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Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 34 Ratings

  • Summary: Lonesome Road, available in July, brings the courier's story full circle when you are contacted by the original Courier Six, a man by the name of Ulysses who refused to deliver the Platinum Chip at the start of New Vegas. In his transmission, Ulysses promises the answer as to why, but only if you take one last job –a job that leads you into the depths of the hurricane-swept canyons of the Divide, a landscape torn apart by earthquakes and violent storms. The road to the Divide is a long and treacherous one, and of the few to ever walk the road, none have ever returned. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 16
  2. Negative: 1 out of 16
  1. Jan 23, 2012
    85
    After meeting Ulysses and bringing Lonesome Road to a close, I had nothing but admiration for the mysterious, exciting, brutal and beautiful trek I took through the ravaged remnants of the Divide. I greatly appreciated the change of pace and shift in tone away from the core content, and the events which transpired were a great way to cap off a massive, top-tier RPG like New Vegas.
  2. Oct 6, 2011
    70
    Lonesome Road delivers on every level but creates more questions than it answers. For the fan, Lonesome Road offers a nice story line that will last for up to eight hours. It's just too linear, making it less enjoyable then some of the other downloadable content that's available for New Vegas.
  3. 70
    Lots of new fun guns, but it's a bit too short.
  4. A big disappointment. [Christmas 2011, p.113]

See all 16 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 18
  2. Negative: 3 out of 18
  1. Best Fallout DLC I have EVER played, including the Fallout 3 DLC. Great storyline, great location, great characters and great weapon additions. Definitely worth the 800MSP for at least ten-twenty hours of gameplay. Expand
  2. This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. If you're a fan of the Fallout: New Vegas back story, this is a must play. With around 6-7 hours of game play, it raises your level cap by 5 and introduces new powerful weapons and armor. The story is on par with OWB and is nowhere near as aggravating as Dead Money. You get to keep all of your weapons as you enter The Divide and can choose to come and go as you please. The protagonist, Ulysses, is probably my favorite character in all of the FONV DLCs. Through him, you'll find the history of The Divide and learn about your own past. As an added perk of the DLC, you can choose whether or not you want to nuke the NCR and/or the Legion in the Mojave. Despite all of these great characteristics, Lonesome Road isn't perfect, even if your character is at level 25, the stronger deathclaws and Tunnelers can be difficult to deal with if your character runs out of stimpaks. Also, the Fallout game play is really showing its cracks. While V.A.T.S is still fun, it's been played out if you've played all the Fallout content that's been around. Bottom line: If you're ready for a tough challenge but fun challenge, awesome new weapons and the climax to the story of the Courier, then this should be right up your ally. Expand
  3. I must first state that I am a big fan of Fallout: New Vegas and I own all of the DLC for it. Lonesome Road is the final DLC out of four, and ties up the story of the Courier. Gameplay (7/10): Don't expect much different from the Fallout Universe, it plays the same exactly the same as the other DLCs and the maingame so there is nothing different there. However, one would argue that you shouldn't fix what isn't broken. The story of Lonesome Road is an impressive one indeed, and does a wonderful job of linking the Courier and Ulysses together. Having purchased all of the other DLCs before Lonesome Road, you do pick up slightly more information about Ulysses than you would simply playing Lonesome Road, but most of it is quirks and trivia. Simply playing Lonesome Road provides you with sufficient information to understand the plot with Ulysses and the Courier without needing prior backstory.

    Graphics: (6/10): Of all the DLCs released for Fallout: New Vegas, Lonesome Road is the DLC that suffers the most from 'Sepia syndrome'. Pretty much everything you're going to see in this DLC is a shade of brown or grey. It adds to the overall dilapidated feel of The Divide, which in some ways works in it's favour, thus why I gave it a 7. However, if you're looking for a DLC with a bit more colour, leave this and head towards Old World Blues or Honest Hearts instead.

    Sounds (8/10): I would argue that the sounds in Lonesome Road are perhaps it's best feature. The Divide is not a nice place to be, and the chilling silence and small noises here and there, combined with the dark landscape only work to give you the overall feeling that The Divide is hell on Earth. In this sense, Bethesda outdid themselves. This is the most chilling Fallout has ever sounded.

    Multiplayer: N/A

    Lasting value: (6/10): Unfortunately, like most DLCs within Fallout, once the main story has been completed and the side quests cleaned up, there is little in the way of continuation. During the main storyline of Lonesome Road, regardless of how lonely the overall DLC sounds, there is a constant feeling that you aren't alone. Ulysses, the other NPCs and enemies make the area feel like it's inhabited - infested, almost. However, once the DLC is finished, the Lonesome Road almost feels empty, like there's very little left to 'find', as it were. While the warheads do offer some continuation for those completions like me, past that you'll find little to hold out for here.

    Final comments: The Lonesome Road is what it is: DLC that will continue and sum up the story of Fallout: New Vegas in a way that only Bethesda know how, and in that way it is brilliant in it's own right. However, just like so many DLCs not just in Fallout, but the world over, their longevity is short. Enjoyable, but unless you're a big Fallout fan, perhaps worth a miss.
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  4. This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. If you enjoyed the previous DLC's for Fallout: New Vegas then you might find Lonesome Road to be a disappointment. First off, your reason to even venture The Divide is to find a guy you've never met, so you can answer for something that you (the player) never did. Lonesome Road tries to crowbar in a backstory for the player's character, The Courier, so he/she has a reason to meet with Ulysses, the main antagonist of Lonesome Road. Ulysses was the courier that left you with the job of bringing the Platinum Chip to Mr. House, something the player is aware of during the main quest, but this has very little to do with Ulysses's plans.

    Ulysses blames The Courier for accidentally bringing a device to The Divide, back when it was a supposed prosperous society. The device held launch codes that remotely detonated dormant warheads that laid underground throughout and brought devastation to The Divide. All of this, however, was unbeknownst to The Courier and to the player. This falls flat because of it, and throughout the DLC you'll be questioning why you're even continuing (other than the fact that you purchased it). The only upside to playing this DLC is ED-E. No, not your robot companion from the main game, technically. While it does seem to be the same robot, it is also a different one, sort of. This isn't explained well enough through dialogue but it boils down to this: same software, different hardware. Throughout your travels ED-E will occasionally play a recording of Dr. Whitley, his creator which gives you some insight into ED-E's history up to the point you encounter him at Primm (if you even do). The audio recordings are fun and interesting to listen to and ED-E does have a lot more personality here than in the main game. Unfortunately, this the only personality you'll get from any NPC in this DLC.

    It doesn't help that Ulysses is also **** crazy. When you first encounter him, or at least his voice via ED-E, he talks in vagueness and obscurity which is somewhat intriguing. However, a few conversations later you'll realize that Ulysses only talks vaguely and has very little to actually say. This was a major detachment from the game for me, as his dialogue became long and monotonous- it went nowhere. Even after meeting him face to face, his dialogue still felt padded as if whoever wrote his dialogue had to meet a quota of a certain number of pages of dialogue. And I still didn't even know why I made the trip!

    The ending doesn't offer much in the way of satisfaction, other than choosing to bomb either NCR, Legion or both, there's not really much payoff for what was a terrible build up anyway. The ending video leaves you questioning your entire journey through The Divide- whether or not you should have made it. While most of the ending was blabbering dribble like the rest of it, there was a small, tiny sliver of what it might have all meant. It shown a different light on the line that Fallout is known for- War. War never changes. But men can change. While I think this would have been a decent wrap up and end to the DLC, they never truly got the point across. Unfortunately, the only thing that needs to change, is their writing. Other than a few new weapons, an increased level cap and a couple Perks, this DLC offers very little to those who have the other story-based DLC's. Approach with caution.
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See all 18 User Reviews