'Broken Steel' put together well

• By JOSHUA WASCOM
• Special to 2theadvocate.com
• Published: May 22, 2009

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Half a year after the release of “Fallout 3,” the third and last downloadable expansion has been released for the PC and the Xbox 360. Where the first two expansions were largely self-contained side quests, though, “Fallout 3: Broken Steel” actually extends the game’s main quest and makes changes to the world at large.

“Fallout 3” ends on a note of complete finality. With one last act, either of ultimate sacrifice or extreme cowardice, you are removed from the world in an explicitly final way. Until you install “Broken Steel,” that is, at which point it turns out that massive radiation exposure is -- like broken bones and bullet wounds -- yet another thing in the “Fallout” universe that can be cured with a good night’s rest. The world still needs a hero, and upon waking up, you are immediately needed yet again to help keep post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C., free from large-scale tyranny.

The first and perhaps most important update to note is the raised level cap. Before “Broken Steel,” the highest level was 20, and it was so quickly reached that even a moderate amount of side-questing and exploration would lead to a removal of the game’s main small-scale reward system. The extra 10 levels provided here make a huge difference, and the opportunity to further increase your skills gives you a great excuse to investigate more of the vast expanse that is the Capital Wasteland.

You’re also going to need the new skills to deal with the additional quests, nearly all of which are significantly more difficult than anything in the main game. In the first new mission, which has the player in command of a small squad, I was repeatedly running ahead of my group to take on foes alone – since you don’t get experience for their kills – then scampering back to their Power Armored embrace as the enemies began to overwhelm me.

From there until the last mission, the enemies just get tougher and denser. Even the random encounters have been enhanced, with your standard psychotic raiders carrying better equipment and some new feral ghouls called reavers, who seem to have the special ability to come after you and kill you no matter what you do.

Nothing here is as groundbreaking as the original game was, and the overall story feels a bit simpler than either the main game or the second downloadable expansion, “The Pitt.” The Enclave forces, without the charismatic figure of President Eden, begin to feel more like generic enemies, and there’s only one even vaguely interesting moral choice in the whole thing.

The new quests are all fun and suitably large in scope, though, and “Broken Steel” wraps up “Fallout 3” quite nicely. It works best in combination with the other expansions, so if you haven’t gotten “Operation: Anchorage,” an interesting but not entirely successful attempt to change the “Fallout” formula to something more action-oriented, or “The Pitt,” an unquestionably successful extension of the standard “Fallout 3” gameplay, yet the raised level cap provided by “Broken Steel” might be the just the thing to makae them more interesting.