Forget Maryland: A Review of Fallout 3’s Point Lookout
By Nick - July 1, 2009
If you have read some of my previous articles you might know that I’m a huge fan of Fallout 3. I bought the collector’s edition of the game and I’ve bought every pack of DLC they’ve released so far. The most recent of the game’s many expansions is Point Lookout. Set in the eerie remains of Point Lookout, Maryland, you end up journeying through swamplands to fight mutant hillbillies, cultists, and something that really reminded me of Super Metroid.
First off, let me just say this is the best DLC you can get next to Broken Steel. I’ve read a lot of people that say Point Lookout is about 5 hours of gameplay and that’s a bunch of hooey. By the time I got back to the Capital Wastelands, I’d been away for nearly 11 hours. There’s a lot to do in Point Lookout.
Point Lookout is big. It’s a place you actually explore, not an episodic story like Operation: Anchorage or The Pitt. You stumble upon interesting landmarks that lead to new quests and rewards. They give you a hefty push in the right directions, but there are enough sidequests to add up to just as much time or more than Point Lookout’s main quest. I’d forgotten the thrill of wandering around a place that I had no clue what was going to be there. It brought back a little bit of the wonder of first leaving Vault 101.
Conceptually, this feels like maybe the Halloween episode of Fallout 3. Or maybe it’s more comparable to a haunted house. The mutated hillbillies are truly freaky. The enemies are also significantly tougher here as well. At first I ended up dying quite a bit, but after getting a hang of the extra difficulty, I was learning new tactics to make swift waste of my foes. If you’re worried it might be too hard for you, you shouldn’t. I base all of my experiences from the Very Hard setting.
There are three events that stand out in Point Lookout; The Assault on the Calvert Mansion, The Hallucination, and The Finale.
An event you are nearly shoved into towards the beginning of Point Lookout takes place in the Calvert Mansion. The moment you set foot in the building, cultists are attacking a well-dressed ghoul and his dogs. You aren’t given any explanation (the ghoul seems just as confused as you) and he wants your help. What takes place afterwards is a series of gun-fights and floor collapsing explosions (you really mess this place up) that all build up towards a final stand at the front of the house. This was definitely the best combat I’ve experienced in Fallout yet. It gave you a variety of chances to sometimes be sneaky, or plant a mine on the ground, or just go in guns ablazing.
Equally as memorable is a poison-induced hallucination invoked by eating a plant deep within a bog. It quickly becomes clear that the game developers got to have fun with this sequence. The tiny nuclear explosions that made baby laughs probably stuck with me the strongest. Also, after waking up from this “vision” you find your character shaved and a giant scar on the top of their head! What just happened?
The finale isn’t as epic as Operation: Anchorage or The Pitt, but it is still pretty big. It start when you put a jamming device to stop Professor Calvert’s telepathy. A battle ensues, you head back to the mansion to check on your Ghoul friend and the mansion explodes! There’s quite a bit more to it after that, but you’ll just have to play it to find out the full story. I will say this: The brain at the end? Did it remind anyone else of the Mother Brain from Super Metroid? Even the way it starts to crack on each hit reminded the pink squishy final boss from that iconic SNES masterpiece.
The treasure in Point Lookout doesn’t compare to the utterly amazing rewards at the end of Operation: Anchorage or for those with enough patience to collect 100 Iron Ingots In The Pitt. This does give you some cool new equipment, but for many it won’t be enough to replace some of the best stuff they might already have. What this does give you? Money. Bottlecaps. And lots of it. I’ve never earned money this quickly in Fallout 3, and this was with a horrifying glitch where a bunch of items I stored in Haley’s Hardware disappeared. I probably made 8000 caps during my entire time there, and it should have been 12k to 15k if it weren’t for that glitch. Rassum frassum glitch…It also netted me enough experience to get from level 26 to 29.
To really get everything from Point Lookout (an extra perk and unique items included) you have to do the sidequests as well. The Dark Heart of Blackhall and Plik’s Safari are easily the strongest ones. Plik’s is worth a great deal of experience, nets you a powerful weapon, and if you keep an eye out it can earn you an extra perk. You can also get a lot of money from Plik, but only if your evil enough to rob him of his riches.
If you plan on buying any other DLC for Fallout 3 besides Broken Steel, I cannot recommend this one enough. For high level players this brings some challenge back to the game and as it is lasts the longest out of the DLC you get the most bang for your buck.
On one final note, here’s how I would rank the Fallout 3 DLC packs so far…
1) Broken Steel
2) Point Lookout
3) Operation: Anchorage
4) The Pitt
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