Fallout: New Vegas - Old World Blues has injected new life into the RPG. It’s almost as though the developers were high on the Wild Wasteland perk while crafting this. You get a strange feeling when playing Old World Blues; most of New Vegas is quite serious, with black comedy thrown in here and there - Old World Blues is like humor on steroids.

It’s unfortunate, though, that Old World Blues suffers from technical issues known by every explorer of the Mojave that, while not completely ruining the experience of Old World Blues, might cause a bit of frustration.

Old World Blues sees the Courier kidnapped by a strange group of scientists residing at the Big Empty, or, as you’re forced to call it, “Big Mountain.” In a 20-30 minute conversation with Dr. Klein over in The Think Tank (the location where these pre-war scientists have kept themselves by having their brains placed in “think tanks” in order to continue researching), he explains how Doctor Mobius, the villain in our little tale, is holed up in a base within Big Mountain and is sending out armies of robot-scorpions and frequent threatening broadcasts. You’re also told that you need to find and retrieve three different technologies to basically get rid of him, though Dr. Klein isn’t willing to tell you exactly how these technologies are supposed to rid the world of Mobius. 

The reason for needing to help these pre-human scientists? Mobius has stolen your brain. Your heart, spine and brain were all taken out in order to perform an experiment by the very people you now need to help; as it turns out, there’s something about you that’s allowing your body to still communicate with your brain just slightly - but it’s enough to stop you from turning into one of the many Lobotomites that are found throughout Big Mountain.

So, basically, find three technologies to defeat Mobius once and for all and you’ll get your brain back and be allowed to get the hell out of Big Mountain; that’s your main quest. As I quickly discovered, though, the last thing I wanted to do was to rush through this quest, because Old World Blues - unlike Dead Money - has a much more open-world feel to it, with 35 unique locations to discover, many of which are abandoned experimental laboratories with their own stories and secrets to uncover.

As I previously mentioned, Old World Blues is, quite frankly, hilarious. Even your own little space that you’re provided with (which once belonged to Mobius) has objects with their own personalities, whether it’s the evil toaster that is hell-bent on killing kitchen appliances, light switches who hate each other or a little robot who has been programmed to be obsessed with coffee mugs - their personalities are unique, fresh and just simply enjoyable to get to know. The humor never ends; when you’re not talking to someone, you’ll be hearing the scientists sending out broadcasts about communists, or how one of them misses the sight of your flesh. And when that’s not happening, your armor will be asking you whether or not you like it, and apologizing every once in a while about the outcome of a battle, explaining how it was all its fault, and not yours, that you no longer have any Stimpaks left.



Unfortunately, Old World Blues suffers from the same bugs known by anyone who has played New Vegas since its launch back in 2010. Such things as doors disappearing, getting stuck in between rocks, enemies mindlessly trying to run towards you when they’re stuck - it’s all here in Old World Blues. That being said, however, these issues never really bothered me much; I was too busy being sucked into this marvelous expansion pack that had me bursting out with laughter at some parts.

I spent a good 10-12 hours with Old World Blues, and I still hadn’t discovered all the secrets of Big Mountain, let alone all 35 locations. If you’re a regular New Vegas player, or are looking for an excuse to play it again, you simply cannot go wrong with Old World Blues, especially with its shockingly low price of 800 Microsoft Points ($10).