No great, but good

by Lazare Gvimradze

Fun factor: Fun

Worth to: Buy

An excellent choice for people longing for even more Fallout action, along with new levels, perks and a possibility to traverse the Wastes after the ending.

There were many pretensions to the obviously successful Fallout 3 soon after its release: the Gamebryo engine degrading the presentation, the lack of the original’s atmosphere, and other fanboy-based rants for no apparent reason. However, what many agreed on, was the lower-than-expected scale and continuity of the main storyline, as opposed to the insurmountable numbers and variations of side-missions. The ending was bashed with even more aggression, and a lot of missed chances were visible after the game’s completion (including a ridiculous inability to continue exploring after the finale). Smiling viciously, Bethesda had just the thing to cure the situation: calmly following the trend -- the trend of profitable add-ons.

[Major Original Ending Spoilers in the Following Paragraph]

Their third expansion focuses on lengthening the tale of the Brotherhood of Steel, as they start the process of extinguishing the last remains of the Enclave forces and begin distributing cleansed water across the Capital Wasteland. After awakening, exhausted from our heroic deeds, we are quickly assigned to another, an almost routine task of assaulting an Enclave shelter base. As luck has it, the mission turns out a little tougher than expected, ending with a shocking, funny and patriotic death of one of the most memorable characters of the original game. After discovering the origins of a mysterious orbital strike responsible for the failure, it’s up to us to help the Brotherhood develop a similar surprise for Eden’s outcasts.



The storytelling is rough, hundred-percent on-rails (except for the ending), and packed with maximum action. The Call of Duty series serve as the closest orienteer, as the story delivers more and more inventive ways of dispatching more groups of Tesla Troopers. A few new characters are introduced, and after finishing the quest for vengeance we can continue to traverse the endless plains of the Wasteland. Apart from bearing a purely Fallout-ish patriotism interpreted in a retro funny style, the storytelling fiercely crowns the major story of Fallout 3, in a way that is sure to please most of the enraged fans. And Broken Steel’s ending is also great in its own way, utilizing the main firepower of Fallout’s decision system: YOU impact the world.

Not much more to explore, but pleasant surprises

Continuing the goodies parade are a whole bunch of pleasant gameplay surprises. From now on, we have ten additional levels to reach (making it a maximum 30), and more than a few interesting (and needed) perks. True to the expansion’s tone, we have thematic new guns in our arsenal. Introducing: a Heavy Incinerator throwing twice the flames with twice the distance, and a secret wish for all you who love mayhem: a Tesla Cannon. Both weapons are masterfully tweaked to balance against others, and look damn effective in both normal and V.A.T.S. shooting mode.



There are no notable wide new areas to explore in the literal way (again, true to the nature of the DLC), but there are some new locations which were previously absent. The action, however, mainly raves straight on the Capital Wasteland, underlining, if anything, the importance of the final confrontations.

It’s impressive to see the efforts put into presentation. I’m not saying that the graphics or the animation have been improved, but there are above-average-DLC scripted events and some spectacular scenes. Other than that, it’s the same rocky Wasteland with a grand retro touch. Fallout, in one word.

Summary

While being more of a lone mission than a potentially strong add-on focused on discovering new secrets, Broken Steel is apparently the result of heavy reparations made on the formula used for the previous linear add-on (namely, Operation Anchorage). Compared to other expansions, however, it loses due to its overall straightforward pacing, but if you’re looking for the true ending of the story with epic confrontations, it’s your best bet.