This is an interesting one, because it's the opposite of Skyline Valley.
That is to say, I like basically everything except the main story.
The new area is cool. They've managed to even give it subgenres of desert inside the overarching desert. It's mostly Capital Wasteland style, but there are clumps of New Vegas, DUST, and even some Mars patches near abraxo spills.
The Rust Kingdom has a strong industrial aura and the Highway Town manages to combine cramped and cluttered with cozy(I know you're on the 76 team Elionora) like a dusty Red Robin
I really dig many of the new ambient soundtracks, especially the pianos over at Athens
Bounties are simple, but in terms of grindable hub content, they are just so SO much better than caravans. Basic ones are solo and free, but the big event ones are way more pricy. In exchange, there are quite a few legendary enemies, but 5000 still seems like a bit much too me. Especially when it has the Encryptid problem of letting any random yahoo start the event. But otherwise, solid
I'm appreciating the abraxo collectathon even, I only have five of the tapes so far, but I'm always down for more 76 corpo radio dramas
But man. The main quest blows.
Spoilers for Burning Springs's main quest
Okay, so you have 1 combat encounter then you are forced to fall for an obvious raider pretending to be a civillian. And then some jacked behemoth conks you on the back of the head through your armor, koing you instantly
You then wake up in a room next to another obvious raider pretending to be a civvy and you are, yet again, not allowed to say anything. On the other end is a raider who is wearing raider clothes and doesn't trust you. Yet 75% of the dialogue is being accusatory to them? Apparently your pc canonically can only judge people based on their clothes
The Rust King is cool. He has a proper rumbly voice. He's mostly just the might makes right type, but with a few dialogues that elevate him beyond that.
You then get into a combat encounter with some raiders.
Then some raiders and their deathclaws
Then you have to do a bunch of menial tasks. Things that you already did if you explored the region, like I did. That didn't count obviously. Do it again.
After doing 7 of those, the 2nd obvious raider kills him off-screen and tells you to recruit some ex-killers because he doesn't want to do any of the work
You find an item bring it to one of them, then you find a different item and bring it to a different npc on behalf of the other one of them. Bam, recruited
Then the 2nd obvious raider kills them off-screen. 100% of the dialogue is some version of disbelief because your pc can canonically only judge characters by their clothing.
You then get into a combat encounter with some raiders.
Then some raiders and their deathclaws
Then some raiders and their deathclaws
Then some raiders and their deathclaws
Then you kill the 2nd obvious raider. Which is the lamest boss fight because the entire dlc he talked about how he needed muscle(you) to do his dirty work for him and he's straight up a lower level than most of the raiders you just killed, isn't wearing any armor, and is using a 10mm.
Think about what just happened. At the very start of the dlc, you are betrayed by an obvious raider then you do two rounds of combat in the arena.
At the very end of the dlc, you are betrayed by an obvious raider then you do like 5(?) rounds of combat in the very same arena
In between that, you pick up two(2) items and do some tasks you probably would have done anyways
The dlc spilled it's entire load on the first pump and then tried scooping it back in
In short, if you like the questlines/other Fallouts you'll probably hate this. If you like mmos/76 you'll probably appreciate the new areas and events