Giant Robots… Giant Satellites… Giant Scorpions… Yep, more Fallout 3!
Game Title: Fallout 3 – Broken Steel
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Format Reviewed: PC
Also Available on: Xbox 360
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Whilst exploring the expanded wasteland offered to me by Bethesda in the Broken Steel package, something terrible happened. Dogmeat, my faithful canine companion, was murdered (or whatever you do to a dog) in cold blood by, of all things, a radscorpion.
Not just any mutated giant scorpion, mind you, but a fucking Albino Radscorpion, one of the new high-level beasties that randomly crop-up throughout your travels and absorb a hellishly large amount of ammunition to bring down.
Luckily, all was not lost as once I had eventually dispatched the critter than a pop-up informed me that one of the canine’s offspring was waiting for me at my home Vault, fresh and ready to travel on as if nothing had happened, courtesy of one of the new Perks (cleverly called ‘Puppies!’) introduced to combat the fact that Dogmeat was really a totally useless companion, mostly due to an suicidal want to charge in & attempt to maul absolutely everything within range, whether the target be a loan rad-roach or a massed wave of Enclave or Super Mutants (both of which sport new heavy troop types and even more dangerous weapons).
Granted, the pup was no more help than usual, despite a HP boost (getting ventilated pretty soon after his sudden birth and enlistment by a trigger happy and particularly lucky Enclave soldier, who just happened to be handy with a Gatling laser) but it’s the thought that counts and it’s good to know you now only have to really babysit the more capable companion (and you now have an inexhaustible supply of *ahem* dog meat).
After ‘yet another shaky start’ (this time, for the PC, in the form of a corrupt GFW download), the DLC nicely informs you that it is up & running by simply informing you that your level cap has been raised to 30. No radio signals, no one-way-trip off-map excursions – most of the pack is nicely integrated into the existing Capital Wasteland, adding content in areas that were previously either empty or blocked off.
There are two off-map areas, one being small and fairly inconsequential (with a quest that seems to run on auto-pilot thanks to almost constant Brotherhood reinforcements) and the other is a linear trudge through a huge military base that forms the main goal of the add-on. Both areas are fairly throw-away once their respective quests are complete, thanks largely to linear level design using cleverly placed energy barriers which give the impression of there being more than there actually is.
Where Broken Steel excels is in how it bolsters the original game and the core of the Capital Wasteland – the original ending is now, well, no longer the ending, there are three main quests (which are crucial to reach the high levels due to the ludicrous amounts of XP dished out too you), three further fairly entertaining side quests and a few more unmarked/repeatable quests for XP/caps, alongside the stuff to do comes numerous additional random encounters (including those bloody albino scorpions, which occasionally ambush you in groups of 2-3, in which case reloading your last save is advised, lest you inevitably lose both your companion and your life – they really are that unfair).
To help you deal with your new challenges, there is a plethora of new heavy weaponry (a spam-happy flamethrower/artillery thing, a deadly 3-beam laser and the Tesla Cannon, which can kill almost anything in 1-2 direct shots) and more than a few Perks & buffs, some of which can radically imbalance the game, including allowing you to unlock all the games level 3 custom weapons, pumping your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats all the way to 9, cause the Nuka Cola in your inventory to automatically convert to Quantum (essentially cheating the Nuka Cola quest) and even have you explode in a nuclear blast when your health is reduced to 20… Why?
It’s all not completely plain sailing however, as the new foes are rock-hard to take down for no other reason than ‘they’re high level foes’, the new Ghoul Reaver creature frequently glitches out (rendering them invulnerable unless you target their legs in VATS) and, yet again, the entire main portion of the add-on is just combat, combat & more combat – Oblivion with Guns this is! If the side-quests can offer up placid & non-violent solutions to dangerous situations, why do I have to mow down an entire Enclave battalion single-handed (with the promised ‘support’ coming from scripted sequences and fighting going on ancillary to the mission area)?
Regardless of these persistent downfalls, Broken Steel is actually an essential Fallout 3 add-on. Whilst the main campaign is throw-away and the high-level content thrown in with a bit of disregard, the way Bethesda have actually thought about the add-ons that are there and have integrated them into the main game world rather than just have the player waltz off to a far away land for 2-3 hours is much more fitting with the games universe and beggars belief why it wasn’t released first.