Mothership Zeta has hardly been out a day, but man is it seeing waves of reviews. This round is a bit more positive than the last one, though opinions are still all over the place. IGN 7.<blockquote>Perhaps the most disappointing part of Mothership Zeta is its lack of imagination. The idea of taking players to space as part of an alien abduction is a great start, but the follow through isn't quite here. There was a big opportunity to get creative and push the boundaries. Instead, Mothership Zeta is about as straightforward as they come. </blockquote>Kotaku.<blockquote>As the last of the planned Fallout 3 downloadable content, Mothership Zeta isn't quite the ending I had hoped for. As grand finales go, it's got grand in spades, but is sorely lacking in the finale department. Don't get me wrong here...it's an excellent experience, but it just doesn't deliver the sense of closure I'm looking for in Fallout 3. At the end of your adventure you're back on the surface, a bit older, a bit wiser, a bit better armed, and wanting more. Bethesda has said that taking the level cap past the 30 established in Broken Steel would unbalance the game. Fair enough. If we can go no further, give us a grand finale.</blockquote>Game Revolution B+.<blockquote>Mothership Zeta has various different areas to explore, with some added in without any relation to the main branch of the story, but that contain interesting tidbits to discover, including a handful of cult film references in a particular foul-smelling area. Exploring the ship is a blast, as you never know what you'll find next, and trust me, there's a lot of bizarre crap going on - those aliens are sick, disturbed folks. These guys will come at you in a number of ways, carrying shock batons, ray guns, or even calling in the local security robot, which is a pain in the nether regions to beat, but carries an awesome reward in their innards. The variety of units isn't very high, with them being either invisible-ish, helmet-wearing, or bare-headed spacemen. On the other hand, similar to Point Lookout, the environments are far different than anything you've come across in the Capital Wasteland, with clean and futuristic settings as opposed to the grays and browns you've gotten used to in Washington DC's remains.</blockquote>Edge 6.<blockquote>Design flaws include a bizarre decision to cordon off most of the ship after completion, locking away any unique items you previously overlooked. Much of the game commendably favours stealth players but the rest can feel shambolic. The much-vaunted spacewalk in the souvenir Gemini Spacesuit gets plenty of build-up, and could have been extraordinary had it not been 30 seconds long. And there are a fair few nagging Bethesda-isms in there, too, such as you losing karma for shooting often indistinguishable alien workers.
Of course, this could have been the best of Fallout’s downloads. They all could have. It’s not easy giving consecutive middling scores to these updates because, as DLC goes, they’re more generous, creative and adventurous than most. Released according to a gamer’s schedule rather than a developer’s, each coming mere weeks after the last, they beg for whatever sympathy you can salvage. But in the case of Mothership Zeta, for all the love that’s gone into it, that’s as uncertain an amount as ever.</blockquote>The Hachiko 4/5.<blockquote>The pinball and spaceship scenarios are the best moments for breaking out of the box when it comes to what Bethesda has done so far with Fallout 3 content. The pinball scenario actually happened by accident for me, as the game floods you with aliens and robots at one point, which proved just too much for me. After experimenting around with the ship, however, I saw that if you pressed the right button when the aliens came close enough to the support structures, you could do damage to them and send them flying. The ship-to-ship battle is also fun as you take on the role of a one-man crew. You've got to juggle your energy output from your shields to your laser, fire, run around to repair damage when it happens, plus you're defending your bridge from an onslaught of aliens at the same time. It's hectic, but a blast and one of the best moments out of all the DLC.</blockquote>Gamervision 8.5.<blockquote>We’ve all got our own ideas about what the interior of an alien craft will look like, and Bethesda manages to pay homage to classic sci-fi ideas while making the alien aesthetic completely their own. From the polished metal of the ship’s interior, to the holographic indicators on switches, to the horrifying experimental labs, the developers are able to capture the quintessential essence of the general perception of extra-terrestrial life, and not once did I feel that something didn’t belong. The aliens themselves are stylized versions of the bigheaded green men with almond-shaped eyes that adorned countless sci-fi periodicals during the genre’s height of popularity, but they’re not quite as small as those magazines liked to “report.” Their weaponry is as eye-catching as the ship, and each armament has a wonderfully simplistic, yet advanced look and feel to it.</blockquote>Digital Battle 6.<blockquote>In Mothership Zeta, the player assumes the role of a prisoner on an alien ship. The aliens, apparently with nothing better to do, are kidnapping humans from Earth and using them as experiments. As clichéd as that sounds — well, it is actually quite a cliché (even the aliens are quite familiar; big heads, big eyes etc.). One would’ve expected the great writers and storytellers at Bethesda to come up with something better and more original. Anyways, you must now fight your way through the alien space ship and get back on Earth. You’ll get some help, as you’ll be allied with a few other humans as well. The entire point of the game is to navigate through the massive aline ship (which is quite massive btw), and find your way to the command bridge, where rescue awaits.</blockquote>GameDaily 8.<blockquote>Zeta keeps Fallout's trademark humor intact, with bizarre conversations between fellow abductees, Alien Captive Recordings that add an odd audio history of abductions (except for #2, which features a guy from Flatbush who isn't so happy about his alien probe -- seriously hilarious). </blockquote>Thanks GameBanshee.
Of course, this could have been the best of Fallout’s downloads. They all could have. It’s not easy giving consecutive middling scores to these updates because, as DLC goes, they’re more generous, creative and adventurous than most. Released according to a gamer’s schedule rather than a developer’s, each coming mere weeks after the last, they beg for whatever sympathy you can salvage. But in the case of Mothership Zeta, for all the love that’s gone into it, that’s as uncertain an amount as ever.</blockquote>The Hachiko 4/5.<blockquote>The pinball and spaceship scenarios are the best moments for breaking out of the box when it comes to what Bethesda has done so far with Fallout 3 content. The pinball scenario actually happened by accident for me, as the game floods you with aliens and robots at one point, which proved just too much for me. After experimenting around with the ship, however, I saw that if you pressed the right button when the aliens came close enough to the support structures, you could do damage to them and send them flying. The ship-to-ship battle is also fun as you take on the role of a one-man crew. You've got to juggle your energy output from your shields to your laser, fire, run around to repair damage when it happens, plus you're defending your bridge from an onslaught of aliens at the same time. It's hectic, but a blast and one of the best moments out of all the DLC.</blockquote>Gamervision 8.5.<blockquote>We’ve all got our own ideas about what the interior of an alien craft will look like, and Bethesda manages to pay homage to classic sci-fi ideas while making the alien aesthetic completely their own. From the polished metal of the ship’s interior, to the holographic indicators on switches, to the horrifying experimental labs, the developers are able to capture the quintessential essence of the general perception of extra-terrestrial life, and not once did I feel that something didn’t belong. The aliens themselves are stylized versions of the bigheaded green men with almond-shaped eyes that adorned countless sci-fi periodicals during the genre’s height of popularity, but they’re not quite as small as those magazines liked to “report.” Their weaponry is as eye-catching as the ship, and each armament has a wonderfully simplistic, yet advanced look and feel to it.</blockquote>Digital Battle 6.<blockquote>In Mothership Zeta, the player assumes the role of a prisoner on an alien ship. The aliens, apparently with nothing better to do, are kidnapping humans from Earth and using them as experiments. As clichéd as that sounds — well, it is actually quite a cliché (even the aliens are quite familiar; big heads, big eyes etc.). One would’ve expected the great writers and storytellers at Bethesda to come up with something better and more original. Anyways, you must now fight your way through the alien space ship and get back on Earth. You’ll get some help, as you’ll be allied with a few other humans as well. The entire point of the game is to navigate through the massive aline ship (which is quite massive btw), and find your way to the command bridge, where rescue awaits.</blockquote>GameDaily 8.<blockquote>Zeta keeps Fallout's trademark humor intact, with bizarre conversations between fellow abductees, Alien Captive Recordings that add an odd audio history of abductions (except for #2, which features a guy from Flatbush who isn't so happy about his alien probe -- seriously hilarious). </blockquote>Thanks GameBanshee.
