As mentioned last week, Railway Empire is a pretty fun business management game. It’s not perfect, but I found it to be enjoyable. I also mentioned that there is a lot of Railway Empire DLC. So many pieces of DLC in fact, that if you own them all (like me) then you end up with a hefty amount of content. As each DLC adds 1 to 3 scenarios, alongside some achievements and new trains, wrapping the game takes a long time. I’ve put more than 150 hours into the game, and I still haven’t managed to get all the achievements for example. Part of this is because the scenarios can be challenging, especially when aiming for a President rating. Another part is that each DLC requires you to complete a 100 year sandbox game. Which takes a while.

With that out of the way, let’s begin looking at the various DLCs. The first DLC released was the Mexico DLC, which adds 1 scenario and 2 trains. It’s a very modest scenario in terms of content, although it does have two different “paths” that can be completed. Once you’ve done the first few tasks, you can side with one of two quest givers, and that then impacts the rest of the scenario. Generally it’s not too difficult and is moderately entertaining. This DLC also includes a new sandbox map, and the ability to play maps in night mode.

Following the Mexico DLC, we head to the other part of North America that has hitherto been missing. Namely Canada, with “The Great Lakes” DLC. Unfortunately this one kind of sucks, with just 1 scenario that’s a bit of a chore to play. It did add Warehouses to the game via a free update, which are useful and let you store excess goods. Aside from that though, if you pay for the scenario then you’ll encounter the new weather system. Which basically means that in the winter months, your trains move extremely slowly. It’s aboot as fun as it sounds. You do also get a new sandbox map and two new trains.

Almost as a form of making up for the Canada DLC, we have the “Crossing the Andes” pack next. Which contains three scenarios. It also has 2 new trains, a night-mode and a new sandbox map. The scenarios themselves are decent I would say, essentially it’s the same map every time with 3 players. Each scenario has you playing as one of these players, while the other 2 are competitors. The map is cordoned off for a while, so that you can build up your railway. Although you’ll need to complete various objectives of course. These scenarios have a nice build up of challenge, and I found the overall map to be decent.

After mucking around the America’s, the next Railway Empire DLC was for Great Britain and Ireland. This one is pretty good (hence the slightly raised price). Although I found the scenario to be extremely long. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but after Mexico and the Crossing the Andes DLCs I’d rather have more shorter scenarios. Than an extremely long one. As for the rest of the content, there’s a new sandbox map of course, alongside 10 whole trains. I think the sandbox map and fiddling with the trains is arguably where the meat of this one lies.

Following the UK DLC, we got the Germany DLC. This one isn’t bad, with one scenario that re-uses an idea from the Mexico DLC. Namely that the scenario splits into two paths, after a certain point, adding replayability. Unfortunately it adds a new feature, that sucks. This new feature is that the map is split into regions. That need to be unlocked, with fat stacks of Deutschmarks. The mission is both quite easy because your competitors are stuck in one region. Whilst also being a bit sluggish as expansion requires large upfront investments. Alongside the new scenario and sandbox map, there are also 10 new trains.

The next Railway Empire DLC was for France. The France DLC is basically a repeat of the German DLC, with two paths through the scenario. Alongside the same lousy region locking system. Although unlocking regions requires a bit less money. The mission is therefore another fairly easy one, with some replayability. You also get 10 new trains, the new sandbox map and a new piece of music. Which I haven’t mentioned for the others, but every DLC comes with a new menu screen and a new piece of music.

After the France DLC, we got the Northern Europe DLC. This one has a single scenario, that kind of sucks. Much like Canada you have the thrilling weather system that just makes the trains go slow in winter. As a bonus, the scenario also starts to veer into the tediously long area. The thrilling regions system also returns again. Oh and you only get 3 new trains this time. In conclusion then, the scenario isn’t good and it combines two of the worst DLC mechanics.

We then suddenly got sent to Australia for the Down Under DLC. This one doesn’t have the same lousy mechanics. Yet it adds a new mechanic that I personally don’t care for. So it’s swings and roundabouts. Essentially you can “choose” what settlements to grow. To do this, you need to ship a certain amount of basic materials to each settlement. These settlements then become normal towns. Various resources are only unlocked if there’s a town nearby though. In theory this lets you “grow” your rail network, as your needs change. The reality is that everything just takes a long time, in an already long scenario. With the cherry on top being a busted rating system for this mission. If you want the best rating, you need to disable the pause mode otherwise it’s literally impossible. Finally there’s a new sandbox map and 3 new trains.

Rounding out the Railway Empire DLC is the Japan DLC pack. This one has two scenarios, and is actually fun. The gimmick this time is that you can adjust passenger routes. Essentially each route gets a passenger satisfaction score. You can tweak this score by changing the train, staff, ticket price and building some new buildings in each town. Such as hotels that increase passenger satisfaction for trains stopping in that town. The scenarios themselves are decently enjoyable, if a bit easy. Even though the region locking mechanic returns. You also get 8 new trains and 3 maps (one is just a combination of the other two).

In conclusion then, most of the Railway Empire DLC is decent. I’d say the Great Lakes and Northern Europe packs are the weakest of the two. Most of the rest are pretty fun, with the Japan and Crossing the Andes packs offering the most content. The rest are somewhere in the middle, I think Mexico and France are stronger than Germany. With Germany being better than the UK and both being less tedious than the Australian one. Ultimately most of them are fairly basic with a scenario, new map and offer a couple hours of content. With 9 different packs though there’s a lot of combined content. Especially for the completionists. None of them are as good as the base game, but if you enjoyed the base game then this is a nice way to get something new to do.

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After finishing up Half Life 2 I realised that it’s actually fun, if you can withstand the glacial initial levels. As such I decided to give the episodes a shot. Now I know this won’t be a surprise, but they’re generally fine even if they don’t change much. In Episode 1, we essentially repeat a bunch of Half Life 2’s more memorable moments. While in Episode 2, we actually get some new features and ideas, even if they’re not particularly mind-blowing. There’s one thing to bear in mind across Half Life 2: Episode 1 & 2. Namely that they weren’t intended to be the last parts of HL2. Instead they were really just teeing things up for HL:EP3/Half Life 3. As such they’ve got fun little chunks of gameplay. Yet as they didn’t have a huge amount of development time we don’t get much in the way of substantial changes.

Starting with Episode 1, we basically get a few new ideas interspersed among three different scenes. During the first part of the Episode we’re back in the combine’s citadel, amidst the newly liberated City 17. You’d think our job is over, but now we have to prevent an intergalactic meltdown. This involves dealing with one new “enemy” type who aren’t hostile, before we successfully prevent a core meltdown. After this glorious use of Gordon’s scientific background, you then get a quasi-Ravenholm section which drags on for a while. This is where we get the only new enemy introduced in this episode, namely the Zombine. Which is a zombie, but a combine. The main twist is that they have wayyyyy more health and also try to suicide bomb you. This section involves a lot of using the flash-light, alongside a platforming puzzle where you hop over a bunch of radioactive goop. Eventually it culminates in a holdout scenario where hordes of zombies keep spawning and trying to eat your dork ass while you wait for a lift. After all that nastiness, you waddle around City 17 helping rebels, checking out a hospital full of zombies and eventually lead a bunch of rebels to safety via the train station. These rebel sections are probably the most entertaining, although I did quite like the hospital section. Oh and for die-hard RPG fans don’t worry. Because this section repeats the strider battles, and a gunship battle. Some might consider this a bit lazy. But again, Episode 1 was bashed out in a little over a year so I’m inclined to be relatively forgiving. Generally though Episode 1 is… just fine. Nothing particularly special and outside of a few pieces of characterisation there really isn’t much here. One new enemy, one new quasi-enemy, a bit of lore and a couple of memorable set pieces hidden amongst the three-ish hours of content.

Then we’re onto the second of the two episodes, which starts off with your bb girl getting stabbed to fuck. No you didn’t teleport to Glasgow, instead you were assailed by a new type of enemy. Don’t worry though, because you spend about an hour fannying around an Antlion hive. This is done so you can get the doohicky that will save her. During this section, there is a cool idea where you need to avoid an Antlion guard on steroids without killing it. Alongside a bunch of slightly boring sections where you have to deal with another new enemy. This one being an antlion with a ranged attack! That also damages you if it’s too close to you when it dies. So that’s… cool. There’s also another hold-out section, but this time against loads of Antlions. You then escort a Vortagaunt around for a bit, before getting to play a driving section. Now you might remember how the vehicles were kinda jank in the first game. Fortunately they are exactly the same. Yay! Then you fight the aforementioned Antlion guard on steroids alongside his friend, before dealing with a shorter zombie section and a bit more driving and then you eventually get to the rebel base. Up to this point, there really isn’t that much new outside of that annoying acid spraying Antlion.

Then the episode abruptly comes to life, at least a little bit, as you survive an ambush containing those new hunters that were teased so much. In terms of gameplay, they’re a cross between the Antlion guards and normal combine because they have plenty of health and a range of strong-ish attacks. Much like the base game, this DLC has a somewhat slow start with all the Antlion cave nonsense but picks up towards the end even if it hits many of the same notes. Ambush, Sniper fight, Gunship fight, Strider fight set piece, abrupt ending. Bish bash bosh. There’s also some plot shenanigans going on where the G-Man basically says “hey once you’re done with this Episode some crazy shit is gonna happen”. Why? Well that’s a fair question, basically the Combine (not the Zombine) are going to open a super portal and screw up Earth… again. So you need to shoot a rocket into space to stop it. This will apparently have “unforeseen consequences”, which apparently means the cancellation of Episode 3. So as of the time of writing, I can safely and definitely conclude (at least temporarily) that Half Life 2: Episode 1 & 2 are more of the same. I don’t hate them, although I have to confess that they have reduced the shine of Half Life 2’s last chapters a tad. You see, while the narrative is still interesting and definitely has it’s moments, knowing it ends on that unresolved cliff hanger dulls it’s impact. It’s a great hook for the next instalment, but alas that instalment will seemingly never come.

With all that being said, the weapons are still a bit rubbish. While the handful of new enemies are a mixed bag. The Zombine are just zombies, but if you leave them for too long they’ll try and suicide bomb you. The Antlion guardian is just a guard, but with more HP. The acid spitting antlions are just antlions, but a pain in the arse. Finally the hunters are an interesting idea for a stronger, hybrid enemy but frankly they manage to be both over-used and not used enough. You see they’re an interesting addition to a squad, but often you’re only fighting them. Generally speaking, while the extra levels aren’t bad and do have their moments, there’s rarely much that’s special. I mean these episodes serve as vehicles for the plot. But the plot doesn’t get resolved, so only the gameplay is really left. And that gameplay is both very similar and yet slightly tweaked. Alas those tweaks are only really good when it comes to the set pieces. Which are still entertaining, and the dialogue is still good but… In many levels you’re basically just standing in an area, waiting for enemies to stop spawning.

So in conclusion, it’s hard to recommend Half Life 2: Episode 1 & 2. If you are looking for more Half Life 2, then it’s a no-brainer but you don’t need to tell you this. The writing, set pieces and world design remain as strong as ever. At the same, the combat, weapons and variety are fairly weak. These episodes are primarily made for existing fans to hype them up for the next instalment, so if you aren’t an existing fan then there’s not much to recommend here. There are some nice scenes, but we all know it’s not going anywhere. If you really wanted more Half Life 2, then here it is. Otherwise I wouldn’t really bother. Either way, Half Life: Episode 1 & 2 are available for just over £1 during the Steam sales so I’d grab them then (and only then) if you are interested.

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Quick Note: Both Nuka World and the Vault-Tec Workshop Pack automatically activate at level 30 and level 20 respectively, or they can be triggered manually by heading to the Nuka World transit centre and Quincy Quarry respectively.

Apologies to anyone reading this blog who is getting bored of Fallout 4 and/or Bethesda, but after taking a look at both Fallout 4 and half of the DLC’s available I thought it would be a good idea to just wrap up everything before moving on. As a consequence I’m going to take a look at the large Nuka World pack which consists of a whole new zone, multiple new enemy types, a bunch of new items and the interesting (at least in theory) ability to construct raider settlements and to take-over normal settlements. Alongside this hefty quasi-expansion, I’m also going to delve into the Vault-Tec Workshop Pack which gives you a modest quest chain and the ability to construct a bunch of new, shiny pre-war settlement items and even construct your own vault (kinda). Finally there’s the Wasteland Workshop Pack which lets you “recruit” most of the wildlife in the game, tame them (kinda) and even kidnap raiders, gunners and super-mutants so that you can force them to fight against each other, wildlife and possibly even your own settlers in arenas you’ve built. It’s an eclectic assortment to be sure, as while almost every other DLC has been about building up your settlements, the Nuka World expansion is essentially about enslaving them and making a heel turn from Wasteland saviour to Wasteland Wrecker. Before taking a closer look at what is without a doubt the most substantial piece of content left though, I’m going to take a quick peek at the Vault-Tec Workshop Pack which is broadly equivalent to the Automatron pack I took a look at last time.

For some bizarre reason, Bethesda seems to think you won’t be able to handle the sheer excitement of the Vault-Tec pack until you’re level 20 or have accidentally stumbled across Vault 88 by clearing out the Quincy Quarry, a highly radioactive raider camp located just south from Jamaica plain which is itself riddled with ghouls. I can only assume this is due to the Vault’s location, as the fights within it are relatively tame and largely optional for wrapping up most of the quest chain and by extension unlocking all of the lovely little workshop items you get. Another weird choice with this DLC is that you can gain 4 unique workshop items, but you can only build each of them once and after that you’re out of luck – so transporting your bespoke objects to another settlement isn’t possible. I’m not sure why Bethesda went through the effort of making the quest chain revolve around building and testing these unique items, only for the game to then go “ah well, that’s them done with” but I digress. What you do get in this pack is a new Workshop location which is contained within Vault 88 and is exceedingly large. At the start of the quest chain, you’ll need to fight through some raiders and feral ghouls to save the Overseer, before being tasked with two parallel objectives. The first is to activate the other 4 workbenches which are buried away within the labyrinthine complex, a task which requires you to find multiple MacGuffins control decks so that you can bring them all online – then clearing away the rubble so that each workbench is interconnected and therefore the settlement can be one continuous area. At the same time you also need to construct various test items within the vault, which includes fighting your way through a bunch of drugged up gunners at one point. Once you’ve built the four pre-requisite testing items and conducted some experiments on the exceptionally eager and slow of thought Clem (one of the new settlers), the DLC wraps up.

And I’m not trying to sell the Vault-Tec DLC short, as the new settlement options are genuinely pretty impressive and let you construct almost every aspect of a vault in any location with some nice use of the snap-fitting settlement system. Unfortunately outside of this and some new decorative items, alongside one or two useful settlement items (such as a barber chair and cosmetic surgery chair that let you adjust your character’s appearance without using the in-game console commands) there isn’t much here. The main quest is a breeze for those who actually took their time on the run-up to the recommended level, as you’ll have a settlement by then with a bunch of resources in it (I assume) and as such having one of the settlers create a supply route makes the whole thing a very short affair. As for the experiments, well they always follow the same basic pattern. You build something new, you connect it to a terminal, you choose 1 of 3 research parameters from the terminal, Clem gives some funny dialogue and you move on to building the next thing. The R&D notes describing each bit of research are mildly amusing thanks to Ted the inadvertent test control who basically isn’t doing any weird research at all, but the choices don’t seem to actually matter that much. Basically when you are testing a new item, these 3 different R&D parameters determine how that item will impact any settlers when they’re built, but generally the items aren’t hugely useful. You get a slot machine for some extra happiness, a power generating exercise bike and a soda stand. The slot machine is kinda useful for bumping up settlement happiness, but this mechanic generally isn’t an issue so long as settlements have food/water/turrets which you’re going to do anyway. Then the exercise bike is basically useless as it either generates less than a single generator or has a chance to explode. Finally the soda stand can be configured to make settlers less hungry, but once you’ve got one settlement producing food this resource takes care of itself and so any benefit is fairly marginal. With that all being said, there is a chance to cause the Overseer to get pissy and rage-quit if you always choose the “nice” option, and there’s a chance that the settlers will get sniffy if you choose the less ethical ones, but basically it doesn’t matter as both the Overseer and the settlers are inherently disposable. You do get a unique vault suit if you manage to not alienate the Overseer, but honestly who cares? It’s not a great piece of armour anyway. As for the other parts of the quest chain, well you shoot up some gunners and have to fight some radioactive fauna to clear out the entirety of the Vault including a Mirelurk Queen. Otherwise it’s a pretty short if modestly entertaining piece of DLC that is the definition of nice to have, but not essential.

Moving on from the Vault-Tec Workshop pack, I decided to grab the bull by the horns and actually play the main DLC that anyone cares about – namely Nuka World(!) Unlike the other two packs this one is an actual, honest-to-God entirely new area which features multiple quest chains and a generous amount of content. The crux of this DLC is that the official theme park of the ever so popular Nuka Cola beverage has been taken over by three competing raider gangs, and it’s up to you to either whip them into shape and become a new sort of Raider boss or just genocide all of those filthy drugged up scum. Obviously if you choose the latter option, you get a pretty exciting and longggg gun fight against myriad enemies before being able to explore the theme park and unlock some new Nuka Cola recipes. If everyone else who actually wants to get their money’s worth though, the DLC starts with you bumbling through a gauntlet of turrets and traps, before defeating the former Overboss of the theme park in a duel which results in you becoming the new overboss. Once you’ve been designated the king (or queen) of the raiders, you start a series of quests to clear out the rest of the park which has been left to rot and determine which raider faction (if any) you prefer. You see while the gangs are all “loyal” to you, they were also all “loyal” to the last Overboss and as a consequence this DLC is mainly about having a jolly good time shooting a bunch of stuff in the theme park and managing these three gangs so that they don’t betray you. The two goals are largely in-sync with each other, as once you’ve cleared up a section of the park from it’s hideously mutated wildlife and/or maliciously poor programmed robots you can assign it to one of the three factions. These factions being comprised of your standard “in it for the cash” raiders (the Operators) who are morally bankrupt and trying to make up for it with cold hard caps, the Darwinian survival of the fittest group called The Pack and finally the psychotic “murder and torture are fun” group called the Disciples. Each faction basically says “favour my guys or we’re gonna hate u” and so if you don’t divide the 5 areas semi-equally then they’re going to cause trouble for you. At least in theory…

You see no matter how you divvy up the zones one group is always going to rebel against you, because there are 5 parks and 3 groups so one group always gets the short end of the stick and will then retreat to the power plant to start shooting at you. You then go there and gun them all down, before getting some mediocre perks from the 2 gangs you didn’t alienate. The other main part of the DLC is that you’re able to setup raider camps, which are like normal settlements except edgier and require you to either shoot all of the existing monsters/inhabitants or pass charisma checks to “persuade” the human settlers to leave. Once this has been done your new totally different raider settlement will begin giving you some cash every now and then, but the amount you earn is pretty minimal and these camps require more setup time as you both need to liberate the settlement and bully nearby non-raider settlements into giving you food. You might be thinking that at least these guys would be good at defending themselves, but nope the raider camps only spawn basic raiders while the enemies are level scaled so they get rinsed half the time anyway. The only “benefit” is that they automatically recruit new members without requiring a radio beacon, but this also means that they tend to grow constantly unless there is a critical shortage of food/water/defence. To give Bethesda some credit, these new camps provide a lot of settlement customisation options and the passive income stream is nice, plus you will encounter various raiders, slavers and the like wandering around the map to a much larger extent than you normally see Minutemen patrols. Speaking of the Minutemen, if you setup one wafer thin camp then Preston Garvey will permanently hate you forever while still being immortal so he will wander around his designated settlement being pissy at you. You’ll also occasionally have to gun down the Minutemen who show up to defend a settlement, which is particularly funny when they decide to show up to defend a settlement held by another group of raiders. If for whatever reason you get bored of role-playing as the Overboss, then you’re free to make every raider hate you forever by shooting some of them at which point you basically get locked out of the rest of the raider content. Preston will still hate you even if you do this though, so if for whatever reason you’re a hardcore Garvey simp then you need to either reset his faction allegiance or use a mod. Or you can just leave him stranded in Concord forever, then recruit him once you’re done with all your raider business.

Nuka World is therefore a fun little diversion, albeit one that’s relatively short on new content. You’ve got a spin on the classic settlement formula but it really doesn’t change very much at all, and while the prospect of being the big bad raider boss is fun for roleplayers I suspect everyone else will find it pretty shallow. You don’t get much in the way of benefits from doing it, and while the 3 raider factions are a cool concept, all of them basically treat you as an errand boy and none of them really do anything – even once you’ve given them multiple areas of the park and raider camps in the commonwealth. The DLC does have a bunch of new enemy types, but once you’ve cleared through the various parks you’ve basically genocided almost all of them for good with the exception of some of the irradiated fauna such as the blood worms and tiny mutant ants. You can craft some new varieties of Nuka Cola, but these require old types of Nuka Cola and are fairly heavy for healing items. There are also some smaller side quests like collecting the rare caps to meet the founder of Nuka Cola, exploring a haunted house riddled with traps and helping a bunch of cultists liberate a UFO theme park ride, but most of these are fairly short and the rest of the extra content is largely a scavenger hunt (like collecting the medallions). While I still think Nuka World as a part of Fallout 4 hits the same standard as the base game, it isn’t as exciting or as interesting to explore as Far Harbour and the RPG mechanics are near non-existent. It’s only really worthwhile for those who are bored of exploring the repetitive quests from the main game or who want to roleplay as a dickhead. Alternatively you can also skip most of the raider quests by just genociding all of the raiders, which is the “good” ending and leads to a pretty intense couple of gun fights as you liberate the park. Beware that this will permanently lock you out of setting up raider camps and doing any other raider missions however.

Last and certainly least, there’s the Wasteland Workshop DLC which is filled with some cool ideas but utterly falls short at being of any interest to anyone. This pack is a smorgasbord of content that people probably wanted, but which couldn’t justifiably be included elsewhere. The big attractions are the cages which are used for catching wildlife & raiders, alongside the ability to create arenas and assign your captured animals and settlers to teams which will fight each other to the death. Alongside these additions there is a bunch of random stuff like a better power generator, a better water pump, some new traps, some new concrete construction materials, some decorations and a bunch of light-boxes which are mainly used as screenshot bait for constructing garish displays. Most of these are nice to have, such as powered doors, more lights, the ability to mount a death-claws head on a wall but none of it is really essential. Perhaps the biggest criticism that can be made of this DLC is the fact that it blends so easily into the base game that you can hardly notice what it added, as a new and slightly better water pump isn’t really enough to get your pulse racing. As a consequence I’ll just say that all the little things are good and move on to the two BIG features, namely the arena teams and the captured creatures.

First things first, the various creature cages are kind of a pain as most of them need specific types of animal meat that you probably don’t have. Mainly because storing meat in the workshop will cause your settlers to eat it, the lazy greedy bastards, and secondly because any meat you gathered you probably cooked for the easy XP and because it made it much more useful. As such you’ll need to stock up on various critter chunks such as Softshell Mirelurk meat, Mutant Hound meat, Yao Guai meat and so on. Then to prevent the wildlife from attacking you and/or your settlers, you need to construct a “Beta Wave Emitter” which requires you to have taken the Wasteland Whisperer perk (which itself requires a Charisma of 9). Then even once you’ve done all this the animals will still attack each other if for example you have a Death-claw and a Yao Guai in the same settlement. These ferocious animals do provide a defence boost, but they will also cause other animals from that species to attack your camp which is a pain in the ass to deal with. So if you want a pet death-claw, you now have to deal with frequent death-claw attacks on your settlers. The raiders, gunners and super mutants you can trap are also always permanently hostile so… yay? Fortunately you can assign all of them to the ARENA by building the two ARENA contestant structures and assigning them in the Workshop, while they try to attack you. Then as soon as they see anyone from the other ARENA team, they will start fighting them, which is a problem if you want to do a team battle. You can construct a bunch of stuff in the way to block the line of sight, but honestly it’s a lot of trouble to watch a bunch of NPCs attack each other, especially as cages take multiple days to catch anything and you must be away from the settlement for them to work. As such both the arena and the cages are cool ideas that don’t really work very well, because the captive creatures aren’t worth the trouble – it’s not like you get a companion animal out of it – and the arena requires a bunch of construction and planning for a brief and expensive diversion. So I’d give the Wasteland Workshop pack a big fat “they tried” out of 10.

In summary then, this batch of DLC features a bunch of content I can only recommend for people who really care about settlements. The Wasteland Workshop pack is solely dedicated to new things to build, while the Vault-Tec pack has a handful of bland quests and only really comes alive when you’re building stuff at settlements. Finally there’s the Nuka World pack which does add a bunch of content, but outside of exploring the new zone and killing a ton of new enemies, the quests are pretty basic and again a lot of the new mechanics revolve around… settlements! Perhaps unsurprisingly I consider Nuka World to be the best one here as it does provide plenty of new areas to explore and a handful of interesting combat encounters, but otherwise this batch is slim pickings. Obviously if you want to roleplay as a bad character then Nuka World is nearly essential, but for good characters you get one massive gun-fight against all of the raider gangs are a bunch of smaller gun-fights against all of the new Nuka World creatures. Which essentially means that if you spent a lot of time fiddling with settlements before doing the Nuka World questline you’ve got the awkward choice of either missing out on most of the Nuka World content or invalidating all of your previous hard work. Overall I’d say that Nuka World is worth a playthrough as the new areas are kinda cool, whilst the other two packs are largely inconsequential and can be safely ignored even if they are somewhat useful for those who are interested in the settlement building part of the game. Do with this knowledge, what you will

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Quick Note – Automation’s quest chain automatically activates once your character reaches level 15.

Following on from my earlier review of Fallout 4, I thought I’d get my full money’s worth and take a look at the DLC for the game as well. This time we’ll be taking a look at Automatron, Far Harbour and the Contraptions Workshop Pack with the remainder (Nuka World, the Vault-Tec Workshop Pack and the Wasteland Workshop Pack) coming next week. Starting things off in alphabetical order, the Automatron pack gets a dizzyingly high rating of “it’s alright” out of 10 from me, your humble truth-seeker and scribe. The reason I’ve chosen to bequeath the Automatron pack with such a rating is simple, it adds an alright quest chain with the occasional challenging fight and makes some tweaks to the larger game world which give the player some new enemies to fight and the ability to create and upgrade robots. This latter part is really the star of the show, with the quest chain basically serving as a way to justify how you’ve discovered the ability to make a robotic workbench and then make a variety of different robot types. Fans of Fo3 and F:NV who experimented with modding might think this sounds familiar and honestly it is, as the RobCo certified mods basically let you do this in both of those games. The main difference this time however is that Bethesda have expanded the concept, so you can not only make robot companions but you can also assign them to settlements and decide which parts they have (which gives you the ability to make some abominations). Basically once you’ve finished the relatively short quest line, you’re given the ability to create new robots for crafting materials and are then able to decide what head/arms/body/legs they have, with the system being broadly analogous to how Power Armour works. This is due to the fact that each arm and each leg are treated separately (unless you’ve chosen the hovering jet that Mr Handy’s have for legs) and each part not only has a variety of types, such as Robobrain treads or Protectron Legs, but also various suboptions which essentially act as armour and weapon upgrades. There are also some other effects such as the ability for your robot to give you a bonus to stealth or regeneration outside of combat, alongside some upgrades that are slightly overpowered but give that part a small chance (generally 2%) of breaking after use. You can build basically as many of these robots as you want, and they’re treated by the game as settlers for the purposes of your settlements (so yes, your Protectron can “choose” the humble farming life). Unfortunately they don’t work as shopkeepers because Fallout 4 is an inconsistent game at best, but everything else works.

And while that’s all admittedly pretty cool, the other additions from the pack aren’t particularly huge. As mentioned you get a modest quest chain which serves as your introduction and it brings everyone’s favourite Fallout 3 character, the Mechanist into Fallout 4. Unfortunately(?) the Antagoniser isn’t here to summon giant ants to aid you, so instead you’re tasked with saving a caravan of traders, which gives you an Assaultron companion and then begin hunting down the Mechanist. To do this you need to gun down some robots at the General Atomics factory, hunt down 3 robo-brains (not as easy as it sounds) across 3 separate locations, before finally assaulting the Mechanists layer. These locations and encounters are generally enjoyable, with most parts of the quest being pretty short but there are two large dungeons here which provide some unique items and can be challenging especially for those hovering near the level 15 mark. You also get to see a variety of new robot modifications, generally themed around unfinished robots that are missing their armour and are instead packing a variety of new melee weapons. Once you’ve finished up the main quest chain you’re able to keep your new companion and are rewarded with the Mechanist’s outfit & lair, alongside receiving all of the potential robot modifications that are available. You’ll probably have also looted the full suit of T60 power armour that a certain troublemaker drops, alongside their unique tesla gun that’s useful for clearing out mobs of enemies. Aside from this main quest the DLC also adds a new raider gang called the Rust Devils, who are basically a geekier version of the raiders who employ more robots, alongside an endless amount of radiant quests that involve tracking down the Mechanists remaining robots. That’s about it for the Automatron DLC, which I consider to be enjoyable thanks to it’s robot building abilities and decent main quest line. Sure there’s not a ton of content on offer, but it’s far from the worst of Bethesda’s offerings and the ability to turn Codsworth into a sentry bot is honestly worth the extra 500ish megabytes that the game demands from your Fallout 4 installation.

After finishing up Automatron I dove into Far Harbour, which actually took a surprising amount of time. This is because to unlock the initial quest for Far Harbour, you either need to hang around Nick Valentine’s detective agency after getting to a certain point in the main quest of Fallout 4, or just stumble across the quest organically. I thought I’d mix things up by trying to get it to trigger organically, but I can safely say that finding the Nakomi residence can be a real pain in the ass if you only have a foggy memory of where it is. To cut a long story short, it’s hidden away at the absolute uppermost North-Eastern corner of the map and isn’t marked on your local map until you’ve basically stumbled across it. As a consequence I ended up “wasting” an hour or two exploring every point of interest on the eastern coast before finally finding it. Once there you bumble around the house, picking up a few audiotapes before finally getting permission to take the family boat to Far Harbour. After your arrival to this entirely new island you get a quick bit of exposition basically confirming that there are three settlements, a normal-ish town, a synth sanctuary called Arcadia and then a Children of Atom cult base. The town and the cultists hate each other, while the synth’s are cut in the middle trying to be reasonable-ish. Unfortunately one of the faction’s is unintentional sitting on Thermonuclear missiles and as a consequence even if Far Harbour and the Cultists don’t just genocide each other the old fashioned way, there’s a pretty significant chance that once both realise there are nukes lying around it’s all going to end in tears. Much like in the base game’s main quest, in Far Harbour you get to determine which (if any) factions are going to emerge victorious from the inevitable final confrontation, which gives this DLC some replayability. As a bonus, the quests themselves are also pretty decent as far as the game goes, with Far Harbour allowing a good level of choice and some actual consequences for failing or succeeding speech checks outside of not getting more caps from quest givers. Alongside an unexpectedly strong narrative thread, this DLC also contains a decent amount of content because as previously mentioned it takes place on an entirely new island which features entirely new factions, quite a few new enemies, a bunch of new locations to explore and some new weapons/crafting recipes/random buildable objects for your settlements. It also gave my character a surprising amount of XP per quest and a significant amount of cash once I started working my way through the side quests. One of these is a particular stand-out as you end up playing detective for a bunch of rich people who’ve locked themselves away in a vault, and one of them has just been murdered. It’s not a particularly massive brain-teaser to figure out, as the game’s quest markers are embarrassingly adamant that you can’t make a mess of things, but it’s still an enjoyable diversion and I ended up with over 1100 bundles of pre-war money as compensation (worth about 3300+ caps depending on the vendor and your perk choices).

Far Harbour can then be considered an equivalent to Point Lookout in terms of DLC content, as while many enemies are re-used (including some random Super Mutants who are on the island because… reasons) there’s plenty of new content to play around with in a brand new setting. It’s not going to turn the world on fire, but I did find the new wildlife to be challenging to deal with on occasion and I also have to confess that the new fog effects looked great and helped lend the island a sense of foreboding and menace. When combined with the island’s rather liberal approach to dosing you in rads, it’s fair to say that Far Harbour is not for the player who is faint of heart (I almost shit on multiple occasions due to massive beasts dropping from trees and bursting out of lakes) or playing on the lower levels. As for how our hero’s saga ends, well it is entirely up to you. What I can say is that there are multiple options to decide how things will end, each of which will have significant ramifications and none of which offer an entirely clean ending. At best you’ll have to get your hands dirty to enforce a level of peace and at worst you’ll be genociding at least one of the three factions. One of the better aspects of this ultimate choice is the fact that doing the side quests (and even progressing along in the main quest chain for the base game) will influence which options are available and whether or not you’re able to pull them off. It also offers some a modicum of roleplaying opportunity, as your character can become a devoted member of the Church of Atom, a mercenary or a peacemaker with each run being fairly different. It’s therefore a strong entry and while not much of an RPG compared to normal games in the genre, it’s still a leap forward for Fallout 4. Last but not least I’ll just mention that you can find a unique-ish suit of power armour and can gain access to a handful of new workbenches, for creating some new settlements. With all that being said, let’s move onto the final piece of DLC I’ll be looking at this week…

…The contraptions workshop of course! As one of the Workshop packs it’s fairly light in content, due to the lack of quests, new areas or new enemy types. Instead it solely focuses on adding new content to settlements that you can fanny around with, in this case a couple pieces of decorative junk and the ability to create production lines inside a settlement which let you turn junk into (almost) anything. The way it works is simple on paper but can be tricky in practice. Basically there are multiple types of conveyor belts, production devices and storage containers which all can be connected to each other and once they’re powered up, you just need to connect a terminal and then the system will largely begin to operate as intended. To give an example, you can build an ammo forge which will create most ammo types from raw materials, such as x10 .45 bullets from x1 fertilizer and x2 steel. You can just drop these in manually, but the intention here is that you’ll produce a hopper (for dropping items), a sorting conveyor belt (to push out those not containing the required materials) and then connect these three things together with conveyor belts. Once setup there is a certain degree of catharsis from watching everything flow by and begin the process of getting turned into the ammo type you’ve selected, but of course things can get more complicated from there. Why just have the bullets flow off the production line and onto the ground when they could go into a storage device that connects to the end of the conveyor belt, for example? Or maybe you’d rather have a tripwire that automatically starts and ends production once you trigger it. Then of course you’ve got the prospect of building machines that can produce anything, but each type of good has it’s own machine. You’ve got a food processor, gun forge, ammo (and energy ammo) forges, an armour forge and so on. Now you could have each one operate independently, but you can also string a bunch together into a fully conjoined production line for maximum factory shenanigans. To be entirely honest aside from ammo, explosives and maybe food this whole DLC is more giving you an excuse to faff around like this more than it is actually providing anything of particular use. Sure you can configure a production line to produce junk items that have a vendor value higher than the cost of their components, but this seems like an extremely convoluted way of earning a bit of extra money in a game with procedurally generated quests.

But before you begin trying to recreate Factorio in Fallout 4, there are a few caveats to bear in mind. Firstly and perhaps most annoyingly, as production objects are controlled by a single terminal you can’t have a singular production line produce multiple types of ammo at once. Instead you’ll need to assemble multiple production lines, as otherwise all connected production forges will produce the same thing. This also applies to the other types such as the food processor and weapon forge. Secondly you’ll be restricted by perk choices from choosing certain outputs, which won’t even show as being potentially available but locked off. For example if you don’t have Gun Nut rank 4, you won’t see .50 calibre rounds as an option from an ammo forge (as you can see from my screenshot above). Thirdly you’ll need to basically dump each material into either a hopper or a container connected to a vacuum belt for the production process to start, so it’s not entirely automatic. Fourthly when setting up the conveyor belt sorters, they only accept the raw material for determining which items to sort – so if you don’t have Steel but instead have an object that’s solely compromised of Steel, then that won’t work. Fifthly and finally, all of these machines require power and a decent amount of space. Plus they only go in a preset direction, so there will be some fiddling to do before everything works right. Now none of these problems are insurmountable, but it essentially means that this DLC is either a brief but amusing gimmick or will require a significant time investment. As for the rest of this DLC, well it’s pretty light on things you might find useful. It does add elevators, a fireworks launcher, logic gates which utilise power flow in different ways and some new ways of displaying items (cases, gun racks and mannequins that can wear any armour) alongside the ability to send settlers to the Pillory stocks and two new traps and some signage. That’s about it though, so this DLC isn’t particularly big and if you don’t care about the new forges and conveyor belts then you’ll probably not care about it at all!

So after diving through three of the Fallout 4 DLC packs at dizzying, breakneck speed I can safely say that they’re all good to have but I’d recommend them to various degrees. Frankly the contraptions DLC is entirely optional and is basically a waste of time unless you’re really into the prospect of watching a production line whizz by. On the other side of the spectrum is Far Harbour, which I consider to be basically essential for anyone who enjoyed Fallout 4 as it’s both a well balanced quest chain with plenty of player agency and an enjoyable additional dollop of content with multiple unique enemy types and new areas to explore. Then sitting pretty in the middle is Automatron, which is great if you want to have an Assaultron or upgraded Codsworth as a companion, but is otherwise just kind of OK otherwise. Sure the additional quests in Automatron are enjoyable enough, but it’s a fairly short (if occasionally challenging) piece of content that I would otherwise only consider essential for The Mechanist fans or those who are easily excited by the prospect of building your own Protectron settlers. For everyone else Far Harbour is the clear winner and the best DLC of the bunch (Spoilers: including next week’s lot), while contraptions is basically a cute little time sink that’s barely worth paying for. Therefore Far Harbour > Automatron > Contraptions Workshop.

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Quick Note: If you own the Special Edition or Anniversary edition (I.E. the only versions of Skyrim still available for sale) then this content is included for free.

Following on from last week’s review of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or just Skyrim for short, I’m taking a quick look at the two and a half DLC packs that came out following the game’s release. Of the three, the shortest by far is Hearthfire which allows you to build a couple of houses and generally faff around with children and marriage but is otherwise short on content. Then you’ve got Dragonborn and Dawnguard, which are each much more substantial and are about equal to Oblivion’s Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine respectively. In Dragonborn you are attacked by some cultists who have been sent from an isle that is located conveniently just off the main world map of Skyrim, and so you have to track them down to a Dunmer port “city” (more of a village really). From there you’re able to explore an entirely new island with a myriad variety of new enemies, alchemy ingredients and NPCs while on a quest to stop a different dragonborn who is trying to enslave the world. In Dawnguard meanwhile you’re dealing with enemies who are (mostly) located in the realm of Skyrim, even if some of them are new. These new enemies take the form of vampires and their thralls, although you can choose to join them if you so wish in which case you’ll be responsible for tracking down various vampire hunters and turning the hunter into the hunted. Of the two major Skyrim DLC expansions Dawnguard is unique in that it offers two separate quest chains, albeit with considerably overlap, due to the fact that you have two factions to choose from. Your choice will determine whether or not you gain the ability to transform into a Vampire Lord, alongside the fate of every mortal in the land.

Upon hearing of the ability to turn into a Vampire Lord, you might suspect that joining the Dawnguard (for whom the DLC is named) would be largely pointless and you’d be entirely correct. I still choose them anyway as it felt bizarre for my character who had quite literally just saved the entire world from dragons to then decide to pull a heel and condemn that same world, but the Dawnguard route is definitely the weaker option. Fortunately enough the new companion Selena doesn’t have much of a preference one way or another and is happy to side with you as you genocide her entire kind, but outside of that defection you don’t really get anything. The Dawnguard themselves are largely po-faced and while a few of them can provide skill training, they’re just mortal folk and as such there isn’t much they can offer you. You won’t gain many new abilities or valuable new spells from their route and there isn’t too much in the way of new gear or equipment (aside from some Dragonbone armour and the long awaited return of the Crossbow). That’s not to say that the DLC as a whole lacks new weapons and spells, as you can get some anti-vampire or pro-vampire items alongside a few new Dragon Shouts and spells/buffs, but most of these are available whether you side with the Dawnguard or not. As a consequence there isn’t much of a pay-off for being the hero and so the option comes down to player preference, as the main reward is choosing whether to become a Vampire Lord or not. That’s not to say that it’s bad or not worth playing, but I would generally recommend that players go with the Vampire route if only because that’s clearly where most of the effort went. One thing that might tip you towards the Dawnguard is the fact that you can hire new Armoured Trolls as companions. They are much as you’d expect, normal trolls but with more health and armour. While it’s a small comfort to be sure, at least it’s something and honestly having them obliterate the myriad wolves and bandits that keep nipping at the players heels is quite amusing.

Regardless of which faction you pick however the game does have two segments which take place outside of the normal lands of Skyrim and which are the highlights of this DLC. The first is the realm of the Soul Cairn, a sinister afterlife populated by those who’s souls have been stolen. Here you’ll not only fight a variety of new enemies, but you’ll also be able to receive a handful of quests from the deceased (one of which rewards you with a spooky ethereal horse). It’s an appropriately bleak place and the lack of both vendors and most loot gives it a barren feel, which is enhanced by the flat terrain and dark colour palate. The zone feels like the background of a Daedric quest and while the main quest contained within it is fairly bland, the area definitely gives the DLC a boost and is one of the more memorable parts. It also contains some opportunities to fill your soul gems, as is fitting. Then once you’ve finished your business in the cursed afterlife, you’re quickly sent off to the Forgotten Vale which is the land of the (almost entirely) exterminated Snow Elves. Here the main quest has some cool moments such as fighting your way through Falmer camps and wandering through halls filled with frozen solid enemies, while you search for an enchanted bow which has the power to save the world or bring it to your character’s heel. Much like the Soul Cairn it also contains a swathe of unique enemies and it’s a visually appealing area which is filled with some references to TES lore. While you don’t spend too much time in this area, you can return and there are some cool moments including a fight against two dragons at the same time and some hidden loot (including a mineable creature). These two zones feel like they were a focus for the DLC and are both interesting in their own right, while encouraging exploration and allowing you to return to either at your leisure.

Once you’ve done these zones, the quest chains are basically over and you’ll be attacking the base of the other faction. If you’ve gone with the Dawnguard then you’ll be rushing the evil vampire’s castle, and if you’ve gone with the Vampires then you’ll be destroying the Dawnguard’s castle. In either case you’ll charge in with the friendly faction’s NPCs (some of whom will probably die) before fighting your way through the castle and ultimately facing off against the faction leader in a fight. At this point you’ll use the enchanted bow for good or ill and decide the fate of Skyrim, again. Once everything’s been wrapped up you’re free to loot the place and then things largely return to normal, with your faction’s NPCs heading back to their base camp so you can continue to utilise their skill training abilities (and/or recruiting armoured troll abilities). Outside of this quest chain and the two new areas, there isn’t much in the way of new content outside of the aforementioned handful of new pieces of armour, weapons and some faction related side quests. Two things I haven’t touched on yet are the Werewolf skill tree, which functions much like the Vampire Lord one in that you gain points by making use of the transformation as opposed to just chucking points into them once you’ve levelled up. Both of these transformations come with some caveats, such as the fact that “normal” friendly NPCs will start attacking you on sight as you’re a monster and that some abilities can’t be used due to the fact that you are now BIG and so you’ll need to craft items when you’re not a werewolf or large vampire lord. Finally this DLC does also unlock the ability to change your appearance via a new NPCs located in the Thieves Guild base.

Next up in chronological order is Hearthfire, which is the smallest of the Skyrim DLC’s that were released as paid content. There were two smaller DLC’s including a small quest revolving around a Portal 2 reference and the HD texture pack, but both of those were free leaving Hearthfire as the most modest Skyrim DLC we’ll be taking a look at. In Hearthfire you get the ability to build houses at three new locations, alongside the ability to adopt children and get married to your spouse. Alongside these new features you also get a handful of NPCs that can be hired as carriage drivers and personal bards, alongside some busy work (in the form of fending off groups who of bandits/skeevers/giants who attack your home) and uh… some new food items alongside updated models/visuals for some existing soups and stews. That’s about it as far as the new content goes, aside from the handful of new materials which are used for house and furniture building. Fortunately enough building houses is integrated fairly well with the base game and the requirements aren’t too onerous, although the whole process is paced so that you’re unlikely to be able to build the house of your dreams in one sitting. Instead you’ll need to build up your new home(s) one stage at a time, and of course the first stage is buying the land which involves doing some quests for the local Thane. Once these are done you can purchase the plot of land for 5000 gold, which comes with enough materials to build a basic cottage and then if you wish to upgrade it you’ll need to accumulate various metals and crafting materials. The whole thing is surprisingly engaging and the ability to build up your house means that it will be larger than any of the pre-existing homes you can get in the game, although the requirements involved mean that you’re unlikely to be able to build a great house until you’ve spent a decent amount of time playing as your character. This is due to the fact that while a basic cottage is easy enough to build, the sheer amount of materials required for building a two storey main-hall alongside the three wings (from which you have multiple options such as a Spellcrafters tower, trophy room, extra storage space, etc) is significant. Then you have to factor in all of the furniture and the fact that you’ll need to visit multiple mines/merchants to gain all of the necessary materials, even if you can afford them. On the plus side there are no limits to the amount of homes you can own, so you’ll be able to have a house or build a house in every hold except for Winterhold. Just be aware that one of the Dark Brotherhood radiant quests involves killing Helvard in Falkreath which will make purchasing the Lakeview Manor plot impossible, unless the Jarl is replaced by siding with the Stormcloaks in the civil war questline.

Last but certainly not least is the Dragonborn DLC which is in my opinion the most interesting, due to the fact that it contains an entirely new island which is filled with content, quests and enemies to deal with. As mentioned at the start of this review, the Dragonborn DLC involves facing off against another Dragonborn (Miraak) from the era when Dragons ruled the world and who is a servant of the Daedra prince Hermaeus Mora. Perhaps unsurprisingly Miraak is exceptionally powerful indeed and due to his close affiliation with Hermaeus Mora you’ll be tasked with braving the horrors of yet another Daedric realm whilst gathering the forbidden knowledge you need to save the world (again, again). Fortunately Miraak gives you a heads-up as to his evil schemes by sending a handful of weak cultists to try and murder you, a task doomed to failure thanks to the player’s ability to reload saves. Once you’ve tracked him down you’ll be free to explore the island of Solstheim which is riddled with content to explore, even outside of the main questline that is itself quite fun to playthrough. This main questline involves liberating various groups from the malign influence of Miraak, as you gather books and scrolls which let you venture into the Daedric realm of Apocrypha.

Apocrypha itself is a cool new zone with some striking visuals that can be best thought of as a collection of small dungeons, as you’ll be wandering through miniature levels of this realm before teleporting to the next one by reading various books that are dotted around. Entering this realm is itself dependent on reading forbidden lore, which transports your Dragonborn (in mind if not always in body) into these levels which have a handful of unique hazards and enemies to contend with. It’s worth noting that these enemies are tough and that healing items are relatively limited whilst your in Apocrypha, which caused my Argonian mage some real issues. Fortunately you can just run past most of the enemies, and in some ways this is encouraged as you’re only here to gather forbidden lore before escaping back into the real world. Just be aware that Miraak is no pushover either, so if you’re struggling with the generic enemies then he is going to be a tough boss fight. On the plus side if you take the time to explore each area of Apocrypha fully, you can gain plenty of otherwise rare books which are perfect for finishing the new library in your charming Hearthfire home. As it’s the realm of knowledge there are also some spell tomes, books and mage specific potions scattered around although there are also some debuffs that enemies can inflict which make playing a mage in this realm tricky.

Of course as this is the final DLC for Skyrim, the “real world” as shown by Solstheim is no pushover either. The new enemies can hit hard and they come in many forms, from the broadly humanoid Ash Spawn through to Lich Priests, Werebears, Goblins Rieklings and Ash Guardians (a type of Atronach). Plus there are some new dragons, draugr and even spiders to contend with. Fortunately Solstheim also offers a variety of new armour, weaponry and spells which can be used to vanquish these horrors alongside some new friendly NPCs that can teach you these skills and which offer a myriad assortment of new quests. Oh and I nearly forgot that one of the main selling points of this DLC is (was?) the fact that you can learn some new shouts including the ability to fly around the map on dragons. While this last ability is learned fairly late in the main questline, gaining it is obviously a pretty good way of getting across the island and dealing with enemies dumb enough to fit you outside. Luckily enough most of the approximately 28 side quests involve fights in the wilderness of Solstheim, so this ability can easily come in handy. Plus it’s always nice to make friends with the new dragon who was trying to snuff you out, although it should be noted that having your dragon blast your enemies to death will deprive you of XP.

There’s a lot to be said about the various side quests and even the miscellaneous quests, such as hunting down the East Empire Company pendants for loadsemoney but as there are so many of them it would take too long to go over them with the depth they deserve. So all I’ll say is that working your way through all of the content in Dragonborn will take a considerable amount of time and while doing this you’ll be involved with multiple interesting and unique quests which offer good rewards. The two new settlements are also appealing, with the Dunmer enclave being riddled with cool side content (including tracking down a rare copy of The Lusty Argonian Maid) and possessing a great visual style while the smaller Nord settlement has a smaller amount of quests but does provide you with the ability to mine an entirely new and somewhat overpowered type of Ore. It definitely feels that Solstheim was an attempt by the developers at Bethesda to give Skyrim one last Hurrah and they definitely succeeded.

To conclude while the DLC’s in Skyrim aren’t quite as good as the ones from Oblivion, they’re definitely still a great series of additions to the game and are undoubtedly worth playing through. Dawnguard might be slightly underwhelming if you take the Dawnguard route (ironically enough) but outside of some initially tedious quests to hunt down NPCs that spawn at random locations, the main quest chain is still enjoyable and gives you two new areas to explore alongside some new weapons, enemies, spells and the like. Then you’ve got Hearthfire which is modestly sized but excels at enabling you to build up your own home and roleplay as a family man/woman/lizardwizard. Finally you’ve got Dragonborn which is the best of the bunch as it offers at much larger assortment of equipment/spells/enemies/quests than Dawnguard and does it all across an entirely new island which is riddled with content. And if all of that wasn’t enough, Dawnguard vastly expands on the experience of being a Vampire and/or Werewolf while Dragonborn lets you ride dragons and engage in strafing runs against those seemingly suicidal wolves and bandits. As a consequence I’d have no problem recommending these DLCs to Skyrim fans or even more casual WRPG fans in general, especially as they come included with every version of the game that’s been released since the base versions came out back in 2011. There’s a wealth of content to be found here and while some of it can be bland, most of the quests are great and many of the new locations look brilliant for such an old game.

PS: If you can’t find the Dawnguard hunter and own Dragonborn, then there’s a chance he’ll be in Solstheim for some reason – which is probably why you can’t find him. God knows I had that exact issue and assumed my game had just bugged itself

The post The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – DLC Double-ish Bill appeared first on Big Boaby Gaming.

Quick Note: Much like with my playthroughs of Fallout: New Vegas and the previous 2 DLCs, I played through both of these in Hardcore mode. Unlike Dead Money this didn’t really change anything, aside from making the mountains of ammunition littering both locations a pain to transport back to the occasional vendor.

Wrapping up the Big Boaby Gaming account of F:NV, this week we’re taking a look at the final two DLCs for the game – Old World Blues and Lonesome Road. The former is directly inspired by cheesy science fiction movies and novels of the early half of the 20th century and has the player exploring the pre-war research centre of “Big Mountain”. The main quest chain in Old World Blues focuses on what to do with the various semi-sane researchers that are still in control of the facility and which have thus far failed to do anything other than bicker with each other. LR on the other hand is directly related to the story that has been building across the rest of F:NV and deals with the character of Ulysses, a courier who has been involved with your character’s story since they first held onto the Platinum Chip in the first place. Unlike Old World Blues it is much more po-faced about the pre-war world, with the main plot thread revolving around your conflict with Ulysses who keeps trying to get under your character’s skin and ultimately threatens the Mojave as part of his quest to rattle you. Just like the other DLCs for F:NV, both of these DLCs are accessed via a quest which is given to your character upon starting the game and which directs them to a new area from which they’ll be teleported to the new zone. Both of these new areas can be re-accessed once their respective main quests have been completed, which works out well as they both have multiple challenges (as opposed to side quests) which provide rare equipment and upgrades.

Starting with Old World Blues, this DLC has you teleport to Big Mountain (or the Big Empty as most wastelanders call it) after interacting with a crashed satellite. You then wake up in a pleasant balcony with a view of the new area, which still has active industry dotted across it’s myriad craters and ruined masonry. You quickly encounter the “Think Tank” running the facility of Big Mountain who have, erm, removed your spine, heart and brain. Ordinarily after dealing with this sort of assault you’d be entirely justified to respond with violence, but the Think Tank have been smart enough to active a pacification shield around their facility which means that you can’t deliver swift wasteland justice. Instead you’ll need to figure out where your brain and other organs went and so you’ll be acting as their errand boy until you can piece yourself back together. Fortunately these delusional scientists are still able to provide clear objectives, even as the centuries of mental decay have rendered them little more than talking imbeciles. Their first task for you is to find multiple items with which to enter The Forbidden Zone, an area they think houses your brain but is unfortunately under the control(?) of Dr Mobius. Mobius is a dissident madman who is as insane as the think-tank, but who has fallen out with them and has spent the past two centuries creating fearsome robo-scorpions with which to bring Big Mountain to heel. Once you begin gathering the various items which are needed to enter the Forbidden Zone, you start on a fairly short quest-chain where you potter around the Big Mountain facilities, gather some required items, gun down various Robo-Scorpions and other failed experiments before you’re able to confront Mobius, your own brain and finally the Think Tank to decide the fate of the facility.

While this quest chain is definitely tongue-in-cheek and has some amusing dialogue, the main meat if this expansion is actually contained in side-content which resolves around upgrading your player home and a couple of the major new items found in this DLC. The player home component is seemingly straight-forward but actually has a fair amount of depth to it, as your home away from home at Big Mountain contains 10 different appliances which can each offer various services to your character. Unfortunately, when you initially move into your sweet new digs, you’re informed that all of these devices are inoperable and as such you’ll need to find the 10 corresponding holotapes which are necessary for them to begin operating. Fortunately these are marked as quest items and as such finding them isn’t too hard, but trekking to the locations they’re in and dealing with the various threats that are occasionally guarding them is more of a challenge. Once you’ve activated all of these appliances (each of which has their own neurotic personality by the way, from a miniature Securitron who is obsessed with mugs to a saucy, seductive seedbank) you’re then informed that they can all be further upgraded by gathering… even more holotapes! If you take the time to do all of this, then you’ll be glad to hear that you can benefit from an assortment of buffs – some of which are temporary such as increases to SPECIAL stats, while others are permanent including 3 new perks from the auto-doc and the ability to craft new skill books from the overly patriotic book-chute. Some of these upgrades are again sign-posted via a pertinent quest, but the skill books are not and will require some careful hunting to find.

Alongside upgrading your player home and the appliances within, you can also upgrade a few of the more noteworthy items that you can find within Big Mountain including a stealth suit and two new weapons – an energy weapon that fires sonic blasts and a powerful rifle that is improved with the addition of a canine brain. Upgrading the first two items requires running a gauntlet of “simulations” which require you to either sneak through an area without getting detected by patrolling robobrains, trip-wires and proximity mines or fight your way through a high-school while dealing with turrets, attack dogs and protectrons respectively. The K9-gun is a bit more straight forward and instead only asks for you to gather some schematics to upgrade the weapon, which might sound disappointing but honestly the combat gauntlet for the ray-gun was a pain in the butt to deal with. Fortunately whether you choose to upgrade your home and new gear or not, you’ll be readily compensated as the Big Mountain complex is positively brimming with lootable equipment including mentats, pre-war money, cigarettes galore (seriously, almost every container has a pack or a carton) and other valuable but low-weight loot. Plus there is ammo seemingly everywhere and most enemies you face off against are equipped with valuable items, including saturnite power fists, shishkebabs and hunting revolvers.

Aside from the new equipment and potential to get rich, the main reason to bother with Old World Blues is the writing which is generally pretty funny. Whether you’re running an upgrade gauntlet for improving the ray-gun, exploring the zone in the hopes of finding new gear or interacting with NPCs there is a consistent level of mad-cap insanity that permeates every molecule of this expansion. I do personally wish that it had been integrated better with the combat sections in this DLC, as generally I found that you’d either be talking-talking-talking to the Think Tank (or whoever) and then you’d be fighting-fighting-fighting your way through a zone so that you can complete whatever mission it is that you’d set for yourself. It does feel like an expansion of two halves, with the writing and combat both being largely separate with each other and most quests involving you going to location A, fighting the baddies, gathering item Z, going back to location B and handing it in before you get hit with another couple minutes of exposition. Fortunately the irreverent yet amusing dialogue should keep you coming back for more, and if it doesn’t then perhaps the multiple ties with the other DLCs (via the previous interjections of Elijah and Ulysses into the zone) and occasional glimpses of the unglamorous nature of the fallout world (via the Little Yahtzee concentration camp and some experiments that went awry) will provide some motivation. With all that being said, the main quest is fairly short and will only take you a few hours if you rush through it. You can also get the best possible outcome for everyone, but you’ll need a relatively high speech level and a high science level too. Or you can just beat all those nerds to death, it’s your call.

Lonesome Road on the other hand is much less of a tongue-in-cheek affair, although it can also be resolved by punching some nerds to death. In LR you’re trying to track down Ulysses, a courier who has it out for you and who seems to know a great deal about your past. For whatever reason, it’s this past that has lead Ulysses to become obsessed with you to the detriment of both himself and, if you can’t stop him, the entire Mojave wasteland. As mentioned, LR starts with you receiving a quest to enter a region called “The Divide” which forces your companion to head back home. Upon entering this new area, you quickly find yourself inside a military bunker which was used by the pre-war US military to store nuclear weapons and which also contains another ED-E eyebot. This new ED-E gives you the ability to open up new automatic commissary vending machines, that give you a way to sell the endless amounts of high end equipment you come across. He(?) also gives you the ability to trigger various switches and terminals which are required for you to progress in the main quest. The quest itself is fairly simple, as you’re tasked with making your way from one end of this Lonesome Road to the other, where Ulysses has established his base and makes his multiple foreboding messages and warnings to you. Unlike Old World Blues there aren’t really any side objectives to complete here, although there are 5 upgrades for ED-E which can be transferred back to the old ED-E in the Mojave, alongside a challenge (and CHEEVO) to explode 30 warheads which litter the area and that can be detonated to provide you with alternative routes around areas or to reveal rare items.

Generally speaking though these mini side-objectives don’t provide much extra content and as a consequence the main reason to engage with LR is to find out more about the overall story of F:NV, especially as your character has a nasty cause of amnesia following the time when Benny shot them in the head. That’s not to say that there isn’t some good equipment to pilfer here, as one of the two new enemy types are positively brimming with valuable weapons, but generally speaking the handful of new weapons aren’t that impressive and the main point of interest is the storyline. Fortunately this narrative is pretty engaging, as not only do you learn a great deal about your courier’s past via Ulysses multiple diatribes, but you also gain an insight into a new threat that will wreck havoc in the Mojave and get to learn some more about the lands between the Capitol Wasteland in the East and the Mojave in the West. Ulysses is probably one of the most interesting characters contained within F:NV and as he was intended to be a companion during development, he has a lot of dialogue about the state of the setting and a lot to tell the player. Plus ED-E has his own story to tell too, which comes up at random points during your journey to track down Ulysses and which is also engaging. ED-E is a little sweetheart of a companion and oddly enough for F:NV he is “immortal” in Hardcore mode, probably as he is crucial to various points in the story that wouldn’t make sense where he not there. In addition, he’s also one of very few characters in the game that you can sass after basically every line of dialogue, should you so be inclined.

As for the gameplay side of LR, it’s pretty standard and while (almost) all the enemies are new they basically fit into two camps – excluding a handful of deathclaws and security bots who get caught in the fray. You’ve got the “Marked Men” who are monstrously overcooked ghouls that are lacking in skin and as such are a vibrant shade of red due to the combination of relentless winds and radiation which make The Divide hostile to all life. These guys basically function as the armed NPCs of the run and aren’t particularly worth noting, aside from the fact that they are composed of a mix of turned NCR and Legion troops and as such have access to a large amount of otherwise rare and unusual weapons. They can’t be reasoned with or bartered with, and aside from a handful of named individuals don’t seem to possess any sentience at all. The other main enemies of The Divide are the “Tunnelers”, a new type of swarming reptilian enemy that is dangerous in close combat and which can be a headache for lesser levelled players – but who didn’t pose much of a threat for my melee build with ample reserves of Action Points, stimpacks and a heated saturnite power-fist. These tunnelers are meant to pose an existential threat to the world as they breed quickly and hunt in packs, but there are multiple areas where the courier has to fight around 10 of them and so I can’t help but imagine that the Mojave is going to be fine no matter what happens. But I digress, as the main takeaway here is that LR has the same combat as the rest of the game and without any real side-quests or NPCs to interact with you’re basically just fighting your way through various areas, grabbing whatever isn’t nailed to the ground and occasionally setting off a warhead to gain access to a new route or loot.

While I don’t want to spend too much time discussing the narrative of LR as doing so will inevitably involve a range of spoilers, one thing that makes it interesting is the fact that it’s tailored to your existing playthrough to an extent as Ulysses refers to multiple events that have occurred and is hostile to both the NCR and the legion (to a lesser extent). As such there are various points in the DLC where having a high-rating with either the NCR or Legion can be used to gain further insight into the setting, and even help with some speech checks like the one at the end of the DLC. Due to this you really should leave LR until you’ve gone through a decent amount of the base game, although you can take advantage of the reputation reset that occurs at a certain point in the main quest chain to have high ratings with the NCR and/or Legion despite having the option to cause a lot of trouble for them in this DLC. It’s also worth noting that if you choose to avoid fighting Ulysses, you can interact with him later on and he will provide commentary on your actions and some events that have occurred in the Mojave. With that being said, LR is intended as late-game content for a reason and I’m fairly confident that regardless of your factional inclinations this DLC is best experienced at a high level.

In summary, both LR and Old World Blues are enjoyable pieces of DLC that add their own flair to the game even if both take radically different tonal directions. Old World Blues is a silly little story with hints of darkness at it’s heart, but ultimately it’s a fun and campy adventure as you explore the exaggerated caricature of the old world that Big Mountain has become. LR on the other hand is all about the backstory of the courier and the Mojave, with some sprinklings of humour occasionally found within. Both have decent rewards for the player that takes the time to finish them, including player housing, permanent buffs and a range of powerful items. But the main benefit to both is the narrative experience they provide, one in which you get to save the world multiple times over.

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Quick Note – If you own the Remasters or the Bioshock Collection – which are now the only versions available for sale on PC and modern consoles, then you already own Minerva’s Den. It’s entirely separate from the main game and is buried away in the main menu behind Downloadable Content.

I’ll be honest when I say that Bioshock 2: Minerva’s Den is a game (well, DLC) that I’ve been meaning to play for a very long time. Most of the discourse around this modest DLC for the game is overwhelmingly positive and as someone who really enjoyed both BS1 and BS2, I knew that I would play it one of these days but that day never came. So here I am around a decade later finally stumbling into what is arguably the best part of the entire Bioshock saga, which is definitely not what I expected to write when I first started playing it. In fact the initial impressions I had for Bioshock 2: Minerva’s Den weren’t particularly positive, as it seemed to just chuck Subject Sigma (your character) into a new area for no particular reason and the gameplay was… pretty much identical. Sure there are new areas which look nice and I appreciate the attention to detail that some of the splicers have received, with their new models that have a distinctly lab-tech/researcher appearance. Yet it initially all just felt like a somewhat random addition of more content. Almost as if the publishers at 2K cracked the whip and forced the various development studios to cobble together a DLC that could be sold to fans quickly, on the back of BS2’s positive reception. Now I’m not certain as to what the context was for the creation of this DLC behind-the-scenes, but without wishing to spoil anything I’ll just say that these fears were put to rest by the DLC’s conclusion and that the developers have done a surprisingly good job of integrating this short little expansion into the narrative of the base game.

But I guess that sort of narrative nuance is about what you’d expect from the Bioshock games, at least from that moment in time. Bioshock 1 had received exceedingly good reviews after all and the criticism of Bioshock 2 was essentially “it’s good but too similar” which basically means it was a great game that just lacked the same impact as it’s predecessor due to being less of a novelty. Now if you were of a critical mind, you could also make the same criticism of Minerva’s Den as it really is good but exceptionally similar to the base game. When you start Bioshock 2: Minerva’s Den you are back at square one, because this is an entirely separate section of content which means that you don’t have the plasmids, tonics or even weapons that you’ve been accustomed too. This means that you have the same progression as you do in the base game, as you go from lighting bolt and drill through to the same end-game loadouts that you had towards the end of Bioshock 2, just without nearly as much time to get acclimatised. As a consequence the gameplay can feel a little rushed, as you have access to all of the same weapons, ammo, plasmids etc but you have a fraction of the stages. This means that you end up with levels that have 6 little sisters with their big daddies wandering around, alongside an almost constant trickle of new weapons or upgraded weapons of your existing ones. Things can therefore feel a little overwhelming, as you’ll get an upgraded weapon, then there’s a little sister around the corner, then within 10 minutes you’ve also found a new weapon and two new tonics before you could even consider spending that new Adam you’ve acquired. But considering the limitations that the guys working on this DLC had due to the low price and corresponding shorter duration of content on offer, I still think the pacing is perfectly fine. If anything I’m impressed that they were able to squeeze everything from the base game into this expansion, especially considering that there are some new toys of Delta to mess around with.

And these new toys are mostly pretty enjoyable, including that snazzy little laser gun you can see in that screenshot above. While none of them are overpowered and there aren’t too many of them, they’re enjoyable to use and most of them are good enough that you’ll be using them as much as your favourites from the base game. The Ion Laser itself is one of the first weapons you find in the DLC and it deals a healthy stream of constant damage, with cheap ammo that lets you keep that death beam blazing for plenty of time between reloads while being much more accurate than the machine-gun. There’s also the Gravity Well plasmid which is essentially a throwable black hole that sucks in the bad guys and then causes a large explosion, which is incredibly useful for the myriad situations in the DLC where you’re getting rushed by a group of angry splicers. Last and admittedly least there are two “new” tonics that are introduced in Bioshock 2: Minerva’s Den, firstly you’ve got the Drill Dash tonic which effectively acts the same as the research bonus from the base game as you can’t use the research camera in this DLC. Secondly there’s the “Master Protector” tonic, which increases the duration of each little sister gathering section but also increases the amount of Adam you receive per gathering session. The catch with this latter tonic is that you also need to have the Protector Trials and have received every star within that DLC mode. So if you don’t have it (which is unlikely unless you’re playing the PS3/360 versions) or more pertinently haven’t got 100% completion in it, then you can’t access this tonic. In hindsight only getting 1 weapon, 1 plasmid and (maybe) 1 tonic isn’t a huge selection, but two out of three are nice additions to the game and so it’d be churlish to complain.

But perhaps you’d be forgiven for complaining about the new enemy types, as there are a handful of them and they almost all function as upgraded versions of existing enemies. You’ve got a new type of Brute Splicer, who is on fire and is thus immune to flame damage and who unleashes a burst of flame around him when he takes melee damage. Then you’ve got three new types of security bots, a melee bot with a cattle prod, a variant with the Ion Laser that you were enjoying so much and finally a variant that makes effective use of a grenade launcher to injure you, itself and pretty much everything in between. You’ve also got the return of the Winter Houdini splicers from the first game, who have learned a new little trick which causes them to disable any friendly bots you’ve hacked until you manually re-activate them. Finally there’s a new type of Big Daddy in the former of the lancer, which is a beastly tank to deal with and can dish out as much damage as he can take. Fortunately he’s dependent on consistently dishing out the damage without any big surges in lethality or abrupt melee charges, meaning that you can abuse the terrain and/or use multiple mini-turrets and security bots to whittle him down. The “new” design for this enemy is also great and it’s nice to see that the DLC made use of the concept art that was included with the collector’s edition art book for the base game.

And that’s about all you get, to be honest. While the three new levels are each fairly lengthy and packed with audio logs, safes and various enemies the whole experience isn’t much of a revolution. You still have the same tendency to end up backtracking through areas you’ve just cleared but where the enemies have respawned and you won’t be able to access weapon upgrade stations or research bonuses. You’ve still got the same Adam gathering “activity”, the same Big Sister fights if you engage in that Adam gathering, mostly the same enemies to deal with and largely the same weapons, plasmids and tonics with which to deal with them. I guess there are also some Vacuum bots that you can smash for loot, but this is basically more Bioshock 2 with a sprinkling of new content (including a little quasi-asteroids mini-game that you can play in the second level). The main drawn of Bioshock 2: Minerva’s Den is the new narrative, centred around Subject Sigma who turns out to be a key figure in the story of at least one character from the base game and who has his own engaging little plot-line. I will say the villain of this DLC is pretty fun and even if he is a total wankstain, he is an engaging antagonist even if he doesn’t have the same depth as Ryan, Fontaine or even Lamb. But then again, he is spliced up to the eyeballs so it’s not entirely his fault – plus he continues the series tradition of slightly weird and out of place boss fights.

In summary Bioshock 2: Minerva’s Den is a nice little slice of Bioshock 2 that has it’s own well written storyline with some links to the campaign of the main game, alongside just enough new enemies and equipment to keep things from feeling like a total retread. The new stages are a pleasant continuation of the base game and offer a reasonable amount of hidden treasures without being excessively long or overly short. The pacing is handled well and while some features are missing, they’re not hugely missed and I feel like adding in research requirements and weapon upgrades would have made this DLC feel too bloated. Instead it’s the goldilocks of DLC, just enough to feel fresh without having so much that if feels alien. Just long enough to fit a self-contained story without being so long that it stretches itself short, and just tied enough to the main game to feel like an extension of the narrative without being so connected to the base game that it wouldn’t fit into the overall story. It’s a great little chunk of extra Bioshock 2 and it doesn’t fall for either the Bioshock 1 trap of having the engaging villain step aside halfway through or the Bioshock 2 trap of erring too much to the first game. Instead Bioshock 2: Minerva’s Den is in a sweet spot between all of the ways it could have gone wrong, making it a great example of restrained game design and one experience that I would recommend to anyone who has enjoyed any of the Bioshock games (or even just games in general).

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Quick Note: I played through both of these pieces of Fallout: New Vegas DLC in “Hardcore” mode, which normally doesn’t change much in F:NV aside from making healing and limb restoration more difficult. In Dead Money however it makes a huge difference as you will be poisoned by the polluted city itself, making health management much more of a challenge. I’d strongly recommend playing DM in hardcore mode for the best experience, but beware of this mechanic ahead of time!

Hopefully you guys enjoyed my F:NV review last week because I’m following it up with two back-to-back “double-bills” where I’m going to examine the (major) Fallout: New Vegas DLC packs in more detail! This week I’m going to take a look at the first two of the bigger Fallout: New Vegas DLC releases – namely Dead Money and Honest Hearts which in spite of their superficial similarities were actually very different from each other. Dead Money is a narrative focused experience containing a new zone that can only be played through once per character, with little in the way of side content and a heavy focus on the characters and setting contained within it. Honest Hearts on the other hand wouldn’t seem out of place in a Bethesda game, as it contains an area that you’re free to re-enter at will and which contains more in the way of side-quests and hidden loot. Either way they’re both enjoyable experiences and I’d recommend them to anyone who enjoyed the base game – especially as they come bundled with the Ultimate edition that’s frequently $5 during the various Steam/GoG/Epic sales.

Dead Money was the first major DLC to release after F:NV’s launch, so it’s the obvious one to start with. In DM, your character is abducted from the Mojave after entering an abandoned Brotherhood of Steel bunker while hunting for the source of a radio message promising them the ability to begin again at the Sierra Madre casino resort. This narrative device is used to explain why you can’t bring any companions with you and also explains why you can’t bring any of your items with you – not even your bottle caps! This means that DM truly forces you to begin again as you have no weapons, healing supplies, ammo or cold hard caps with which to assist you in exploring this hostile new settlement. Things get even more bleak as when your character awakens at the entrance of the Sierra Madre resort, they are contacted by the antagonist Elijah who reveals that he has orchestrated your abduction and placed a bomb-collar on your neck! The reason for your quasi-enslavement is simple, he needs you to help him break into the Sierra Madre casino so that he can pilfer it’s contents. Fortunately(?) he also reveals that you aren’t the only one he has ensnared in his scheme, as there are also 3 other people trapped in various parts of the Sierra Madre resort who will help you in “your” mission. Unfortunately for you, they’re all equally as annoyed at Elijah as you are and are therefore not the most trusting or reliable of partners. Without their help however you’ll all be stuck in the toxic smog that has engulfed the Sierra Madre for centuries, meaning that you’ll need to work together to pull off Elijah’s insane heist.

Now this toxic smog isn’t just for show, as in Hardcore mode it actively damages you (albeit slowly) over time when you’re outdoors. Of course if you had your healing supplies this wouldn’t be much of an issue, but as mentioned above… you don’t. In fact the start of DM is arguably the most intense part of F:NV, as you’ll be scrambling to find healing supplies with which to offset the perpetual damage that your character is taking. Plus you’ll need to find weapons and armour which suit your character’s build with which to deal with the enemies that have infested the Sierra Madre. These new enemies only come in a few forms of which there are two main types, but there are two important factors which make them stand out from the myriad of foes which roam the wastes of the Mojave. The first is that they’re tough, and trust me when I say this as my character was geared towards Unarmed and Melee attacks but still found it tough going at the start. The various “Ghost Walkers” have large amounts of health, deal solid amounts of damage and often travel in packs which mean they can be overwhelming to deal with – especially when you remember that you’re always taking damage from being outside! To make matters even worse, they’ll revive themselves soon after dying unless you’re able to destroy their bodes via explosives, energy weapon disintegration or flailing wildly at their corpses until they’re just a collection of chunks. As such you need to whittle them down one-by-one and make sure they don’t get back up otherwise fights will drag on and your limited healing supplies & ammo will be exhausted. The other major enemy type in DM takes the form of hologram security guards, who aren’t much of an issue as they have limited patrol routes and don’t open fire right away. There’s just one modest caveat which is that they are immune to your fists, melee weapons, guns and explosives… so you either need to make good use of the hologram rifle you get near the start of this DLC or sneak past them. Fortunately they’re always near an interactive transmitter that can be disabled to turn them off, so long as your repair skill is high enough (the required amount ranges from 25 to 100).

At this stage you’re probably thinking that the enemies sound challenging, but that you can run past the “Ghosts” and sneak past the holograms, so you shouldn’t have too much to worry about. Unfortunately for you and your character, the Sierra Madre is positively littered with traps that have been laid out by previous scavengers and plunderers that came before you. This means that you’ll need to proceed cautiously, lest you get caught by one of the 100+ bear traps, tripwires and pressure plates that are spread out across the entire resort. Some of these traps are particularly fiendish as it feels like the developers knew exactly what they were doing when placing them, with pressure plates appearing right below naturally occurring drops and tripwires being hidden at the top of stairwells so that you can barely see them. To make matters worse, areas of the Sierra Madre are also covered in poisonous fog which deals high amounts of damage and restricts visibility. Often these traps are placed in areas of fog too, as are the enemies you’ll be facing. This means that you’ll need to be simultaneously quick and cautious, lest you get bogged down by enemies or have your legs crippled by deviously placed traps. Oh and before you get too comfortable, there’s one other important set of hazards that can easily claim your characters life. Remember how you’re wearing a bomb collar? Well it’s been fitted with haste and as a consequence is susceptible to early detention from errant radio waves, which means that various radios and speakers will begin initiating a detention sequence that will activate if you remain too close for too long. Some of these radios and speakers can be deactivated, either by interacting with them, powering them down or shooting them – but you had best make your mind up as to how you’ll deal with them quickly, as they don’t give you long to retreat or nullify them before the remains of your head are decorating the Sierra Madre.

With all these challenges laid before you, it would be fair to ask “why bother?” The reasons for both your character and you, the player are simple. The Sierra Madre contains large quantities of valuable loot and recipes, plus plenty of XP from the main quests that should tempt even the most resolute of couriers. As for the player, they’ll get to enjoy a unique gameplay challenge and one of the strongest narratives contained within F:NV. I won’t bore you with the details of the former, but you’ll gain multiple levels while playing through DM in a fairly short space of time and it’s sufficient to say that you’ll be able to loot the mythologised Sierra Madre’s vault should you so choose. As for the narrative, there are two main pieces that make it tick. The first is that the characters you’re trapped in the Sierra Madre with are well-written and interesting, with a split-personality Super Mutant, a mute wastelander who’s been trying to track down Elijah for some time and Dean Domino himself – a pre-war singer (who’s poster is featured in some of the loading screens for the base game) and who has been trapped in the Sierra Madre for centuries. Without wishing to spoil anything, I’ll just say that you’re able to resolve their major issues (well… 2 out of 3) or can sacrifice them after a certain point to make your own life easier. The second part of the narrative that works so well is the back-story of the Sierra Madre, which you’ll need to piece together through fully talking with your companions and reading through the terminals scattered around the resort. It’s a very well done story about one man’s hubris and his desire to protect the one person he loves, even as the world seems to be ending. There are some nice twists (particularly involving Dean) and ultimately the question of who was the largest fool hangs over the entire area like the blade of a guillotine. Ultimately everything hinges on the simple fact that the hardest part of the Sierra Madre is letting go, a central theme that has it’s tendrils in the actions of every single character both living and dead within this area. Even the final choice of this DLC hinges on this simple premise and the ways in which you can decide the fate of every other living character is well integrated with both the gameplay and the narrative. DM is inarguable a great example of intertwining all aspects of a game together so that they reinforce each other, from the gameplay challenges which represent the corrosive nature of the Sierra Madre (both literally and in how it has impacted every other person who has set foot there) to the narrative which frequently reinforces and is reinforced by the gameplay. It’s a great expansion pack and well worth savouring, especially as once you’ve let go you’ll never be able to begin again.

On the other side of the DLC spectrum from DM is Honest Hearts, which is a much more “normal” expansion in the vein of the Shivering Isles from Oblivion or Point Outlook from Fallout 3. While it’s not as expansive as either of those previous DLCs, it does have it’s own unique area and geometry that can be revisited at will and which contains a variety of unique enemies, wildlife and plants. Much like DM, HH doesn’t let you bring a companion although you are allowed to bring up to 75lbs (or more if you have a high Survival skill which… I don’t think anyone ever does) of equipment with you. The DLC starts off with you accompanying a caravan through to New Canaan, a settlement far from the Mojave that supposedly has an interest in trading. Unfortunately for you and the small team you’re with, the caravan is ambushed moments after you reach Zion and your character is the sole survivor. Your ambushers are tribals belonging to the White Legs tribe, who are trying to join the legion and have been told they’ll only be admitted if every other tribe in the area has been exterminated. This might seem like a tall order, but the White Legs are packing some serious firepower and many of them are wielding high end weaponry, including 12.7mm machine guns, anti-material rifles, shishkebabs and mantis gauntlets. Alongside these ferocious human enemies, you’ll also need to contend with a myriad range of hostile wild life including Giant Cazadors and Yao Guais, alongside more “normal” geckos, radscorpions and bullhorns.

Fortunately much like in DM you won’t need to face these new threats alone, as you quickly encounter two peaceful tribes who are willing to help you escape Zion… on the condition that you either eradicate the White Legs or help them escape too. These tribes each provide a native companion, with Follows-Chalk representing the Dead Horses tribe and Waking Cloud representing the Sorrows tribe. The tribes themselves are fairly similar, with both having their own base, one outside leader (that allows for limited trade in caps) and a shared language that has some elements of English but is largely comprised of foreign words and expressions. The main thematic difference between the two is that the Sorrows are an “innocent” tribe of hunters led by Daniel, a Mormon missionary who is the voice for peace in the region while the Dead Horses are a warrior tribe led by Joshua Graham (yes, that Joshua Graham) that is seeking to bring peace via the extermination of the White Legs. In gameplay terms there isn’t much to separate the two tribes, and neither Follows Chalk nor Waking Cloud offer particularly impressive companion perks (either a +3 perception buff when on high ground or a bonus to sneaking against human enemies respectively) but they’re decently useful as the enemies in this DLC are generally tough. In either case the main quest chain of this DLC focuses on your character gathering multiple items that will help both tribes escape the White Legs, which involves exploring the modest new area and looting certain quest items before you bring them back to either Daniel or Joshua.

After a couple different fetch quests you’re then given the option of either helping Daniel ensure the Sorrows escape, or you can work with Joshua and lead an attack on the White Legs which will free Zion of their presence once and for all. Ultimately this decision doesn’t change too much within the DLC, as without wishing to spoil anything I’ll just say that no matter what ending you get the major players don’t have anything else for you to do once the main plot line is over. You can’t take Joshua back to the Mojave and you can’t help Daniel with any other tasks, so really the main factor in choosing which to assist with their view of how to deal with the White Legs is your own gut feeling on the matter. As someone who played it twice and got both the “best” outcome and the most “vengeful” outcome, I’ll just say that you should let your heart be the guide (and that you should be careful what you say to Follows Chalk, because he’s a good kid). Either way once you’ve decided who to help, you’re tasked with shooting a bunch of White Legs to either clear the way for the Sorrows to escape or to just… clear the way for the Sorrows to remain in Zion. If you choose the evacuate route you get a couple of optional bonus objectives that are worth doing, whereas if you choose the exterminate route you get to decide what happens to the chief of the White Legs. Regardless of your choices once everything’s wrapped up you get access to a footlocker containing some rare items that were owned by both Daniel and Joshua, which are pretty neat.

BUT as you can see in the screenshot above, the final mission of the main quest chain will lock you out of the side quests. Now I know that while talking about DM earlier in this double-bill I mentioned that HH has more side quests, which is true, but that doesn’t mean there are that many of them. You’ve got a spirit quest from the Sorrows where you hunt down a Yao Gaui for a unique unarmed gauntlet weapon, one cute quest where you need to lead a lost Bighorner calf back to it’s momma and two quests where you talk to your companions about something that’s bothering them. Technically the side objectives in the Escape Zion final mission are counted as quests, but they don’t really count. As such there are only a handful of side quests and half of them are just talking to your companions, so there are basically two side quests with some meat on them. The vision quest er… quest is pretty enjoyable as it essentially involves tracking down and killing a tough Yao Guai while visual effects mess with you, and of all the quests it’s the only one that offers any real reward. The other main one involves finding a little calf, feeding it some fruit so that it’ll follow you for a bit and then giving it more when it gets scared of you again. The only real nuance to it is that you’re trying not to make the other bighorners hostile, so you need to be somewhat careful with your movements and avoid staying near one for too long. Regardless the side quests in HH aren’t extensive and the main star of the show is the Survivalist’s story, which isn’t a quest but is a series of 6 hidden caches that are scattered across Zion. Five of them are contained within caves which often feature multiple traps but are worth the risk as they have plenty of valuable rewards, while the final cache is with the survivalist himself and contains a unique rifle that is simultaneously cool and powerful. The survivalist’s story is also the narrative highlight of this DLC, as it contains a simple yet earnestly told account of a former US soldier who survives in Zion in the immediate aftermath of the war and becomes entwined with the fates of various groups who come to settle it, both those with good intentions and bad. I’d highly recommend seeking these journal entries out as they round out the DLC nicely and with the exception of the 6th are pretty easy to find. (Light spoiler: You need to find an elevated and unmarked spot near the red rapids docks).

To summarise both DLCs, I’d say that DM is a great narrative-led experience that provides a challenge for players and which deftly combines a bleak and oppressive atmosphere with a bleak and oppressive narrative while still providing players with plenty of choice. HH on the other hand is much more traditional and doesn’t stray exceedingly far from a simple premise, but does still reward players who are willing to invest some time into it’s best features are the beauty of Zion itself and the survivalist’s journal which is sprinkled across it. For the first time playthrough I think that DM is the clear standout, but for players seeking a more simple DLC with clearer rewards HH is there to provide a clear cut narrative and plenty of strong weapons. In spite of their differences, the one thing I can easily say about both is that they’re worth playing through at least once.

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Quick Note: As it’s 2023, I’m assuming that you know how Oblivion plays so I’m only touching on what’s in the content pack. If you don’t know how Oblivion plays, then it’s very similar to Skyrim. If you don’t know how either of those games play, then go play one of them (I think Oblivion is better, but it’s jankier).

Much like Knights of the Nine which I looked at last week, The Shivering Isles has an innocuous start that belies the sheer scale of content available once it’s been installed. Initially nothing changes within the land of Cyrodiil aside for the fact that you gain a quest which mentions that a gate has opened on an island in the Niben Bay just to the east of Bravil. Upon travelling there, you’ll find a guard dealing with the demented riff-raff that are occasionally spewed out after their visit to the Madgod’s realm turns them, well, stark-raving MAD. You’re then given the choice of entering this realm, or not playing through the content you’ve paid for, so you enter the gate. Once you do so, you’re then asked again by the Madgod’s custodian as to whether you really want to play through the expansion content, before agreeing and getting dumped into the mandatory tutorial section Fringe. This area is locked off from the rest of the Shivering Isles by a large wall with only 1 entrance/exit in the form of the Gates of Madness which are guarded by the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper is a big, tough monster who you see slaughtering a party of adventurers, so your character has to figure out a way to get past it without getting wrecked.

This opens up the first of many quests in The Shivering Isles which are largely linear (and often quite similar) but which do provide some ability to roleplay as there are often multiple different ways to achieve the same goal. In this instance, you’re able to decide how to fight the Gatekeeper and there are 2 main methods of doing so. You can either team up with a maniac hunter who’s obsessed with bones and help him break into a graveyard to gather arrows that are made to be highly effective against the gatekeeper, or you can grill the assistant of the Gatekeeper’s creator to find out his weakness, then gather a poison that you can apply to your weapon which is highly effective against the gatekeeper. In both cases you’re basically doing the same thing (i.e. making your weapon better against the gatekeeper so you don’t get beaten like a drum), but the way you do it is slightly different. For the former method, you need to do a bit of lockpicking but you do get a temporary companion whereas the latter method requires some speechcraft and sneaking. I personally did both and then realised that neither does much for hand-to-hand or mage builds, so I tanked the gatekeeper while my maniac hunter ally did the real damage. After the gatekeeper goes down, the real meat of this expansion pack begins.

Now unlike KotN, the sheer amount of quest content in this expansion means that it’s not feasible to go through the main plot line without turning this review into a modest novella. Suffice it to say, once you get the gates you have the option of running through the north of island, which is the realm of mania or going along the south of the island, which is the realm of dementia. As this expansion pack revolves around Sheogorath, everything is infused with the two-faced nature of the god of madness and as a consequence most of the content is split between these two aspects of his personality – the joyfully manic and the resentfully morose. There are therefore 2 sides to the island, two sections of the main settlement (Bliss and The Crucible), two groups of guards, two main groups of heretic humanoid NPCs, two rulers in the city and so on. Ultimately everything and everyone aside from Sheogorath belongs to one side or the other, with the Madgod himself being split right down the middle and even his manner of speaking veers from one side of his personality to the other. The manic side is brightly coloured, ecstatically upbeat, utterly insane and either very friendly or very dangerous (often both) resulting in garish areas and clothing. On the flipside, the demented areas are grim in both appearance and demeanour, riddled with paranoia and also very dangerous.

You’ll have plenty of time to get familiar with both sides of the Madgods split personality however, as regardless of your choices you’ll need to complete a series of quests which involve familiarising yourself with both sides of this baffling realm. You’ll need to learn what addiction feels like from the Duke of mania, then take part in an investigation to find plotters amongst the demented (which lets you have everyone tortured which is pretty funny). You’ll need to work with both sides of the guards, who are represented by the Dark Seducers (demented) and the Golden Saints as they fight the threats to the Shivering Isles (and each other). Finally you’ll need to explore both Mania and Dementia in depth as most quests require you to leave the city (cities?) and get trekking through the island to fight through various dungeons so that you can gradually work your way through the main questline. As mentioned earlier, a lot of these quests are relatively repetitive as most involve going to a dungeon, fighting your way through it and then rescuing someone or obtaining an item that you need. Then again, it does feel somewhat unfair to ding this expansion for having a lot of similar content as it almost always has a twist to the format or gives you the ability to resolve the mission in a slightly different way.

To give some examples of this, while doing the quest for the Duke of Mania you’re tasked with fighting your way through a dungeon but you need to keep gathering an alchemical ingredient otherwise you’ll be brutalised by withdrawal symptoms that are extremely severe. While rebuilding the gatekeeper, you’re tasked with clearing through a dungeon but get to choose which body parts the new gatekeeper will have, which is a nice bit of legacy building (not that your choices really matter). While setting up a distraction for unwanted adventures, you’ll need to clear out a dungeon that serves as an elaborate mousetrap but get to mess with a trio of adventurers at the end with a series of traps. Yet despite these little twists, most quests really do just boil down to going to a dungeon, killing the baddies and then proceeding to the next step. There aren’t many quests in the main mission that break free of this mould, and even when they do you’re often only being given a mandatory stealth section. The only two that are really different is the mission to find the plotters who are threatening the duchess of dementia and the aforementioned quests where you get to activate traps on an adventuring party (which is basically just pressing 3 buttons). There is also a mission where you have to favour one faction of the guards against another, but this is basically just a big fight with a lot of NPCs running around and focusing on each other while you help sway the balance.

So if you’ve made it this far and are getting the impression that I found a lot of these quests a little underwhelming, you’ll probably be wondering why I recommend this expansion pack so much? Well there are three main reasons I think you’d be remiss for skipping this one. Firstly, the areas and NPCs within them are quite amusing and visually impressive with each NPC being delusion al in a fun way while the zones and island itself are often beautiful to look at (within the limits of Oblivion’s graphical fidelity of course). Secondly the new items, spells and rewards are all well worth it and make it possible to make overpowered characters – as an example of this by the end you get the ability to summon three different powerful NPCs as allies for 120 seconds at a time. Finally the roleplaying potential of what’s contained within this expansion is quite potent, and you even get the ability to change the weather of the Shivering Isles once you’ve cleared the main story. There’s a lot of cool content here, especially the dialogue, but unfortunately it is let down slightly by the repetitive quest design. I actually thought that Knights of the Nine did a better job of varying things, as most dungeons only have a handful of different enemies and so you’ll be fighting the same enemies time-after-time-after-time. My suggestion would therefore be to enjoy the expansion for what it is, and try not to rush yourself as you will otherwise find the plot’s annoying habit of but wait, there’s more! to be extremely tedious. Perhaps fittingly for the realm of an insane daedric prince, nothing is ever simple and you will always be given just one more task until everything resolves itself in a twist ending involving the daedric prince of order, Jyggalag.

As for Jyggalag, he doesn’t make much of an appearance throughout the main plot but he is the primary antagonist and is the reason why you’ve been brought to the Shivering Isles in the first place. Essentially Sheogorath needs a champion who will help him withstand the “Greytide” which involves the minions of order destroying his charming realm of insanity under their dull, grey bootheels. The knights and priests of order are therefore recurring enemies and they can appear within the realm of the Shivering Isles in much the same way as gates of oblivion appeared within Cyrodiil, the only difference is that you can’t enter the crystals that spawn these enemies and must instead use 3 hearts of order to overload and thus close them. Unfortunately the forces of order aren’t particularly varied and as such they contribute to the feeling of repetition which sadly accompanies many of these quests. When you first encounter them, they’re pretty scary but by the end they feel like the bandits and highwaymen that plagued the roads and campsites of Oblivion.

But again, it feels remiss to whine about the main quest too much as there is a lot of content there (14 quests not counting the occasional ways in which they branch for future playthroughs) alongside roughly 20 side quests. There are also a lot of handy treasures scattered around, including water breathing helmets and other magical items alongside some new dungeons to fight through. Just be aware that some enemies in this expansion can inflict quasi-permanent debuffs to your main stats (like Strength, Endurance and so on) which will need to be cured with relatively expensive and rare potions. Just be sure to talk to everyone and you’ll get a healthy dose of the madness that surrounds this land like a fog, and be secure in the knowledge that once you clear through the main quest you’ll have gained a bunch of powerful items and spells. As such I’d say that this expansion is really about the new world and it’s inhabitants rather than the quests, which can be monotonous. To give some examples (I’ve been saying this a lot in this review huh?) you’ve got two competing blacksmiths in Bliss and The Crucible who get upset when you talk to the other one and who both offer the ability to turn new materials into unique sets of armour (Amber for light armour and Madness Ore for heavy armour) and weapons. There are two museums of curios, although only the one in The Crucible has a quest chain attached to it although the owner of the other one will ask if they can put you in suspended animation (no you can’t accept his humble request). And finally as you climb the ranks of this strange new realm, you’ll be constantly in touch with Sheogorath himself who veers constantly between manic merriment and demented irritance. He’s without a doubt the star of the show, and the way in which he makes you rile-up his man servant by constantly summoning him repeatedly is just one of the ways in which he makes the main narrative more amusing than it otherwise has any right to be.

To wrap up, The Shivering Isles is an expansion with a ton of content and character that gives you some very powerful gear, spells and summons. The quests themselves often give you a variety of options in how to proceed, but sadly are often just doing the same thing (i.e. killing everyone in a dungeon) which undermines the expansion a bit. Fortunately enough the dialogue and characters do a good job of keeping things lively and the new areas are visually impressive and contain plenty of attention to detail in spite of the relatively modest size of the expansion which clocks in at under 1GB. Ultimately the Shivering Isles is a meaty expansion pack that offers a lot for existing characters and for players who are able to enjoy the bizarre new realm that’s on offer. Those who are merely looking to push through the main quest line and who aren’t going to engage with the new zones, dialogue or characters will probably be a little underwhelmed but I think most RPG players will be satisfied with what’s on offer here. As a result I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to Oblivion fans, although I would recommend that they pace themselves and stop to smell the roses giant mushrooms along the way.

The post Oblivion: The Shivering Isles appeared first on Big Boaby Gaming.

Quick Note: As it’s 2023, I’m assuming that you know how Oblivion plays so I’m only touching on what’s in the content pack. If you don’t know how Oblivion plays, then it’s very similar to Skyrim. If you don’t know how either of those games play, then go play one of them (I think Oblivion is better, but it’s jankier).

KotN has a fairly innocuous opening, as your character hears about a prophet appearing in the town of Anvil who is prophesying about the end of the world. This adds yet another quest to your journal, and until you go there the game world proceeds as normal without any trouble. Once you get to Anvil, everyone’s gossiping about an attack on the Cathedral which has been ransacked and is full of corpses. On talking to the prophet, he tells you about the heroic crusade of myth Pelinal Whitestrake who struck down an Evil elvish lord called Umaril in days long past. It turns out Pelinal left the job half done however, as evil in the form of Umaril has returned and has murdered everyone in Anvil’s Cathedral to prove it. As such your selfless (or selfish, depending on your playstyle) adventurer is tasked with gathering up all the pieces of Pelinal’s old equipment, which have obtained relic status. Then by using them, you’ll be able to finish his job for him by defeating Umaril. To do this, you’ll need to gain the help of Nine Divines by praying at each of their 9 wayshrines which are scattered across Cyrodil.

As you can see from the map above, most of these shrines are either next to a town or are at least near a road. This makes finding them somewhat straightforward, but as I started a new character to play through this DLC (say what you like about Oblivion’s level scaling, but it at least makes this possible) the adventure of finding these shrines amidst the realm of Cyrodil was in and of itself a fun little adventure. I would be remiss if I didn’t note that all of the relics scale with your level however, so if you want the best versions you should either be level 21+ or download a mod that scales them to your level. Once you’ve tracked down each shrine and said a prayer, three things happen. Firstly your Infamy points are reset as this questline is only available to “good” adventurers, which means it can be useful for any remorseful vampires, thieves guild or dark brotherhood members. Secondly, it lets you player pray at these wayshrines going forward so that you can gain temporary buffs should you happen upon them again. Thirdly and finally, it advances the quest to the next stage where you get a vision from the big man Pelinal himself. This vision is pretty cool, as it thrusts your character up into the sky where ghostly Pelinal talks some shit about Umaril before he gives you the location of his own erstwhile resting place.

You’re then sent to a submerged ruin which fortunately is largely indoors, as otherwise you’d need to bring a lot of water-breathing potions or have decided to play as an Argonian. While fighting your way through, you come across the remains of one of the Knights of the Nine who was kind enough to be bearing a note that confirms that Pelinal’s bitchin’ helmet is located in this tomb, and that there was a group of Knights/Treasure hunters who were looking for the rest of the relics. Once you’ve yoinked the helmet, you then head to the abandoned priory that served as their base to hunt for clues Scooby Doo style. This turns out to be an apt comparison as the (hidden) basement is clustered with the semi-friendly ghosts of each of the fallen knights. As is typical for knightly fables, they’re polite enough but ask you to prove your worth by beating them up in a sequence of one-on-one fights. This section is pretty cool and while it sounds overwhelming, they’re not too tough (they failed after all) and you have a little bit of time to heal between each duel.

After proving that you are a certified BADASS (sorry, I played through all the Borderlands 2 DLC before playing this) you can then talk to all of the Knights and they tell you where various pieces of Pelinal’s equipment have ended up. Most of these quests are short but sweet and each have their own gimmicks, which I won’t spoil too much. Without giving much away, I’d recommend doing the Gauntlets last and say that you should do the Boots (which require a bit of thinking) before trying for the Mace. The Shield is by far the meatiest of these quests as it requires you to clear out a fort full of hostile Conjurers, who are fairly frail but who can cause you problems if you decided to play with an unarmed melee build like my rotund roleplaying ass. There are also some light puzzles contained within this quest, but they’re all pretty easy so long as you got enough oxygen in the womb. The only issue I had was due to a bug where the rotating statues didn’t appear to rotate (so having them all face the right way was really, really hard). If this happens to you, then you can try restarting the game which fixed it for me – or you can use the console commands to skip to the next stage. Once your questing is done you’ll have obtained almost all of the relics and can now head back to the Priory to brag tell your ghostly gang that you’re making good progress.

Upon your triumphant return your character is greeted by a priory that now has friendly NPCs and which has been spruced up so that it no longer looks abandoned. It’s somewhat jarring, but it turns out an NPC you freed while hunting for the shield rocked on up and brought some friends with him. Fortunately enough, one of these guys was smart enough to bring you one of the two remaining relics and knows where the last one is. The only problem? It’s been using by an evil wraith (is there any other kind?) who is related to the original Knights of the Nine falling apart in the first place. You’re then asked whether you want this helpful chap to become a member of your new, cooler Knights of the Nine. You can turn him down, but I don’t know why you would especially as he (temporarily) becomes your companion and peppers the corpses of everyone you fight with Silver Arrows that you can then sell later for free money. Once you’ve resolved this intense moral dilemma, you’re then tasked with killing the wraith and stealing his sword so that you can complete your relic collection. You’ll also need to take it to a Cathedral so it’ll stop being an evil sword, but that’s a pretty modest ordeal compared to most of the other stuff you’ve been dealing with.

With your collection of relics at 100%, the Prophet and a bunch of aspirant knights show up at your priory to give/listen to a speech respectively. Once the Prophet is done with his pep talk, he tells you that you must all go to Umaril’s new house and kick his cunt in end the threat that he poses to the Nine Divines and all the mortal inhabitants of the world. Three randoms and a guy from the Gauntlets quest then ask you if you’ll let them join your suicide righteous mission, which is a no brainer if ever there was one. By this point you should have 8 knights willing to sally forth with you, unless you told them all to go pound sand because you’re roleplaying angry, angry Pelinal. They’ll all then patiently wait for you at Umaril’s base while you go sell your loot to merchants there with all due speed. Once you’re there, you all charge forth into battle against small groups of enemies who get absolutely battered from all sides

During your heroic assault you’ll slaughter a bunch of enemies before eventually needing to split off from the group because the baddies keep respawning. As per the rest of the battle, my character resolved this issue by punching the obstacle – in this case a big glowing orb which exploded and then caused everyone except Umaril and two of his lackies to disappear. If you’ve got all of the relics equipped, Umaril himself is a very easy fight as you gain a powerful buff that drains most of his stats when you hit him. One thing that’s worth noting is that his sword also scales with your character’s level (the best version requires you to be level 24 or higher) and that you have to loot it while he’s in his physical form. Once you’ve bullied him avenged Pelinal you then need to cast a spell which teleports you to his very soul, at which point you beat him up again before there’s an explosion. An explosion so powerful in fact that it caused my game to crash, necessitating me to redo most of the mission again (thanks Todd). Fortunately Umaril wasn’t allowed to escape death a fourth time, so upon beating him again again again again my heroic character was returned to the Priory for congratulations and a slight sense of anti-climax as all my comrades in arms proceeded to walk right past me back indoors after 10 seconds of cheering. But this is a Bethesda game so that kind of abrupt tonal shift is par for the course. I then returned my relics to the armoury and went back to my humble life as a pilfering, boxing Khajiit.

Once you’ve wrapped up the questline in KotN there’s not too much left to do, nor much that has changed within Cyrodil itself. You’ve now got a cool new priory base and some new equipment that conveys various permanent buffs (aside from being enchanted) but otherwise KotN doesn’t add much. There are the new areas that you’ve fought through and some new valuable books added to the loot tables, plus the ability to gain a blessing from one of the old Knights that you’ve redeemed by completing their quest. You’ll also have gained a handful of new spells but that’s about it. As such this quest is about the journey, not the destination and while it’s fun to playthrough the storyline it’s a one-and-done affair. One last thing to note is that you need to retain your low infamy to be able to use the various relics that you’ve gathered across your crusade, as once you hit an Infamy value of two or more you can’t use them (and NPCs will sass you) until you go to each of the 9 wayshrines again.

In conclusion, KotN is a fun mini-expansion / DLC that doesn’t offer too much outside of it’s quest chain but does provide a fun series of quests for you to enjoy at any level. While the re-establishment of the Knights of the Nine does feel a little bit rushed, the quests themselves offer enough of a variety that I’m willing to let this slide. Admittedly once you’re finished with these quests the DLC kind of ends, but the new gear and spells are great while the new buffs and base are appreciated even if they won’t radically change your playstyle. Ultimately KotN is a memorable and fun quest-line with some good rewards (and an easy way to reset your Infamy points should you need it) that offers great value for returning players or those who’ve already beaten the main storyline. It’s not essential, but I’d highly recommend that any fan of Oblivion play through it – especially as it’s included with the modern versions of Oblivion that are available for sale.

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