I am an ardent Fallout fan, and Fallout 3 was like a Godsend to the series, making it far more immersive than I anticipated that it would. I had purchased and played The Pitt/Operation: Anchorage DLC when it became available on DVD and loved that game as well as it adds to the existing mythology of the game so very well. This is the 2nd DLC (that's Downloadable Content to those of you not in the know), basically an expansion pack to the root Fallout 3 game.
Some Spoilers ahead! Consider yourself warned!
This second DLC (Broken Steel) pack takes you on a no holds barred battle to wipe out the remnants of the Enclave still populating the DC Wasteland area. Despite President Eden's demise and the terrible pounding that the Enclave took at the end of the first game, they're still around in large numbers and are determined to take control of the DC area by force. Broken Steel allows you to pick up where the end of Fallout 3 left off by allowing that you were put in coma by the effects of Project Purity's activation rather than dying. Actually in my game I just sent Fawkes in since he's completely immune to radiation, but the end result is the same. The Brotherhood of Steel now has cleaned up much of the tidal basin area's water of radiation, although strangely my geiger counter still registers small amounts of the stuff (usually around 4 rads worth), but that's a minor quibble. Now the Brotherhood is spearheading the effort to cleanse the Capital Wasteland of the Enclave once and for all. And Liberty Prime is still in play! Hoo-ah!
BS will take you through never before seen parts of DC's underground, specifically the transit system used by politicians before the war, and ultimately to the Enclave home base at what I'm assuming to be the Fallout universe's mirror of Andrews AFB. Players are given several new weapons along the way including the Tri-Beam Laser Rifle and the Tesla cannon. This latter gun is so powerful that it can actually destroy Vertibirds with one shot, and it's a heckuva lot of fun to do so! In addition to this the level cap is increased from 20 to 30, which gives one the potential to really max out all of their various stats and several attributes, as well as getting a few of those Perks you always wanted but never could get.
Lookout Point takes the player to a secluded national park area of the same name along the coast of Maryland, an area which was not directly hit by any nukes during the war but has sank into a radioactive quagmire despite this. The locals can only be described as a melding of the characters from The Hills Have Eyes and Deliverance. They're stout, burly, and pretty hard to kill. Other areas you get to visit include sunken ships, a lighthouse (which you can even reactivate), a boardwalk/carnival area, the Calvert Mansion (which is based upon a real historic structure), and an old US prison camp for housing Chinese spies. This portion of the DLC was definitely the superior in my opinion and provides ample opportunity to crank up your exp and get some levels. LP is unusual among the DLC packs because it allows a fully open and explorable terrain like the base game, and while the map itself is considerably smaller than the Capital Wasteland there is still plenty to look around at. New weapons are also added including basic Axes, double-barreled shotguns, a Civil War repeating rifle (basically a 10mm variant of the Lincoln Repeater from the first game), bio grenades, and a handheld focused energy pistol which can turn enemies into piles of dust like the Laser Rifle. The shotgun was something of a disappointment because while it's very powerful you have to be practically standing next to your target in order to inflict damage. And if you're dealing with Swamp Folk' you want to whack em' from as far away as you can. And even then the thing isn't guaranteed to kill your target in one blast, which really bites because lesser weapons can do far more damage with a simple aimed shot at the head.
Because the terrain is so sprawling and open PL is a veritable playground for Sniper-minded folks, and if you have a Gauss Rifle or Reservists Rifle you'll have a field day with it here. One can nail targets from *far* away and it's gratifying to watch any survivors run around in panic, unsure of where the attack is coming from. The plot also expands upon the storyline of some Chinese spies' exploits in the weeks before the war and players are given an option to complete these missions and net the rewards that come with it (piles of ammunition, stimpacks, and a pretty cool rifle).
At the end of the day though, PL and BS are mostly the same old stuff from the original game. What players need are totally new environments to explore (which PL does contribute for the most part). I found myself beginning to groan audibly when I started to see the same overused graphics for sewer/tunnel system in place over and over again, as well as largely the same advertisements. Again, PL mitigates this substantially, but once you've cleared out the missions there's simply little reason to stay around except to harvest Punga fruit and ammo/weapons to sell back to vendors. And at that point in the storyline I already had piles of money and had no need to do so. I rate the game at 4 1/2 stars (Amazon still only allows for full number reviews and not fractions). Grab yourself a Confederate Hat just for the fun of it. It gives +1 to Perception (which helps with sniping and enemy locating) and looks great to boot. If you're a Fallout 3 fan you'll definitely enjoy what this DLC has to offer, although like me you'll probably start wanting to see some radically different stuff in the near future.
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