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LR isn't making you out to be a bad guy, Ulysses is attempting to show you, the player, how 1 person can drastically change history by their actions, regardless if you're bad or good. The Divide was a nation getting on its feet when disaster struck it. Ulysses is sort of a jumbled mess of writing, but he wants to destroy the NCR the same way the Divide was taken from him. And his dialogue changes throughout the DLC depending on who you are closer to in the main game. If you're leaning towards NCR, he criticises the NCR. If you're leaning towards House, he criticizes House, and so on.
The endings are to either team up with him, persuade him to give up, or kill him. Then nuke the NCR, the Legion, both, or use ED-E to deactivate the nukes. I shouldn't have to tell you, meme-ing aside, which ones are "good".
As for Honest Hearts, the most popular ending is probably the one where you fight the white legs but spare Salt. That way the Sorrows learn to defend what is theirs, but also show mercy so they don't become the White Legs.
Just shoot him in the face, because he's the worst Chris Avellone mouthpiece character.
Bonus points if you stealth kill him before he talks to you a final time!
Lonesome road horribly butchers and confuses this message by having the only person who ever talks be a deranged lunatic who can't ever start a competent thought, let alone complete one, who insists it's your fault that he's about to intentionally nuke the NCR.
Anyways, the PC unintentionally delivered the means to nuke a massive settlement, and the massive settlement got nuked. There wasn't any way you could have known. Ulysses hints at starting a smart discussion about "responsibility" and "fault", how the two are not the same, and what the differences in moral import is. And then spends the rest of the time using those words interchangeably, before deciding it is actually also your fault.
All the backstory in the main game and the other 3 DLCs lead up to this crap??? Massive, massive letdown.
Ulysses traveled all over the wasteland and essentially helped craft the world the main story takes place in, him being one of the first fumentarii to enter the Mojave. This is the world the courier is invested in. Hopeville, the town that the courier both created and destroyed, was the world Ulysses was invested in. So Ulysses thinks that nuking the Mojave is congruous with the courier's thought process, unless the courier can convince Ulysses that they can craft a new "Hopeville" (or rather the idea of a Hopeville, a place where east and west peacefully mingle) in the Mojave via a speech and rep check or convince Ulysses that they understand what he's talking about via collecting his audio logs. If he succeeded in nuking the Mojave or NCR, he would've only been doing his job as a high level fumentarii of the Legion.
So what do you do in Lonesome Road? A "good" courier takes accountability and saves ED-E, who we know through his first encounter (his history you could say) has access to the bunker consoles. ED-E will then disarm the nukes. The courier prevented a third nuclear genocide by finally recognizing his history in relation to the Lonesome Road. As the final line says, "war doesn't change, though men do, through the roads they walk."
Dead Money was all about letting go, Honest Hearts was trying to save the soul of Joshua by having him let go of the past and to forgive himself, Old World Blues was all about how the past is better left forgotten and buried.
Ulysses is mentioned or traces of him are found in nearly all of this to some degree. The entire game and its DLCs up to this point was about the futility of clinging to the past and letting go. Lonesome Road comes along and Ulysses, despite seeing and knowing much of this, refuses to do so. He's unhinged and hasn't learned any lessons, like the major players all focused on Nevada.
That's why I say you kill him. He'll talk down to you, rain condemnations even if you have learned the lessons that he refuses to. He's not to be even entertained, just put out of your misery.
It's a bug. Never encountered it myself but it's a common bug that Ulysses will talk as if you're working with one faction despite cutting ties with said faction. Mr house seems to be the most common.
I have two theories why this happens. One is because his death is somehow isn't tied to Ulysses' dialogue, so getting the platinum chip and either a) upgrading the securitrons or b) giving the chip to him, is only counted. The other theory is that I may have to do with when exactly Lonesome Road is started and ended in a playthrough.
The unofficial patch fixes this that I know of.
I don't feel that to leave the past buried is explicitly the big theme of OWB, but more so (like with the vault 22 quest) that the past can show horrors and shows the wrongs, but can be used and adapted into something new, better, and helpful, or a sort of a mix my and your theory.
Why do I feel this? Due to the endings of OWB. (These endings are found on the wiki, link here: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Old_World_Blues_endings)
I will be covering the following endings and my thoughts on what they do to develop the overall point of OWB that is of (IMO) expanding from the past and not just leaving it behind, and I will only include quotes for what I think important/relevant (I'll also mention endings that prove your point though):
- Ending start
- The crater
- The sink
- Bio research station
- Sink
- Sink Auto-Doc
- X-8 center
- X-13 center
- Courier's brain
- Finale
Ending start.
For good/neutral karma, "...The Courier watched over the Big Empty for years to come, caring for it, and keeping its discoveries safe until they were needed to help others. Which had always been Big MT's purpose. Past the laboratories and Science, it had always been intended as a place to build the future of all mankind." This shows plainly the purpose of the big MT and nothing of leaving it forgotten. While for bad karma, "...The Courier who had been brought to the Big Empty became its new overlord, using its facilities ruthlessly and decisively when needed. Sometimes Science is more than a quest for discovery - it is a weapon to be used in the service of one with the strength to understand it." This does represent how the past can better be left forgotten.
The Crater.
Notably said in both endings where <26 secondary locations are explored, "...however... curiosity, while sometimes rewarded for its efforts, often proves to be equally dangerous." This represents both opinions where the past should be forgotten but can also be expanded
The Sink.
For only 1 personality module installed, "The Sink was strangely silent, which it had never been in previous years. The lack of personality modules made the base lifeless and sterile." This clearly displays how sure, the past can be forgotten, however by not looking further into it life can become dull. For 2-4 modules installed, "...or announcing a discovery. It kept things... lively. Secretly, the Sink Central Intelligence Unit was relieved that not all of the personality chips had been found. What was there, was enough." Again, supporting both views as new discoveries have been made (objectively good) but leaving the other modules to be forgotten may allow bad that could have happened to not happen, though IMO this is kind of shakey because just like with lead, its hard for who is at fault because we cannot predict the future. For 5+ modules installed, "Still, this all happened productively in the interests of its new owner. The Sink Central Intelligence Unit discovered, despite its inversion code, it was comforted by the sense of community the other personalities gave it." Not gonna say much for this, as sure all the productivity from the sink is in favor for the Courier, but productive for the courier does not always equal to productive for the Mojave (courier could go bad karma or legion as example).
Bio-Research station.
For installation but not discovering x-22, "The Biological Research Station, obsessed with seeding everything in sight, ran out of fertile plots and blew a circuit trying to seed itself." As if the past (in this place x-22) is forgotten, then future efforts will die, if we forget the past then we forget what we make ourselves, applying to the Bio-Research station as IT dies. For installation and discovering x-22, "The Garden sent back a polite refusal, saying it had prior commitments with a Vault it had helped infect before the war." Which shows that by re-discovering the past, people are put back into place if they get out of it, and that because the past (in this case x-22) was discovered, the research station didn't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ die.
Sink.
There's 3 total endings for it, but I will only mention two, which this one is where the sink module is installed and the Z-43 is discovered, "Once it learned of the Innovative Toxins Plant, however, it gained new purpose. It sought to develop anti-toxins to flush into its drains and counteract the poisons bleeding into the soil." If the past isn't forgotten as Z-43 is discovered, then benefits for the earth by removing toxins brought by the war (and pre-war, probably, can't say nuclear technology being so so commonplace is beneficial for nature). Now, if the sink module is installed and the Magnetohydraulics complex is discovered, "Eventually, it gained access to the Magnetohydraulics Plant and nearly flooded all the Big Empty in an attempt to scrub the crater clean." Where while altruistic in purpose, still causes the potential of death and destruction of technology if the plant isn't forgotten.
Sink Auto-Doc.
There's the base ending here for installing the Auto-Doc, but that isn't relevant, however it is relevant if Y-17 is discovered, "In time, the Auto-Doc found a way to deactivate the Y-17 Trauma Harnesses, releasing the corpses they had held prisoner for almost 200 years." Again, yes, you know about the past in this case being the facilities and discovering certain ones bring good from certain personality units in the sink, where in this case anyone who potentially discovered big MT won't have the fear of dying to any trauma harnesses.
X-8 Center.
If not all tests are done, then "They eventually created new cyberdogs to root out Commie traitors from the Wasteland... traitors like Betsy Bright... Richie Marcus... although they couldn't seem to find any Commies, so they turned on themselves, howling sonic barks that echoed miles across the landscape." Where by leaving the past, then only chaos ensues in X-8. If all tests are done however, "...until the facility finally realized that its research had... succeeded. So it let its cyberdogs out into the wastes to help protect small communities from physical aggression rather than communist propaganda." As it's clearly known by now, remembering past = discovering place (and in case with x-8/x-13) doing a bunch of ♥♥♥♥ = good outcome.
X-13 Center.
It's just similar to the X-8 okay I'm going ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane like a broken record. Not all tests are completed? "This glittering blue light beam forest cleanly bisected anything that entered its depths, slicing them into small, segmented parts for easy disposal." Oh no bad thing happened by burying the past oh noooooo. Do all tasks? "So the infiltration program sent out robobrains into the wastes looking for its wayward technology. It eventually found REPCONN HQ, and set up a new research center, testing and murdering Fiends who kept breaking into the facility." Yay fiends are dead and technology continues.
Couriers brain.
Of 4 endings, I'll only be mentioning the one where brain is left and the player has bad karma (other 3 are brain is taken with, brain is left, and brain is left with good/neutral karma), "In time, however, it became so self-obsessed it wondered if perhaps nothing existed except itself. It decided to test this by turning the weapons of the Big Empty against each other and seeing what happened." As oh no weapons are being tested wow thats probably bad (can you tell I'm getting tired of writing this?)
Finale.
There is again, 4 endings (finale start, finale end, having good/neutral karma, having bad karma) but if you have good/neutral karma, "− Doctor Dala: It can be easy to see Science as evil, technology unchecked as the source of all ills, all misfortunes.
− The Courier's Brain: With the Courier at the helm, Science became a beacon for the future. There was Old World Blues, and New World Hope. And hope ruled the day at Big MT." As again, by completing OWB with not forgetting the past by the courier going through the big MT good things, this time hope, arises, and the evil/stance of evil of technology and science is lessened, even by a little bit.
While with bad karma, "− Doctor Dala: It can be easy to see Science as evil, technology unchecked as the source of all ills, all misfortunes.
− The Courier's Brain: With the Courier at the helm, it was all this and more. Old World Blues, New World Misery - the two became one in the Courier's shadow." Where because the big MT wasn't forgotten then bad arised instead of good.
That was long to write and might diverge the discussion point but again, I wanted to mention it, and the multiple endings sucked because sure, you could say that obviously the canon is to do all the good things, have good karma, and discover everything, but you could also say that no not really because there is always the margin for the reality to be much different.
You though that was it? No, because in one of the cut endings, you join the think tank and kill everyone (it's really long too). So you could say that promotes the theme of leaving the past behind but because it's a cut ending that could mean obsidian thought that may leave the wrong impression of OWB. Or maybe they ran out of time. Or money.