Here we are, dissecting the final downloadable addition to the Fallout 3 universe.

Throughout the year, Bethesda Softworks has given gamers a grand total of $50 worth of extra content to one of 2008′s finest games. The finale, Mothership Zeta, is certainly a bold move on the studio’s part to try to go out with an edge-of-your-seat bang. Putting Fallout in space, even with the series’ trademark exorbitant scenarios, is definitely a head-tilting decision. But cosmic setting aside, don’t expect any climactic end to the story of the Lone Wanderer here; the developers are smart enough to realize that after rectifying Fallout 3′s ending with Broken Steel, setting a finite conclusion to the mythos would kill the immersion.

Unfortunately, the end is nigh…and not that great. Zeta is a linear and uninteresting bookend to a fairly massive collection of expansions. It’s not as bad as Operation: Anchorage, but that’s not saying much.

Thanks to Zeta, most gamers are going to feel like their wallets have been probed. Take me to your refund counter, please.

Domo arigato, soon-to-be-exploding roboto

To be absolutely clear, Mothership Zeta isn’t bad DLC, it’s just unimpressive and extremely devalued when compared with its immediate ancestor, Point Lookout. After crafting an expansive, intriguing and thoroughly disturbing trip to the swamplands of Maryland, Bethesda decided to next release what amounts to a repressed collect-a-thon of powerful weaponry.

Sure, most fans won’t complain when by the end of Zeta they’ll have a suit of samurai armor, a cowboy outfit and roughly a metric ton of alien weapons, crystals and worm food (disgusting but nutritious!) to pad their hidden caches — but for $10/ 800 it amounts to a lot less content than Point Lookout. This isn’t a complaint about the overall value of the downloadable content market; it’s about a company setting expectations high with one title, and then somehow failing to deliver on those expectations a little over a month later with the next (and final) release.

The problem with trying to review Zeta as a piece of individual content and the final piece of Fallout 3 DLC is in what each individual may think is worthwhile about it. Like I mentioned, the items and weapons are fantastic. But on the other hand the plot is boring and practically non-existent. Even Anchorage, which I’ve harped on numerous times, had the overarching war between the United States and China to lend a bit more credibility to the entire scenario.

This looks way more interesting than it actually is

It’s disappointing in many ways to be left with Mothership Zeta. The alien captive audio logs are Zeta’s steel ingots, and while they aren’t nearly as tedious to collect, the fact that another achievement is tied to finding easily missable items is frustrating.

The quests themselves are hard to distinguish from one another, and you’ll only happen to notice when one transitions into the next by the popping of an achievement. The singular quest chain sends players around the massive spaceship to do the same thing over and over again: blow up alien generators. Even the ship’s massive death ray (which can be pointed earthward and fired to produce a massive, Texas-sized nuclear explosion — easily one of the best moments of the DLC) is effortlessly conquered by shutting off four generators. Let me reiterate: you shut down generators to get to the death ray, and then to turn the beam off, you do the same thing four times over again. Extremely lazy design? Absolutely.

Perhaps the best thing Zeta has going for it is its scenery. While you’re trapped in the spaceship for the entirety of the add-on, the interior at least looks like a corny, classic sci-fi movie. Lots of “beep boop” lights and big red buttons contrast well with the silver and stainless steel look of the walls, ceilings and floors. The aliens themselves are stereotypical little green men, and speak in a harsh gibberish reminiscent of Mars Attacks!.

Zeta is more or less an homage to 1950s sci-fi, just like much of the Fallout universe. References to probing, human experimentation and abducting cows (though they’re brahmin in this case) are all over Zeta, and they’re good for a few laughs. It’s a cheeky add-on for sure, but it’s easy to wish Bethesda had gone farther with the idea of killing aliens in a spaceship than it simply being “cool.”

Hey, I can see my charred ruin of a house from here!

Take it or leave it, Mothership Zeta will always be the last piece of Fallout 3 DLC Bethesda released. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s not the worst add-on for the game. Bethesda accurately created a 1950s-type of alien abduction story, but managed to leave out the plot, fun and excitement. The finale will impress, but that’s not enough to make this a for-sure recommendation.

If you must absolutely have every expansion to the core Fallout 3 title, then you’ve already made your choice. But if you’re on the fence about how worthwhile Mothership Zeta actually is, ask yourself this: Is $10 is worth it for what boils down to a four-hour, super weapon shop-till-you-drop marathon? Save those Microsoft points and get Point Lookout instead. Or, pick up Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, which includes all five DLC packs, when it drops on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this October 13th.

Recommended for:

• You crazy people who need each piece of Fallout 3 DLC
• That one Mars Attacks! fan who’s been waiting for someone to remember the movie, and as a result will go and buy the game right now

Not Recommended for:

• Value-conscious gamers
• Fans of Point Lookout expecting Mothership Zeta to be equally as good
• Someone with only $10 to spend: Go grab The Maw or ‘Splosion Man instead!
• Humans who’ve been traumatized by probing at some point in their lives

Read our policy on reviews here.

It’s comforting to trek through the swampy bogs of Fallout 3′s fourth downloadable content pack — it’s just like the Capital Wasteland, only with (slightly) more inbreeding.

That feeling of being at home within the game is Point Lookout’s strongest asset. Unlike the uneven experiences in both Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, this DLC effort takes a page out of the core Fallout 3 experience. Players are given a familiar set of rules and goals: explore, scavenge, kill and quest. Even Broken Steel, which was a remarkably solid piece of extra content, timidly reproduced the basics of Fallout 3. But with Point Lookout, Bethesda Softworks has created a real sidestory to remind us why its rendition of the Fallout franchise is so supremely addictive.

Your arrival in Point Lookout: looks like you got screwed on that timeshare

Point Lookout is an entirely new area of irradiated United States soil set apart from the Capital Wasteland. What was once a vacation hot spot — based on the actual Point Lookout state park in Maryland — has become a haven for mutated hillbillies 200 years later. This is as close as we’re getting to Deliverance: The Game…thankfully.

Players arrive via the Duchess Gambit, an old paddleboat captained by Tobar the Ferryman — one of those characters who’s too nice to be trustworthy. Point Lookout is separated from the Capital Wasteland by a loading screen; the boat serves as the link to the island just like the rail cart in The Pitt. After a slick arrival cutscene and departing from the rickety old boat, most players will likely head straight toward the burning mansion on the hill. It’s a good thing the house is so visible: it marks the starting point of the add-on’s main quest.

Point Lookout is unquestionably the most visually appealing addition to Fallout 3: There’s always something new to draw your gaze while traversing the swamps. Notable sites include a massive lighthouse and the run-down boardwalk, complete with Ferris wheel and bumper cars. There’s an interesting set piece on every horizon; even on top of the rocky coastline of the park players can spot treasure-laden ships and a few buoys in the mist marking hidden weapon stashes.

Rusted ship hulls, beached hundreds of years ago, eerily litter the coast like misplaced trash spat out by the sea. Each vista in Point Lookout tells a story with its warped steel, charred trees, scattered litter and bleached skeletons. Although Fallout 3 did a fantastic job of creating an expansive and fulfilling landscape to sift through, Point Lookout’s compact size and hazy wetness create quite the environment to get acquainted with.

All that learnins and edumacations did a number on ol' Zeke's mind

It’s all about small surprises in Point Lookout. Finding a dead Chinese spy in a hotel room leads to a roundabout but thrilling quest involving safety deposit boxes, a submarine, double-crossing and cryptochromatic spectacles hidden in the water tank of a toilet. One of the better sidequests in Point Lookout, the sheer fun of it makes up for duds like “The Dark Heart of Blackhall,” a fetch errand with an inconsequential endpoint — 1000 caps does not a good quest make. What does make a good quest, however, is what Bethesda puts players through in the main plot of the DLC, starting with “The Local Flavor.”

Beginning with Calvert Mansion and the temperamental, curse-prone ghoul Desmond, the main questline is one of the most winding chains seen in the Fallout 3 universe. Your new and angry friend sends you, the Lone Wanderer, to uncover the secrets of a tribal cult attacking his house. The tribals worship the punga fruit, a mutated plant that provides enough sustenance to keep their community going. From there the entire thing devolves into serious “What the hell?” territory: Giant mother punga fruit, unwanted brain surgery, house explosions and the holographic mind of a diabolical scientist all stem from this singular quest. Without spoiling too much, this sole quest is just about reason enough to purchase Point Lookout. It won’t disappoint you.

Those hoping for smashing (pun slightly intended) new weaponry will be moderately satisfied, as Point Lookout adds a few new items. As far as weapons go, the lever-action rifle is a fantastic replacement for the hunting rifle, and will finally put to use all that extra 10mm ammo. The double-barreled shotgun fits right in with the backwoods setting, as does the two-handed axe; though melee characters don’t seem to do much damage with it.

Why yes, you CAN "axe" me a question!

Unfortunately, the clothing options leave a bit to be desired: a Confederate hat is the most prevalent piece of gear. Really, it seems like a missed opportunity for a full-on, hick-like outfit considering the rusted car, bear trap and moonshine atmosphere. Instead, Point Lookout’s enemies wear their plaid with pride.

The most notable opponent inclusions are the disfigured, Sloth-like hillbillies of Point Lookout’s vast swampland. Skinny creeps, aptly named Creepers and Scrappers, move fast and shoot accurately, while the burly Brawlers and Trackers/Bruisers (two variations on the same model) hit incredibly hard. Watch out for these guys: apparently the generations of inner-familial intercourse led to super strength. Who knew?

Point Lookout is simply a joy to play through. It’s thoroughly disturbing and rewarding at the same time thanks to an adherence to its Fallout 3 roots — unlike Operation: Anchorage, which suffered in quality because it deviated so awkwardly from the core experience. Bethesda has finally learned that additional content works best when it shares common ground with the game it descended from.

Recommended for:

• Fallout 3 completionists, of course
• Players turned off by previous add-ons like Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, which did little to play like “vanilla” Fallout 3
• People like me who have lived near small town/hillbilly people; I had quite the laugh at the swampfolks’ expense
• One of the greatest questlines that can be found anywhere in Fallout 3

Not Recommended for:

• Weapon enthusiasts looking for the next Gauss rifle or Auto Axe. While the weapons in Point Lookout are nice, they’re not super-powered
• If inbreeding hits a bit too close to home for you

Read our policy on reviews here.

Broken Steel succeeds because it caters directly to Fallout 3′s central plot without weakening it. There are no diversions or trips to less-important locales in this add-on—players are brought back to the Capital Wasteland, continuing the quest that led them out of Vault 101 in the first place.

Truly, Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt were fleeting crescendos meant to build up to Broken Steel. It’s just a shame it took two tries on Bethesda Softworks’ part to get everything right.

Before Broken Steel, Fallout 3′s major flaw was its ending. After successfully pumping fresh water into the parched landscapes of the Capital Wasteland the game cruelly fades to black. The decision makes little sense considering Bethesda’s track record with its Elder Scrolls series—in the games, players could continue exploring the surrounding world at their leisure. Thankfully, Broken Steel rectifies the disappointing ending and fulfills players’ innumerable hours of investment in the main plot.

The waters of life return to the ruins of D.C.

Players can now see the pay-off of chasing their digital father’s dream to offer fresh water to the people of the wastes. Barrels upon barrels of “Aqua Pura” are carted out to the surrounding communities by way of Brahmin caravans. No need to rely on a voice-over movie to fill-in the blanks anymore.

After finishing Fallout 3′s main quest, players wake up under the care of the Brotherhood of Steel and Elder Lyons. The aging leader explains that two weeks have passed since Project Purity came to fruition, and Enclave forces, outside of a few pockets of resistance, have been largely dealt with. For once in a Fallout 3 add-on there’s no distress signal to tune into—the new content begins right away.

Broken Steel’s first mission takes players to one of the remaining Enclave strongholds outside of the regular wasteland map. The combat starts immediately with full units of both the Brotherhood and the Enclave exchanging an array of bullets, beams and bombs. Along for the destructive ride is that shining beam of Democratic pride Liberty Prime, who shows up to vaporize what it (always) thinks are Communist Chinese forces.

Unfortunately for the Brotherhood’s robotic super weapon, an Enclave orbital strike makes short work of the propaganda machine. Funnily enough, Prime’s decapitated head stops just short of the player’s feet to gasp out its poignant last words: “Death is a preferable alternative to Communism.”

Thus begins the main quest of Broken Steel: find the Enclave command center responsible for ordering the missile strikes. This is how players end up in the brand new (and final area) map of Adams Air Force Base, reachable by a tram system located underneath the White House.

Battle at the Adams Air Force Base–the Vertibirds lose.

The Air Force base is a sizable chunk of land, though it’s mainly a bunch of hangars and fortified Enclave positions. If anything, Bethesda could have done more than offer an extremely wide and flat section of land. It’s also easy to fight through thanks to usable artillery strikes and tons of cover.

However, actually reaching Adams Air Force Base isn’t a simple proposition. Broken Steel is a difficult piece of downloadable content in most other areas thanks to new enemies like the Enclave Hellfire Troopers and Feral Ghoul Reavers, who aren’t pushovers even at higher levels. The Reavers in particular are quite challenging, but it’s a welcome shift in difficulty from otherwise being able to kill most enemies in one to two rounds of V.A.T.S.

Broken Steel’s main story, lasting around six to seven hours depending on the player, is a strong addition to Fallout 3′s core plot. At it’s most basic, Broken Steel is not much more complicated than letting players become Rambo, essentially going all-out to get revenge on the Enclave; even so, it’s a perfect fit with story threads left unwoven in the regular game.

The last mission objective in the DLC is to storm the Enclave’s gigantic Mobile Crawler, and what a finale it is. Special squads of soldiers, numerous Vertibirds and deadly turrets guard the outside and inside of the base. The interior of the crawler offers a vast treasure trove of supplies to plunder for those who can carry the load–scrounging has always been one of the most satisfying parts of the Fallout experience, after all.

Once players have shot their way to the control center and discovered the computer used to order the orbital strikes, they are once again confronted with difficult choices. One payload of missiles remains, and there are several targets to choose from, including the Citadel. As always, each choice has its consequences. But really, who hasn’t thought of bombing those righteous Brotherhood bastards?

Tesla Cannons don't take no mess

Broken Steel is enjoyable because it returns players to the Capital Wasteland and adds content without changing the overall cosmetics. The new weapons, the Tesla Cannon in particular, are superb. Enclave Vertibirds aren’t at all safe from a projectile beam of electricity, but it’s curious that players don’t receive XP from destroying the aircraft. Unfortunately any additional armor selections are quite lacking outside of the new Enclave units’ equipment.

The new level cap of 30 introduces some fantastic perks. “Puppies!” prevents Dogmeat from really ever dying as his offspring spawn outside Vault 101 to take his place. It’s little additions like that which show Bethesda’s commitment to improving their game. Another useful perk, “Quantum Chemist,” converts every 10 Nuka Colas into one Nuka Cola Quantum—a very desirable option for high-level explosives experts.

On the surface not much has changed in Broken Steel, but that’s what makes it Fallout 3′s greatest DLC. It’s all about preserving the feel of the Capital Wasteland while opening up an endless story for players and their personal Lone Wanderers. The quests, weapons, armor and level cap are just bonuses. And while it may sound unfortunate to have to pay $10 for the simple luxury of continuing characters’ journeys, Broken Steel is worth it.

Hopefully Broken Steel will be Bethesda’s model for future Fallout 3 content. It might have taken the development team a few attempts to deliver a quality gameplay experience in-line with the best parts of Fallout 3 proper, but what matters most is gamers and fans finally have an add-on worthy of the Fallout name.

Now if we can just get Liberty Prime up and running again, that would be great.

Recommended for:

• The best Fallout 3 DLC Microsoft points can buy; a significant value as well over Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt
• Being able to play past the original game’s ending
• Fun weapons and entertaining quests
• By buying this, hopefully you’ll encourage Bethesda to make better and better DLC packs for Fallout 3

Not Recommended for:

• $10 for new content still sounds high to you
• Fallout 3 doesn’t mean anything to you…you savage!
• Low-level characters not close to the end quest really don’t need to purchase this content until they’re at that point

Read our policy on reviews here.

This time around, Bethesda Softworks ditches the virtual reality pods and simulation gimmicks seen in Operation: Anchorage; instead, the developers have crafted their interpretation of a post-apocalyptic Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in the process manage to create a locale as equally nightmarish as any seen in the Capital Wasteland.

It’s a satisfying return to the best parts of the Fallout 3 world, and despite The Pitt’s technical flaws, it’s a significantly more impressive experience than Anchorage.

Just like in the last DLC, players begin The Pitt’s content by receiving a broadcast distress signal from an unknown source. After reaching the source of the message, the DLC introduces its quest-giving main character, Wernher. This mysterious new character recruits the player into saving his people–slaves forced to work for Ashur, the boss in charge of the Pitt’s foundries and building projects–by infiltrating the slavers’ town and stirring up some trouble. To do that, the eye patch-wearing rogue asks for help stealing a rumored cure to the genetic mutations running rampant across the slaver-occupied town.

Precioussssss…

Although Pittsburgh wasn’t nuked during the war, 200 years of three separate rivers drumping in other cities’ radiation mixed with an incessant cloud of industrial toxins have created a special kind of degeneration for humans in the Pitt. When exposed long enough, people begin to morph into “Trogs,” which look like Fallout’s version of Gollum. Trogs are also the new Super Mutants of The Pitt, replacing them as the main flavor of enemy, and it’s actually a welcome change.

The story and setting are clear tonal shifts from Anchorage’s vision of American wartime prosperity, and though the plot is still razor-thin (it’s hard to believe even evil characters would care enough about a town of slaves for a few lousy caps), players are likely to accept The Pitt’s content because it feels like Fallout 3.

Pollution's never been so pretty

If Operation: Anchorage was a serene landscape of blues and whites, The Pitt is a hellhole colored with oranges, reds and yellows–both inside and out, Pittsburgh’s ruins look like one continuous foundry pumping rust, blood and smog into the air. It’s a perplexing (and cool) sight to gaze upon active industrial smoke stacks in what’s supposed to be a de-industrialized waste of a world.

Reaching the new area is as simple as activating a railroad handcart located outside of a train tunnel, though players are warned they will be stuck in the Pitt until the main quest is finished–a nearly five hour commitment. Travelers will want to be sure they’re ready for the Pitt before taking off. Once inside, Wernher informs players that their equipment will be temporarily taken from them. Wernher does offer to hide either a gun or knife on the Lone Wanderer (don’t ask where), so players won’t be entirely unarmed.

The first and last time you'll see the word "welcome" in The Pitt

Getting to the slaver camp requires traversing one of the more impressive pieces of architecture in The Pitt: a bridge leading into the ruined city. And although it’s technically nothing out of the ordinary, the haunting “Welcome to The Pitt” sign along with the husks of cars, dozens of frag mines and a new type of rabid dog make for a superb introduction to the new content. The experience continues to be largely solid throughout, though the occasional technical problems hamper an otherwise more-improved example of DLC.

Twice during the first mission alone the game froze in the middle of using V.A.T.S., and it crashed again a handful of times during various loading screens. It’s been widely noted that The Pitt had significant problems at release, but many seem to persist.

At the time of this review, a few textures and random geometries noticeably stick through buildings and the odd clipping of character models appear here and there. That said, The Pitt is still a fantastic-looking piece of DLC thanks to Bethesda tweaking the engine’s lighting effects. The characters may still look rather lifeless, off-colored and poorly textured, but gamers have been dealing with Bethesda’s style of modeling since Oblivion.

What The Pitt does best is adhere to the example set by Fallout 3′s main content: force players to make tough choices and give them ambiguous answers. Without spoiling it for readers, the “cure” referred to by Wernher and his accomplice Midea isn’t just a simple item to steal. In fact, if players don’t listen to some key holotapes they might believe they’re making the right decision, only to regret it later. The Pitt is by no means a masterpiece of emotional storytelling, but it does a much better job of providing complex options to problems and offering realistic consequences. But, who really cares about “feelings” when there are things to kill, right? Right.

The Auto Axe: A favorite of the post-apocalyptic Tim "The Toolman" Taylor

The most impressive piece of weaponry found in The Pitt is the Auto Axe, which is basically what a mad scientist would create if he fused a lawnmower and power saw together. Non-melee characters might not replace their projectile weapons with the brutal Auto Axe, but weed-eating a few dozen raiders and Trogs to death is grotesquely satisfying nonetheless. Unfortunately, no type of additional damage modeling for characters made it in into the DLC, as limbs still come off like they do in Fallout 3 proper. It would have been a great time to introduce more complex dismemberment animations with such an excessive weapon available.

Clothing in The Pitt receives better tending to than in Anchorage, as there are 18 new wearable pieces ranging from headgear to body armor. It’s great that characters have more opportunity to explot the “role-play” aspect of Fallout 3′s RPG side, whereas before the costume choices felt limited to a few decent options that weren’t post-apocalyptic belly shirts.

Perhaps the Pitt wouldn’t be this enjoyable if it wasn’t preceded by Operation: Anchorage’s weaker content. Still, on its own The Pitt simply works because it’s a faithful extension of the Fallout 3 world’s gritty fantasy.

With a larger and more interesting area to explore, better quests to complete and an overall impressive experience to be had, it’s not hard to recommend The Pitt, even when taking Broken Steel’s significantly more robust additions into consideration.

Players with Broken Steel will still get a lot out of The Pitt. Outside of experience points, weapons and armor–equipment useful even in Broken Steel–The Pitt’s quests, while separate, compliment Broken Steel’s if for no other reason than they both act like Fallout titles are supposed to. And that’s exactly what any DLC should have done from the beginning, anyway.

Recommended for:

• Those burned by the other DLC’s content; The Pitt steps things up significantly
• It’s Fallout 3 presented in a new light, and that’s what makes it work
• New weapons, armor and a view of somewhere other than the Capital Wasteland
• One interesting quest involving a so-called “cure” for the Trog mutations

Not Recommended for:

• There are still bugs, and mileage will vary from gamer to gamer. Still, make sure you don’t rely on autosaves–corruption does happen
• Some shoddy design here, with textures being out of place, buildings clipping into each other and so on
• Gamers on a budget that have to choose between this or Broken Steel. The Pitt’s almost as good, but this isn’t so much a negative element as a practical judgment call

Read our policy on reviews here.

Operation: Anchorage isn’t exactly a waste of time, but it’s close.

Bethesda Softworks’ first Fallout 3 DLC is by no means lacking polish or the studio’s high production standards, but it’s truly not much more than a three-hour treasure hunt with a few unwelcome gameplay additions and a shiny, non-wasteland setting to cover its overall shortcomings.

This lackluster nature makes Anchorage a frustrating piece of content to plod through as Bethesda certainly isn’t new to the idea of extending their core titles. The numerous releases for their last game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, first began with pointlessness but later ended with something epic; it certainly appeared that the company learned from its initial mistakes and mastered the delivery of DLC packages.

Unfortunately for Fallout 3, the development team manages to repeat its history of initially poor downloadable content with the uneven and unsatisfying Operation: Anchorage, which ends up looking like a failed attempt at streamlining Fallout into a first-person shooter experience.

In Operation: Anchorage, the Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts have found a locked cache of 200-year-old weaponry and are desperately trying to unlock the tasty tech treats within. The only problem is a door locked via a virtual reality program, a program which runs a simulation of the pre-apocalypse Chinese invasion of Anchorage, Alaska. Only when the training sim is complete will the vast treasures within be available to the Outcasts.

Players showing up to the Outcasts’ hideout in the D.C. ruins are told that their familiarity with the Pip-Boy 3000 is integral to interfacing with the V.R. program, and as such are suited up for the simulation pod with the promise of sharing whatever lies behind the doors.

Bethesda clearly wants to get the DLC moving along here, as the process of arriving at the Outcast base to getting into the V.R. program takes less than five minutes. It’s certainly one welcome change to the sometimes overwhelming exposition found in Fallout 3 proper.

While cool, this screen is from one of the only decent missions in the DLC

Once inside the simulation, Operation: Anchorage as a piece of content begins a systematic destruction of most of Fallout 3′s more enjoyable mechanics. While the battle for Anchorage is a virtual reality program and thus Fallout 3′s typical rules are free to change, players nevertheless shoot weapons that don’t degrade, access infinite ammo supply containers and recharge their life with unlimited health stations.

Because of these gameplay changes–new approaches intended to speed up the Fallout experience–Anchorage feels like Fallout: The FPS, and that’s not a good thing.

For the first add-on to a game all about the utter hopelessness of carving out some sort of existence in a ruined, mad world, it’s certainly a strange change of pace technically and visually. Fallout is a world of tans, greys and browns–the colors of death and destruction.

So, while Anchorage is certainly impressive with its snow-covered tress and blue-hued color palette, it’s unsettling considering the visual rules Bethesda created in the Capital Wasteland. To be fair, players are dropped into a different world 211 years prior to their stepping out of Vault 101, but it’s easy to see why the developers forgo the alien look of Anchorage and return to familiar nuclear wasteland scenery in The Pitt and Broken Steel.

With unlimited health and ammo available at every turn and guns that won’t break, literally blasting through the content is nearly effortless even without the easy-to-kill enemies. The Chinese forces in Anchorage are basically the same with a few variations as the content progresses. There are snipers, stealth units called Crimson Dragons (which look like Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 4), flamer-wielding enemies and a few Communists with missile launchers.

Chimera tanks: dead before they can do any damage

The only interesting adversaries are the Chimera tank and spider drones. Yet the drones are porcelain-weak, and the Chimera, for being described as an insurmountable death machine by U.S. troops, can be taken out by an explosives expert using three standard hand grenades. It’s a shame that one of the only non-human or mutant enemies in the entirety of Fallout is a complete pushover.

By the time the last mission is finished, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume a lot of gamers think, “Wait, that’s it?” Anchorage comes to a full stop in the middle of the most exciting mission in the entire add-on. After exiting the V.R. pod, the Outcasts are ready to open the door to the stash. Inside are likely the main reasons for purchasing this DLC: the Gauss rifle, an electricity-charged Chinese sword, winterized T-51b Power Armor and the Chinese stealth suit.

The new weapons and armor are certainly both fun and powerful, but they’re all simply upgrades to Fallout 3′s other devastating weaponry. Anchorage can’t necessarily be faulted at its time of release for being a short romp through a new setting and offering completely different play mechanics in a quest for overpowered gear, but it can be faulted now for lacking value when compared with Fallout 3′s other DLC packs.

This armor can be yours for the not-so-low price of $10!

To put it bluntly, this DLC isn’t worth the 800 ($10) if gamers have already purchased Broken Steel, a piece of content costing the same amount as Anchorage. The post-level 20 experience gains (unlocked in Broken Steel) in Anchorage amount to only one-and-a-half levels. Even the weapons will be quickly replaced with those found in the other two add-ons.

Taken as a whole experience, Operation: Anchorage tries its best to be a sharp turn for the Fallout series while offering some back-story on a conflict first mentioned in Fallout 1. But instead of being a decent companion to Fallout 3, the DLC acts like a very easy shoot’em up with only super weapons as a pay-off–it’s not exactly a worthwhile privilege.

Recommended for:

• Fallout 3 fans pining for more content, but for some reason don’t want to purchase The Pitt or Broken Steel
• Players of Fallout 3 eager to add more gear to their characters’ stashes, slowly amassing everything available in the game
• Anyone interested in more of the world’s lore, as the battle for Anchorage is an integral point in the backstory of the franchise

Not Recommended for:

• Mostly everyone else. Completionists will want the DLC just to play the content, but what’s included isn’t exactly fun
• The fact that two more interesting content packs are available makes Anchorage the bastard child of the DLC offerings
• How the add-on injects FPS and action game elements into a title that didn’t need to have them, and worked fine with its unique take on shooting (V.A.T.S.) to begin with

Read our policy on reviews here.

Somehow, even after three DLC releases, Vault 77 still isn't in the game

This weekend we’ll be running a three-part Fallout 3 DLC review feature in honor of the newly released Broken Steel, the third and supposedly final exclusive pack for the Xbox 360 and PC.

All three reviews will be self-contained and cover a specific add-on, but we’ll also determine whether or not Broken Steel’s increased level cap of 30 impacts the relevance of the other two expansions’ content.

Look for our first two reviews to hit this Saturday and Sunday, with the final one dropping on Monday.

And yes, what Ron Perlman says about war never changing applies to our dates as well.

• Saturday, May 9th: Operation: Anchorage — Are the FPS-leanings and winterized weaponry worth the rather short playtime? Take a break from your hangover woes this Saturday to read our answer.

• Sunday, May 10th: The Pitt — A vicious ax that’s part chainsaw, all murder? Check. One pointless collect-a-thon for an achievement? Check. Some bang for your Microsoft space buck? Visit the site on Sunday to find out.

• Monday, May 11th: Broken Steel — Liberty Prime, everyone’s favorite Commie-hating robot, is back for an appearance, and Dogmeat can’t really die anymore. This is supposed to be the biggest and best Fallout 3 add-on yet, but that’s our job to decide come Monday.