Fallout 3: Broken Steel Review

There's a big decision to make at the end, one that has a massive impact on the Wasteland.

At the end of the quest line Broken Steel does something quite interesting. As before you're presented with a choice, a genuinely massive one, too, akin to the “shall I nuke Megaton?” decision you made at the beginning of the game. Who cares? I hear you cry. The game's finished after the decision's made anyway. Actually, it's not. At the end of the Broken Steel quest line you're thrust back into the Wasteland, free to go about your business, wrap up any unfinished quests, explore any previously unexplored areas – do whatever you want. But you're going to have to do it with the Capital Wasteland showing the effects of the decision you made.

So, Broken Steel is great, almost by virtue of it extending the life of an already tremendous game with content that satisfies. It rights Fallout 3's disappointing ending, provides a new quest line that wraps things up nicely (and is of similar length to The Pitt) and, crucially, increases the level cap by an impressive 10 levels (levelling up isn't quick, either. I was 24 by the time I'd finished the quest line). But it's by no means perfect. The new perks seem to concentrate on giving players the chance to fill in the blanks in their stat sheet. 'No Weakness' is a case in point. It instantly brings all S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats that are less than five, up to five. Rather than providing perks that help you specialise more in certain areas – stealthy melee fighters, charismatic small guns specialists, for example – Bethesda seems to feel that players want to be maxed out in almost everything, which is a bit of a shame, because it depresses individual play styles somewhat. That I took the opportunity on odd levels to take some perks I'd skipped as I was levelling up to 20 exacerbated this feeling.

More interestingly, there are three perks that allow you to reset your karma. Devil's Highway allows you to instantly set your Karma to very evil, Karmic Rebalance instantly sets it to neutral and Escalator to Heaven instantly sets it to very good. If you've been a Miss Goody Two-Shoes for 20 levels, like I had, and fancied a stab at this being evil lark, now's your chance.

Broken Steel suffers from many of the problems the original game did (I encountered some hilarious bugs and glitches, as well as some not so hilarious game crashes) and some that seem endemic to Bethesda (the PC version was broken (ahem) on release). This, coupled with the disappointing new perks prevents the add-on from a perfect score. But, overall, Broken Steel can't be considered anything other than an excellent addition to the Fallout 3 universe. Put simply, if you love Fallout 3, Broken Steel is an essential purchase.