We return to the wasteland to review all of the available Fallout 3 DLC!
It’s been a long and expensive ride, but Bethesda has finally released the entire range of downloadable content for its critically acclaimed RPG. Diehard fans will have already jumped at the chance to add extra value to an already impressive experience- but most gamers probably won’t want to buy every single add-on. After all, buying every DLC pack will cost more than the game itself!
Let’s face it, you need a guide. Somone to tell you how to spend your hard earned cash- and what each DLC pack offers in terms of value for money, missions and new content. Luckily for you, I’m on base. Let’s do this!
First things first: you need to buy Broken Steel.
You could become very powerful before Broken Steel. With the Tesla Cannon, you can become A GOD. More specifically, Thor.
You can read our full review here, but take it from me: Broken Steel introduces a raft of new items, missions and features that improve the Fallout experience tenfold. Most importantly, it raises the level cap to 30- allowing even advanced characters to reap the full benefits of the extra missions and exploration (and the other DLC packs). Go buy it. Buy it now.
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If only all DLC decisions were that easy. The remaining four downloadable episodes are much shorter, focused affairs that offer a lot less in terms of new content and reward. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t invest in them- rather, you should read on and see what grabs you. So, in order of release, it’s time to review…
Operation Anchorage
At first glance, Operation Anchorage doesn’t seem to be a savvy purchase. At all. $10 only seems to secure your character a fairly short (if exciting) linear romp through a virtual commie-infested Alaska and a handful of new items. So, given all that- should you buy it?
Yeah, you probably should. For two main reasons.
You see, Fallout’s main problem is that it’s so f*cking brown. After 10 hours of questing, the right side of my brain was screaming at me to play Rez, watch a cartoon, pore through a wallpaper swatch book… hell, anything that involved getting away from the mud, rust and filth of Fallout’s colour palette. Operation Anchorage quite literally saved my brain from killing itself due to pure visual boredom.
Blue skies. Pristine white snow. Red communist blood liberally splashing over the ice fields. This is a much-needed breath of fresh air that’ll reinvigorate the whole game. Seriously, if you’re contemplating quitting due to repetition and boredom, you could do much worse than taking an Alaskan holiday.
Our hero stares in slackjawed amazement at the sudden rush of colour (and the lack of mud, rust and depressing brown sludge)... AND SO WILL YOU.
The second reason for my glowing recommendation is the reward. AKA the phat lootz. The monty haul. Operation Anchorage provides the two finest suits of armour in the game; one for each play style. Run-and-gun tank characters will revel in an indestructible set of power armour that never degrades… but sneaky thieves and stealth assassins reap the greatest reward of all. A ridiculously tight chinese stealth suit provides near-invisibility when crouched, allowing wannabe ninjas to finally command the shadows the way Bethesda intended. Seriously, sneaking up to a super mutant master in broad daylight and putting a live grenade in his pocket is a brand new definition of ownage. They’ll never know what hit them.
In short, Operation Anchorage is a quick, simple and solid little expansion that provides a welcome respite from the brown, muddy horror of the capital wasteland. The gameplay is streamlined and fun, the surroundings are colourful and the rewards are frankly incredible. You could do a lot worse.
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The Pitt
I don’t know about you, but my favourite part of Fallout 3 was starting out as a low level character. Scrounging ragged armour and weapons, making every shot count and improvising with everything you can scavenge was a lot more fun than stomping around the wasteland in an impenetrable suit of power armour- and the Pitt sends you right back to basics. After answering a distress call from an ex-raider, you’ll be stripped of your gear and forced into a life of slavery, hardship and deprivation.
As a slave, you’ll have access to the enormous new city of Pittsburgh- the bulk of which consists of a vast, multileveled steelyard littered with weapons, achievement-worthy collectibles and a brand new enemy: the trogs. They may look like feral ghouls, but Trogs are deadly fast, hit hard and hunt in packs. Luckily, a small new selection of armaments help to even the score; ranging from the silenced, scoped assault rifle to a horrifyingly effective circular saw.
This is the MAN OPENER. It's like a can opener...but it does EXACTLY what it says on the tin.
Unfortunately, you’ll end up getting your gear back fairly soon- but a decent story will grant you at least a couple of hours worth of play time (maybe more for dilligent explorers and achievement hunters). Tracking down the aforementioned 100 collectibles also takes a while, but provides a substantial reward in terms of new armour, weapons and gamerpoints.
However, there’s one major problem with The Pitt… and it’s a real dealbreaker. Fallout 3 is probably the most successful broken game ever to be released- but The Pitt takes glitches, crashes and save corruptions to jawdropping new lows. I ended up falling through floors over a dozen times, had three autosaves wiped and crashes every few minutes- and a quick forum search assures me that this is the norm rather than the exception. After all, they even had to recall the original release after a couple of hours online! Hopefully the PS3 and GOTY versions will have had a lot more quality control and tender loving care… but save often anyway. You’ve been warned.
So, The Pitt offers you a lot more value than Anchorage- though far less in terms of character rewards. The story is fairly entertaining and the change of pace is refreshing (though it’s a shame that it’s still as visually depressing as the original game). The blatant instability of the coding is frankly insulting, and costs it dearly in the ratings.
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Point Lookout
Apart from the staggeringly competent Broken Steel, Point Lookout is by far the most expansive expansion available for Fallout 3. $10 nets you an enormous swathe of backwater swamps, bayous and marsh to explore, as well as a genuinely excellent storyline and a whole mess of lengthy side-quests. The voice acting is great, the scripting is tight and there’s a truly breathtaking mindfuck halfway through. There’s a fair few hours of fun to be had here- if you’re looking for more quests and freeform wasteland exploring then Point Lookout is an absolute must.
The new enemies are rather odd, though. You’ll encounter a whole mess of mutated inbred hicks who resemble a cross between Leatherface and the Deliverance Rapists… but they’re tough as hell. I can’t understand how my character can execute a battle-hardened, armoured Enclave soldier with a single headshot… and then have trouble taking down a slackjawed yokel armed with nothing more than a spade and some muddy dungarees. Puzzling.
Some folks won't slice your head off, but then again some folk'll... like Cletus, the ludicrously powerleveled yokel!
There are two main flaws to Point Lookout. Firstly, it’s an absolute nightmare for melee and unarmed combat users. Sure, melee characters are always a bit harder to use than gunslingers, but the bizarrely resilient enemies are typically armed with double-barelled shotguns that’ll tear you to shreds once you get close. Believe me, it’s an absolute grind without a gun. The new melee weapons are also hilariously underpowered and ineffective… you won’t be swapping your Ripper and Shishkebab for a shovel any time soon!
Which brings me neatly onto Point Lookout’s second weakness: the rewards. Basically, you’ll be playing for the experience and the spectacle- because Point Lookout doesn’t really offer your character anything else. The Perks are esoteric and obscure, the loot is disastrously weak and you’ll return to te Wasteland pretty much the same as you left it (though with a few more levels under your belt). Still, you’re getting a lot of new content here. Never mind.
Point Lookout is big, clever and time consuming- and is what we were all honestly expecting the Fallout 3 DLC to resemble. Want more Fallout? Bought Broken Steel? Buy Point Lookout.
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Mothership Zeta
Mothership Zeta gives the kid from Vault 101 the chance to venture into the bowels of an alien spaceship… and then have his bowels ventured into by the aforementioned aliens. After a light rectal probing, you’ll need to recruit an unlikely band of allies from different time periods and lead them in an assault on the bridge.
Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Well…it could have been great- but it just wasn’t handled properly. To put it bluntly, Bethesda has completely squandered the unique opportunity, setting and situation that an alien spaceship has to offer. The entire campaign is a linear, grinding corridor crawl through brown tunnels, grey tunnels, greyish-brown tunnels… whoa, hold on… that sounds very familiar. You can replicate the experience just by staying in the Capitol Wasteland metro tunnels for a couple of hours! Mothership Zeta stalwartly refuses to innovate or break the mold in any way, and suffers badly for it.
The groovy alien weapons will distract you from the brown linear corridors and brown stupid enemies for about two minutes. Still, you'll only need about 58 more anyway...
But let’s face it: corridor-crawling can be fun. Bioshock kicked ass, after all. Unfortunately, the aliens simply aren’t any fun to fight. Their AI and tactics are just as basic and predictable as every other super mutant, raider or mercenary out in the wasteland; but most of them are protected by a shimmering energy shield that protects them from an undisclosed and seemingly random amount of damage. A single bullet will take down some enemies, yet others will shrug off entire clips without receiving any damage whatsoever. Very frustrating. The whole experience is simply one long protracted battle with no real reward or storyline backing it up.
Unless your character is an energy weapon specialist, that is. The alien weaponry is extremely powerful- and by the time you’re finished, you’ll have enough ammo to use them through the remainder of the game. They’re not worth ten dollars, though!
Mothership Zeta is a close encounter of the boring, uninspired kind. It was clearly intended to be so much more, but the short campaign, drab colour scheme and over-familiar gameplay turn it into a disappointing little grind. Unless you really want the extra energy weapons, you’re better off keeping your boots firmly on the ground.
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I never have actuaaly played the game but i am thinking about buing it beacuse i have only heard good things about the game!