Honest Hearts: The Best (or Worst) New Vegas DLC 

You know, another aspect are the logs of Clark, the Survivor. When you read through the logs, you see Zion is full of repetitive history. Today it is Sorrows and White Legs, but a hundred years earlier it was Vault 22 and the Hispanics. And it was Clark's efforts, and the dying goals of a man who saw horror upon horror and survived the end, that gave the Sorrows a chance in the first place. It's their home, under threat. I feel like that was the most compelling case when I played to back Joshua.

It's odd to think that some designers wanted him to be a hulking brute like Lanius (though I love Lanius' design, too). His character design is already unique enough as it is with the burns...but even if he was just a normal looking person, his personality and ideology are more than enough to make him one of the most interesting characters in New Vegas.

I usually use Honest Hearts as my cool down period after dealing with Benny. Get away from the Hoover Dam conflict while things ramp up in head canon. Dead Money and Old World Blues you kinda stumble in there just because of curiosity

I love honest hearts just cause of how peaceful it is with the rain

*The best* It’s gives a moment of pause from New Vegas to explore the more tribal aspects of the wasteland like we saw in Fallout 2. _For that and the inclusion of Joshua Graham and his story, it remains my favorite DLC for New Vegas._

I like the idea of a few people being basically completely good/evil in such a brutal era. As it weirdly makes it feel realistic, people seeing Brutality and either Embracing it or Choosing to rise above it

First time I played this DLC I just did the main story without really exploring Zion. I was way too afraid of what was lurking in Zion. I recently completed it again, exploring all of the caves, walking on the trails, using binoculars to make sure there wasnt Yao Guai at the bottom of the mountain and exploring every location that was marked on the map. I’m sure theyre unmarked places I missed, and Id love to explore them when I go back. The rain effect and just the map itself is so good I hated when I was done with it because I wanted more. My advice if you’re reading this and wanting to play this DLC, explore all of Zion and let the main story unfold itself, its better that way.

Its really a testament to the dlcs of new vegas that my two least favorite (honest hearts and dead money) are still a blast to play

I think really every DLC is polarizing in a way. I'm one of those insane people that: absolutely loves Dead Money (shoutout to Dead Money Tweaks btw, amazing mod), really enjoys Honest Hearts (it's a very nice break from the Mojave, sorta a vacation DLC, exploring the place is always fun) absolutely hates Old World Blues (the penis humour is just not my thing, enemies are bullet sponges, and it *kinda* forces exploring down your throat through quests) and kinda enjoys Lonesome Road (the story is not my thing, and it's not really *that* interesting, but the challenge of it all is really fun, and trying to complete all the challenges attached to it is really fun).

I get that innocence is supposed to be good, but practically (especially in Fallout's world) innocence can and will get you killed or enslaved. A good example is Bumble in Fallout 3, a small girl who willingly goes with a stranger on an 'adventure.' The stranger is a slaver taking her to Paradise Falls.

The only saving grace this DLC is is The Survivalist. The best unseen character ever written.

I love Joshua Graham. He’s like my favorite video game character ever.

A couple of misunderstandings in the video: For the Daniel ending. In order to keep the sorrows peaceful they need to go the grand staircase and collapse the way there to remain who they are. Even if Salt is dead like you say the legion wants them dead because of their merging with Daniel and New Canaan. If they learn to war the white legs (and others the legion will send) they will keep Zion but will have lost their identity as a peaceful people. As for Joshua killing the soldiers was a chore. But when faced with Salt he is going full bloodlust. Like an alchoholic tasting alchohol again he will become the monster once more. Salt isnt less evil than his soldiers. He is more evil and has done more damage to New Canaan (and that is why Joshua is losing himself back to his old ways). Even if you kill Salt but you stop Joshua from going full "Hulk" Joshua will be somewhat stopped from becoming the bloodlust monster (you talk him out of that "vodka shot and keep him on the wagon").

I just finished this right now. The epilogue video for the DLC is playing right now as I type this. It's one of the best DLCs in a Fallout game! I loved absolutely everything about the DLC. Writing, story, all the quests, the general vibe it has. The environment with its beautiful vistas, especially when coupled with the night sky is some of the most beautiful visuals out of any Fallout game. It also helps this has some really great loot too. I got the Survivalist Rifle, the Desert Ranger armor, the unique gauntlet after killing the Great She, all the stuff you get at the end after destroying the White Legs. Now I gotta haul all this gear back to my safe house while being encumbered. 😅 I'll remember this DLC fondly and in any future new save I'll do it early. I finished this at level 23 at Very Hard.

Ooooooo, yes... Just finished work, started to play some vidya, and listen to your video at the same time. Life is good :)

Honest Hearts was good in the concept of characters, world and conflict, but is really borning in reality. It boils down to a fetch quest after fetch quest to do X thing at Y location. Don't get me wrong, I love the characters, and I like the finale piece, but it just seems like it needed more to feel like a unique part of the DLCs. Lonesome Road introduced many a new characters to fight, weapons to use and great setpieces, alongside a very interesting character. Old World Blues did the same. Dead Money created a tight atmosphere, where gameplay is dictated more on your character rather than the tools he/she has. If honest hearts had made it so that you were stripped of your gear like most of the other DLCs, I think it would've been far more enjoyable, as you'd be force to become more immersed in the DLC through the use of the area's equipment. I also think that if they fleshed out the antagonists, The White Legs. If we got captured by the White Legs, and have them spare us cause they have the mark of Caesar, we could then see and maybe even join them, allow for a more diverse set of choices, seeing how this DLC is much more tied to the world outside, it thus should have more choices like it.

The way I see sparing salt upon wounds is that it’s like the final step for Joshua into becoming warlike He’s not randomly gaining a conscience if the courier wasn’t there he would just kill him without hesitation but if the courier has Joshua not kill salt then Joshua will then reflect upon his action then change Though I do think your suggestion of killing salt but sparing the rest is better

Thanks for the entertaining content, it's always a treat when I see a new video from you.

For a war to be just under Christian morality it has to meet 6 requirements 1. A last resort 2. A just cause 3. Valid authority 4. Probable success 5. Proportionality 6. Exit strategy The first 4 are met already. Diplomacy will not work, self defense to protect their homeland is a valid reason and Joshua Graham is the acting War Chief for the Dead horses, who with the help of the courier stand a reasonable chance of winning. The conflict between Joshua and Daniel shouldnt have been over pacifism and war but rather the last 2. Either answering proportionally and showing mercy to the remaining white legs, succumbing to Joshuas disordered passion for revenge via total war. I also think it would have been nice to have an option to flash your Mark of Caesar to one of Salt's lieutenants to join them and get a proper Legion ending.

Top 10 carry jobs of all time: Number 1: Joshua Graham in the New Vegas DLC “Honest Hearts”

I liked Honest Hearts. The best was Dead Money though. It was the first and only time in FNV I felt like I was actually a survivor in a harsh wasteland instead of having an adventure in a fun though radioactive 50s theme park.

I’ve never liked the ending Daniel gives us. Running away and leaving Zion to rot feels wrong and allows another pre-war beauty to rot away. There’s also a critical flaw in his logic. If the White Legs, empowered by taking Zion, decide to push into Grand Staircase, what then? Do the Sorrows run away again? It doesn’t make sense. Crushing the White Legs stops them dead in their tracks. The loss of the Sorrows’ innocence is a fair price for that

I have mixed feelings on this dlc. I recognize it's strengths, but my problems with it almost outweigh all of its positives. The map is too small, there arent enough quests, and if you miss any quests before ending it you cant go back and finish them. I also dislike how Joshua, Daniel and everyone else kinda just dissapears when it ends. There's no reason for them to not be there when you side with Joshua, yet he's never to be seen again. A more minor issue i have is the very low number of interesting characters. Joshua, Daniel and Clark are the only characters who even caught my interest, one of them being a guy who we never even see. The native tribes couldve been more interesting.

Your channel is extremely underrated.

Out of all the New Vegas DLC's, honest hearts was the most chill. If they actually added more stuff like radiant tribal wars going on between npcs or more villages then it woulda been better.

This DLC traumatized me as a teen. I already had a fear of wasps prior to Honest Hearts, but being high enough level to have 3 Giant Cazadores spawn from behind the far ranger shack to insta-kill me, actually made me scream.

I enjoyed it but not as much as dead money sierra madre my feeling is dead money had a rich story and narrative behind it - this one was a bit short and sparse and frankly not nuch dialogue options with Joshua Graham the burnt man

I actually love Honest Hearts, it feels more like an isolated plot, barely having anything to do with the Legion, or NCR, or the BoS(like Old World Blues), but unlike Old World Blues, Honest Hearts isnt horrible to play using only DLC weapons(I prefer to use DLC weapons on every DLC besides Lonesome Road). Old World Blues weapons suck so much, and those damned Roboscorpions makes me want to die.

My favourite Fallout-RU-vidr!

as much as i love fallout somehow theres a couple dlcs i never really got to, partially in saving it for another play through to have fresh content. just finished this one for the first time, i completed it in maybe 4 hours, i wish there was a little bit more depth and talking in the storyline, but also i was noclipping a bit because I hate having the 2d markers and getting lost in hills, so part of that may be on me. overall good tho,l wouldve liked it to connect maybe a bit more bc its actually really close to new vegas, but not bad

It can't be the worst because that belongs to Dead Money.

I killed everyone in the valley because everyone became hostile to me when the other tribes I thought were the white legs

Honest Hearts is my personal favorite because of Joshua Gram himself and it has the best balance of story and gameplay. Dead Money has the best story but worst gameplay.

i think the reason for making the ending about salt-upon-wounds is to play to Joshua's religious nature and it's supposed to resemble Jesus and the Romans and Jews that betrayed and tortured him the same way SUW did that to other tribes he is supposed to come across as unforgivable to push Joshua's morals to its absolute end also even his name is the English version of Jesus.

i like the theme, the lore and the characters. . . but i HATE the Random Skill Books, i HATE the amount of Poison going around and i HATE that i cant take Follows Chalk with me back to the Mojave. 6/10

Bear & Bull

Yeah that's kinda the story of fallout and moral systems in video games as a whole...

I love Joshua Graham so much but otherwise it's a little bit boring compared to the other dlcs l. I still think it's a good dlc though.

Honest hearts did feel the weakest to me, but I still found it great. Although I do have what seems to be a strange order for how much I enjoyed the DLCS, going Dead Money, Old World Blues, Lonesome Road, then Honest Hearts.

I enjoyed Honest Hearts more than the Divide. I understand what Ulysses is trying to say, but he is just... whatever.

The worst DLC in my eyes is the cosiono add on I got suck in the motel and could not get out

Old world blue is the best

Wow I really like these videos but I have to say the youtube algorithm is really screwing this channel over. The View counts are all over the place on some of these videos

I think the dlc for new Vegas we're quite disappointing if I'm honest they could have made them loads better

To sum it up its Palestine vs Israel plus the kingdom of Jerusalem

honest heart is the worst dlc. almost all locations are empty and boring. the quests are shit. the only good thing is maybe some guns and maybe the lore, but i skipped it. i always hate going to zion just to getting more % of the game. i need to someone explain me what they like from it in comparison to the other dlcs (sierra madre(dead money) is, imo, the second worst dlc from the game. but i still like it way more than honest hearts)

Worst DLC I've ever played in any game, the landscape is boring(even for a desert valley) and Joshua/Survivalist are the only redeeming parts of the map. I can't help but kill all the NPC's and take their shit and just leave. OWB for the win, tf were the designers thinking with this crummy map design.

Lonesome road definitely the absolute worst LR 2/10 HH 7/10

I liked just sitting in Zion listening to the rain and looking out to the canyon, plus Randal that protected the first settlers story is really enlightening and saddening and is a different but personally a more realistic take on a man who lost everything would act after decades.

Honest Heart's strength to me is in its portrayal of how people would adapt to the American southwest. It was the most desolate and harsh piece of North America before Columbus and remains so after the war, thus the people there reverted very quickly to the lifestyles once practiced by the real world peoples native to the area. It is some great anthropological fiction.

Randall Dean Clark - He's the embodiment of our will to go on, even in difficult times. Every one of his logs in some way talks about suicide or some sort of self doubt and self hate, and yet he kept going despite wanting to die and calling himself a coward for not going through with it. In the end, after losing both his wives and children, he did finally have children on his own. Those of the kids who came to Zion, who he helped keep healthy, fed, and educated. He always called himself a useless old man, but in his "blind will to keep going" he preserved something very few, if any, places had left, innocence and hope.

I really like honest hearts. It's great lorewise but I see why some people do not like it that much. Other than the vertical environments, it is not that unique in terms of gameplay. I also think the endings are hyperbolic, in terms of their effects, but because of that it actually adds some serious weight to what you choose. But still, it could be done a bit better. Thanks for another great video!! Can't wait for the next one! :)

I sided with the missionary because I felt like it was the proper thing to do. However, when I finally collected all of Clark's notes, I decided to side with Joshua to let the Sorrows learn to fight. Clark wanted the Sorrows exact vengeance against those who threaten them, and I view it as his last wish. My 3rd Courier learned this and kept that to herself.

Great video with some good points. You mentioned how your order of DLCs by preference was Lonesome Road then Honest Hearts. But then if you don't mind me asking, how do you then order with the other two after that, and why?

Daniel wanting to keep the Sorrows as innocent kids is just very irresponsible. Randall Clarke kept their innocence by actively defending and taking care of them when they were kids, Daniel just sits there and talks about religion, leaving Joshua and the Dead Horses to take care of the White Legs on their own.

When I first met Joshua Graham, I was not underwhelmed at all, rather, I was a little intimidated and impressed as hell. First off, the voice actor sounded badass af. Second, the subjects he spoke of and the words he chose showcased his eloquence and knowledge and that he gave no fucks. Finally, the fact that he was cleaning and inspecting stacks of .45s which is one of the strongest pistols in the game showed me he had the hardware to kick major ass, and the discipline to ensure said asskicking went as smoothly as possible. A terrific character.

Joshua Gram: Gods plan, and my trusty M1911.

Only way i'd consider it the best is because of Joshua alone, i don't hate, dislike or even feel meh towards any NV DLC, this is just the weakest one. If we remove Joshua from it, it's dead. My fav is easily dead money but damn i just love Joshua too much and come back to this DLC so many times because of him

I dont like honest hearts because it doesn't give you any choices a pro-legion character would have made, to be fair most of the game lacks this sort of thing... Main questline having incomplete legion i can understand due to game being rushed and shit, but why dlcs followed is a mystery to me

Randall Clark is the reason I love it so much, his story is so interesting and his rifle and armor are cool

My first playthrough I picked the perk Sneering Imperialist while at Zion to help deal with the tribals and the Dialogue Option you get against Salt-upon-Wounds made me laugh out loud and couldn't not pick it

Honest hearts is my favorite dlc in new Vegas it brought so much to the game not to mention joshua graham is my favorite character his background and dialogue make him a very interesting character to explore

Honest Hearts is my favorite NV DLC.

My favorite dlc for its simplicity as well at a look at tribals in fallout

My least favorite is old world blues simply for the map being boring , zion is less bland because it's a real place . The other place could have been a bit more

I have mixed feeling on Honest Hearts, I both like it for the weapons, location, and Joshua. I dislike how it’s mostly fetch quests and very linear

People were really complaining about your intro to Joshua Graham? I could instantly pick up on the path to redemption and the humility to seek it. He's the parable of the wayward son, with guns.

i don't think i can evacuate zion in good conscious after reading the survivalists logs

if you understand the larger themes of fallout in terms of the clash of civilisations, guns/germs/steel etc HH is exploring stuff thats thematically really core to the series. this is like v clearly the brainchild of Josh Sawyer in a deeply personal way. He has repeatedly said its his favourite for a reason. i feel its less immediately 'gamey' than the others but there's truly a huge amount to consider here if you want to tackle the themes and ideas that are perhaps the most quintessentially 'fallout'

Best dlc in the game

Yay! Just in time

I really liked it

I never liked the idea of evacuating the sorrows tribe, the idea that they would leave their home land that Randall Clark “gave it” to his children’s is a dishonest, a spur to his legacy.

It’s both at the same time

2:40 same thing happened to me 10 years ago. I wasn't using VATS so I just killed everyone. That made everyone else in the DLC hostile. After slaughtering everyone I thought "what an awful DLC". Till I googled it and found out I wasn't the only one who had that problem lol

Even with its last act, Honest Hearts is still my favorite DLC. You have NPCs like Joshua Graham and Daniel espousing their beliefs to you, but they felt real and natural as part of the game. None of the other DLC were able to get message and tone across right. Father Elijah and the rest of the NPCs in Dead Money are all too bare and grating; Ulysses, while he should be interesting, just talks your ear off through the entire campaign... but you can still talk him down to kill the Marked Men; and Old World Blues, the worst of the bunch, has twists you can see coming from a mile away, the worst, most annoying NPCs of the franchise, and the conversation with the brain that feels like it came from a badly made mod that's trying to castigate you for playing the game the way you wanted (even if you played the exact way the brain would want you to).

easily the weakest DLC and Dead Money being the best

A great place to rack up that Lord Death of Murder Mountain

Couldnt agree more with the follows chalk thing, first time i saw him i blew his head clean off and was so confused to why i failed a random quest

I love honest hearts but I still want to find the person that saw one of the scariest enemies in the game (cazadores) and said" lets make them bigger"

Honestly, it felt incomplete. I kept waiting for THE THING to happen, but then it didn't. It felt like I was playing a small scale introduction for a larger story that never came. Joshua doesn't need to be a huge guy, but I hate his weapons choice. I'd have given him a ripper and a flamer. "You ask why I use fire as a weapon, after all it has done to me? Who better than me, to know exactly how much it hurts. As for the ripper, sometimes it's best to get close to your foe." There. Iconic, possibly sadistic, and definitely terrifying. Exactly how the character should have been.

I loved honest hearts I had only two complaints I wanted a few more quests and for zion to be bigger with more locations because I liked it so much

Dead Money is the worst easily

I like the bus you can find😏

It is my least favorite and I still love it.

i love the 1911 thats it

It's easily my favourite

How are the nv factions a shade of gray. I don't care whatever u say about the legion, it is literally crucifixitions and slaves. Surely they could've made an authoritarian faction so much better by not making them comically bad on the nose

10:16 It's basically Fallout 3 morality all over again, there you also get situations where you are forced to gun down henchmen but when big bad(Overseer in 101, or Autumn in the end) comes, SUDDENLY you get an opportunity to show mercy

all that talk and reasoning behind meeting Joshua Graham.. well, it worked for me I still remember that moment/talk, after all these years..

I hope we can all agree on the middleground that the Story writing and world building are a GOAT for the series, but the gameplay itself is such a slow trudge it bogs it down.

Yet another amazing video from yaboiii

I love Honest Hearts because I find the down-to-earth, more grounded and simple experience to be refreshing from the stress of the Sierra Madre or Divide, or the clown-shoes wackiness of Big MT. And, it's easily the shortest - I feel like it's in and out in five minutes, even with all the side quests.

I honestly didn't like honest hearts in particular despite how it's really not that much different linearity wise from the rest of the dlc, but I personally couldn't find the interest to explore the entirety of Zion unlike the Sierra Madre, Big MT, and Divide

While the other DLCs has immediate danger, Honest Hearts has the menace of a Second Legion if you make the wrong moves with Joshua.

Damn I forgot how much I liked Honest Hearts! Would love to see you do an analysis for the rest of the dlcs too!

zion is such a cool place to explore but the actual questline is garbage. just finished it up and it just didn't seem fun at all. literally just fetch quests and then the final quest. also very short dlc, I wasn't timing myself but I can't imagine it took more than 3-4 hours.

I've just started playing FO NV. I don't think I'll go back to 4. I don't know why I didn't get this when it came out. I'm on my first playthrough and decided to get to broken hearts dlc first. (level 14) It's awesome to see YTubers still pumping out content for a game this old. Just wanted to say thanks and you got a new sub.

honestly my biggest complaint about this DLC was the map design. Besides the counterintuitive map navigation system that the game already has, you can tell the design team put absolutely no effort into making Zion Canyon look even remotely similar to the real life counter part. like yea i get that it needs to be condensed to fit the games map, but there is absolutely ZERO resemblance to the location irl. Zion national park is a beautiful place with painted mountains and a simple river carving out the canyon north to south, NOT A FUCKING ROCK SKYSCRAPER CORN FIELD MAZE ok im done lol

Honest Hearts is great. Zion is beautiful and Josh is such a badass. In a vacuum it’s great. It just dosnt compare to the epic feel of LR or the futurama-esque humor of owb