Old World Blues is crass, immature, wildly unpredictable, and a hell of a lot of fun.
You can just imagine all of the leading developers in one massive room with all of the leading intellectuals of our time, debating and philosophizing, showing interesting and thoughful games as if they were large stone busts made by fine artists... And then a game will break the tension by flying through the window, bouncing over the walls, breaking all of the vases and picture frames, presumabley while making fart noises. Old World Blues is one of those.
Yes, sometimes it's good to just play a game that is flat out fun. Other times, you might want something that is a challenge, or maybe is mature and thought-evoking, but humor in itself is an art, and should always have a place in all forms of expression. So welcome to the Big Empty, a place that is both hilarious and deadly at the same time.
Old World Blues starts off by poking fun at the DLC that preceded it, and ends with a difficult choice that actually plays off of the humor to make it's point. It is a perfect blend of humor and yet stability. You first begin by examining a strange crashed satelitte that is projecting an image onto a drive-in screen... And end up being kidnapped by the Think Tank, a group of insane and eccentric pre-war scientists that suvived by abandoning their bodies. They are brains in tanks, quite literally "think tanks". They, of course, ruthlessly lobotomize you just for kicks, and misplace you brain, all while the evil Doctor Mobius sends waves of evil robot scorpions to torment them. Your mission is to recover the lost pre-war tech and shematics scattered across the Big Empty and used them to defeat Doctor Mobius, recover your brain, and find a way to survive in the meantime.
Of course, its not that simple. You'll fight through a mad scientist's recreation of the high school he was bullied at (Where he is, of course, the "Omnipotent God Principal"), rebuild an abandoned base which is filled with self-aware appliances including a masochistic toaster and a sex-crazed biological science machine, use high-powered energy weapons to quell the "failed tests", have a philosophical debate with your own disembodied brain, upgrade a stealth suit by survivng stealth tests, and even learn a little about the Mojave and how some of it's creatures came to be.
But the humor can turn on you in the end. When the insane and eccentric scientists that ruthlessly lobotomize anything they find suddenly have a possibility of leaving the Big Empty, things aren't so funny. However with a quick tongue or a strong arm, there are a number of endings for the good/evil person in all of us. Whether you like to convince people to do the right thing or beat them into submission is up to you, and the ending reflects that.
In all, the story is hilarious and yet deppressing. In between creating genetic hybrids in the gene-splicing lab and blasting heads off with a high-powered gun powered by a dog's brain, you may look down at one of the "bad guys" and feel, well, kind of bad about killing them. They had their brain sucked out by crazy scientists, and then got blasted in the face with a pulse gun. Then again, maybe not.
And yes, for those of you who used ctrl-f and looked for the key word "loot", the loot is most epically phat. Melee brawlers will enjoy the various elemental scientists gloves, which come in various flavors, as well as the Saturnite power gloves and Protonic Axes. Energy weapon specialists will be in for a special treat, as this DLC specifically caters to them. And even plain old gun users will be pleased with the K9000.
In conclusion, Old World Blues is arguably the best DLC ever created. It is funny when it wants you to laugh, serious when it wants you to think, and offers you a multitude of things to do in the meantime. If you are on the fence, just buy this DLC and enjoy.