New year new challenge!! Beginning my third year in a row of my 52 game challenge not quite with The Bang of the Mass Effect Trilogy but rather the whimper of Fallout 3... Okay kidding aside, Fallout 3 is not a bad game but it pales in comparison to its 'family' in the series in a lot of ways. BUT we're not here to talk about Fallout 3 (yet), we're here to talk about its first DLC - Operation Anchorage.
Anchorage starts off strong with a mysterious signal from a "remnant" outcast sect of the Brotherhood of Steel (a group of badass tech hoarders in the Fallout universe) trying to crack an old equipment locker but needing a pipboy to interface with the system that controls all of the vault doors. That's where you come in - the first stray person who has a pipboy! It's cool that you overhear conversations of some of the Brotherhood just saying they should cap you and take the item off of your corpse rather than deign to ask you for help, as that better fits their usual MO for dealing with wastelanders. Ultimately though the DLC would be kinda boring that way so instead they plug you into a VR simulation of the Battle of Anchorage - very shortly before the bombs fell Chinese forces had taken Anchorage, AK and fortified it, and the US marines went in to take it back from those commie bastards. This battle is referenced MANY times throughout the game and there are a couple of memorials dedicated to it as well in the D.C. ruins so this is actually a pretty cool fleshing out of the lore you're getting to see first hand - though clearly with some propagandizing intent behind it as well.
The Fallout Universe pins itself as being trapped in a 1950's aesthetic and mindset (or rather a slightly twisted and ahistorical view of how the 50's were) where the Capitalist Good Guys saved the day against the sneering foreign communist hordes and that is very much on display here. You literally only talk to ONE Chinese soldier who is a clear racist caricature who does nothing but threaten you with death (who you can return the favor to) so it's a pretty clear condemnation of this universe's US government and their wartime views. The meat of the experience is actually pretty great and feels like it fits perfectly into making you think you're in this simulation, it is basically all battles all the time and it looks great. Fallout 3 is based on fast and slow periods of creeping around old buildings or landmarks and then getting into some quick but deadly fights then looting the joint - Anchorage is fast paced and constantly handing you health pickups and loads of guns to shoot up bad guys with and it is a very refreshing change of pace. There's a main sections to this and the later two actually let you tackle things in the order you want which is a small nod to the "open" nature of fallout however these missions are very much on rails - other DLC will you give small sandboxes to play around in, microcosms of FO3 itself, but Anchorage is appropriately on rails until you are out of the mission. Once you are, you open up the vault and half of the brotherhood decides to just ice you rather than cough up your share of the loot... big mistake!! I don't think this mission changes too much in terms of your relationship with the brotherhood later (hence why they are exiles, perhaps? They have neat red armor though...) which is unfortunate for RP purposes but makes it easier to review at least!
Anchorage is a bit of an odd-duck in that it is a very straightfoward take on one aspect of the Fallout series (its gunplay and encounter design) that is typically not considered the focus or its best feature. Despite this I do think it succeeds at being a pretty cool action romp that ends on a high note of some great loot you get to bring with you into the rest of the game. Whereas the base game always has you worried about how your resource expenditures in health packs or ammo will affect you later, having a small chunk of the game let you go wild with Gauss Rifles and Missile launchers just feels nice, ya know?
Anchorage starts off strong with a mysterious signal from a "remnant" outcast sect of the Brotherhood of Steel (a group of badass tech hoarders in the Fallout universe) trying to crack an old equipment locker but needing a pipboy to interface with the system that controls all of the vault doors. That's where you come in - the first stray person who has a pipboy! It's cool that you overhear conversations of some of the Brotherhood just saying they should cap you and take the item off of your corpse rather than deign to ask you for help, as that better fits their usual MO for dealing with wastelanders. Ultimately though the DLC would be kinda boring that way so instead they plug you into a VR simulation of the Battle of Anchorage - very shortly before the bombs fell Chinese forces had taken Anchorage, AK and fortified it, and the US marines went in to take it back from those commie bastards. This battle is referenced MANY times throughout the game and there are a couple of memorials dedicated to it as well in the D.C. ruins so this is actually a pretty cool fleshing out of the lore you're getting to see first hand - though clearly with some propagandizing intent behind it as well.
The Fallout Universe pins itself as being trapped in a 1950's aesthetic and mindset (or rather a slightly twisted and ahistorical view of how the 50's were) where the Capitalist Good Guys saved the day against the sneering foreign communist hordes and that is very much on display here. You literally only talk to ONE Chinese soldier who is a clear racist caricature who does nothing but threaten you with death (who you can return the favor to) so it's a pretty clear condemnation of this universe's US government and their wartime views. The meat of the experience is actually pretty great and feels like it fits perfectly into making you think you're in this simulation, it is basically all battles all the time and it looks great. Fallout 3 is based on fast and slow periods of creeping around old buildings or landmarks and then getting into some quick but deadly fights then looting the joint - Anchorage is fast paced and constantly handing you health pickups and loads of guns to shoot up bad guys with and it is a very refreshing change of pace. There's a main sections to this and the later two actually let you tackle things in the order you want which is a small nod to the "open" nature of fallout however these missions are very much on rails - other DLC will you give small sandboxes to play around in, microcosms of FO3 itself, but Anchorage is appropriately on rails until you are out of the mission. Once you are, you open up the vault and half of the brotherhood decides to just ice you rather than cough up your share of the loot... big mistake!! I don't think this mission changes too much in terms of your relationship with the brotherhood later (hence why they are exiles, perhaps? They have neat red armor though...) which is unfortunate for RP purposes but makes it easier to review at least!
Anchorage is a bit of an odd-duck in that it is a very straightfoward take on one aspect of the Fallout series (its gunplay and encounter design) that is typically not considered the focus or its best feature. Despite this I do think it succeeds at being a pretty cool action romp that ends on a high note of some great loot you get to bring with you into the rest of the game. Whereas the base game always has you worried about how your resource expenditures in health packs or ammo will affect you later, having a small chunk of the game let you go wild with Gauss Rifles and Missile launchers just feels nice, ya know?