Fallout Fallout 3's Pitt and Point Lookout - Best Part of the Game?

[DalekFlay]

Like most of you I played Fallout 3 on release and was shocked by how bad the writing and quest design was, but also like most of you I kept playing it anyway like a sad fuck. I played the DLC too, and I remembered thinking The Pitt and Point Lookout were decent and better than the main game. This week I decided to revisit them for the first time, so I made a new character and did some basic early stuff before rushing to The Pitt and then Point Lookout. Are they actually a significant improvement?

The Pitt - Not the improvement I remembered, or at least not a real significant one. I think I hated FO3's writing so much that I was happy to have something mildly more interesting, but I'd barely call it that now. The main "villain" Asher is probably the only decent thing in it, design and story wise, but he's not exactly a fountain of dialog. The new weapons are shit and the new "monsters" are also shit. The Pittsburgh atmosphere when you first arrive and go over the bridge is probably the best thing in it, but there's not a lot of that afterward.

Point Lookout - This one I'd actually say is a decent step up. I'm not gonna pretend the dialog is good, but it feels like a mild step away from the abyss. The Desmond character has some half-decent writing at times, and the tribals, locals and antagonist at least have some basic flavor to them. The area is large (almost expansion pack size I'd say) and has some decent atmosphere, with the green filter of the game making more sense. Areas like the church feel less random and more well designed than most of the random shit in the main game. The ending decision is still simplistic, but at least it has a Fallout 2 quirky vibe to it I can appreciate similar to Old World Blues.

There's lots of "at leasts" and "buts" and "decents" up there. I'm not saying these DLCs are some great thing. However are they better than the main game? Probably. At least Point Lookout is, I'd say. Still wellllll below New Vegas in quality, but a slight step up from main FO3. Do you agree?

 

[JDR13]

You must have been really bored.

 

[d1r]

Point Lookout is doing more of what Fallout 3 did best: Exploration. Without a shitty story, but some interesting NPC's and creatures. No wonder why Fallout 4's Nuka Habour is also considered to be the game's best DLC.

 

[ValeVelKal]

I remember I actually liked the Pitt. Point Lookout I am mixed : the biome was fresh and beautiful, with beautiful buildings but the enemies were HP sponge and I remember it felt empty, which was unexpected.

 

[Butter]

FO3's DLC is just as shite as the base game overall. They tried to give you a meaningful choice in both The Pitt and Point Lookout, but it falls flat because there's no reason to care about what's going on in either case. I nominate Mothership Zeta as FO3's best DLC, even though it's also bad, because it features a spacewalk sequence that's kind of cool visually.

 

[Ol' Willy]

The thing I remember about Point Lookout is how ridiculously overpowered those rednecks were. Accurate as fucking Simo Häyhä, heavy hitting and bullet spongy. One of the most toughest enemies in the entire Fagout 3, no doubt. Who would think that the inbred and mutated southern Americans would be way more dangerous than Enclave or supermuties?

 

[DalekFlay]

The thing I remember about Point Lookout is how ridiculously overpowered those rednecks were. Accurate as fucking Simo Häyhä, heavy hitting and bullet spongy. One of the most toughest enemies in the entire Fagout 3, no doubt. Who would think that the inbred and mutated southern Americans would be way more dangerous than Enclave or supermuties?

Yeah, they were really going for "endgame" content and did that in a crude and simplistic way. Not only did they make their HP bars insanely high, but also added a flat damage boost to all their attacks as well, according to the wiki. I think they did the same for some normal FO3 enemies in Broken Steel? Only thing that makes it more tolerable is that the special rifle in Point Lookout, The Backwater Rifle, has a 5x crit chance and by this point you probably have better crits perk, so that still kills them pretty fast.

 

[Commissar Draco]

I remember the Camp for interned Chinks, some downed plane and grotto full of confederate riffles and hats an allusion to infamous Union Confederate POW Camp Lookout.

The outfits and weapons were cool and exploration rewarding as Pit never played this one but people claim it has OK story.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Old World Blues had bloat problems as well. One of the reasons I never completed either that or Point Lookout. The latter had better writing, though.

As to the OP: the only DLCs I tried were PL and Mothership Zeta, and as far as those are concerned I'd say the main game is better. The only fun to be had in F3 is to pick a direction at random and stumble upon a building not knowing what you'll find inside (this has to happen before you realise that there's never anything cool to discover). That, and approaching DC for the first time. Say what you will about vomit tint and Gamebryo, but entering the city after having seen it on the horizon from afar, and then suddenly being cocooned by tall builldings on every side, is a great visual highlight. You don't get either of those things in the DLCs.
(The game is still a piece of shit, mind.)

Edit: just realised that there's no way to answer "no" in the poll. That's no good my man.

 

[Ivan]

You must have been really bored.

never change Codex

 

[Dodo1610]

I really liked the Pit it because of the slaver setting and Pitsburgh looked very good for the F3 engine, I think it even had relatively good CC.
Point Lookout is again visually nicer than the main game and the story there is actually interesting, also it has the most fun gun in the game the lever-action rifle.
But according to the F3 fandom the Alaska DLC and the Brotherhood Dlc were the best despite being abysmal shooting galleries.

 

[Ol' Willy]

F3 fandom

abysmal shooting galleries

I see no contradiction here

 

[DalekFlay]

Old World Blues had bloat problems as well. One of the reasons I never completed either that or Point Lookout.

The roboscorpions in Old World Blues were HP bloat personified and annoyed the shit out of me. I beat that DLC but barely did any side stuff because of those fuckers.

 

[Max Damage]

Point Lookout was fine, better looking than main game, and lever action rifle + grim reaper sprint killed OP rednecks too fast. I quit midway the horrible Mothership Zeta, so never got around playing other DLCs.

 

[Glop_dweller]

I could never load the game with MZ enabled; always crashed.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I wouldn't know, I played it on PS3 and by the time I would have played those two DLCs it was running it like a PC from 2004. You'd think consolification would include fixing that shit, but I guess nobody cared. I did get to Mothership Zeta and the simulator one, they were there. I did feel like the game captured the immedient aftermath of nuclear warfare rather well, shame it was supposed to be hundreds of years after the war.

 

[DalekFlay]

Point Lookout was fine, better looking than main game, and lever action rifle + grim reaper sprint killed OP rednecks too fast. I quit midway the horrible Mothership Zeta, so never got around playing other DLCs.

Zeta and Anchorage are utter trash. Pitt is worth a shot if you enjoy FO3 on any basic level. Broken Steel I barely remember and am currently debating doing, but it would require a lot of main game bullshit.

 

[Funposter]

I remember enjoying them more than the base game, but I also haven't played them since 2009 because I'm not an insane person.

 

[LizardWizard]

I could never get past Little Lamplight

 

[DalekFlay]

I could never get past Little Lamplight

It's so fucking bad.

 

[Kazuki]

If only Point Lookout is the game that Fallout 3 whole based upon on, it can be a decent setting atleast for Fallout Open world 3D spin off.

Still rather Bethesda didn't get Fallout Franchise though.

 

[purupuru]

I remember liking the atmosphere of Point Lookout, but I honestly can't remember anything about the plot for either dlc in thread title. The dlc that left me with the most impression was actually Operation Anchorage, it was so COD-like that I was completely shocked and left in awe, I can't even gather the right words to criticize it.

 

[Ol' Willy]

We have been avenged, brothers

Insults like these could only be washed away with blood. We will be finally avenged only when Shittesda would go broke, defunct, it's employees begging on the street and Todd going back to male prostitution.

 

[Ol' Willy]

The dlc that left me with the most impression was actually Operation Anchorage, it was so COD-like that I was completely shocked and left in awe, I can't even gather the right words to criticize it.

It also breaks the little balance that Fagout 3 has. You can go there very early, maybe right from the start; because it's simulation you don't need any equipment and because it's Fagout your character skills don't matter, you can just CoD your way through. You get enough XP to gain a few levels and some loot, most notably the suit that turns you invisible when crouching. Right in the beginning, that is.

 

[DalekFlay]

There's a (supposed) glitch in Anchorage that makes the power armor not require training and not take any damage, but it was left in I believe because Bethesda couldn't patch the DLCs in Xbox Live's system? Or something? It's ridiculous. I uncheck the Anchorage DLC box, as should everyone.