Atomic Postman
Vault Archives Overseer
Alright, just going to post some thoughts on Lonesome Road.
Firstly, I actually like Ulysses. I think he's a good character. He has excellent buid up prior to Lonesome Road, the idea of a "mirror" protagonist is great. I love his background, his travels, his way of speaking and his insight on the factions of the game and the challenge he poses to the archetypal Fallout protagonist is great. I love the Divide both in concept and execution. Ulysses is the exemplar of new world mysticism of America that I love in New Vegas. That being said, I have some fundamental issues with Lonesome Road.
My main criticism is Ulysses shoud have been bombing the Mojave not NCR
For the following reasons:
1. Fallout should not promote atomic weapons as solutions to issues. Period. We here at NMA criticize Bethesda a lot for their light-hearted/laissez-faire portrayal of nuclear weapons, and yet I actually don't think the way ICBMs are used in Lonesome Road is actually conceptually any different in its message than the nuke system in Fallout 76.
2. If the player is literally any faction other than NCR, Ulysses's threats fall totally flat outside of existential moral offense to the loss of life in general/nuclear weapons. I'll be honest, when RPing my anarchistic Indepedent Courier, I found it hard to motivate him against Ulysses outside of personal grudge.
3. The idea of Ulysses nuking the player's "home" to make them understand the pain he felt of connecting himself to the Divide as a place of hope and where to rest his flagpole is a great idea. It feels so loosely connected/stretched with the explanation of the Long 15 being the Courier's home, where the Mojave exists as exactly that. Each player will feel connected to the Mojave, they've got that investment, that feeling of home exactly the same way Ulysses felt with the Divide.
Snuffing out the Mojave would be snuffing out the hope of a new community, the place where the player sets down their flag. It would also make both fighting Ulysses and killing him, and also talking him down by convincing him you believe in breathing life into the Mojave so, so much more compelling
4. Nuking Mojave would also achieve his intended effect of punishing Legion and NCR much more effectively and clearly than the stringent explaination that destroying NCR means the Legion will turn on itself quicker and also collapse.
5. It removes the total and insane strain on suspense of disbelief of any normalized/continuing relations with NCR or Legion when the player nukes either or both factions
Yes, sure, doing this would remove the variety of endings since letting him nuke Mojave would effectively end the game. However, Dead Money was basically "Stop Elijah and escape Sierra Madre" or "Non-Canon alternate ending". Why couldn't Lonesome Road be the same?
I actually like Ulysses blaming the Courier for the Divide job and basically everything else about him. But this is such a fundamental flaw to me that it cripples the overall storyline.
Firstly, I actually like Ulysses. I think he's a good character. He has excellent buid up prior to Lonesome Road, the idea of a "mirror" protagonist is great. I love his background, his travels, his way of speaking and his insight on the factions of the game and the challenge he poses to the archetypal Fallout protagonist is great. I love the Divide both in concept and execution. Ulysses is the exemplar of new world mysticism of America that I love in New Vegas. That being said, I have some fundamental issues with Lonesome Road.
My main criticism is Ulysses shoud have been bombing the Mojave not NCR
For the following reasons:
1. Fallout should not promote atomic weapons as solutions to issues. Period. We here at NMA criticize Bethesda a lot for their light-hearted/laissez-faire portrayal of nuclear weapons, and yet I actually don't think the way ICBMs are used in Lonesome Road is actually conceptually any different in its message than the nuke system in Fallout 76.
2. If the player is literally any faction other than NCR, Ulysses's threats fall totally flat outside of existential moral offense to the loss of life in general/nuclear weapons. I'll be honest, when RPing my anarchistic Indepedent Courier, I found it hard to motivate him against Ulysses outside of personal grudge.
3. The idea of Ulysses nuking the player's "home" to make them understand the pain he felt of connecting himself to the Divide as a place of hope and where to rest his flagpole is a great idea. It feels so loosely connected/stretched with the explanation of the Long 15 being the Courier's home, where the Mojave exists as exactly that. Each player will feel connected to the Mojave, they've got that investment, that feeling of home exactly the same way Ulysses felt with the Divide.
Snuffing out the Mojave would be snuffing out the hope of a new community, the place where the player sets down their flag. It would also make both fighting Ulysses and killing him, and also talking him down by convincing him you believe in breathing life into the Mojave so, so much more compelling
4. Nuking Mojave would also achieve his intended effect of punishing Legion and NCR much more effectively and clearly than the stringent explaination that destroying NCR means the Legion will turn on itself quicker and also collapse.
5. It removes the total and insane strain on suspense of disbelief of any normalized/continuing relations with NCR or Legion when the player nukes either or both factions
Yes, sure, doing this would remove the variety of endings since letting him nuke Mojave would effectively end the game. However, Dead Money was basically "Stop Elijah and escape Sierra Madre" or "Non-Canon alternate ending". Why couldn't Lonesome Road be the same?
I actually like Ulysses blaming the Courier for the Divide job and basically everything else about him. But this is such a fundamental flaw to me that it cripples the overall storyline.