izigame.me

Honest Hearts was the second DLC expansion for New Vegas, and unfortunately probably the worst. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad expansion, but it does come up short in comparison to the other DLC’s in most every aspect. Likewise, it is significantly shorter than the others (assuming one does the side content in Old World Blues) so it’s not as though it’s tediously long and cumbersome. If you asked me previously, I probably would have said this was my second favourite DLC, but that was when I mostly ignored the intricacies of the story and characters, and so at face value Honest Hearts is a genuinely enjoyable expansion. There will be mild spoilers, but I try my best and will censor anything important.
So without further adieu, Honest Hearts is aggressively average and here’s why:
The entire DLC takes place up north in Utah in a place called ‘Zion’, with the courier taking part of an expedition by the Happy Trails Caravan Company where they seek to establish a trade network with New Canaan. This, however, is irrelevant as you soon find yourself alone to meddle in the fate of the area. It is this newfound setting that the tone for the DLC is set as you are immediately greeted by a scout of the Dead Horses, one of the tribal groups inhabiting the area and are taken to the legendary Joshua Graham, otherwise referred to as the burned man.This is a criticism as the pace of the DLC is accelerated and doesn’t allow for the setting and the sense of loneliness like one may feel in the others. Yes they are still quick to unravel the story, setting and characters, but Honest Hearts immediately plunges you into the preparations for the grand finale. This dynamic is akin to you stating Dead Money inside the casino, as opposed to building to that final area; it just doesn’t make sense to start it so late. There was potential to have a longer and perhaps more interesting story that the player would be more invested in as opposed to the feeling that you just randomly stumbled upon a Mexican standoff. Yes there’s more to it than that, but it’s that sense of pace that was set that gives this impression.
There are three main tribes that reside in Zion, being: the Dead Horses, the Sorrows and the White Legs. The White Legs are the first tribe you will encounter as they were the faction that ambushed your party at the beginning, soon being acquainted with the Dead Horses once the player takes care of the vermin. The Dead Horses are headed by Joshua Graham, whom I mentioned previously and will expand on later. Finally, the Sorrows are the last tribe and are led by Daniel, whom I will likewise expand on later. Now, I say these two ‘lead’ these tribes, but that isn’t necessarily true. I’m not sure on the exact dynamic, but essentially, Graham and Daniel are affiliated with their separate tribes and possess significant influence as to how they will act. Graham and the Dead Horses wish to remove the White Legs from Zion by force, with Daniel preferring to evacuate. The White Legs on the other hand, wish to conquer Zion for themselves (fairly obvious and instantly revealed) as this was the rite of entry to the Legion that Caesar presented them; to which Joshua suspects was a result of his presence in the area. If you paid even a little attention to the main narrative of New Vegas, especially if you spoke in depth with Caesar or sided with the Legion, you will be familiar with the tale of Joshua Graham; he was set alight and tossed from the dam for his failures as the first Legate to conquer it, yet somehow survived and escaped. This is the predominant dynamic that gives the DLC substance as Graham is a very interesting character and single handedly carries the experience on his shoulders. This is the general setting and dynamic of the DLC, and so with the context out of the way, I can finally delve into the actual substance surrounding Honest Hearts’ disappointing musk (not the best word I know).
Starting with Joshua Graham, his presence was a welcome one, and as I previously mentioned, it carries the DLC. His character was constantly eluded to and so his expansion in this DLC adds to the atmosphere and helps tie in the conflict. However, this is why I think of Honest Hearts as more of a long side quest of Caesar's rival factions. What I mean is, his presence serves as the motives for the White Legs, who were ordered by Caesar to defeat the tribes of Zion as a stipulation in them joining the Legion.It feels like it is an opportunity to undermine the control of Caesar on a second front by siding with Graham in defeating the White Legs, with those who choose to side with Daniel allowing the Legion hegemony over Zion, and consequently allotting them further strength for the second battle of Hoover Dam.That being said, this was not how the DLC was intended, which is disappointing, because there was potential for an interesting, albeit optional and long, side objective for battle preparations. i.e Caesar would send you in to kill Graham, with the NCR, Mr. House and Yes Man sending you to aid his efforts. Alas, this is not the case and there is little point in speculation. I got a little side tracked but the point stands. The next and final thing I wish to mention about Graham has kind of already been mentioned in that Caesar ordered the White Legs to conquer the tribes of Zion. I’ve said that about a million times so allow me to elaborate; this presents the pettiness of Caesar and also outlines how much he fears Graham, displaying a significant weakness; it’s very telling of Caesar as a character and the relationship between the characters.
Moving onto Daniel, yeah he sucks. Firstly, he’s an ‘innocent’ character, he preaches pacifism and follows the bible religiously, to the point it’s his entire personality in a different way than Joshua. His argument for evacuating however, makes no sense. He claims the fighting will only breed more violence, which is true, and I would feel bad for him and understand his plight in an ordinary world, but this is Fallout we’re talking about. Frankly, I don’t know how he made it this far as his beliefs extend to violence only resulting in self defence, not offence and just running away from conflict and it makes no sense for the courier in 99% of roleplaying circumstances to take his side. Likewise, he said something…counterintuitive when conversing in that he believes in evacuating Zion, as to take the offensive against the White Legs would be murdering innocent people. Now, there is a chance that I mis-interpreted this but within the context I don’t see any other way as, strictly speaking, there are no civilians in Zion, the Dead Horses are militaristic and the Sorrows already evacuated theirs. What this does mean is that he believes self-defence is strictly limited to once an attack has been made, as opposed to a preventative one prior to an explicit attack which is an interesting moral and philosophical debate I could talk about for hours and is a nice detail. This is one aspect of him that I like as it has that good ol’ fashion moral decision making for the player to interpret that I enjoy so much about in the base game. The only other aspect I find ‘redeemable’ about him, I put this in quotations because it is a serious imperfection, but it is the imperfection that I like, in that he withholds the fact that the husband of Waking Cloud is dead as he doesn’t want it to impede on her conscience during this critical time. This is contradictory as it conflicts with his beliefs as a devout Christian and serves as a serious imperfection in his moral and ethical frameworks that is not present in the writing of modern Fallout games.
Unfortunately, Honest Hearts falls flat as a result of its shallow plot and characters. If it was expanded more, or even approached in a different manner, it had potential to work, but as it stands the story and characters just aren’t fleshed out enough.
6.5/10