Honest Hearts. An underrated DLC?

Post » Fri May 04, 2012 3:26 pm

I've read a lot on these forums about HH being the worst DLC out of the 4 for this game. But i've played it quite a few times now and I really enjoy it. Its actually my favourite out of the four. The survival aspect is really cool, and there are so many great crafting items available during your visit. The available loot in this DLC is the best I think. Especially if you are a grunt character. Its also a DLC that you can do very early into your playthrough. The other ones you have to wait until you are higher levels.
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Izzy Coleman
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 11:59 am

The bad part of it(IMO):
-Mostly fetch quests
-You cannot join the White Legs
-Rather short
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Kill Bill
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 1:42 pm

That is true. I do wish it was a bit longer.

I enjoy Randall Clark's story as well.
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Lucky Boy
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 4:11 am

I don't hate Honest Hearts, I might come off as very aggressive towards it but I quite like it.
I dislike how short it is, how linear it is and how few choices we get, but apart from that I love it.
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Rob Smith
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 10:37 am

The bad part of it(IMO):
-Mostly fetch quests
-You cannot join the White Legs
-Rather short
I don't hate Honest Hearts, I might come off as very aggressive towards it but I quite like it.
I dislike how short it is, how linear it is and how few choices we get, but apart from that I love it.
Pretty much this. I love the dlc but i don't like how short it is and the whole "I can't join the white legs and be bad."
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Donatus Uwasomba
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 10:56 am

I don't buy DLC for items, and the main questline was so unremarkable that even you didn't mention it. Aside from some of the loot, the only thing i liked about HH was the text-only story of the Survivalist and the Vault 22 survivors.

Plus, Joshua Graham was supposed to be a huge deal, but in the end his character was less fleshed out than any of the companions in Dead Money.
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Robert
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 3:17 am

I don't buy DLC for items, and the main questline was so unremarkable that even you didn't mention it. Aside from some of the loot, the only thing i liked about HH was the text-only story of the Survivalist and the Vault 22 survivors.

Plus, Joshua Graham was supposed to be a huge deal, but in the end his character was less fleshed out than any of the companions in Dead Money.

Pretty much this, all though the DLC is still my favorite of the four because of one simple fact.

The scenery!

Seriously, its like the screen was making sweet sweet love to my eyes. Also I got a sense of pride in knowing that my home state was finally starting to show up in Fallout.
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Abi Emily
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 3:15 pm

The bad part of it(IMO):
-Mostly fetch quests

All RPG quests are fetch quests, when will people realize that?
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Jack
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 9:51 am

All RPG quests are fetch quests, when will people realize that?
Well no, there are many quests that require you to kill something or defend something. In many RPGs. Though if you view, for example, a rescue quest as fetch quest then I can't argue about that.
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Isaac Saetern
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 11:12 am

Joshua Graham is the only saving grace of HH for me. Not a bad DLC though, but I rarely play it.
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Pawel Platek
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 10:25 am

Pretty much this, all though the DLC is still my favorite of the four because of one simple fact.

The scenery!

Seriously, its like the screen was making sweet sweet love to my eyes. Also I got a sense of pride in knowing that my home state was finally starting to show up in Fallout.

I agree, in all of the New Vegas locations, I think Zion is the most visually appealing. No other DLC, or location in the main game comes close. Though I do have a soft spot for Vault 22, with all its plants.

But yeah, the scenery every time. I love the red and orange landscape. Also, it actually rains there! :)
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Wanda Maximoff
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 2:09 pm

The beginning is great and perhaps first three missions too, but then it gets quite boring, however I've completed it I think three times so far. Endings are lame and poorly done, I feel there's no real conclusion.
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DeeD
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 2:09 pm

Graham is boss. Zion is a pretty place. But fetch quests make up 95% of the main story. Get these three pre-War items. Get the staircase. Get these war totems.
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Crystal Birch
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 11:48 am

Honest Heats is my favorite DLC for several reasons.

The setting, atmosphere, NPCs and story all blend together very well.

No single NPC feels overly dominant in Honest Hearts, unlike the stoned rastafarian from Lonesome Road.

With the spawn rates its a hunters paradise.

It's the most open DLC. Since the main quest is very short at least 75% of the map is optional. The optional part includes a "buried treasure quest" in the story of the Father in the Caves and the history of The Sorrows, and finding a few very nice items if you are persistent. In this regard HH is much more like New Vegas where a huge portion of the world is optional. It is the opposite of Lonesome Road which I didn't like the first time and found the second time to be sheer drudgery.

But each to his own.
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Peetay
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 6:03 am

I love Honest Hearts and can play through it again and again. Why? Well, first I like Graham, I like the Story of the "father in the cave", it is easy (like a walk in a State Park :D), it's a welcome change of scenery from the dusty Mojave. You can pretty much play through it with a lower level character, gain levels, feast your eyes on the beauty that is Zion, get nice gear. :)
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Russell Davies
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 3:05 am

first playthrough

1. LR
2. DM
3. OWB
4. HH

repeat playthroughs

1. OWB
2. LR
3. HH
4. DM
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Tikarma Vodicka-McPherson
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 6:02 am

Ew. I always do HH first because I hate that DLC.

I can understand why people like it though. It's so pretty! :biggrin:
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Janette Segura
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 4:02 am

Exactly, Honest Hearts is great EXCEPT for the fact that the moment you fall in love with the setting/story/conflict... it ends.

They could have had a full game based on those types of tribes and conflicts and it would have been 10x better than Red Dead Redemption.

I really miss that bald chick companion
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Theodore Walling
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 3:50 pm

I really miss that bald chick companion
Walking Cloud.
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Makenna Nomad
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 10:02 am

Well no, there are many quests that require you to kill something or defend something. In many RPGs. Though if you view, for example, a rescue quest as fetch quest then I can't argue about that.

Any quest where you have to go somewhere, or find someone, or something is a fetch quest, you can disguise it as anything you want but at its core its nothing but a fetch quest.

Fetching doesn't have to be an item.
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Rachel Eloise Getoutofmyface
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 10:05 am

Exactly, Honest Hearts is great EXCEPT for the fact that the moment you fall in love with the setting/story/conflict... it ends.

They could have had a full game based on those types of tribes and conflicts and it would have been 10x better than Red Dead Redemption.

I really miss that bald chick companion

I liked Honest Hearts so much I revamped an older companion as part of my last New Vegas mod and located her in Zion Canyon.

The mod is called Companion X ( http://modsreloaded.com/companion-x ) and it has 8 companions.

The one you might like is Kayenta. There's a picture of her in the screeshots tab.

Kayenta begins in the Dead Horses camp. She's not from their tribe but looks similar to their warriors, and she's a hunter and scout like them. (Not a healer like Waking Cloud.) She gives the player survival skills and can build a campfire as her companion perk. If you talk to her you can learn a bit of her history.

I always liked the outdoors/hunter-survivalist type of build so I made this companion specifically for myself.

You can take her back to the Mojave afterwards. Just be warned she hates Legion like Boone does.
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Lalla Vu
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 5:46 am

Any quest where you have to go somewhere, or find someone, or something is a fetch quest, you can disguise it as anything you want but at its core its nothing but a fetch quest.

Fetching doesn't have to be an item.
In my last sentence I was trying to say that I see no point in arguing about this if we start twisting every quest to a fetch form:
For example, killing could be viewed as a fetching of life or settling a troubled region could be viewed as fetching peace for them.
I just don't see it that way. Sure I agree that fetch quests are a major part of RPGs but every quest? IMO, no.
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Scott Clemmons
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 2:28 pm

My main gripe with most of the FONV DLCs is replayability, or lack thereof. Sure you can always revisit Zion Valley, but unless you are gathering or green gecko hunting, I see very little point to. I barely see any white leg remnants. Do they ever respawn after the quest is over? In my experience at least they don't.

I especially don't like the fact that NONE of the NPCs that you dealt with particularly Graham who served as Zion's only vendor all disappear from Zion, no matter how you choose to resolve the conflict. I have been nice if a even "generic" Dead Horse or Sorrows member took over that "vendor" role, which would have given me a reason to revisit Zion. Or maybe had a chance of saving the Caravan from the beginning and use them as both a vendor and as means to travel to and from Zion.

It would have also been cool IMHO, if you could have asked one or both of the followers to stay in Zion and be your follower while you visit there.

Occasionally I'd revisit Zion for the view and chance of scenery, but since I've been playing Skyrim the need to even do that has been practically eliminated. I actually like the "Randall Clark" side quests better than the main HH quests and I especially enjoyed disarming and using the Survivalist's caves as my "home bases" while in Zion.
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Lady Shocka
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 10:23 am

My main gripe with most of the FONV DLCs is replayability, or lack thereof. Sure you can always revisit Zion Valley, but unless you are gathering or green gecko hunting, I see very little point to. I barely see any white leg remnants. Do they ever respawn after the quest is over? In my experience at least they don't.

I especially don't like the fact that NONE of the NPCs that you dealt with particularly Graham who served as Zion's only vendor all disappear from Zion, no matter how you choose to resolve the conflict. I have been nice if a even "generic" Dead Horse or Sorrows member took over that "vendor" role, which would have given me a reason to revisit Zion. Or maybe had a chance of saving the Caravan from the beginning and use them as both a vendor and as means to travel to and from Zion.

It would have also been cool IMHO, if you could have asked one or both of the followers to stay in Zion and be your follower while you visit there.

Occasionally I'd revisit Zion for the view and chance of scenery, but since I've been playing Skyrim the need to even do that has been practically eliminated. I actually like the "Randall Clark" side quests better than the main HH quests and I especially enjoyed disarming and using the Survivalist's caves as my "home bases" while in Zion.
I don't really see the point to returning at all.
Once the quests are done then I fail to see why I'd ever want to go back.
Even if Follow's Chalk and Walking Cloud stayed, even if White Legs respawned, even if there was a vendor to take Graham's place, I don't see the point to it.
I mean, unless I go back to find the rest of the entries for that depressing dude the only thing to do is kill stuff.
Same goes for just about every DLC.
Why go back to Adams Airforce Base? To kill stuff and collect unique's you forgot.
Why go back to The Pitt? To collect stuff you forgot and/or kill stuff.
Why go back to Point Lookout? To collect stuff and kill Trogs, I mean Hillfolk.

So replayability with the same character? There is none. :shrug:
Replayability with a new character? That there is though. :D
Should there be replayability with the same character beyond killing/collecting stuff? I dunno. Maybe? No idea what that would be though.
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Kelly Upshall
 
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Post » Fri May 04, 2012 8:44 am

It's the story. Honest Hearts is the DLC where I feel like I have questions I want to ask that I can't within gameplay. Or there's loose ends. For example, for me I decided to heed Daniel's warnings about Joshua wanting to fight the White Legs for different reasons, so I evacuated Zion. I expected to hear commentary from Joshua about this OR to get an ending slide showing what happens to him, but I didn't. You also can't really challenge Daniel or Graham directly. They just make their case and then you say "sure ok" without any objection.

Aside from that though, it's still a fine DLC. Very nice replay value too, since it's brief, fun and awards all kinds of goodies.
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Mason Nevitt
 
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