MadCap's Game Reviews - "Fallout 3: Broken Steel"

What Broken Steel?! There is no Broken Steel! The name has no meaning!!!

And here we are at the bizarrely named Broken Steel, the first DLC I’m covering for Fallout 3.  The game adds new areas to the main Capital Wasteland, but unlike the others – which can be played at any time – this DLC only comes into effect after the player has completed the main questline of Fallout 3…barring some glitches, of course.

Broken Steel runs thusly.  After the defeat of the Enclave at the Battle of the Jefferson Memorial, the Lone Wanderer was not actually killed by the massive influx of radiation that was released by the activation of Project Purity (for some reason), and was only rendered unconscious for two weeks.  Waking up in the Citadel, the home of the Brotherhood of Steel, the Lone Wanderer is informed of all that is going on and told of the still pressing Enclave threat…which you can for the most part ignore completely and go back to wandering the Wasteland yet again.

Players will notice a few changes, including the Jefferson Memorial now completely under Brotherhood control as well as being the distribution point for Aqua Vita, the product of Project Purity.  Merchants will be around the wasteland selling it and, depending on whether or not the virus was added by the player at the end of main questline, different features are implemented.  If the virus was not added, then clean water flows for all.  If, for some insane reason, you decided to pollute the purifier with the FEV offshoot, then the water is clean save for the virus – which will kill the player upon drinking three bottles.

The Enclave Hellfire Armor looks very nice.

And it doesn’t have to be consecutive either, apparently.  Three bottles, and you deep six. 

Broken Steel adds a few tasty new weapons to the game, chief of which is the almighty Tesla Cannon.  If you want to go full on destruction and have no desire to mess around with the Fat Man, then this is definitely your cup of tea.  And its ammo is far less limited in comparison to the aforementioned Mini-Nuke launcher.

The game also raises the level cap to thirty, which also brings along with it tasty varieties of new enemies.  Such as the Super Mutant Overlords…and the Feral Ghoul Reavers (and they can be a nuisance even for max level players!).  And even some new perks! Bravo!

And now that we’ve gotten through all the hefty new additions to the game, I can get to the actual plotline.  It’s…well, pretty underwhelming, really.  Once more, it’s the Enclave that the player comes into conflict with.  Again, just remnants of the group that have banned together and apparently gotten their hands on a Satellite that fires missiles from space – even being able to take down the beloved Liberty Prime in one of the first missions.

In memory of Liberty Prime. Go seek out Communists in the next life...

Then, the player is sent to go get a Tesla Coil for the aforementioned Tesla Cannon.  It takes a bit to get it, but once you have, you return and get your final mission…yeah, Broken Steel is all of three missions long.  Very underwhelming.  For the last one, you go deep into D.C., passing through the smoking crater of the White House and through the underground via the Presidential metro to Adams Air Force Base.  As a one man army, you move across the base to the Mobile Crawler.  And after fighting all the distance, you can take control of the Satellite the Enclave have been using and use it to either blow up the Crawler (escaping just in time) or to nuke the Citadel (the latter option which will turn every member of the Brotherhood of Steel against you, so don't be a dumbass).

…and that’s it.  You either destroy the Big Good in the Wasteland or finish off the Enclave once and for all.  What’s most disappointing, to me at least, is that there’s no real antagonist.  We just have the faceless troops of the Enclave.  At the very least in the vanilla Main Quest were had John Henry Eden and Colonel Autumn as a face, an antagonist that we truly saw ourselves to be matched against.  But here…you’re just gunning down mooks.  The only real consequences being your one big choice at the end of all of about ten hours of gameplay (at the most).

Still, this is just an addendum to the campaign, not a full-blown expansion.  There are more satisfying ones yet to come, and Broken Steel also gives you a gun that shoots lightning, and allows for post-Main Quest gameplay in Fallout 3 so I’m inclined to be at least a little kind to it.

My next foray into Fallout 3’s DLC might not be so lucky…

Broken Steel, a Fallout 3 DLC, is now available from Bethesda Softworks for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.