I am a Fallout nut and so far have loved all the expansions Bethesda has put out for its epic post-apocalyptic role playing game Fallout 3. The original Fallout 3 gave us hundreds of hours of radioactive fun as we explored the Capital Wasteland in an attempt to find our father. Operation Anchorage had us enter a virtual battlefield to re-enact the battle for Anchorage Alaska against the Chinese invaders and The Pitt offered us the choice to enter a plague ridden city of Pittsburg in an attempt to save slaves from a vile fate. But nothing we have seen yet can compare with the insanity of Broken Steel, the third and hopefully far from last downloadable content for Fallout 3.

The story of Broken Steel takes place two weeks after the final dramatic and sudden ending of the original game. After Project Purity was activated in the original game you were shown one of several different endings and that upset people because if you have played any of the other epic role playing games from Bethesda you know they never end when you finish them. You can continue on and still adventure. Luckily for fans of Fallout 3, Bethesda listened to our concerns and complaints and with the Broken Steel expansion after the game normally ends you wake up two weeks later in the Brotherhood of Steel Citadel finding out you barely survived a major blast of radiation.


You have discovered that the Enclave has been severely beaten back but they are not fully defeated yet and Lyons would like you to help out the Brotherhood of Steel in destroying the Enclave once and for all. There are several missions, new areas to explore and you finally get to join the Brotherhood of Steel which is something many gamers have asked to do in Fallout 3.

Donning your power armor, weapons and Stimpaks you enter the wasteland once again. There are several key big fights in the expansion including a great fight alongside Liberty Prime, and against several dozen Death Claws who are for sure using steroids as they shredded my armor to bits very quickly. You must explore several new overland, dungeons and abandoned areas to help the Brotherhood and complete the multitude of quests.


Broken Steel adds a few new things to the original game such as a new level cap of 30 which takes a very long time to reach, new perks, new achievements, weapons, gear and some new enemies to obliterate. The ramp up to level 30 is a hard one and something most gamers will shout for joy once they hit it for the first time. New monsters start popping up around level 24, or so, and these include a freakishly nasty Radscorpion and some new Ghouls, Enclave Soldiers and more. The new perks are great and range from Grim Reapers Spirit, which activates when you kill an enemy in V.A.T.S. you regain all of your AP instantly and let me say this is nice. Another one is puppies where your faithful companion Dogmeat resurrects as a puppy and you can get him back at the entrance to vault 101. Which is nice because he died very soon after I got him.


Broken Steel certainly changes the game for the better and is a must buy for all Fallout 3 owners. Even the subtle changes to normal characters in the Wasteland are noticeable such as those slackers in Megaton who complain about the water.

Bottom Line is that there is much to explore, must to experience and much to disintegrate in the game and this is why the final score is so high for the expansion. It’s the best DLC we have seen in a long time for any content on any platform for any game.

May the 6th 2009 at 02:16:02 PM

Skipped most of your review for now Fale, I don't want to read any spoilers. I just felt the need to say that what I've seen so far is fantastic. Just the little things, like the Enclave Hellfire Powered Armour, are great. The first Supermutant Overlord I came across almost handed me my own ass. He was tougher than a death claw and that surprised me. Fantastic so far. I can't wait to get into the meat of it.