Wasted opportunities and characters.
As you wander the Mojave in the main game among conversation options you'll occasionally get reference of "The Burned Man" who has become part of folklore, and he makes an appearance in Honest Hearts… just not a big enough one.
Years ago The Burned Man was a member of Caesar's Legion until he was thrown out, but not before being set alight and sent off the edge of a cliff… the sort of treatment you'd expect from the Legion… but he did not die… he lives.
Honest Hearts sees you join an expedition to New Canaan, to trade with the Canaanites and make your fortune… only Caesar has already been calling and the civilisation that was there has been wiped out, replaced by three tribes… one of which, the White Legs, aspire to join Caesar and are putting together a resume by attacking and terrorising the other tribes… who you work with.
Having survived the initial onslaught as you arrive, which wipes out the rest of your group, you are taken by a Scout to meet their leader… The Burned Man himself.
Here you are tasked with collecting several items from buildings the locals are scared to enter on grounds of superstition or fear, once collected and delivered (not to The Burned Man but Daniel, the spiritual leader of the Sorrows tribe) you are given more tasks, the usual kill these, collect those sort of thing.
Daniel is a peaceful man, who believes that the answer to the exploitation of his tribe is to evacuate the valley and thus the tasks are designed to help them leave, removal of traps, killing of scouting parties from the White Legs and so on… all general RPG fare.
As you leave the Sorrows camp The Burned Man makes his second appearance, he believes that the answer to the White Leg threat is to fight back, to end their tyranny and to refuse to be intimidated.
Whichever path you eventually choose sees you team up with The Burned Man… and it's here you realise they could have made so much more of the character, there is so much potential that goes to waste.
It's a better expansion pack than Dead Money, the locations are nicely done and the atmosphere of a native wasteland feels right… until a White Leg starts taking pot shots at you with a Sub Machine Gun.
It's sadly all over too quickly, an option to take a darker route through the expansion would have been nice (such as working with the White Legs to wipe out Daniel and The Burned Man) and a few more tasks, maybe a task or two that are actually a challenge… one task sees you dealing with a vicious animal problem and has you venture into their cave… only you never see one creature inside whereas you'd expect it to be teeming with them.
It's okay… there are no stupid collar/interference mechanics that ruined Dead Money… but it does give the impression that they ran out of ideas very early, that any imagination they had was used up in creating the setting… the best, minor detail the game comes up with is the names given to some of the tribal natives… let's have a big cheer for my favourite, "Two Bears High Fiving."