I've just finished the Battle for Hoover Dam (over 80 hours clocked up on two different saves, just never done the ending), and I have to say the Battle for Hoover Damn was disappointing for me.

Here I expected to see thousands of troops battling all out like how the previous battle was described through lore and dialogue. Instead it felt like a 10 on 10 skirmish.

I know there were parts where you could tell legion was going to spawn, and there would be 5 vs 5 (legion to ncr) in the hallways and rooms under the dam, this was good - but when I got on top....I was heavily underwhelmed.

I mean there looked like 3 or 4 NCR rangers (plus me, boon and ed-e) vs random spouts of 3 or 4 legionnaire's. No big army in sight anywhere. Even killing the Legion camp there was only 5-6 people around at once.

I understand there is engine limitations, and you don't want all the users lagging out with too many body's on screen but even far off battle scenes or constant waves of troops (i.e. kill one one spawns) would have made this seem much more like a battle. This instead felt like a small quest to raid a camp!

Anyone else think the same thing, or did I miss something?

Yeah, it would have been nice to see an actual battle, unfortunately, as you said yourself, it's just not possible on that engine.

Yeah, this is one of the few complaints i have about the game (besides not continuing after you beat the game), I felt it was completely underwhelming for such a huge build up

What really woulda been great was like you said yeah, having distant battles, artillery firing and impacting all over the place, etc.

But also having, instead of that 1-1 ratio, and having Legion/NCR spawns static 1 per tower, it shoulda had it to where most of the Legion guys were unarmoured/very lightly armoured, Legion spawned continually and charged the well-emplaced NCR, who have a few fixed spawns but heavier guns as well as Sniper support from the towers. This would be more realistic to me, where CL would charge an entrenched NCR garrison who would fire continually into the Legionnaires, with both sides taking quite a few casualties.

Also if you didn't close the valves (Pro-NCR) or if you did aid the CL troops inside (Pro-CL), then CL troops should start spawning behind the NCR line, simulating a flanking maneuver through the Dam. If you did the opposites, you would have fewer CL soldiers on top, and a few Rangers behind the CL troops.

After all the work I did to make a neutral run through and not PO any faction ( in fact helped them all ).
Then got the exact same ending as the Yesman route I would say it was under whelming for me due to the fact it was so player combat focused.
A direct path on all runs straight into the enemies guns was just too much like the water purifier end quest to me.

It was underwhelming but not unexpected because I remembered the limitations of the game engine. It's never been able to do justice to large scale battles so you just have to understand that every trooper represents a lot more soldiers that just that one guy.

The engine has never been able to render just tons of people on screen at one time. I remember several battles in Oblivion & FO3 that were similarly underwhelming.

ii like ducks

It was disappointing for me because it was just runnin' and gunnin'.

I don't like ducks. I'm a penguin person.

Glad I'm not the only one! Yeah I don't mean purely more troops, I mean ambiance to make you feel like you were really in a battle. I like the Spartan's ideas etc - far off cannons firing, troops storming down distant hills, battles on different areas (fighting on top of towers, down below on the concrete pad, up on the ridges). These could even have low rez sprites or something in the distance if performance was an issue.

The boomers (who I helped) did lend air support which was cool, except they were blanket bombing 2-3 troops tops rather than smashing bombs into dozens of people! I wonder if the spawns mod someone is making can ramp it up here. Even if these events were heavily scripted (i.e. A centurion throws a NCR Ranger off the cliff as you see them running past etc) it would be good. Also once you kill the leader of the opposing faction it would be awesome to see all the enemy troops rounded up and captured. Maybe im just asking for too much - but I was expecting a big ending.

It would also be great if there were some quests included in the sequence e.g. You walk up to some troops and they tell you that one of their comrades has been captured, and you launch a rescue mission with them behind enemy lines etc.

I would also have like to have seen the CL's main base actually filled with troops (not just a few guards). That way you would have to stealth sneak in and be constantly fighting as you move through, rather than just snipe the 5 or so guards.

Don't get me wrong, I love the game, I just thought that the stage seemed a little too small for the hype the npc's had given me for the end battle!

The concept of the battle was cool but if there were like 75 vs 75 now that would actually be a battle. I usually call the Battle of the Hoover Dam the Skirmish of the Hoover Dam.

It was alright. I enlisted the BOS but don't remember seeing any of them top-side at any point. Just a couple down inside the dam.. kinda lame