Fallout: New Vegas - Honest Hearts Review (Saithiel)
Honest Hearts promised a captivating journey into the wilderness, featuring the mysterious Joshua Graham and his powerful and manly voice. However, it fell drastically short of expectations, leaving me with a sense of frustration and underwhelmed. Despite Zion not looking bad, it lacked the post-apocalyptic ambiance that is present in the Fallout universe.
One of the aspects that let me down the most was the treatment of Joshua Graham, a character with immense potential. His introduction was promising, leaving me eager to encounter him and expecting this event to be super memorable or impactful. I mean, the slaves in Caesar's Legion keep talking about him all the time, he was lit on fire and still lived. Yet, this excitement was short-lived when I was offered the chance to meet him after like ten minutes of gameplay, and the encounter with Joshua was disappointingly mundane. He is in fact an important and interesting character, however, he only offers a few minutes of dialogue, and then he gives you three fetch quests and offers you weapons. That's about it. Once again, the voice acting for Joshua Graham was commendable, but the lack of meaningful interactions was disheartening.
The story itself was a jumbled mess. The initial immersion created by Jed quickly gave way to boredom as I embarked on tedious fetch quests accompanied by uninspiring NPCs. The tribes, supposedly crucial to the narrative, were indistinguishable from one another and lacked the background that could have made them intriguing. The only thing I found interesting were their languages, but they only know like three words/sentences and that's about it lol
Daniel, who seems as the "good guy" seeking peaceful resolution, was a one-dimensional character, leaving little room for player investment. Moreover, the whole DLC experience was surprisingly short, clocking in at a mere three hours. These precious hours were wasted on repetitive and poorly written quests that felt more like chores than actual engaging gameplay.
While the Zion landscape did possess some charm, it failed to compensate for the glaring issues that plagued the Honest Hearts DLC. It's pretty sad to witness such potential squandered and the iconic character of Joshua Graham been so severely misused. Honest Hearts falls far below my expectations.