Bethesda Fallout 3 Game Add-On Pack: The Pitt And Operation Anchorage – PC

If you like fallout 3, you should get this add on. I bought them as a disk and had no problems with it.

Operation Anchorage was fun to me. It was a simulation, so it was a bit different then the other game play. My only complaints about it is that is was kind of hard to find your way around in some areas and you were never able to search the bodies of the people you killed. The quest was very linear. All in all, it was a nice change to the normal game setting and you got an awesome gun, the Guass rifle.

The Pitt was probably one of my favorite of the add ons. The city was the same kind of environment, but more creepy. You get some new types of enemies called frogs (I believe) and some neat new weapons. You get to do some really fun quests and you also have a choice in how it ends depending on your decision in a dilemma. You can spend a long time really going around every where on the map. There are some different and neat backgrounds too. A very nice addition to the game.

I bought this with a great deal of anticipation because of the hype and some of the better reviews.

The potential was there but I think the temptation to make a quick buck by the publisher won out.

The best thing about Operation Anchorage was the stunningly beautiful mountain terrain one finds yourself in at first. Just wonderful. The first time I was in the mountains I just stared off into the clouds and listened to the wind. Just stunning.

The following combat however is completely average with a totally linear play style typical of the most common place type in the most common FPS. The people you come in contact with are not attractive or engaging, IMO, at all. You supposedly get a field promotion to lieutenant and command of a squad, but you have only the most limited control over what they do as in attack or not attack, and even that order you give only once. Once they start attacking I found no way to influence the stuff they did.

(SPOILER) The missions were unimaginative, 1) blow up three giant artillery pieces that were bombarding Anchorage, 2) take out a listening post, and 3) take out a refuelling station for some Chimera tanks I think they were named. BTW, there was only one tank ya had to fight on normal difficulty level which you could take out with about 5 – 7 shots with your sniper rifle, lol.

The AI for the tank was absolutely retarded. While the tank should have been able to absolutely crush your squad if it didn’t have anti-tank support or mines, it couldn’t even turn around a corner of a wall to get to you. The laser beams it shot out hardly even hurt. What a laugh.

The best part of this was the Chinese Ninja, who were annoying and hard to kill ’cause they wore the Ninja armour which has +15 sneak, and +5 invisibility shield (I think it was called) when you crouched but only if you have 85 sneak skill. So they were almost totally invisible unless they stood up. This armour is great fun so make sure you loot the Outcast base to find it. You can use it to sneak anywhere without the enemy/monsters seeing you (don’t stand up or you are seen) and do a sneak attack with a melee weapon. If you have the right skills selected you will get a one hit sneak attack kill every time on normal and most enemies. The best thing is that you can sneak up on enemies and listen in on what they say which is a lot of fun especially in Point Lookout. Also, loot the Gauss Rifle for sure (I dropped mine off somewhere and never did get it back to the Wasteland proper so I never got to use it in the Wasteland and am not sure if you even can.)

I really didn’t find the “Super” armour ya got that dominating statistically as compared to say the Tesla armour. It was good but, IMO, not dominating. I like to use sneak a lot and it is noisy so I loved the Ninja armour.

I’d give this DLC portion and I do this reluctantly a 2.5 stars.

Now, The Pitt was much, much better. Very very moody. It had great potential. But once again I think the publishers were capitalizing on the popularity of FO3 to make some money which, well, they got to make money. But it could be a whole game spin off sometime, and I hope they will.

If you like melee, you will love the Auto Axe, a special weapon you get custom made by one of the friendly characters. Start this baby up and just run forward through a wave of blood right into your enemies. The are paralysed with the attack so they can’t hit you back and are cut to ribbons in a huge spray of blood. Although I never tried it, this would be great to use with the Ninja suit ya can get in O.A.

The quests ya get are very simplistic although satisfying. How could it not be satisfying to be part of killing hundreds of hated raiders and the ultimate raider boss. (Spoiler) Ultimately, ya get to steal the raider bosses wife’s child (after you kill them both) and give it to a loving adopting mother of one of the slaves. Then you let loose monsters (I forget the name of them) into Uptown Pitt to wipe out the remaining raiders. Also, IMO, the raider bosses’ armour is the best in the whole game. If you can stand the stench of wearing it (figuratively speaking) it is great armour.

Now if you are into Fallout3, I suggest you get the DLC at the same time you get the complete Fallout3 dvd, and as soon as you can (maybe around the level 15 point) play through The Pitt to get the Auto Axe, O.A. to get the Ninja armour, and Point Lookout to get the Fertilizer Shovel before completing the main FO3 quest. That way you can get the Ninja armour (+15 sneak, +5 invisibility shield when crouching), and use your favourite weapon like the fertilizer shovel, auto axe, shishkebab, or power fist to slam enemies in the face from the crouch for a deadly sneak attack and probable critical hit. Make sure you ramp up your attack, and sneak attack skills, and abilities every chance you get and you have one super Ninja sneak attack killing machine. Very very sweet.

My main complaint is the unimaginative play of O.A., IMO, and the short but great play in The Pitt.

Finally, I must speak as I do in my review of the other DLC of Point Lookout, and Broken Steel, the problem with the visible area of solid objects not matching the actual solid area of the object persists in this DLC. For example, while ya can see and aim around an object, ya can’t shoot too close around the object, because an invisible edge extends past the solid object and blocks you shots.

This is not the case in many other games I play like STALKER where ya can inch up the the pixel next to any object and shoot without hitting it.