This is the first DLC that Bethesda oh-so-kindly released for good ol' Fallout 3 which was, I believe, necessary after the somewhat disappointing abrupt end to the main storyline, which I won't spoil for those who haven't completed it. However, like the Pitt, it doesn't continue with the storyline AFTER the final quest, so it has to be done when you're still playing through the game, which can be annoying if you had finished it before the expansion was released. Oh well....
What has attracted criticism from a majority of the people buying this expansion, including myself, is that this works NOTHING like the rest of Fallout - there's no Wasteland, there's no 'survival' theme, no radiation-poisoned animals, nothing like this. It's unfortunately based too much on your everyday FPS, linear missions and all. Fallout 3 was built to be a massively varied game, so focusing on just shooting stuff (and you ONLY shoot stuff in Operation Anchorage) makes it seem far worse than it is. The scenery looks good it must be said, the sound effects of blizzards are very convincing and the snowy, mountainous backdrop is great, but it's simply not enough. Because the whole scenario is based in a US Army simulation, bodies disappear and people 'warp' through doors, making the whole thing seem a lot less believable. Without packs of Giant Radscorpions or Deathclaws jumping at you from nowhere it hugely lacks the deadly and dangerous feel of a much more believable Wasteland.
There are 3 quests involved, and these are zero-complication 'go kill stuff' missions. There are no side quests because of the linear landscape which allows for no free roam, so once you've done the quests it's done and that's the end of it. I suppose you can't blame Bethesda for these things seeing as being a soldier you wouldn't be allowed to run around a war area killing who you like, but then maybe this just means the whole thing shouldn't have been made if it was going to abondon Fallout's traits entirely. The good points I can make are the goodies you can grab at the end of the quest, bringing home a Gauss Rifle (amazing), a Stealth suit which makes you invisible when you crouch and the Winterised T51-b armour, with almost the highest damage resistance in the game and a somewhat lucky scripting error by Bethesda meaning it almost can't degrade.
So Bethesda didn't make a great start with the expansions. If it weren't for the decent weps to take back to my comfy ranch in Megaton, I'd say it was a complete waste of 800 MS Points. You might find this DLC mildly fun if you're REALLY a fan of generic FPS games, but I won't go further than 'mildly'. 4/10, a big disappointment for one of my favourite ever games.
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