Fallout 3 & DLC Review

About a month ago, Bethesda released the latest in a series of add-ons for Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta. It's the fifth one, and allegedly the last, so this seems like a good time for a lazy writer to kick out one catch-all review for the whole lot.

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 is the latest in the Fallout franchise and the first from Bethesda Softworks, who took control of the franchise several years ago. The series takes place on an alternate-history Earth, where nuclear war erupted between the United States and China in the 1950's, resulting in a planet-wide nuclear holocaust. The games are set some 300 years after the fact in a United States populated by mutants, monsters, and scattered bands of survivors.

Like the first game, Fallout 3's protagonist emerges from a Vault—an underground, radiation-proof compound where survivors attempt to wait out the desolation in relative comfort—to find his or her way in a hostile world. Unlike the first game, Fallout 3 takes place in the DC suburbs, which, as a local and a fan of the franchise, sold me on the game immediately.

If you're familiar with the most recent entry in Bethesda's flagship The Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion, you'll find Fallout 3 easy and intuitive to play as it uses the same engine. For that matter, if you're a veteran of the series you'll find that, despite the switch from a 2-D isometric view to a first- or third-person view, many of the conventions of the earlier games are maintained, such as the V.A.T.S. system (an assisted targeting mechanism which pauses the game, allowing the player to make targeted attacks to specific parts of enemies) and the Pip-Boy (an armband computer showing information such as maps, vital statistics, and inventory).

The world of Fallout is bleak and violent, but filled with a Brazil-like gallows humor that parodies 1950's American suburban culture and Cold War jingoism. Stylistically, if you can imagine a combination of Happy Days and Mad Max, you're not far off. Bethesda obviously made an effort to remain true to the feel of the series; the trademark black humor of the series is everywhere, and used to great effect.

The game does a fine job of allowing the player to be a hero, a villain, or something in-between. Behavior in the game, including choices made during conversations, impacts the player's karma rating which, in combination with the player's level and certain quests done on behalf of the game's various factions, influences the reactions of the world's various characters, sometimes dramatically. While there is a plot, and the main series of quests move the story along in a linear way, the plethora of side-quests and the openness of the game world to exploration gives players the opportunity to choose their own path to a large extent, especially with the Broken Steel DLC (more on that later).

The game looks and sounds great. Natives of the DC area will recognize the environments despite the alterations; the re-imagined Metro was particularly entertaining. Textures are detailed, and although some locations look similar all the environments look individually-crafted, down to the most out-of-the-way gutted townhouse. The soundtrack is remarkable, from the original music written for the game to the classic songs played on the in-game radio. You really haven't lived until you've traded fire with spiky-haired bandits while listening to Cole Porter. The sounds, from the songs playing on radios left on in abandoned warehouses to the incidental conversations between NPCs, make the game world seem alive, as if the inhabitants of the post-apocalyptic DC area are busy living their lives even when you're not playing the game.

A computer that can run Oblivion will have no problem running Fallout 3, although the same hardware issues remain. Even on low settings the game looks good and runs smoothly, although you will miss the finer details higher graphics settings allow. Typical of the engine, the game will run fairly well even on higher settings; deceptively well, in fact, as the first indicator that your computer is having trouble keeping up will usually be the game crashing to the desktop.

The game isn't perfect, although it's close. It can be buggy at times. Also, it sometimes isn't sure whether it's an FPS or not. For example, throwing grenades accurately requires V.A.T.S., for the most part. On the other hand, using firearms outside of V.A.T.S. is generally easier for veterans of shooters than using them within it, especially since you can't exit V.A.T.S. once you've pulled the trigger. This can end up producing slow-motion footage of your character blasting away at a table between him/her and the target, or, even more frustrating, resulting in friendly fire. Still, these problems made notable by their contrast and isolation. If the game wasn't so damn fun you wouldn't even notice them.

Happily, once the game's official content is exhausted there is a thriving community of modders. A quick search of the Internet will result in everything from mods that change the color of the sky to mods that convert the game into hardcore pornography (it is the Internet, after all). If you take into account the various ways you can develop your character, the several different paths you can take through the main plot, and the myriad of free mods, the game boasts many, many hours of play.

Buy or Don't Buy: Buy. Definitely. Right now. Fallout 3 is a combination of an RPG and a First-Person Shooter in a sandbox environment that's mod-friendly and expansive. As video games go, you couldn't get more value for your money.

Overall Score: 10/10. Fallout 3 may very well be the single greatest game made for the PC in the past five years. It has more to offer the most gamers than any other one game on the market. Between official DLC and community content, the replay value of the game is almost unlimited. Even if you confine yourself to the core content, the game is just so big that you will be hard-pressed to exhaust its entertainment value.

Operation: Anchorage

Operation: Anchorage is the first DLC for Fallout 3. It takes place in a simulation accessed through a Brotherhood Outcast base in DC. The simulation recreates the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from China by American troops.

Like most of the DLC, Anchorage doesn't really affect the main storyline. Instead, it gives you some back-story and about four hours of game time, more or less. The add-on is light on role-playing; the quest objective—there's generally only one at a time—is usually something along the lines of, "Go to Point A and kill stuff."

Buy or Don't Buy: If you just can't get enough Fallout 3, buy it. Of course, if that describes you, you probably already have it. If you're on the fence, this is going to depend on what you enjoy most about the game. If you get excited about morally ambiguous decision-making and talking, sneaking, and/or hacking your way past obstacles, you might give this one a pass.

On the other hand, maybe you're the kind of player who picked the "Bloody Mess" perk. Maybe you can spend hours researching the combat system, let's say, determining the relative merits of systematic dismemberment versus head-shots. In this case, you may be interested to know that not only does Operation: Anchorage focus entirely on human enemies (excepting turrets), but it also introduces some of the best armors and weapons in the game. If the prospect of marching out of the simulation with a gauss rifle and an indestructible suit of the best power armor in the game makes you drool, buy this immediately.

Overall Score: 8/10. The combat is fun, and this introduces some new items and game mechanics. This is legitimately at least four hours of additional content. The gear you get at the end is a huge boost for any combat archetype. Also, seeing snow is a nice change of pace in a game dominated by brown and grey dirt.

The Pitt

The second DLC takes place in a post-apocalyptic Pittsburgh, and explains where all those Raiders come from and where all the slaves wind up. Unlike Anchorage, The Pitt introduces moral dilemmas into a quest involving genuine decisions on the part of the character, not just good aim. It also delivers some interesting scenery and a few new items. And, at the end of the game, you can return to the Pitt for some repeatable collection quests, and just to see how things are going.

Also unlike Anchorage, The Pitt can be wrapped up in about an hour and a half. There just isn't that much content here. I'm not sure, but I can only assume the developers overestimated how much tourism players were going to want to engage in. There are only about three quests including the main one, and that can be completed in about an hour depending on your character's development.

Buy or Don't Buy: Honestly, unless you're a completionist or you just can't get enough Fallout, don't buy. There just isn't enough content to merit the purchase, even if you take time to smell the roses, even if you play it through twice to cover both factions, and even if you loot everything you possibly can.

Overall Score: 6/10. It's pretty, and there are some neat scripted scenes. Also, the Auto Axe is a fun toy, and this is the only DLC where you can actually have a baby as a Misc Item. That's about it, though. The lack of content really hurts its value.

Broken Steel

The third DLC dramatically changes the game because it raises the level cap to 30, continues the main quest and adds some tougher monsters, amongst other things. The quests alone will easily tack on another six hours of content as you join the Brotherhood of Steel and eradicate the Enclave.

Broken Steel is something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it adds 10 levels, new perks, achievements, encounters, quests (side and otherwise), items, and, most importantly for the many players who left the original dissatisfied with the ending, a way to continue past the end of the original content. Of all the DLC this adds the most content even if you just consider the additional levels and content aside from the DLC quests.

On the other hand, most characters have developed at least one combat and one non-combat skill to 100 by the time they reach level 20. When skills get close to 100, they start to make the game much easier. By the time you hit 30 you've gotten most of your skills at or near 100 and have taken perks that make you a real force to be reckoned with. Original content enemies will fall before you like wheat to the scythe. You'll find yourself debating between hacking everything in sight just for kicks and just walking straight through hordes of monsters for the heck of it. Looting will cease to be a priority since you'll have picked up the best equipment available. DLC monsters will require almost comical damage to take down since they've been scaled up to provide a challenge, but, generally, the real challenge will be patience. The 100+ stimpaks you'll have on you at any given moment will make killing anything a matter of holding down a mouse button long enough; as long as you remember not to die, you won't. In essence, you will be playing the game in God-mode, which, as you might imagine, removes some of the challenge.

This is unavoidable. If you confine yourself to DLC quests and those portions of the main quest necessary to access certain areas, you will reach level 30 by doing about three other DLCs, meaning that, by the second one things are going to start getting dramatically easier than they were intended to be, thus reducing the amount of game time. Whether you want a super-character who strides through the wasteland crushing all who oppose or prefer several different specialized characters will largely determine how much of a problem the level 30 cap is for you.

Buy or Don't Buy: This one is a buy. I found the original ending tremendously disappointing after I'd invested so much into my character and really liked the opportunity to create a more satisfying resolution. Besides that, this is probably the meatiest of the DLCs in that you get a pretty lengthy main quest, some side-quests and additional monsters, encounters, etc. Hitting level 30 at least once, especially with some of the more interesting perks, is really entertaining.

Overall Score: 9/10. Broken Steel is really Fallout 3.5. In most ways this is a really good thing, but the higher level cap can make the game feel unbalanced. BS doesn't make 30 the new 20; it turns the dial to 11. Still, loads of content and closure to the main plot makes this arguably the best DLC.

Point Lookout

DLC number four takes place south of DC in southern Maryland, at Point Lookout State Park. As a Marylander that was enough to sell me on this. Lookout differs from the prior DLCs in that it doesn't really have a main quest that drives a plot forward. There is a substantial quest at its core, but it feels more like a highly detailed side-quest. Lookout is more like an expansion area for players to visit from time to time. It also boasts challenging monsters and a unique atmosphere.

It's a nice change from the main area. The game version of Point Lookout is something like a decrepit Coney Island surrounded by swampland populated by ghouls and mutated hillbilly locals. A cliff-top church borders the swampland to the north, and the Calvert Mansion and Point Lookout Lighthouse lie to the southeast, both of which exist in the real-world park.

The atmosphere of the swamp is…well…swampy. Frogs croak all around you, things splash in the murk, fog hangs thick in the air and creepiness abounds. The developers really succeed in making you feel like you're stuck in the middle of nowhere, but not the nowhere of the wasteland. Rather, this is the isolation you feel when you're surrounded by unfamiliar surroundings and hostile locals.

Buy or Don't Buy: Buy. This is a refreshing change of pace from the main game. After hours and hours of wandering through dusty scrubland and blown-out subway stations, a little jaunt through a malarial swamp is just the thing. Double buy if you're from the area, just for nostalgia's sake.

Overall Score: 8/10. It's unusual, it's well-made, and it's just plain fun. Several fun quests and great atmosphere add to the appeal. Like The Pitt, it offers a permanent new location that you can revisit to do repeatable quests, or just for sightseeing.

Mothership Zeta

This is the (allegedly) final DLC for Fallout 3, and takes place in an alien ship hovering in orbit. The object is pretty simple: get off the ship. In a familiar trope, you find yourself starting off without most of your equipment, and are forced to scavenge alien technology to fight off your captors. If you have a character that uses energy weapons, this will feel a bit like Christmas. The alien weaponry is a departure from the usual gear you come across on Earth, but is generally inferior, honestly. You'll find yourself dropping most of it in favor of the more conventional guns.

The strengths of Zeta are the graphics, which are reminiscent of 50's sci-fi, and the company: other Earthlings from several different historical eras who find themselves in the same fix. As you progress through the ship you uncover some entertaining plot twists that give depth to the backstory of the whole series and give some immersion to what risks being a run-and-gun affair. Unfortunately, it's a quick play, coming in around two to three hours if you take your time.

Buy or Don't Buy: Buy…maybe. This is tough, because although the DLC is fun, there isn't really any replay value here unless you count periodically returning to loot more alien tech from the ship. You can skip this and not regret it too much, but if you really get into the background story of the game or just want a change of pace it's worth a shot.

Overall Score: 7/10. It's a memorable addition to the game, but it's short, and subsequent replays won't turn up much in the way of alternative quest paths. Still, it's fun, and if you've got a little cash to spare it's worth it.