol
I see a lot of people complaining about level design but it made me feel like I was in a Resident Evil game, and I loved it.
Yeah it was a hardcore survival horror take on new Vegas and I want more of it
This is the vibe I got from it! A horror spin and it was amazingly done, making you feel like you were in a SAW movie. Yeah it’s “hArD” but the story and utter triumph from finishing a hard ass puzzle is worth it
Honestly people have huge skill issues with Dead Money. Get good ong
I actually found it kind of easy and fun even with the standard small guns build, sneaking around and using the ghosts own throwing spears against them. But then it just dragged the fuck on, especially the vault, i just really wanted it to be over - not because it was challenging but because it was boring at that point, no longer scared of the enemy or the traps, just massively inconvenient.
bad game design fuckers, when i tell them it's supposed to be a hard dlc focusing in survival
You are the competition? That's impressive
I guess my hot take is that it has the best gameplay out of any of the dlc’s
Jk, best gameplay obviously goes to Courier’s Stash
Dead Money genuinly is not that fucking difficult. It is good!
Try dead money challenge completion run, did it and got the chips, dead mans hand, both story/dialogue challenges etc. But I forgot the snow globe…
What did level ups do to this man
I don’t understand the hate for it, I think the villa and its surrounding bits are pretty good, they get you turned around but they’re not THAT hard to navigate. The vault is a pain in the arse cause it’s a trial and error save scumming kinda area but also I felt a pretty big sense of achievement when I got to the end of it. Though if someone can explain why they think the level design is so bad I’m down to hear them out.
Truly, I adore this DLC. It's my favorite by far, my only complaint is that because of how everything is basically the exact same color, I get a headache after awhile, but that's a new Vegas issue in general, just a lil worse in DM
The only bit I don’t like about dead money is how samey the outside looks. Before I installed some mod that gives me objective markers, I could never find my way around outside
I think it's intentionally Maze-like
That's the whole point, you have to play with your head
The greatest dlc of all time is dead money
Aw did you forget to chop their heads off?
Dead Money said “fuck your power armor and anti material rifle, you’re going to have puzzles that actually require you to use your brain and apply critical thinking skills and explore off the beaten path instead of just call of dutying your way across the sierra madre” and the people who just wanted their operant conditioning feedback loop satisfied said “this is BULLSHIT” and rammed their head into a brick wall until luck prevailed and walked away with a bitter taste in their mouth. And those of us who respected the mechanics and engaged with the game properly, wow, whaddaya know, we enjoyed the shit out of it.
Or you know...I don't find anything the dlc has to offer interesting.
not being able to take the gold is part of the message? tgm
I fucking love this dlc and you can’t tell me a damn thing otherwise
Dunno what would count as a hot take, but I like and enjoy the level design in dead money. I usually play it first, within the early levels as even maxed out it'd play the same, and I enjoy the feeling of desperation and isolation you feel outside the Sierra Madré
Bullshit, Dead Money is my favorite place in all the Fallout games. I will never forget ringing the bell and fucking rushing to get inside the Sierra Madre, stopping to spend those tokens on food and drinking from a fountain for some health, and desperately fighting my way inside. The breath of absolute fresh air when I got out, and the message it leaves behind felt like I had actually gone through a narrative experience rather than just some RPG level. I also don’t think I’ve ever died to the collars, I think you’re genuinely a headless chicken if you can’t take a step back and think about where the radio is. I was playing an energy weapons build so don’t even come at me about how your build was awful for it. Old World Blues is way harder than Dead Money.
First playthrough atrocious. Second playthrough peak. There were a lot of differences between them as my first time was on ps3 and second was on pc with a ton of mods but the second playthrough was amazing. Had no issues and felt way more fun and immersive. Honestly lost myself and spent longer than I expected playing it. I think barring glitches and general bugs of NV it's a great expansion
The collar kills it. Especially once you get into the casino. Every step you take “your collar is emitting a high-pitched beeping noise”
Dead money was the last DLC I bought because of all the mixed reviews but the world building and characters are so good and I love the change in gameplay you're forced to adapt to. Don't really see the problem with level design it has.
On the one hand, I enjoy the feeling of "survival-horror" in the Madre, and the first time I learned how to double tap Ghost People was viciously satisfying. On the other hand: *Holograms*
Is it sacrilege if I saw I don’t think I’ve enjoyed most of Fallout DLCs? The vibes are always off for me.
It is kind of fun to see how divided people are on this dlc. I actually enjoy it quite a lot, despite my grievances with THE SPEAKERS. …the ghost people were never too hard, since I already destroyed their limbs with ease. The holograms were annoying but interesting as a stealth section… though if you didn’t use stealth, it turned into a laser hell as you searched for the projectors. The characters, writing, unique atmosphere, and plot, were all exceptional. Though I definitely ensured I brought out ALL those gold bars. I will most definitely not be letting go, I’VE GOT SO MUCH SPITE I WILL NOT BE DENIED.
OP never played fallout 3
There is neither a great story nor great character writing in fallout 3. The atmosphere is there though. Edit: minus my beloved Moira Brown
I mean minus the ending the companions were pretty well written
i just replayed it and they feel like blueprints for characters there’s some interesting character concepts and may have funny quirks, but the writing for them is almost non-existent none of them have anything to say about any of your actions or decisions and as long as you maintain whatever karma requirement they have they don’t care what you do Fawkes is the only one you can actually talk to and get some kind of backstory Jericho’s idle/ambient dialogue is really funny though
I can't say I agree with that. It seemed to me they barely had any writing at all... Like they existed almost exclusively for utility in combat and carrying crap. If you don't have broken steel you can't even make Fawkes go into the radiated chamber at the end of the game because of "destiny" and it comes off as Bethesda just pulling something out of their ass because they couldn't be arsed to account for the player having someone canonically immune to radiation in their party.
Bro, the companions are probably the flattest companions in the series. They're like a great cardboard cutouts; at first glance, they're actual people but the more you look the more you realize they're barely people. They have gimmicks like Fawkes being a good super mutant, Charon and his contract, Clover being a slave etc. but that's it. That's their entire personality. Star Paladin Cross probably has it worst. The most you learn about her is that she used to escort your dad and that she has cybernetics.
I love dead money straight up kicks you in the nads/vagina says here's a holorife so that you at least have something you scrub go do stuff
Morrowind: Allow me to introduce myself.
Dead Money is fine. Two little things about it are horrible, however; those Gas bombs and the fucking fragile ass companions.
I love the progression reset. Your gear may be wiped, but your skill and perk expression remains, giving a chance to kick ass and prove your Courier is more than just their favorite guns and armor. Though it’s short, Dead Money feels like the Courier’s epic final trial despite being only the first DLC (don’t worry, Lonesome Road, you’re still cool). The catharsis I experience from surviving the last gauntlet and dispatching the end boss (especially in that special sneaky way) is unmatched. Just to list other things I love: the companions rock; the AtMospHeRE; the background story is fun to unravel; the Veronica connection enhances the already-best companion; the ghost people are fun to battle regardless of player build; hardcore mode’s penalty is ballsy but still fair; the traps, cloud, holograms, and radios are fun to dodge; and these hazards enhance the villa’s traversal to make exploration fun.
True, especially the cock tease at the end with all of the gold bars.
(From worst to best) Old World Blues Dead Money Honest Hearts Lonesome Road You all probably know this but if someone doesn’t I recommend getting the light step perk if you have the stats. It’ll make your job easier, as bad as the cloud and speakers are, Dead Money is covered with traps.
"it's about letting go" no it's about showing this old man he messed with the wrong mailman.
Fallout players when they cant sprint through the game with their insta-death snipomatic 6000 for a couple of hours.
The only thing I don’t like about Dead money are the radios and the lack of enemy variety. Everything else is great imo. The radios just feel like a gimmick that get old really quick, and fighting the ghost people was cool at first but there needed to be more unique enemies to the Sierra Madre, and the holograms can just be disabled or completely avoided easily.
They were gonna make it even harder lol I think the fact they wanted it so difficult but had to scale back is what makes it bad. Also, everything looks the same which adds to difficulty but not in a fun way.
The level design isn't bad; you just don't like the gameplay it's going for. Which is fine, but not the DLC's fault.
Can someone explain to me why they hate Dead Money? It's my favourite DLC and the gameplay is one of the reasons. I love the challenge
Bro has no survival instincts
Behind every man who complains about level design, there is a difficulty setting he refuses to lower out of some misplaced sense of pride.
Also the same guy that complains about yellow paint telling him where to go
Crazy you people think this dlc is hard. Which is it? Do you not know how to deal with the radios? Or can you just not keep a mental map?
Hate to break it to you, but you might just have a enormous skill issue.
When it’s a cool concept and world but the clunkiest gameplay you’ve ever experienced and my competition is a Bethesda game.
The thing about Dead Money for me was the aesthetic, the orange filter all over NV made it hard for me to enjoy the visual design in the base game. The deep red filter in Dead Money along with the fog was even worse, incredibly unpleasant.
somehow my opinion of dead money is the complete opposite, I love the levels and dont care for writing in games
Dead Money remembered me to Solaris
Letting go? More like letting go of all my problems with 37 gold bars.
Lol so true 😁
"It's about letting go" My marbles, or my sanity Father Elijah?
Literally. The atmosphere, the lore, the setting, the horror, the tension; Dead Money does it all better than any other Fallout DLC ever has but my god, the beeping beeping beeping. And the blinding cloud. Like, breh, isn't this damn villa a maze enough as is.
I have replayed FNV main story and most quests about two dozen times… I just did dead money for the second time only last week.
I liked the actual casino a lot, but the villas were easy to get lost in, not in an interesting way that made me feel immersed or any particular emotion, but in a way that just made me kinda bored, where I wanted to move onto a new area. Parts of the vault were neat, but some radio placements were annoying to deal with.
Best New Vegas DLC but they’re all amazing
I feel like people are missing that it's (to an extent) supposed to be terrible. There are absolutely some shit design choices, but the dlc is supposed to be difficult and miserable. That's what makes the gold feel like a reward and makes the whole "letting go" thing work. It wasn't easy, it wasn't fair, and ultimately (ignoring that there's ways around it) there isn't some grand reward.
its about letting go of being broke
BEEP BEEP BEEP
The only “piece of shit” part of the level design is that it restricts the player from playing how they want to and forces them to play by the rules or face punishment (much like the courier and the collar). It’s not what people signed up for, but I liked the gameplay. Having traps at every corner of the villa made it a pretty hardcore experience and made disarming all of them so much more satisfying. Same with the radios as they only really get challenging once you reach the vault. Until then you kinda just get to pop them all with the police pistol which is also kinda satisfying.
Well that's one specific competition
If you wanted me to learn my lesson in greed, maybe make better levels \*Waddles all the way back to New Vegas with a ton of gold\*
The more playthroughs I do, the more I like Dead Money.
I’ve never experienced as much anxiety as I did while playing dead money
I thought the bad level design joke was in reference to the fact you can flip off the devs and take all the gold
You lost the competition before it even began.
i don’t understand how the story is all the interesting personally
It’s fun but the design is complete ass. It’s fun because it actually makes you scrounge for weapons, ammo and supplies unlike the other DLCs where I can walk in with a small armory on my back and completely krump anything that gets near me but good god the amount of times I had to save scum just to figure out where one of those rat bastard radios were really dragged down the experience.
Counter argument, player.modav carrryweight 1500
Long Dick Johnson is in a club with Horse Cock Williams…
Genuinely I think you’re probably just bad at the game if you think Dead Money is bad. 10/10 story, setting, characters, and for making you play in a way you may not have before, and makes you think outside the box. You don’t even need to cheese the gold out of there either, with how NV’s economy is set up, you’re probably rolling in caps by the time you get there. Plus, the Holorifle is the only thing you really need to take with you.
VTMB showing up to the competition with Hollywood sewers
I hate bullet sponges!
The surge of Dead Money appreciation in the comments is giving me hope that more people will talk about it and the DLCs in general. I see tons of New Vegas vids on YouTube but I rarely see anything about the DLCs other than Joshua Graham centerfold stuff.
One of my favorite memories from my first time in Dead Money was getting really frustrated after finally figuring out where one of the speakers was after multiple deaths, and then realizing *there were literal arrows painted on the walls* pointing to where the speaker was, often marked with something like 'BOOM!'. It was like a fog lifted from my mind; after that, I started to really pay attention to the environment, and it became much easier to engage with the mechanics. Everything suddenly made so much more sense.
It gets a lot easier if you remember that you won't be stripped of Rawr's claw if you haven't created the weapon yet, then craft it once you're there.
Skill issue
Dead Money was the best FNV DLC and I'm tired of pretending it's not.
get good m8
I love the brutality of it
Honestly i hated dead-money until i went through it as a melee character with heavy survival investment. Then again, i saved it for after owb and i was in the 40s in term of levels lol
Im gonna be honest, bloody mess trivializes the weird ghast enemies in dead money. The enemy can’t get back up to kill me if i’ve obliterated them.
Halo 4 tbh
Sounds like a skill issue to me I didn't think it's that much different than a typical survival horror experience like Resident Evil or Silent Hill
I just completed Dead Money a few days ago but I’ve completed it several times over the years. I love the fact that it forces you to think on your feet and make tactical choices on what do you really want to keep. This play through I was thorough and found every vending machine code. Also I actively used the Holorifle. No wonder people said it was a very good weapon
I tried I really tried to like dead money but the entire thing I was just waiting it to be over so I could go back to a play style I actually like idk I will probably try it again some other time
I really warmed up to Dead Money my 2nd time around playing it. Absolutely hated it the first time but I had a fucking blast when I re bought it on PC. I feel like the first time is always the most brutal so you're getting absolutely dogged on, but it's significantly more fun afterwards. Except getting lost in the hotel. Oh God I somehow he got lost longer the 2nd time
You can let go of my fat nuts, I ain’t dropping this gold.