Bethesda announced its plans for the first batch of DLC for Fallout 4 last week, and we couldn’t be more excited. Battling robots? Catching monsters and enemies and having them fight in blood sport? An island adventure with a landmass much bigger than anything the developer has created in the past? Sign us up!
Thinking about the future of Fallout has gotten us really nostalgic about its DLC past. Specifically, what among the history of modern Fallout’s expansions reign as the best of the group? Paging through The Vault, our Fallout wiki, really complicates the process of narrowing down such a list – there are so many gems to choose from. This top five hopes to at least begin that conversation.
5. The Pitt
Though not actually hit by bombs, Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas suffered from widespread illness and plague thanks to the heavy doses of radiation in the waterways. The affected were turned into something worse than ghouls, and had to be eradicated by the Brotherhood of Steel. Of course, the Brotherhood got a bit to trigger happy, and killed way more than they should have. Those who survived used the power vacuum to create a slave economy. When the Vault Dweller happens upon this place, it’s safe to say that this world is way different than the Wasteland.
The Pitt manages to make the bleak darkness of the Capital Wasteland and turn it up to eleven, which is a pretty tall task. But there was little comic relief in this expansion – the tongue was miles away from the cheek. But it helped the expansion stand out among the rest. That, and circular saws as melee weapons.
4. Lonesome Road
To further flesh out and examine the backstory of Fallout: New Vegas’s protagonist, The Courier, Lonesome Road extrapolates one of the game’s most mysterious secondary characters, Ulysses. Turns out, he was a courier just like you, and some of the path that lead him Caesar’s Legion and beyond share some similarities to the Courier. That, and Ulysses might have been directly involved in your attempted murder early in the game. Whoops.
There is little in the way of new things to discover or explore, and there aren’t a plethora of surprises to wallop and wow you, but Lonesome Road succeeds in telling a great, character-focused story in a way that sprawling, open world games often fail to do.
3. Broken Steel
The most significant of Fallout 3’s five DLC expansions, Broken Steel added the most content and closure to a game whose story ended on pretty dubious terms. Instead of dying after activating Project Purity, your character wakes up from an extended coma only to find the Brotherhood of Steel poised to move against the remaining Enclave and rid out the stragglers once and for all.
The legacy of this particular expansion is a bit contentious. Some believe that it removed some of the finality of the original ending and replaced it with an unfocused, unfulfilling plot that leaves the Capital Wasteland’s future in a more obscure place than before. Others believe it is the white knuckle, action packed ride that is required reading for Fallout players. It’s an experience you can only get from an expansion story focused around a legion of power-armored super soldiers and their twenty story tall, laser-shooting death robot. I tend to agree with the latter, because more Liberty Prime is always a good thing.
2. Old World Blues
Old World Blues is the mad science experiment that is almost requisite in Fallout games, but as Fallout 3’s Tranquility Lane was a small flash in the pan in terms of general wackiness, this is a full on bonfire. After being abducted by the morally compromised scientists, you are subjected to crazy experiments and are tasked with escape. Or you can choose to embrace the nonsense and use the new-fangled tech of the area and demolish your kidnappers.
Old World Blues succeeds because it fully embraces its own crazy with a refreshing sense of humor. The AI and science folks you encounter have that Portal-style masochism, the sort that would cut you open and experiment on your insides while cracking old timey jokes. The new weapons and gear you can acquire all provide a new spin on old ideas, like the Proton Axe, which can dissolve enemies into piles of ash on hit. It’s all fun and games, really.
1. Point Lookout
A creepy, horror tinged side stroll into the twisted post-apocalypse not directly instigated by nuclear explosion, Point Lookout set a high bar for the Fallout series’ DLC offerings. It’s rare that a game can follow its own exploration and combat rules, but still create an experience that is completely different from the main game.
Partially, it’s because the pacing is great and the focus is razor sharp. Every quest feels important, or a the very least, relevant to your being in the area. The temporary allies are all interesting, and the creepy lore thrives in a place where the survivors are more contemporarily scary than radioactive. It doesn’t over share, and it allows more agency to your imagination to fill visual-narrative games, like any good horror movie would. Even after three modern Fallout iterations, there is still no story arc as well told and unique than Point Lookout.
What was your favorite Fallout DLC? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook, and don’t forget to check out our Fallout Wiki, The Vault, for all of your post-nuclear needs.