Fallout 3 downloadable content

The Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts are trying to acquire a stash of pre-war technology in a bunker near the metro. However, the armory can only be unlocked with a code, and the code can only be obtained from a virtual reality simulation of one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe: the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from invading Chinese troops. The Outcasts cannot use the simulation because an external interface device, the player's Pip-Boy, is required. The player is recruited to complete the simulation in return for a share of the reward.

In the simulation, the player is tasked with fighting the Chinese in various scenarios, such as clearing out bunkers in a cliff, hitting strategic targets, and finally defeating the Chinese general in single combat. Once the simulation is complete, the player gains access to the armory and the advanced weapons it contains. Upon opening the door and took their rewards, the Lone Wanderer witness an argument between Outcast Commander McGraw and Defender Sibley who refused the former for sharing the equipment to the Wanderer. The player could save McGraw or leave him to die at the hands of Sibley. After which, Sibley and his followers would attempt to kill the player.

Both the PC and the Xbox 360 version of the Operation: Anchorage DLC received mixed reviews from critics, averaging a 67[12] and a 69[13] respectively at Metacritic. Several reviewers criticized Operation: Anchorage for being too expensive for the content provided.[14][15][16] Play.tm's Richard Bright and other reviewers were disappointed overall, with Bright stating "this episode was a little disappointing for me personally."[17] Game Over's Phil Soletsky was particularly critical of the expansion's story, saying "I had been hoping that the liberation of Alaska would be a massive affair involving battalions of soldiers hammering away at each other."[16] IGN's Erik Brudvig gave high praise to the new weapon, the gauss rifle, calling it "freakin' awesome".[14] Reviewers also criticized the shift to a focus on action gameplay, instead of the more varied gameplay that Fallout 3 had.[15][18]

"Welcome to The Pitt"

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, although not hit directly by atomic bombs during the Great War, was afflicted by the highly irradiated water of the nearby Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers, resulting in the decay of the region. The inhabitants suffer from extreme radiation poisoning and degenerate into mindless creatures. The entire population are either slaves or overseers.

Some 30 years before the Lone Wanderer started their journey, Owyn Lyons led the Brotherhood of Steel's expedition to Washington, D.C. through The Pitt. In one night, the Brotherhood swept through and destroyed the raider force occupying the town and rid the surrounding area of other "scum", killing anything that put up a fight. This event is chronicled as "the Scourge". As they cut through the raiders, the Brotherhood saved several young children, among them Paladin Kodiak, who had not yet been mutated to the extent of The Pitt's adult inhabitants. All the rescued children were brought into the Brotherhood of Steel as initiates. Paladin Kodiak is the only remaining survivor from that group of rescued children who is still stationed at the Citadel.

The Lone Wanderer learns of the Pitt from a distress broadcast by a man named Wernher, who asks for the Wanderer's help in liberating the slaves there. The player has to enter the Pitt as a slave and work their way to freedom. This earns a meeting with the Pitt's leader, Lord Ashur, a former Brotherhood soldier left for dead during the Scourge. The player is then given the choice of siding with either Wernher or Ashur. Unlike other decisions in Fallout 3, there is no karmic penalty or reward for choosing either side, as each side has both its good and bad points.

The Pitt received generally positive reviews, averaging a score of 77[22] for the PC version and 76[23] for the Xbox 360 version. When initially released, the Xbox 360 version had a corrupt file which caused problems and rendered the DLC unplayable.[24] On April 3, 2009, Bethesda Softworks reported that they had uploaded a new version of The Pitt which fixed these problems.[25] The PC version of The Pitt had the same problem, leading modders to create a patch called "The Pitt Crash Fix" which fixes the problems present in the wasteland but not interiors of The Pitt.[26]

Liberty Prime, an assault robot built before the Great War, attacking an enemy base

Broken Steel alters the ending of the original Fallout 3 to allow continued play after the end of the main quest line. When the player reaches the final point of the quest "Take it Back!", new options are given to allow specific followers to enter the reactor, but the original options still remain viable. Regardless of what is chosen, however, the player will wake up two weeks later at the Citadel (unless they allow the Purifier to explode, which automatically ends the game), having been knocked unconscious by an unknown radiation spike. Sarah Lyons will also be in a coma, unless she activated the purifier, in which case she will have died.

In the two weeks since the activation of the purifier, the Brotherhood has been using the now-reactivated Liberty Prime to root out the remaining Enclave presence in the Capital Wasteland. The player joins them, only to watch Liberty Prime be destroyed by a devastating orbital strike. Taking out this new threat becomes the top priority. A short side-mission is arranged to equip the player with the powerful Tesla Cannon, after which they move on the Enclave's massive Mobile Crawler base, located outside of the Wasteland at Adams Air Force Base. After fighting through the base personnel, a control station at the top can be used to call an orbital strike on the base itself, destroying it. Alternatively, the Citadel can be destroyed, branding the Lone Wanderer a traitor to the Brotherhood.

Broken Steel received positive reactions, averaging an 81[36] for the PC and an 82[37] for the Xbox 360. The Sacramento Bee wrote "The previous two downloadable expansions are good, but this one's pretty much essential for a Fallout 3 fan".[38][39] IGN mirrored this view by stating "Lifting the level cap breathes new life into a great game, but shouldn't totally overshadow a new series of quests that is a lot of fun." Edge, on the other hand, while commenting that "it's the most you're going to get out of Fallout's current batch of DLC", felt that "it lacks the scope or density of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion's The Shivering Isles".[40] The A.V. Club commented that "After deflating the finality of the original ending, Broken Steel is unsure what to do next, beyond sending you on a few entertaining but hollow missions to snuff out the remnants of the para-military Enclave. Thankfully, the expansion's B-story is more thoughtful, as it plunges into the chaos and profiteering that result when a limited supply of clean water starts flowing into the Wasteland".[41]

In their end of year awards special, IGN named Broken Steel Best Expansion for the PC.[42]

Point Lookout, unlike the other DLCs, does not have a specific goal. Rather, it adds a large area for the player to explore, with new enemies, such as swamp mirelurks, and swampfolk, as well as items to find, such as the lever-action rifle, axe, and double-barreled shotgun. One major quest line focuses on the rivalry between Desmond Lockheart and Professor Calvert, two scientists who have been feuding since before the Great War. Desmond has survived as a ghoul, while Calvert became a living brain. The feud can be ended by the Lone Wanderer in either Desmond's or Calvert's favor. Other quests include following the trail of a long-dead Chinese spy and discovering the mystery of the Lovecraftian tome known as the Krivbeknih.

Point Lookout received generally positive reviews, averaging a 79[44] for the PC and an 83[45] for the Xbox 360. Eurogamer stated "Like a compacted version of its parent game, this is the first DLC that has felt like a genuine expansion, as opposed to a just a few inconsequential missions thrown together."[46] IGN noted that "[t]he stories and characters here are filled with that trademark Fallout dark humor, elevating these quests to a level that rivals the main game" and that "[t]he major draw to Point Lookout... is its emphasis on exploration."[47] Edge calls it "the best expansion so far and the game at its worst," stating "if you want a microcosm of Fallout 3, equal parts adventuring, grinding, questing and scavenging, you might just think it the best expansion so far". Edge goes on to criticize Point Lookout for using "a lot of what you might call 'economy content' in Point Lookout: recycled enemies, text journals, variant weapons, and bogus forks in the storyline."[48]

The Lone Wanderer receives an unintelligible radio transmission which leads them to the alien crash site. Upon approaching the wreckage, they are beamed into an alien mothership, Mothership Zeta, where they meet other prisoners who have been abducted over the centuries. The player is relieved of their equipment and locked in a cell with another abductee named Somah. With the help of Somah, a little girl named Sally, and a few unlikely allies from several different time periods, the Lone Wanderer must fight their way to the bridge of the ship and defeat the alien captain.

Once the captain is defeated, the abductees take control of the mothership to battle another hostile alien vessel. The Lone Wanderer controls the death ray in the battle. Once the enemy ship is defeated, the Lone Wanderer becomes the captain of the ship and can return at will, though most of the ship is locked down after the battle.

Mothership Zeta received mixed reactions from critics, averaging a 70[50] for the PC and a 65[51] for the Xbox 360. Edge comments that "Mothership Zeta's greatest asset is its looks" and that "whoever designed such beauty should be pretty peeved at the game around it". Edge also noted that they "encountered a script bug so catastrophic that we couldn't finish the game – we actually had to clip through a doorway and use console commands to bring everything back on track" and criticized the DLC for locking off most of the ship after completion.[52] Eurogamer states that "the most disappointing factor about Mothership Zeta is how little subtlety is afforded to the details" and sums up the DLC as "repetitive, largely uninspired corridor combat, and boring, linear and samey mission design."[53] Gamedaily praises Mothership Zeta for "keep[ing] Fallout's trademark humor intact", its improved graphics, and for the new enemies and weapons introduced.[54]