The third DLC for Fallout 3, Broken Steel, adds new enemies including Albino Radscorpions, Feral Ghoul Reavers, Super Mutant Overlords and Enclave Hellfire Troopers. These are equipped with new armor and weaponry that the player can acquire. Broken Steel also adds several new perks to cover the additional 10 levels as well as new encounters. The new story picks up where the original ending left off, with a cheap price tag and a huge amount of content, you cant go wrong with this one.

Check out the full review after the break.

Broken Steel alters the ending of the original Fallout 3 to allow continued play after the end of the main quest line. This means that when it is time to go into the reactor at the end of Take it Back!, you can still go in yourself or you can send in one of three side characters. However, even if you go yourself, you do not die. Instead, you survive the ordeal and wake up two weeks later at the Citadel.

The new content starts about two weeks after the events of Fallout 3's main quest ends, and begins in the vicinity of Project Purity which is now up and running. Regaining consciousness inside the Citadel. The battle between the Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave is still ongoing. You are then tasked with aiding a Brotherhood of Steel assault on a secret Enclave base located Southwest of the map. The attack does not go according to plan; I wont spoil anything for you though. Tasked by Paladin Tristan to find the origin of the attack, you find only an unreadable code. Returning to the Citadel you must find a component to create the Tesla Cannon, a new, more powerful weapon for the Brotherhood (EPIC). You eventually travel to Olney Powerworks, an old power plant which is secretly a front used to create Tesla based technology, an you will travel to Adams Air Force Base via the Presidential Metro Line. You will end up fighting through a number of Enclave soldiers as in previous Fallout 3 DLC.

The player's action throughout Fallout 3 will be woven into some of the quests in Broken Steel. For example, if the player decides to infect Project Purity with the modified FEV, it will affect how the Capital Wasteland looks as well as the interactions with the local inhabitants. The changes are not too drastic, but the new crates and barrels are a nice site. Ok so that’s the set up, now the review.

 10 more levels, this alone to a RPG fan is worth the 800 MS, then add in the new perks like Party Boy, where you no longer feel the effects of alcohol addiction or Warmonger, where all of the custom weapon types become available to you without the schematics to them. Also add the new locations like the air force base (AWSOME!) and the new weapons, armor, enemies, quests, and other various items like the Aqua Pura this DLC is packed to the brim with more than enough content. Although the main quest in Broken Steel is definitely geared toward the FPS aspect of the game as are the first 2 DLCs but with the addition to all the other content and having the new locations somewhat in the regular game map, gives us RPGers (Pretty sure that’s not a word) enough satisfaction. Along with the plethora of new content there are new achievements that will get you Gamer Score hunters ready to rock. The main quest will take you about 4-5 hours to get through and get you to level 23-26 depending on what you do in between quests.

The new side quests, most of which have to do with escorting freshly processed clean water across the Wasteland and protecting it from Raiders, wont do anything special but are still satisfying as you climb the ladder to level 30 which is harder than you think to achieve. The new enemies might just have you looking for cover and some stimpaks, the Super Mutant Overlords are not to be messed with, but the loot and exp are worth the battle.

Unlike The Pitt I have experienced no major bugs or glitches that would put me in frustration mode so kudos for a polished release, so the movement and controls all work as they should. The quest “cut scenes” seem to drag on more than they should, giving me info that is in now way helpful to the quests but help the lore of Fallout as is a trend in all of the games. I don’t like it, maybe they could have buried it in a computer terminal or have it as optional speech options, but I guess you cant say they didn’t put a lot of work into this DLC for us gamers.

The A.I. in Broken Steel are a little hit and miss. At one point they will be on the level of a super hero then the next they will be turned around staring at the while he is being shot by the Hellfire Trooper just laying into him. So at times you will be seeing them taking your kills but you might end up trying to save them as they are a much welcomed helping factor in the missions.

One of the new “looks” in Broken Steel is the Aqua fresh water barrels and crates that liter the Citadel and the Wasteland landscape are a nice look and don’t look randomly placed. They look as if they were initially programmed into the stock game, truly amazing artistic value coming out of Broken Steel. As well as amazing overall value for you buck.

Pros-

-       Level 30 cap

-       New armor, weapons, enemies, locations, perks, quests and achievements.

-       Great story

-       Overall look and feel is an amazing

-       Price!

Cons-

-       Frustration A.I.

-       Drawn out dialogue

9/10