DLC Review: Fallout 3's Operation: Anchorage (Xbox 360, PC)

The first of 3 downloadable content packs has been released to our 2008 Game of the Year called Operation: Anchorage.  After you download the content, when you start your game (once you're out of vault 101 if it's a new game) you receive an emergency radio transmission from the Brotherhood Outcasts.  This will place a quest in your quest menu, and a map marker on your map.  When you travel to the marker, you will find an Outcast outpost in a big battle with Super Mutants.  After the battle you'll be invited into the outpost because you have a pip-boy.  The outcasts tell you that there is a large weapons cache that they have found but they cannot open it until they complete a military simulation.  None can use the military sim without a computer like the pip-boy.  So they offer you the task and in return you will get your share of loot from the cache.  *Note: Even if you killed all of the Outcasts in Fort Independence you WILL be able to do this quest.  **Image below courtesy of IGN

Once you are in the simulation, you get to see Fallout 3 in a whole new way.  This is both a good and a bad thing.  It is good because the environments are new and fresh, everything is clean and new, your weapons and armor are brand new so they do not deteriorate, and best of all, there are a couple all new weapons and armor.  The bad, well, the content as a whole is very linear.  There is a lack of exploration due to the fact that you can only pick up certain items in the simulation.  Enemies disappear once they are killed so there's no loot to be taken from them either.  You are limited to certain areas of the simulation as well so the whole free-roaming feel just disappears.  That does not mean that the content is terrible though.  It is still very fun and bring lots of great battles.  The story is pretty decent as well.

*Spoilers* After you beat the sim, you get to take everything out of a weapons room which includes some new weapons and armor such as the Gauss Rifle (uses microfusion rounds), Trench Knife (like the combat knife), Jingwei's Shocksword (electric Chinese officer sword), Winterized T-51b Power Armor (and helmet), and the badass Chinese Stealth Armor. This is not all that is in the cache though.  There are tons of other weapons and guns throughout, but that is all of the new stuff that you get to bring into your Fallout universe.  *End spoilers*  My recommendation for maximum loot'age would be to do the sim, then kill all of the Outcasts in the outpost.  They all have a lot of weapons and the outpost has quite a bit as well.

In the end, I'd give the DLC a 7 out of 10.  It's hard to discredit the content too much because it is still Fallout 3 which is tons of fun and it brings some pretty awesome new stuff to the game.  Though it does leave a little to be desired.  Also, the 4 added achievements that total for 100 gamerscore are rewarded for completing the quests within the content and nothing more, so no going out of your way for strange achievements.  Good thing it is only 800 points as opposed to 1200 or 1600.

7/10

-CA