Hey did you know that Fallout 3 never came out? No, not the bad one everyone ignores in favour of NV, I mean the original Fallout 3 - Van Buren, the one that barely anybody is even aware of these days.

Van Buren is something of a fascination of mine. In the wake of Fallout 3’s awfulness way back in 2008, I spent ages poring over the design documents and every scrap of information I could find. Stillborn though it was, seemingly most of the game’s documents had leaked online which provided a robust treasure trove of knowledge.

But alas, they who gain knowledge gain sorrow as well. In plumbing the depths of Van Buren, my feelings of discontent towards Fallout only grew. Try as I might, I couldn’t manifest the revival of Van Buren or Good Fallout Games.

I remember the day I saw that first New Vegas teaser. Watching cold and stone-faced, disinterested and bored. Oh, a robot? Another robot? I killed thousands of robots in 3. I’m sick of robots-

And right there, at that very moment in the memory, young me lay eyes on it: The flag of the New California Republic.

“Could it be?” Thought young Mira. “Van Buren… revived?”

The introductory cutscene only increased the hype. NCR out in full force, the Great Khans having returned for a third time running, Caesar’s Legion in all their rancid glory, Hoover Dam… To say nothing of the reveal that many ex-Fallout 1/2/Van Buren were involved, Josh Sawyer among them.

The day New Vegas came into my life was wondrous. I skipped out on everything to go home and play it for 4-5 days straight.

And… It wasn’t what I wanted! I didn’t hate it, but I did come away feeling lost. I did not get it, nor could I, for I was simply too young. Young Mira wanted Van Buren, which she was [forgive me] """promised""" and felt a bit odd, having a game that seemed to be stuck in Van Buren's shadow but wasn't Van Buren.

Dead Money kinda came and went for younger me. Loved the atmosphere and the inclusion of an honest-to-god BAR but I was again far too young to get anything from it. I was one of those preternaturally annoying chucklefucks that thinks getting all the gold out of the vault "defeats the message".

But both NV and Dead Money were 14 years ago, I've had some time to think. About them, the other DLCs, and about Fallout as a whole.

The ghost of Dead Money hangs over NV, lurking in the corners. Father Elijah’s influence is felt as early as stepping into Helios One, to say nothing of how much his old fellows despise him. Whether the player discovers it or not, they’re traipsing on foundations that Elijah helped lay. That the NCR literally wear the carcasses of the Brotherhood troops they killed only adds to his mystique. Posters for Dean Domino are everywhere, visual white noise that most people pay no mind to. Among them, posters and graffiti alluding to the Sierra Madre as a mystical place where people leave their hearts behind. Dig further into the story and you’ll stumble across the Brotherhood, who spend half of their screen time cursing Elijah for digging their grave and not even having the courtesy to lay in it with them.

As it turns out, though, Elijah has his own grave to dig.

Dead Money isn’t very alluring on the surface. It trades a sprawling Wasteland, impressive locations and factions with distinct aesthetics for a muddy poison-soaked hellhole that’s only barely lit up and is near-exclusively populated by homogenous creeps in gas masks. Add in lots of backtracking, skill checks and fakeouts that explicitly punish
Not to mention the framing. A miserable old dick slaps a bomb collar on your neck and tells you to go rescue three “companions” - insofar as potentially dead weight can be a compatriot.

Everything about Dead Money screams Survival Horror. Shooting isn’t an option half the time and even when it is, ammo isn’t quite as plentiful in the Sierra Madre. There’s a fair share of backtracking and oftentimes the best way to resolve fights is to not get into them. New Vegas gets a bit power fantasy towards the middle-end of the game unless one plays on Hardcore Mode with the difficulty bumped up, and Dead Money immediately throws a wrench into this by stripping you of basically everything. Indeed, the Sierra Madre and its surroundings even call to mind some of the CG art made for Resident Evil: Survivor.

Dead Money isn’t what I’d call a ‘fun’ DLC. Even at its most gripping I can see why most people consider it a snoozefest even if I personally don’t. It’s much slower, more introspective and three times as morose as the other story-focused DLC (Lonesome Road), all while being far less overt with its narrative despite the endless repetition of its four key words: Let Go, Begin Again.

It isn’t immediately obvious how these words apply to Dog/God. Elijah is obsessed with the Sierra Madre, Dean is obsessed with fucking over the centuries-dead Frederick Sinclair, and Christine wants revenge on Elijah. The tragic Nightkin is an outlier at first, and in the intervening years since this game came out I’ve seen even fellow Dead Money enjoyers scratch their heads and declare them an outlier.
What struck me about Dog/God on this replay is how they have more in common than they don’t. Much attention is drawn to Dog’s voracious appetite and bottomless hunger, yes, but God’s fanatical need to control at every given moment is the same kind of gluttony in all but name.
But, relevant to the overarching theme, the most striking part about them is that there’s not really “two halves of a whole” within them so much as they are fragments inhabiting one body. Both of them, in their own way, voraciously pursue their desires while also trying to exert control over the other.
What they have to ‘let go’ of is themselves.
Which is, in all sincerity, deeply resonant. An annoying part of getting old and bothering with that self-improvement nonsense is that you’ll almost certainly come across parts of The Self that’ve accrued some crust over the ages. Beliefs you don’t really hold onto, anger that’s long since lost its target, endless little idiosyncrasies that add up into an odd little rusted automaton in the shape of you. Letting go of that is a bothersome process, albeit a necessary one.
The debatably-best ending for Dog/God is convincing them to let go of their respective Selves and simply embrace the end result. Take hold of the idiosyncrasies and accept them not as “two halves of a whole” but as different shades of the whole. Rather surprising to see such a gentle, loving treatment of DID from a game where - 30 minutes prior to starting this DLC - I got Cass’ infamous Long Dick Johnson line.

But you know what? Let’s skip the 4 protagonists of Dead Money and go back to the 5th: Me.

I think, at some point, everyone who’s young and adores a particular piece of art will inevitably conceptualize something perfect: Their perfect sequel, their perfect adaptation, their perfect spinoff, etc etc.
I’m not going to pretend I was any different, and pertinent to the topic at hand I’d long since had an idea in my head of “The Perfect Fallout”. Indeed, my earliest discontent towards New Vegas stemmed from the fact that it wasn’t that ideal. It was a more introspective and debatably experimental title that was still Fallout but not the Fallout I wanted.

Fortunately, I’ve grown out of those behaviours and have become vastly more accepting of flawed works. Indeed, the search for flawless art is at odds with the nature of art as a reflection of humanity - a uniquely flawed species of mammal.

In returning to Dead Money in 2024, in a post-Fallout 4 and post-Fallout TV world, truthfully I don’t even see the text on display.

I see a group of 4 people who’re maniacally obsessed with a perfect ideal to the point of self-ruination. They won’t accept anything less than what their mind’s eye sees, no matter how blind that eye is to the real world in front of them.

I see Fallout fans like my younger self, still clinging to the hopes that one day they’ll get the perfect flawless Fallout title.

And in this, I’ve come to appreciate the ending a lot more.

It may seem trite or overbearing to have your reward for a 4-5 hour puzzle gauntlet be some gold bars that you have to forsake, but on a meta level I appreciate it.

You can’t take all the gold bars with you without exploits or cheats. You have to make a choice: Be content with less, for at least you have something, or leave empty-handed. What was once stupid to younger Mira now feels profound, and for once I felt content to simply leave the gold untouched and settle for my spoils (Namely, the Automatic Rifle) before locking Elijah in the Vault.

I got the perfect ending this time. Told all the companions to just bail and move on with their lives, in much the same way I have to tell people in real life to ditch stupid vendettas/feuds and focus on the things in front of them. It was cathartic this time in a way it hasn’t been before - maybe I have gotten old.

To cap off the metaphor, though: Dead Money lands a lot better now that I’m content with New Vegas and am apathetic to any future Fallout entries. I’ve got my ideal Fallout game, even if it took some time for me to come around to it. Bethesda can turn the series into a playground all it wants; that’s that, and this is this.

Really, the hardest part of being a Fallout fan isn’t liking the games that are, it’s letting go of the games that co- Too on the nose? Sorry, please don’t throw tomatoes. Let me begin again- FUCK.

This is a pretty stellar DLC as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't succeed as survival horror if that was really the intent, and the villa sections are a bit too bland and samey visually, but those are the only little drawbacks.

All of the characters are interesting, and each of the three companions comes complete with their own perks and gameplay quirks.

The two new enemy types (regenerating "ghosts" and invincible holograms) both work well and force you to change up your playstyle from the base game, the former requiring a back-and-forth mix of guns + melee and the latter leading to more interesting stealth sections than can be found in the base game. I see a lot of reviews describing the ghosts as too difficult and/or frustrating, but all you need to do is punch them once with the bear-trap gauntlet after they go down. it's Dead Space rules and it's simple enough, and the game spells it out quite clearly, so I don't get why so many people struggle with that.

The radiation, poisonous clouds, and radios that trigger your bomb collar all shake up the gameplay in challenging and compelling ways and help the DLC quests feel distinct despite, of course, relying on all of the same core mechanics.

It's also a pretty chunky DLC with a lot to experience, all guided by strong writing and quest design. It's a smaller and more linear area to explore than the Honest Hearts DLC but it's much denser, and there's a good amount of freedom/exploration with each of the objectives, you hardly ever have to rely on waypoints or hand-holdy directions to get around and figure things out intuitively. For example, you can find a computer log that describes an elderly woman getting drunk and climbing out onto the rafters before being thrown out, and that's the game's subtle and super cool way of hinting that you should try going up on the rafters, where you can find a hidden control panel to shut off holograms and progress into a new area. Really clever design that makes it rewarding to pay attention to the details of every log you come across.

The theming is spot on too, smartly capitalizing on the Vegas, casino-centric setting. Even the title, Dead Money, is a poker term. I also love the way that the title of the great 1948 John Huston film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is recontextualized in the context of a casino heist, that's such a fun reference

Buen juego pero se juega peor que persona 5
se pasaron el balance por el culo (igual que p5), ya en mid game puedes crear un persona lo suficientemente fuerte para llegar al final con lo op que hicieron los ataques fisicos y aun sin ellos el juego es notoriamente facil
Le quito muuuucho ambiente al juego original. las cinematicas se ven bien, todo se ve bien realmente PERO, la iluminacion aveces simplemente le quita lo atenuado que se veia el juego original, las cinematicas animadas en particular son la mayor perdida debido a que las del juego original tenian una direccion artisitica especifica que perfectamente encapsulaba el ambiente misterioso, bizarro y algo abstracto que el juego lograba. Mientras tanto, en reload esto ya no esta y si bien cosas como la cinematica final se ven MUY bien, las demas siento que no pegan tanto como el juego original (literalmente la primera cinematica y el propio opening es un ejemplo de eso)
Tartarus fue muy overhyped para mi, se ve bien si y supongo que es mas facil moverse alrededor pero al mismo tiempo al final sigue siendo lo mismo, corredores pero aveces tienes cuartos grandes. al menos agradezco que las sombras doradas no sean un dolor anal supongo.
Le daria 4* si el juego tuviera mas trajes no puede ser que despues de la variedad increible de trajes de p5 no dieran nada interesante aqui donde coño estan las skins de pq