Point Lookout – Game ReviewWritten By Roy
Fallout 3 is one of the few games of recent years where the expansion packs / DLC / whatever you want to call them have been regular and cheap enough to really show off how well episodic content can work. However, the first DLC, Operation Anchorage was a pretty poor recycling of old material and didn’t play to the strengths of Fallout at all, turning many people off the idea of further expansions. This didn’t help much more when the Pitt expansion was dogged by technical issues that could easily have been avoided.
All was forgiven with Broken Steel however, which raised the level cap to 30 and provided players with a decent ending to the game which was sorely lacking in the original. Now, with the fourth and penultimate DLC, Point Lookout, it seems Bethesda have finally reached the point that they’ve refined the idea to the point where it’s become an experience that can nearly mirror the fun of the original game.
Point Lookout is accessed through a river boat that’s added to the main map near the ruins of DC, and costs 300 caps to access. The boat takes you to a swampland that now exists where the state park used to be. It’s all quite exotic and a big change from even Broken Steel’s ‘more of the same’ antics, even if the quests themselves don’t change as much as the environment has.
What Point Lookout does do is give you another open world to explore, something the other expansion packs – and we presume the last expansion which is set on an alien ship, do not. There’s finally some new exploring to be done in an area that’s maybe around a quarter the size of the original capital wasteland. It’s a great change to the action focused and frustratingly linear style of the previous DLC. and the environment isn’t just large for the sake of it – it’s actually full of little things to do and explore, just like the original game.
The main quest should take around 3-4 hours complete while the side quests and exploration could last you another 3-4 hours making Point Lookout the largest expansion pack yet for pure length of gameplay, although the new additions in terms of items are somewhat unexciting to people that have already done the rounds in the original map. It’s really the world and quests that are the attraction here, rather than new weapons and armour that were emphasised so much in anchorage, and the DLC is better off for it, as well.
Point Lookout is by far the most capable expansion pack yet and while we admit that we couldn’t do without Broken Steel’s ability to raise the level cap and allow us to keep playing after the main quest’s conclusion, it’s Point Lookout that really shines in terms of its fun content and excellent diversion from the typical gameplay.
9/10
The News Release was written by: Roy who produces professional