A dilapidated Villa consumed by green eyed monsters and greedy holograms is your welcome mat to the Sierra Madre Casino. Once the bombs dropped, a toxic cloud crept into the villa, sealing it away from the wasteland. The trap laden streets now lead wandering tourists to unpleasant deaths, and you may share their fate. Finding this place is rather easy, but getting back to the wasteland is the hard part.
A quick aside, if after this review you chose purchase the DLC, know that you must also have a save before the end of the game. Also, you can take nothing with you from the main game when you enter the DLC. A full review after the bump.
After downloading and installing the DLC, you receive a radio signal from the Sierra Madre. It leads you to an abandoned Brotherhood of Steel bunker, where you are subsequently gassed and taken to the Villa Square. Father Elijah, your captor, has been kind enough to outfit you with an explosive collar that is tethered to three companions within the Villa. He tasks you with finding and convincing them to join you in pulling the greatest casino heist of all time. This may sound like Ocean’s Eleven, but it is more of a survival horror game with vending machines. Yes, some fans may experience “rapture” when they notice Dead Money’s similarity to a certain underwater utopia. The vending machines add an interesting mechanic though; as they use a local currency (sierra madre chips) that you can counterfeit, given you ask the right questions. This becomes very useful once you find certain vending machine unlocks; like stimpaks, ammo and a few surprises. The vending machine also introduces a reimbursement system; where if you collect perishables, clothing or cigarettes, they can be returned for more chips. Combine these systems with some old fashioned scrounging and the machines create a dynamic way to replenish your inventory, as well as your coffers. There are no ways to earn caps though, since this place exists outside the wasteland. Eventually you begin to have to sell items for pre-war money or just drop them altogether.
The ghosts of the Sierra Madre have their ways of making you feel cozy. The Villa is littered with bear traps, trip wires, and explosives; thanks to the abominations that reside there. They hide in pockets of toxic cloud and teleport around the villa to confuse victims. Clearly, they have no intention of letting you leave. Combat is like most other encounters in Fallout, but with a twist. The ghosts must be dismembered or they will only be knocked unconscious. You can always headshot them while they are napping, a personal favorite. The holograms, on the other hand, do not take damage. Yup, time to patiently watch patrols as you stealth in and out of hallways while hacking terminals. You will spend a lot of time crouching in this DLC, or risk losing life and limb to get anywhere. These stealth activities are further complicated by the collar around your neck exploding when you come close to specific speakers. Some you can destroy, others have to be disabled, but all create this nagging tension that your head can pop off at any minute. Because of those factors, the DLC clocked in at a solid 8 hours. It is essential that you achieve a high level character when going into the DLC. Many of the terminals, locks, and holograms require skill levels above 75. Consider developing your melee and stealth skills as well, based on the combat scenarios you will run. The last, but most important skill is speech, because much of the story is centered on you and your companions, who need someone to talk to.
Father Elijah wouldn’t want you to bear the burden of the Sierra Madre alone, so he has a few other surviving ‘tourists’ to help. There is the slightly disturbed Super Mutant Dog/God. His name is an anagram, due to the multiple personality disorder he experiences in your travels together. Christine, a mute companion from the Brotherhood of Steel, is found in the hospital district. That district has the most distinct ambient sounds of the DLC, love it or hate it, you will know it when you hear it. Your final cohort, Dean Domino, is a two hundred year old ghoul who has been waiting for his chance to sing in the Tampico Lounge of the Sierra Madre once again. The quest structure is similar throughout the entirety of the DLC and each quest rotates in one of your 3 companions. Still, the dialogue is very well written, and the companions all have interesting stories. Their tales of trial and tribulation will allude to future installments of the DLC as well as unlock new perks, so be sure to ask all the questions you can before you break into the casino. After that, everything twists just a little more until you raid the vault.
The difficulty will spike from here, as the vault ends up being the deadliest place of all. The path to the vault door contains a ton of speakers, additional traps and a platforming element that does not lend itself well to the Fallout series. You will feel the full force of this when trying to escape the vault. It is not so difficult that you would quit playing, but it is a kick in the balls after all the hard work you have done. The reward can be exploited to get you an insane amount of caps, but it’s a complicated endeavor. Most of you will settle with what little you can carry and be off, free of the Sierra Madre, back into the wasteland. To close, Dead Money is not for the light hearted. It has a heavy emphasis on survival and stealth. You will get a decent amount of experience, a bump in the level cap and even some sweet loot. Still, the frustration level is too high to recommend this for all Fallout players. Dead Money gets a rating of 3.5 Sierra Madre Chips out of 5.
Please Note: Review code was provided via Bitmob, during the #bitmobgiveaway on Twitter. I was level 26 when I started the DLC and completed it as a level 31. Earned all trophies and saw all endings.
Republished from Bitmob.com
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