Review by: Todd Brakke

Dead Money, the first DLC issue for Fallout: New Vegas, has arrived on the PC and it's not all that different from New Vegas itself: It's a slow burn with some frustrating aspects that about midway through starts to tie together, gain momentum, and turn into a wholly satisfying experience that deserves to be played.

Dead Money, which is balanced for high level characters, opens up a new location, a bunker, on your PIP-Boy-based map of the Mojave. This location, through the magic of convenient storytelling, whisks your player off to the distant Sierra Madre Casino resort --sans any follower you might have, as well as any of your equipment-- where you find yourself at the whim of brilliant madman Father Elijah.

You see, the Sierra Madre has fallen on tough times due to that pesky nuclear armageddon thing. Not that it didn't have troubles before that, as its failed environmental regulation systems have left a toxic red cloud over the whole of the resort. Come for the gambling, stay for the pretty red sky. If you play on Hardcore mode (where you have to eat, drink, and rest to sustain yourself) you'll find this cloud slowly but consistently eats away at your health, which is a problem since resources at the Sierra Madre can be rather limited. There is health to be salvaged from the ruins as well as some Bioshock-like vending machines that require special Sierra Madre chips to use, but between the environment, the Ghost People that haunt the place (they're not really ghosts; more like sand people), and the extreme lack of weapons and ammo, staying alive is something of a chore. I learned quickly it was often easier to run from Sierra Madre's inhabitants than try to fight.

Back to Elijah. Seems there's some grand treasure locked deep within the vault of the Sierra Madre casino and to get in, Elijah needs his Ocean's 4 of helpers to unlock both the Casino and the vault. He can't ask politely, though, so instead he's fitted you all with explosive collars that go off if you stray off course, fail to work together, or get too close to various radio and broadcast signals, only some of which you can disable. It's your job to round up the other three, convince them to play their respective roles, and get Elijah into the vault.

The gameplay in the first half of this DLC can get frustrating. Between the lack of resources, the Ghost People, the toxic cloud, the deadly radio signals, and the constant placement of traps, you can't easily move around. All combined it starts to feel like purposely delayed progress more than a gameplay challenge, but if you can get past that, you're likely to find these three new DLC characters really bring the experience to life. They're distinctive in look, background, and personality and all must be dealt with differently to get the result you want, with success often determined by your own character skills.

The second half of the DLC, when you actually enter the casino, is when the experience starts to shine. There's still a fair amount of fetching, that's just New Vegas' style, but as you peel back the layers of the story, the hidden agendas and the carefully guarded secrets reveal themselves in a satisfying way. Surely you already guessed this wasn't just a routine heist? Elijah, in particular, goes from fairly stock/annoying evil guy to somebody with a carefully reasoned and planned agenda. It's sadistic and crazy, to be sure, but every good villain is the hero of their own story and Elijah is definitely that.