14 DAY TRIAL // Fallout 3 was one of last year's biggest games and in many journalists' eyes, the best one of 2008. It brought players a huge open post-apocalyptic world filled with unique creatures, characters and, most importantly, quests.
It offered dozens of hours of gameplay and was truly one of the most robust titles that we had seen in a while. After its launch, the team at Bethesda didn't go on a break and quickly released three more DLC packs in order to further enhance the story and, in regards to Broken Steel, to let players complete the main quests but still be able to play the game after that.
The company has just released a new piece of DLC entitled Point Lookout, which aims at replacing the post-apocalyptic scenery with a more eerie swamp one filled with in-bred humans, ghouls and other unique characters. I recently spent some quality time with this new content and can share my experience with you.
First of all, I didn't really know what to expect when I boarded the boat to Point Lookout, but the captain's promise of treasure and adventure seemed pretty good. Too bad I couldn't take Fawkes, my trusty companion, with me on the trip. The first encounter with the new territory is an abandoned theme park, which hasn't been that much affected by the nuclear war.
You take notice of some points of interest and are attracted by smoke in a nearby mansion, you go to investigate. As soon as you arrive, the action reaches a critical point and you are tasked with eliminating a lot of enemies in a short time. This is one of the most interesting points of this new content; you need to hurry through a big mansion while eliminating some pretty tough opponents, task which will leave some wear on your weapons and take a toll on your ammo supply.
The story of the main quests is pretty interesting, but it begins quite intensely and ends kind of slowly. The action starts fast and furious but ends up short of crawling. As with The Pitt, it poses some very tough choices, which can't easily be cataloged as good or evil right away and depends only on the player to choose what he or she thinks is right.
The treks through the swamp and the encounters with the new enemies are also quite entertaining, as you can see some clever stabs at the hillbilly redneck stereotype by Bethesda. The terrain is foggy and if your perception isn't high enough, then you might be scared a few times by ghouls hiding in the swamp or bear traps.
By far one of the most interesting parts of the new content is when the player is tasked with gathering seeds of a local fruit. Without spoiling much of the action, we get a brief glimpse into just what has happened in the mind of the Lone Wanderer and see that each event in the game has taken a toll on him. It's a bit scary but it will leave a mark on almost every player.
Overall, the new DLC will offer about three hours of gameplay, or perhaps a bit more if you take your time to experiment and explore all of the surrounding areas. For 10 dollars, Points Lookout is a good place to go if you've grown tired of the Capital Wasteland.