All good things must come to an end, as well as Fallout: New Vegas. (Zing!) But before The Courier walks off into the sunset, Obsidian has given us one final DLC to (kind of) wrap up the mysteries of our hero's past. Once the package is downloaded, you'll get a five level cap increase (totaling at 50 if you've downloaded the other packages) and access to The Divide, a military town scarred by nuclear devastation after The Great War. But let's just say that there are probably better ways to spend $10.
In Lonesome Road, you answer the call of Ulysses, the courier who turned down the Mr. House's job of delivering the Platinum Chip and deferred it to you. You're allowed to travel to The Divide without a weight restriction, and you can come and go as you please. However, you can't bring any companions with you.
The biggest letdown of this DLC is that it's so limited. The main quest is literally straight forward. All you do is follow narrow the path that Ulysses has laid before you while he communicates with you through an eyebot with the same name as ED-E, even though he isn't ED-E, even though they both have the same origin story. I agree, it's stupid. ED-E is also your companion in The Divide, which is great because you'll need someone to help you carry all the loot you'll find. ED-E also functions as a workbench and an ammo workbench.
The character Ulysses walks a fine line between entertaining and annoying. He slowly reveals the past you share with him though riddles and accusations that you are responsible for a great crime that I will not reveal. But he does it in this sensual voice that sounds like sexual chocolate.
There's only a couple new types of enemies in this game: the Marked Men and the Tunnelers. The Marked Men are the designated humanoid bad guys with guns. They're supposed to be ghouls, but they look a lot like Red Skull. The Tunnelers are a tougher version of the Spore Carriers from Vault 22. Fighting one of them isn't that bad, but they travel in packs, which are a total bitch to fight. Don't worry, The Divide also has Deathclaws, and if you've played Fallout long enough you'd know how much of a headache those guys are.
Probably the best thing about Lonesome Road is the tasty new weapons, including the Red Glare (a repeating rocket launcher), the shoulder-mounted machine gun (a minigun that shoots 10mm bullets), and the satchel bomb (which you can build yourself). But the best new weapon is the laser detonator. Warheads are scattered across The Divide, and the laser detonator can set them off from an infinite distance when there's nothing to block the beam.
There's no official side quests this time around, which shortens the total playtime to about 4 or 5 hours, which sadly makes this the shortest of the New Vegas DLCs. But if you're an achievement whore, there's plenty of collectables to hunt down.
If you're a Fallout superfan you've probably already downloaded the package, and why you're reading this is beyond me. But if you haven't downloaded it yet, wait for a price drop to happen, because this package is too short to be worth $9.99.
For the record, Dead Money was my favorite DLC for New Vegas, followed by Old World Blues. Honestly, it's a toss-up between which I like less between Lonesome Road and Honest Hearts. Both of their stories were so bland and the quests were too straight forward. But I'll bet that all four of these DLC packages will be included on a "game of the year" edition of New Vegas sometime in the future, although it probably won't be called "Game of the Year Edition." Hey Bethesda, for what it's worth, you can totally use "High Roller Suite Edition" as the subtitle of this re-relase, and I promise I won't sue. Just put my name under the special thanks category in the credits, that's all I ask...and some free swag...and an in game character. Damn it! I blew it.
Available on the Xbox Live Marketplace, the PlayStation Network Store and Steam. Rated M for Mature. Deveolped by Obsidian Entertainment, produced by Bethesda Softworks.
Image provided courtesy of Wikia.com.