Dead Money

The first piece of major DLC released for Fallout: New Vegas also turned out to be it's most controversial. Tasking players with breaching the vault of the mythical Sierra Madre casino to plunder the treasure locked within, Dead Money differed from the rest of the DLC and even much of the base New Vegas itself in it's oppressive and desperate atmosphere, marking a sharp about-face from the Mad Max-esque post-apocalyptic escapades of the rest of the game. Dropped into a decrepit villa, stripped of all your gear and forced to work with a ragtag group of other captives to pull off "the heist of the centuries" for the mysterious Father Elijah, ostensibly the one who lured you to the dead casino in the first place.

A number of design elements make sure the interesting setup don't go to waste by piling on the tension: you and your gaggle of mandatory teammates have an explosive collar locked around each of your necks, wired to go off if even one of you buys the farm. Your collar in particular is sensitive to the frequencies emitted by the still-active radios and speakers littered around the compound, adding an extra wrinkle to your exploration while also making for some intense races against the clock to sprint to a safe zone, oftentimes without knowing if one will even be there. Ammunition and healing items are rare and only dispensed by vending machines that accept the proprietary coin of the Sierra Madre and nothing else, forcing you to make every consumable you run across count while coldly murderous security systems ensure the halls of the casino are never really safe. On top of all that, the area is cloaked in a blood red toxic tint known as The Cloud - don't linger in it too long unless you enjoy being poisoned. Pound for pound, Dead Money's atmosphere (no pun intended) is incredibly effective at flipping your presumably high-level character (the DLC is intended for experienced players who've finished most of the base game) on their head.

Source: CynicalBounce

Adjusting to the villa's hostile environment is just the easy part, unfortunately, as it quickly turns out that you aren't alone among the ruins and dust. Enigmatic roving scavengers known as the Ghost People stalk the grounds, laying increasingly vicious traps for you and generally contributing to your increasingly serious hypertension condition. These guys have some of the coolest designs in the whole franchise and while exactly who they are and where they came from is somewhat addressed they never lose their air of Silent Hill-esque inscrutability. Completely silent save for easily-missed breathing, they amble out of the crimson shadows and approach you with a methodical obsession, absorbing far more damage than anything shaped like a person has any right to and are only truly dispatched when dismembered - leave them dead but intact and they'll rise again to resume the pursuit.

The thread of the plot is pretty linear here, but not without reason - I found myself thankful for the clear objectives as the rest of the Sierra Madre gave me plenty to worry about. The story of the Madre, the people who built it, and the others you encounter during the run of the events of Dead Money all contribute to a common theme found in New Vegas and it's DLCs: letting go of the past. No spoilers, but things come to a head in a great way and the climax of the heist had me, literally, on the edge of my seat. While the game's chunky, inelegant flow and stiff gunplay lent themselves surprisingly well to a survival horror design ethos, the characters and world of Dead Money are the true treasures at the heart of the Sierra Madre.

B+