Previews

Broken Steel: What You Need to Know

The third Fallout 3 DLC pack is nearly upon us, but are you ready for it?

Spiffy:

Removes the endgame; increases the level cap to 30; new weapons, enemies, and perks.

Iffy:

Will the content be any longer than the other DLC packs? How long will it really take to get to level 30?

I've played a ton of Fallout 3 since its release last year (I'm pretty sure the scientific term is actually a "shitload"), both the main game and each of its DLC packs. While Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt were both well-received by critics and fans alike, many Fallout 3 fanatics have been waiting for the release of Fallout 3: Broken Steel to finish the main game's storyline and take a whack at the rest of the DLC. This is largely due to the fact that Broken Steel will remove not only the game's level cap, but also get rid of the current endgame.

Until this week that was all I really knew about this third and possibly final DLC pack, which is currently slated for a May 5th release on the Xbox 360 and PC. But yesterday I attended Bethesda's press event in London, where journalists from around the world were finally given a first look at Broken Steel. While to the uninitiated it might just look like more Fallout 3, there were a number of things that immediately stood out to yours truly.

Home Sweet Home

While The Pitt and Operation: Anchorage both took place outside of the Capital Wasteland, the entirety of Broken Steel unfolds in various locales around the world map. After waking up in The Citadel nearly two weeks after the events that originally marked the end of the game (all we'll say about that is that you can now send some companions into the reactor instead of doing it yourself), you'll be able to head right out and return to doing whatever it was your character did in his or her spare time, be it completing side missions or just terrorizing the local populace of ghouls and raiders.

Project Purity achieves its ultimate goal: a really fun water slide.

If you visit the location of Project Purity, you'll now notice clean water flowing from the pipes, and a quick trip inside will prove that, despite the fact that you've changed the future of the region, things still aren't perfect. You'll be able to take some side missions that involve actually getting said water to the denizens of the Wasteland, but this isn't the main quest of Broken Steel.

No, the main quest revolves around the ever-escalating war between The Enclave and the Brotherhood of Steel, a struggle that the Brotherhood wants to end decisively. You'll be tasked with infiltrating an electrical substation of some type, where you'll need to find a tesla coil to build a new super-weapon called a Tesla Cannon. The Brotherhood believes that this is the key to victory, and finding it will allow you to launch into the second part of the quest: finding the last Enclave stronghold.

It turns out that said stronghold is actually [possible spoiler alert] in the remains of Adams Air Force base, a new location in the existing world (it's located in the southwest corner of the map). The base offers up some of the toughest combat scenarios I've seen in my entire run of Fallout 3.

More good news: Beating Broken Steel still won't end the game. You bitched and moaned, Bethesda listened!