Attention Bethesda: we’re not made of money. Stop making games so good we are obligated to buy them. With the latest Fallout 3 downloadable content taking us to Point Lookout, Bethesda provides yet another unique and interesting environment to explore. Filled with bogs, ghouls and inbred yokels, the marshes and hills of Maryland not only offer a rich Civil War Era back-story, but include at least ten new quest lines to pursue while providing some of the toughest challenges yet. But at this point it isn’t enough just to simply say that Point Lookout is a good piece of DLC worth the $10 price tag.

The fact of the matter is, this is the fourth of the Fallout 3 DLC packs, with still one more to come, and it doesn’t take a math major to realize that buying all five planned updates at $10 each is nearly the price of the original game. Consequently, no matter how good all this content is, it’s hard to definitively say, “Buy it,” when for some gamers, doing so would simply be a poor business decision.

Read on to find out whether you should jump on the ferry to Point Lookout, or jump in your car and head to the store.

To give a quick overview of where this game stands, of the four DLC packs now available Point Lookout vies for the top spot with Broken Steel, and which one wins out depends on whether you prefer the stats of Broken Steel’s raised level cap and extra perks, or the story of Point Lookout and its misty atmosphere. Either way you go, both easily beat out The Pitt which, while good in its own right, only carries more interest than Operation Anchorage -- a good bit of DLC whose main advantage is early access to Power Armor and the devastating Gauss Rifle. Where Mothership Zeta will fall in this spectrum come July is anyone’s guess (but from the trend so far I expect it to be near the top of the list).

Come this August, the Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition will come out at $60 and include all five DLC packs, plus the original game. That means that anyone who owns Fallout 3, and has already purchased the first three DLC packs, may just as well buy these last two -- you won't finda better deal. Ironically though, if you do not meet both of these criteria and you want to play all the Fallout 3 DLC, you may not want to buy this or any other Fallout 3 DLC. You may just want to go on Ebay right now, or head down to your local used game dealer and sell your game.

You can do the math, but what it ultimately comes down to is this: for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC users, if you can sell your copy of Fallout 3 now for more than $10 over what you’ve spent so far on DLC, you’ll save money by pawning your game now and waiting for the GotY edition. For example, if you buy Broken Steel and Point Lookout (the two best packs thus far) for $20 and sell your copy of Fallout 3 for $30 or more, picking up the GotY in August will save you at least $10 off the price of buying all five DLC packs. While many 360 and PC users may have bought three content packs already, this information is especially relevant for PS3 users, who have only thus far been able to purchase one DLC pack.

How strange is it to say then that I strongly recommend, if you own Fallout 3 on the PS3, that because Point Lookout (as well as previous DLC) is so good, you should go now and sell your copy of your game? Perhaps this was Bethesda's intention in the first place -- sort of a videogame stimulus package. Whatever the case, there are clearly some people out there in a position to get a great bargain -- even if you don't own Fallout 3 and aren't interested in DLC, wait till the flood of used copies come in, or even get a brand new original sure to be put on clearance.

For everyone else still with us and looking to scratch that Fallout itch, Point Lookout may be the strongest DLC available yet. So while you might pine over the fact that new wasteland wanderers are getting all the best deals, being faced with the prospect of buying your fourth pack of DLC isn’t all terrible -- at least we can gloat over disarming a room full of baby-carriage bombs and melting our opponents’ faces off with microwaves while everyone else is waiting for their GotY pre-order to ship.

What makes Point Lookout so intriguing is the detail and emphasis placed on the myriad free-form and story-driven quests, several of which have fairly distinct branches to pursue. You can wander the entire bog land looking for random treasure, whether it’s hidden in an excavated muck hole, a crashed fighter plane or in the morgue of an overrun detention camp. Every single location on the large overland map is worth visiting and exploring if not for something to do then for the sake of the boost to your gamerscore.

If you are the sort of min/maxing RPG gamer that I admittedly tend to be, Broken Steel will be a better initial purchase, but once you’ve hit level thirty the whole point of power gaming is to take your character on an adventure -- and believe me, you’re going to need that tank you’ve spent the last fifty hours grooming. Even with Winterized Power Armor you’ll find that the different types of hill folk running around can easily bring you to your knees, and pretty much the only way to survive will be to make use of the new and abundant Lever Action Rifles and Double-barreled Shotguns. To put it into better perspective, either of these new weapons when fully repaired can take out the once-fearsome Mirelurk Hunter in one or two well placed shots to the face. Hill folk can withstand at least twice that amount of punishment, and are made even more dangerous by the fact that they carry those same two weapons you’ll be trying to use to bring them down.

Bringing along a sturdy Repellant Stick and a truckload of Rad-Away is about the only way to survive exploring the hostile coast, as there has never been a greater reason to explore the depths of the irradiated water than in Point Lookout. Suitably, for all this grief there’s ample reward, particularly in the form of two new perks which can increase both your damage dealt and your overall damage resistance.

With molding mansions to explore and new Tribal warriors to deal with (whose quest line resolution is truly a trip), exploring Point Lookout feels every bit as close to the original Fallout source material as the addition of Broken Steel did. As a matter of fact, I was actually surprised not to find a Spear as a weapon, or any new Gecko enemies to skin for pelts. Even the relatively few bugs are an improvement over previous DLC packs -- in hours of play about the only thing encountered was the ocassional weapon doing no V.A.T.S. damage. Apart from that, and what may or may not be a bug, it seems like every time I opened a container and found a weapon inside there were multiple copies of it. Whether that's a bug or the developers becoming more generous, let's hope it doesn't go away when Mothership Zeta comes along.

For fans of the Fallout series this DLC doesn’t disappoint, and is every bit as enjoyable as the last DLC release of Broken Steel -- perhaps even more so, for those gamers truly interested in story and character development. The ten or so hours it takes to complete your journey down in Maryland makes this purchase worth the $10 price tag and the fact that one of the quests bridges the gap between Point Lookout and the D.C. Wastes gives you even more incentive to continue exploring the content of the original game even after you’ve stepped off the ferry and returned to your old stomping grounds.

Final Score: A

Comments (3)

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TyGuy22 said:

... I agree that PLO is the best DLC past the 30 lvl of BS. I can't agree that it is the most challenging of those available. I find that the albino rad scorpians and feral ghouls from BS are much more dangerous than anything in PLO (not to mention the Super Mutant Overlords). Even the trogs from TP seemed tougher in certian situations than anything from PLO. For sure you don't need to be "bringing along a sturdy repellant stick and a truckload of radaway" to explore the coast. Maybe it was just my play-through, but I came across maybe about 5 molerats; which could all be easily destroyed with a found shovel or axe. Even the swamp ghouls were pushovers compared to just about anything else in the overall game. Add to this that you can bring along any of the previous overpowered DLC weapons with you into the swamps of PLO it quickly can become a gun-to-a-knife-fight scenerio. I was disappointed with the enemies and weapons and the end story could have been a bit tighter, but I was highly appreciative of the extent that the DLC covers. Lots of quests and locations to explore. It was like starting a 6 hour mini version of Fallout all over again.

July 02, 2009

nissac830 said:

... the ghoul reavers gave me tons of trouble, even using the missile launcher to take out their legs first. then my first encounter with the magically spawning hillfolk crossing the bridge north of the hotel killed me a couple times as well, till I started sneak attacking. I actually suspect that my Winterized Power Armor might be broken -- ever since I got it 50+ game hours ago the condition has not deteriorated once. maybe it isn't giving me any protection?? I went the whole game without using any RadAway either, till I got to Point Lookout. it definitely encourages you to go swimming and rack up the rads, which is cool, but you have to get over your fear of the water. How cool would it have been to dive in and be greeted by a RadShark?

July 03, 2009

Arkonian said:

... The winterized T-51b power armor doesn't degrade because Bethesda gives you wrong armor. Instead of the wasteland version, it gives you the simulation version of the armor which has almost infinite health.

July 04, 2009