Fallout: New Vegas Honest Hearts DLC Reviews

With the second DLC to Obsidian’s new chapter in the Fallout franchise released just yesterday, reviews are starting to surface and, if these first reviews are anything to go by, the reception is decidedly mixed.

Eurogamer seems decidedly unimpressed and awards it a 6 criticizing its quest design and main story:

There’s a fascinating tale to be told about this place, so it’s a shame that Honest Hearts doesn’t really offer much to sink your teeth into where quests are concerned. It’s mostly a selection of slim fetch quests, none of which are optional. There are a couple of side quests, but nothing particularly robust.

Most disappointing is how perfunctory the main quest line feels, boiling down to another simplistic binary choice – what I like to call the Platoon Dilemma – between two surrogate leader figures; one a bloodthirsty killer, the other a hand-wringing pacifist. This being a video game, whichever one you choose to follow, the result still involves shooting lots of people in the face. Ho hum.

There are a lot of highbrow influences swimming around in Honest Hearts’ thin narrative soup, most notably Apocalypse Now and The Mosquito Coast, so it’s a real shame that any interesting moral questions or themes are shoved to the background in favour of rote mechanistic missions that send you scuttling through the scenery, shooting and scavenging, while never requiring you to engage with its inhabitants in any meaningful way.

GamerLimit instead seems to be pleased with Obsidian’s latest offering and awards it an 8.5:

Like most Fallout DLC packs, Honest Hearts will take you around two hours to complete (if you just do the main story), but you can also explore New Zion to your heart’s content, and most likely push around five to ten hours of total play. Like Point Lookout, in addition to the core locations, there are few optional areas to explore in the DLC’s sandbox.

As far as post-completion content goes, I have to place the following disclaimer: I’m not one to really care about DLC goodies. However, not every gamer is the same, and many people out there buy these DLC packs just for the outfits/weapons to use afterwards. So, for those fans, I have good news to report: this DLC pack offers a healthy serving of extra perks, and items.

The perks on offer aren’t just throwaway ones either, like the useful (Home on the Range), which lets you sleep at any campfire, and reap all the benefits of a full rest. Graham’s SWAT vest, a unique .45 pistol, and a Yao Guai gauntlet are also some pretty neat pickups. Honest Hearts also raises the level cap by five, which is good news for everyone.