Just wrapped up FO3s second DLC "The Pitt". This one was pretty damn good. Had a bit of a hiccup with the bad version XBL started with, but it was fixed yesterday and I spent most of the night and this morning on it.
Starting with the visuals of the new area, they were fantastic, as Bethesda was known for. Seems it trades out the sepia tones of the main game with fiery orange tones for this industrial hellhole. The environment was much better than the main game as well, giving you a large new area to explore very thoroughly, and I mean very. Climbing towers, jumping from rail cars, crossing large pipes at fatally high altitudes, you name it.
This also brings up another complaint about the game though, the jumping physics. Seems if your are near a wall or walking downhill or even walking a bit uphill you CANNOT jump right! In a quest where being able to jump around to dangerous platforms is a required skill, you'll likely find yourself doing as I did and saving the game before each potentially fatal leap. It's really hard to describe how bad the jumps are in this game, it's just incredibly stingy and slippery. Most of the time if you try and land on a small ledge you'll take a gigantic step forward while landing, often leading to death. Very annoying mechanics at work there.
On to section two of my final thoughts, the enemies. The only new enemies are the Trogs really, and they didn't really seem that remarkable to me. They pretty much seemed like Feral Ghouls walking on all fours with potbellies. Ugly things, really. One thing that can be said for them though, is they are sneaky as hell. One second I'm picking up ingots the next some psychotic naked mutant man is trying to claw the back of my head off, and you never hear them coming. Other than that, standard human enemies. I was really hoping for more new creatures to fight too.
Section three, the quests. There's really only three main quest parts for the expansion, and one side quest. Quest one: go to the Pitt (Easy), Quest two: work and fight in the Pitt (Fun an Easy), Quest three: Pick a side (Most interesting part), Side quest: hunt for metal (Actually fun). There's a few branching options for the first two main quests, like whether you're going to sneak in disguised or just barge in guns blazing, but like most of the core game's quests these options lead back to the same concusion, you get inside and lose all of your gear temporarily. The final quest is the most interesting, as you choose which group you help, the slave laborers, or the raider overseers, and I have to say that this part of the quest really is as advertised. Things aren't exactly what they seem and there's definitely a lot of ambiguity over which side of the conflict is good or bad. On that note, well done Bethesda.
For the side quest, it's pretty much a standard collect items fare, but unlike that Goddamn Nuka-Cola quest from the main game this one is actually fun and can be completed in about an hour if you're lucky. This is where most of the jumping and exploring I mentioned earlier comes into play, and I was surprised at how nice it was to do this quest. The rewards for getting all 100 items are fairly nice too, with nothing too game breakingly awesome, but good too have nonetheless.
So all in all I enjoyed this one, despite the glitched version XBL first had available.
Now, back to Lost Odyssey!!!
