There isn't anything mind blowing about Honest Hearts, but it's a much more solid effort than Dead Money, and a step in the right direction for New Vegas' DLC.
While the journey into the rocky wild of Utah lacks the cleverness of 'Dead Money' or the excitement of 'New Vegas,' it will still please fans because it simply more Fallout.
The story could be a lot stronger but Honest Hearts is a welcome addition to those mainly looking for a nice new area, new weapons, monsters and perks.
As a side story to the main event, Honest Hearts is forgettable and predictable. Where it justifies its asking price is in the takeaway benefits it supplies to the long-term wasteland wanderer. More levels, more perks, new weapons and new enemies - this is what really benefits the game, and Honest Hearts delivers more than enough to make it a worthwhile diversion for players of all levels.
A typical Fallout download that buries a few interesting new ideas and locations beneath a patchwork of overfamiliar, and increasingly outdated, content.
Honest Hearts really, really improves over Dead Money in many ways. Honest Hearts is close to a small masterpiece. The creatures and people and the scenery might seem repetitive (the landscapes is hug and often beautiful), but its about the tens fights with the very strong creatures (using the environment and tools to the max, finding the best path for an approach ect.), the characters, background stories and enjoying the great and fitting soundtrack (again).
Honest Hearts should be played on very hard (or hard at least, better very hard), to really feel the tension from the strong creatures, to really try to "survive" out in the wild ect. anyone playing Fallout New Vegas on normal or easy, then going how dull the game is, is simply playing the wrong game (and probably misunderstanding, what Fallout is all about)
Fallout: New Vegas - Honest Hearts is a solid dlc. The best thing about this dlc is the compelling story. The main character of the story is The Burned Man. He's been mentioned in previous Fallout lore but you actually get to meet him and speak with him. He's one of the few Fallout characters that I love to converse with because he's interesting with an intriguing background. Throughout the main questline, your character needs to help a couple small tribes survive and defend against an evil and powerful tribe. In the end you get to decide everyone's fate. The story is great, but I'm not to crazy about setting taking place in some canyons in Utah. I'm also not fond of the tribes because they are more barbaric and stuck in a different time period. This is a good dlc that offers more lore and interesting story to the game but that's about it.
Honest Hearts was the second DLC that I played after Old World Blues, and being satisfied by the experiences I had playing the first one, I was willing to keep going with Honest Hearts. Unfortunately, I didn't quite feel so excited. Now, the environment in this game is quite wonderful, almost unique in it's own right to the landscape of the mojave wasteland. Unfortunately, the story pushes you into it's main quest so hard that you won't have enough time to smell the roses and look at the eerie canyon levels in the Navarro. And the story I couldn't quite follow either, thinking about it now it all became just thin air for me. While the context of it does follow towards old ways being fought in modern traditions, i.e. native americans using fully automatic assault rifles to defend their villages, and while it is quite interesting to see this change even after the destruction of pre-war society as a whole ,it gets annoying real quick to annihilate these **** that seem to just pop out of the woodwork. Which also made me more inclined just to get this story done rather than suffer through all their consistent attacks and my consistent inability to sell all of the loot that I got because there is literally only one trader in this entire DLC. The Burned Man is interesting, having been mentioned only briefly in the original game, it was nice to actually meet him face to face. Despite his former duties as legate for the legionaires, I could see a new person in him, someone who'd rather build than destroy from now on. I just wish I could get more out of this game that I would believe could have offered me. AFter destroying the cliched villain (i forgot who he was as well), I suddenly came across the biggest bomb that you could do to make this game even less replayable. I found myself transported straight to the exit, with a chest full of all of the unique loot that either was equipped to unique characters or found on the map. WOW. that was too easy! I mean, I still wanted to give this game a chance, but I guess it decided it'd be better just to get the good stuff and go home. Yet, I still like Honest Hearts for at least being "Honest" about attempting to show us to a new world, but it didn't quite have the "Heart" for me to keep going on.
by far the weakest DLC released for New Vegas, Honest hearts offers little to the player outside of a few useful unique items. The quests are overwhelmingly bland, and feature almost no development to the games plot as a whole, outside of meeting The Burned Man, a central figure to New Vegas lore.
Pros:
- Nice looking world, breath of fresh air compared to other DLC's
- New weapons pack a real punch, and are easy to acquire
- Tracking down and learning the story of the Survivalist is heartbreaking and intense
Cons:
- You never really get to know any of the characters outside of Joshua Graham. Everyone seems like they could have been thrown away or written out
- Enemies are insanely powerful, carrying some of the most damaging weapons in the game if you are over level 20, including Anti Materiel Rifles, which can one-shot players on medium or higher if they aren't wearing very expensive armor
- Very little unique loot
- Unique enemies are gimmicky, aren't very powerful
- Riverbanks and canyons are covered by giant cazadores, which makes navigation without fast travel far to difficult
I was not a huge fan of Dead Money. However, playing this DLC has made me appreciate what DM did so much more. Sure, it was cheap how they stripped you of our gear as soon as you got to the Sierra Madre and made it so you could never return to collect any goodies you missed, but here's the thing: Dead Money felt BIG. High stakes, theatrical events, a plethora of interesting characters, a creepy atmosphere, an epic climax and a generally well-told story. The events of Dead Money felt *special*.
Unfortunately, none of that is present in Honest Hearts. Yes it was fun to finally see the Burning Man and he was an interesting character, but ask yourself: if all these quests were present in the vanilla New Vegas game, would it have appeared at ALL different or more epic than any other line sidequests? Would it have felt special? Memorable?
I would say not. If what you like out of DLC is a couple new weapons, armor, and craftable items, you'll like this DLC for that, but not much else.
SummaryHonest Hearts takes you on an expedition to the unspoiled wilderness of Utah's Zion National Park. Things go horribly wrong when your caravan is ambushed by a tribal raiding band. As you try to find a way back to the Mojave, you become embroiled in a war between tribes and a conflict between a New Canaanite missionary and the mysterious ...