Fallout 3 DLC #4 "Point Lookout" Mini-Review
Point Lookout starts with a message that a boat has docked on the Potomac River and a marker appears on your map. When you get to the marker, you will be able to purchase a ticket to ride the boat to Point Lookout, Maryland. Why would you want to do that? Unlike the other DLC, there isn't really a pressing reason to go other than just to see what is there. Sometimes, though, just killing time and seeing something new is good enough reason to do anything.
Point Lookout is mostly a big swamp full of savages and ghouls, but there is also a run down boardwalk, a couple of creepy mansions, a cathedral, and lighthouse to explore among a few other landmarks. The map is surprisingly large, and you are free to explore and do things however you want. Point Lookout plays more like the normal Fallout 3 game than The Pitt or Operation Anchorage which funneled you along in a set story. There are a bunch of side missions along with a larger story, but you are free to do them all at your own pace. I won't go into the story details, but I will say that Point Lookout has one of the best single moments out of anything Fallout 3 has offered so far. This moment is crazy and trippy and scary and just amazingly great. I also want to add that one of the side missions here directly ties into the Capital Wasteland and, more specifically, the spooky Dunwich Building, which is cool.
So is Point Lookout worth the 800 space bucks? Yes and no. The story is good. There are some great moments. I love how it ties into the Capital Wasteland. The map is big and interesting to explore. But the rewards are pretty awful. There are some new weapons and stuff, but nothing that you'll really want to use back in the Capital Wasteland. Without the great rewards that The Pitt and Operation Anchorage offered that made them worth playing through each time you started a new character, Point Overlook is more of a one and done affair. There are moments you might want to see again, but you could just as easily keep a save file before them so you can see them without playing through the other 4-5 hours worth of stuff. Or better yet, just watch that scene on YouTube and save yourself $10. Point Lookout is higher quality overall than the other two side-mission Fallout 3 DLCs, but unlike the others you'll only really need/want to do it once and that makes the $10/800MS point asking price tougher to swallow. It is good, but the value isn't really here. You'll have to make up a buy/no buy decision on your own based on that.
DLC #1 - Operation Anchorage Review
DLC #2 - The Pitt Review
DLC #3 - Broken Steel Review
Comments
I heartily disagree with this review. It seems to me as though the author only cares for material rewards, and his only motivation for replaying a piece of DLC is the weapons with which he can dominate the rest of the game.
I play this game, and its associated DLC, for the experience, and in my opinion, Point Lookout offers both the most inventive and the most wholesome experience of all the DLC.
Personally, I like the fact that there are no powerful weapons to be found in Point Lookout. In the end, Fallout 3 was meant to give the player a feeling of being stranded in a huge, dangerous world, and by giving him a Tesla Cannon, a lot of the mood and the emotions it stirs up is lost.
Thats true, though it’s always nice with new rewards for your collection.
That isn’t what decide is it good or bad.
Point lookout is an awesome DLC, and i love to play it over and over, both for the nice traps, and effects they made. And to explore new parts.
Looking forward to Mothership zeta