this dlc is only good because you get power armor and a gauss rifle that never breaks everything else is kinda boring
I was playing a melee character. So the loot after finishing the DLC was great :D I used that sword until the end.
WHAT A PIECE OF SHIT!
This DLC was so much fun. The story was quite creative.
Why did you think this was a good idea.
My least favourite FO3 expansion is ironically the one I enjoy talking about the most because it's uniquely terrible.
On the surface it's (ostensibly - I may be putting too much faith in the writers) a straightforward parody of what was, at the time, every shooter on the market: You are simultaneously a nobody and a legend, the entire US military cannot do anything without you, and there's no real way to engage with the world beyond murdering people in linear, grey hallways.
This is only aided by the in-universe notes/audio logs that make it obvious the simulation is massively detached from reality at the behest of an insane, sinophobic American general. So it's an in-universe parody as well an out-of-universe one.
There's just one big stinky winky dinky problem:
The parody doesn't work because the core of it is what Fallout 3 already is.
Fallout 3 at its core is a game where you walk through unwieldy shooting galleries in boring environments, endlessly massacring nearly everything you come across in areas that're 99% of the time either linear hallways or intersections that lead to linear hallways.
The only meaningful difference between OA and the game it's bolted onto is that Fallout 3 very occasionally pretends to be an RPG and lets you talk to someone. Even then, 9/10 times you either kill them or having a big prompt that lets you do so.
Perhaps what makes OA so much worse is that it's a thinly-veiled excuse to deposit some loot on you. Your incentive to do the DLC isn't "see this cool place", "free some slaves", "finish the main story" or "aliens, right?", no. You're told in no unclear terms that you should do this DLC for the loot that's in the vault. That's it.
I'll speak on it in more depth when I finish the actual Fallout 3 review, but the actual rewards you get really compound the game's overall issue with loot being meaningless. Namely, OA is perhaps the only part of FO3 that features a reward dump that isn't shit. The stealth armor, winterized T-51B, shocksword and gauss rifle are all excellent regardless of one's build, and given how easy OA is they're functionally free.
But there's a lot in the vault that I can only describe as nothing more than shelf-filling garbage. Upon slogging through OA and opening it, you'll be met with uh... A Chinese Assault Rifle, some ammo for it, and a Missile Launcher, alongside lots of mines and grenades. All incredibly common loot in the wasteland, to the point where I don't blame anyone for thinking the vault is bugged when they see so much trash loot.
And, all things considered, it probably is bugged or at least unfinished. As is the norm for Bethesda games, there's a bevy of cut content for this DLC and the vast majority of it is stuff that'd fit in the loot vault - most noticeably reskins of the sim weapons but without the bloated HP. Which would still be unremarkable, but at least it'd be unique - that simulation exclusive Chinese Assault Rifle looks gorgeous.
The extra 0.5 of a star rating only comes from me having played this through Tale of Two Wastelands, which makes it less of a slog (due to your armor's DT/DR outclassing that of your enemies) and fills the vault with all the aforementioned cut content - plus some other goodies.
The only saving grace to this DLC is that it's perhaps the first and only time I've agreed with people who're fans of Bethesda's Fallout: They hated it at release, so do I.
They still hate it in 2024, and so do I.
On the surface it's (ostensibly - I may be putting too much faith in the writers) a straightforward parody of what was, at the time, every shooter on the market: You are simultaneously a nobody and a legend, the entire US military cannot do anything without you, and there's no real way to engage with the world beyond murdering people in linear, grey hallways.
This is only aided by the in-universe notes/audio logs that make it obvious the simulation is massively detached from reality at the behest of an insane, sinophobic American general. So it's an in-universe parody as well an out-of-universe one.
There's just one big stinky winky dinky problem:
The parody doesn't work because the core of it is what Fallout 3 already is.
Fallout 3 at its core is a game where you walk through unwieldy shooting galleries in boring environments, endlessly massacring nearly everything you come across in areas that're 99% of the time either linear hallways or intersections that lead to linear hallways.
The only meaningful difference between OA and the game it's bolted onto is that Fallout 3 very occasionally pretends to be an RPG and lets you talk to someone. Even then, 9/10 times you either kill them or having a big prompt that lets you do so.
Perhaps what makes OA so much worse is that it's a thinly-veiled excuse to deposit some loot on you. Your incentive to do the DLC isn't "see this cool place", "free some slaves", "finish the main story" or "aliens, right?", no. You're told in no unclear terms that you should do this DLC for the loot that's in the vault. That's it.
I'll speak on it in more depth when I finish the actual Fallout 3 review, but the actual rewards you get really compound the game's overall issue with loot being meaningless. Namely, OA is perhaps the only part of FO3 that features a reward dump that isn't shit. The stealth armor, winterized T-51B, shocksword and gauss rifle are all excellent regardless of one's build, and given how easy OA is they're functionally free.
But there's a lot in the vault that I can only describe as nothing more than shelf-filling garbage. Upon slogging through OA and opening it, you'll be met with uh... A Chinese Assault Rifle, some ammo for it, and a Missile Launcher, alongside lots of mines and grenades. All incredibly common loot in the wasteland, to the point where I don't blame anyone for thinking the vault is bugged when they see so much trash loot.
And, all things considered, it probably is bugged or at least unfinished. As is the norm for Bethesda games, there's a bevy of cut content for this DLC and the vast majority of it is stuff that'd fit in the loot vault - most noticeably reskins of the sim weapons but without the bloated HP. Which would still be unremarkable, but at least it'd be unique - that simulation exclusive Chinese Assault Rifle looks gorgeous.
The extra 0.5 of a star rating only comes from me having played this through Tale of Two Wastelands, which makes it less of a slog (due to your armor's DT/DR outclassing that of your enemies) and fills the vault with all the aforementioned cut content - plus some other goodies.
The only saving grace to this DLC is that it's perhaps the first and only time I've agreed with people who're fans of Bethesda's Fallout: They hated it at release, so do I.
They still hate it in 2024, and so do I.
cool setting and idea but this was a slog, especially after all these years.
War, war never changes. Impractical spider tanks, health and ammo refilling stations... it doesn't matter the time or place... those things, never change.
people give this one shit but i actually loved it
Every single time I play Operation Anchorage I expect for it to be a relatively good experience but unfortunately it isn't, like a lot of Bethesda Fallout all I can think about when I play it is what could have been.
The general concept of a VR simulation of the battle of anchorage is not bad, they could've done something cool with it, maybe it was developed with Vault Tec to make a hyper realistic simulation powered by AI but it was shut down when the AI gained self awareness and now in the present you're trapped in a hyper patriotic AI simulation forced to do the bidding of a rouge artificial intelligence. Or alternatively they could've just made a game set in Anchorage where the battle between Chinese and American forces never stopped over the course of 200 years or tons of other ideas, but all we got was a shitty cod knockoff whose only redeeming quality is the Gauss Rifle, the sword, and the power armor.
The general concept of a VR simulation of the battle of anchorage is not bad, they could've done something cool with it, maybe it was developed with Vault Tec to make a hyper realistic simulation powered by AI but it was shut down when the AI gained self awareness and now in the present you're trapped in a hyper patriotic AI simulation forced to do the bidding of a rouge artificial intelligence. Or alternatively they could've just made a game set in Anchorage where the battle between Chinese and American forces never stopped over the course of 200 years or tons of other ideas, but all we got was a shitty cod knockoff whose only redeeming quality is the Gauss Rifle, the sword, and the power armor.
It's basically a hallway shooter, that feels like an FPS more than an RPG (although your skills still transition to the DLC, you are fairly limited in what you can do). It's fun to unwind and it's short duration is good, as well as the loot, however, it fails to be memorable or meaningful in the scope of Fallout 3.
QUEM DEIXOU A BETHESDA FAZER UMA CÓPIA BARATA DE CALL OF DUTY?
A maior qualidade dos jogos da série Fallout e da Bethesda como um todo vem da exploração e da rica construção do mundo e sua temática. O que acontece se você tira essas duas qualidade essenciais? ESSA DLC!
Ela é basicamente um simulador (não foi piada) de Call of Duty 4 só que ruim. As pessoas não jogam Fallout pela diversão que sentem com a gameplay das armas (que é horrorosa nesse jogo). Elas querem uma boa história e locais para ir e descobrir coisas que não viram antes.
Não existem segredos a serem descobertos (tirando as maletas de inteligência, se é que podem ser chamadas disso, já que ficam em locais ESCANCARADAMENTE VISÍVEIS ao jogador), locais diferentes para vasculhar, decisões a serem feitas. Todas as 3 quests são ABSURDAMENTE lineares, com um ou outro corredor para entrar e conseguir mais vida ou munição.
Não preciso nem entrar no mérito do por quê essa simulação desempenha o papel de uma chave, o que acho ridículo. Outro ponto a ser ressaltado é que não há nenhuma exploração dos "Outcasts", facção mencionada anteriormente na campanha principal, que faz com que essa DLC exista dentro do universo do jogo, sendo uma oportunidade completamente desperdiçada.
"Operation Anchorage" é tudo que Fallout nunca foi e espero que nunca venha a ser. Não adiciona em nada no universo além de diminuir a escala de um dos eventos pré-guerra mais importantes na história do jogo. Se serve de consolo, existem 2 loots bons que vêm dessa DLC, que são o Gauss Rifle a Power Armor T-51.
A maior qualidade dos jogos da série Fallout e da Bethesda como um todo vem da exploração e da rica construção do mundo e sua temática. O que acontece se você tira essas duas qualidade essenciais? ESSA DLC!
Ela é basicamente um simulador (não foi piada) de Call of Duty 4 só que ruim. As pessoas não jogam Fallout pela diversão que sentem com a gameplay das armas (que é horrorosa nesse jogo). Elas querem uma boa história e locais para ir e descobrir coisas que não viram antes.
Não existem segredos a serem descobertos (tirando as maletas de inteligência, se é que podem ser chamadas disso, já que ficam em locais ESCANCARADAMENTE VISÍVEIS ao jogador), locais diferentes para vasculhar, decisões a serem feitas. Todas as 3 quests são ABSURDAMENTE lineares, com um ou outro corredor para entrar e conseguir mais vida ou munição.
Não preciso nem entrar no mérito do por quê essa simulação desempenha o papel de uma chave, o que acho ridículo. Outro ponto a ser ressaltado é que não há nenhuma exploração dos "Outcasts", facção mencionada anteriormente na campanha principal, que faz com que essa DLC exista dentro do universo do jogo, sendo uma oportunidade completamente desperdiçada.
"Operation Anchorage" é tudo que Fallout nunca foi e espero que nunca venha a ser. Não adiciona em nada no universo além de diminuir a escala de um dos eventos pré-guerra mais importantes na história do jogo. Se serve de consolo, existem 2 loots bons que vêm dessa DLC, que são o Gauss Rifle a Power Armor T-51.