Hurray! Eurogamer is - as always - first and - as always - ebullient, 8.<blockquote>Without giving anything away, the episode does the usual Bethesda trick of eventually giving you the chance to choose contrasting outcomes. Do you protect the "victim" of an attack, or do you take a contrary view and dig into their past and find out that, in fact, they are the bad guys? Or do you just figure out what the biggest reward is and base your decisions around that? As predictable and transparent as the formula is by now, it's still an irresistible one, and one where you're never quite certain who's the least detestable. As ever, this gives some of the missions a pleasing degree of replayability as you figure out the best outcome for your karma alignment, or simply which of the new perks are most useful to you.</blockquote>Videogamer.com, 8.<blockquote>I’m quite happy to admit that this resilience makes for a more enjoyable game. If plasma weapons cut through these guys like a hot knife through inbred butter, there wouldn’t be much of a challenge. And yet I find it hard to shake off the stupidity of a situation. My alien blaster will kill a heavily-armoured Enclave Commander in one shot, but Cletus McBanjo will often eat one and still come running after me. Indeed, he and his cousins (who are also his brothers, uncles and lovers) are able to take up to six shotgun blasts to the head before they finally take a dirt-nap - and I’m talking about the new double-barrelled shotgun, which supposedly does a truckload of damage with each hit.
It’s a minor flaw, but I still think Bethesda could have found a way around it. While I’m complaining, I’m not sure if the new weapons will be used much when players take them back to the main wasteland (you can go back any time you like, incidentally). The new shotgun and the lever-action rifle are a good fit for the atmosphere of Point Lookout, but they’re otherwise a bit dull in comparison with Fallout’s existing arsenal. More interesting is The Dismemberer - a special axe you can find that causes people to burst into little giblets. It’s a bit silly, but it’s also a lot of fun to use.</blockquote>Edge Online, 6.<blockquote>You could even go as far as to say it’s Fallout 3 at its worst, most of the enemies being the berserker variety – Mirelurks and the like – best dealt with by turtling and spending vast amounts of ammo. Most of its awards replenish that inventory, the suspicion being that much of the game will simply cancel itself out unless you’re grinding, which, chances are, you’re not. Like Operation Anchorage and The Pitt, you can visit Point Lookout whenever you like, making it a potential goldmine of perks and experience points. But for level 30 characters, which might well account for most of its visitors, it’s little more than a day at the seaside.
So, then: the best expansion so far and the game at its worst. Such a contradiction could only be made by Bethesda. Here’s another one: while they’re all fundamentally the same, no two bits of Fallout DLC have been alike. Fans are comfortable with these enigmas, and with just six weeks passing since Broken Steel, it’s hard to begrudge such a regular supply.</blockquote>Stick Skills.<blockquote>The creepy tone is set early. The new Hillfolk enemies look like they’ve been ripped straight from Deliverance. During battles, it’s common to hear them yelling "SCREAM! SCREAM FOR ME! AHAHA!" They also can pack quite a punch in a group and are more than formidable. But the creepiest moment comes in a bog, where inhaling a certain gas sends you on a hallucination. There are fake bobbleheads, giant sewing needles that pop out of the ground, exploding Nuka Cola bottles that rain from the sky, and, at one point, you find a skeleton that is apparently your mother. It was a mind trip that had me on the edge of my seat, and really made the experience come alive.</blockquote>Wonderwallweb 8.<blockquote>The feel of Point Lookout is very different to the main quests with it having a haunted feel for inspiration, with the spooky houses, crazy locals at the swamp and an awful lot of dolls heads on pikes it feels like something out of an 80's slasher movie. The whole experience is like a mini version of the main game with all of the adventuring and fighting you would expect.</blockquote>
It’s a minor flaw, but I still think Bethesda could have found a way around it. While I’m complaining, I’m not sure if the new weapons will be used much when players take them back to the main wasteland (you can go back any time you like, incidentally). The new shotgun and the lever-action rifle are a good fit for the atmosphere of Point Lookout, but they’re otherwise a bit dull in comparison with Fallout’s existing arsenal. More interesting is The Dismemberer - a special axe you can find that causes people to burst into little giblets. It’s a bit silly, but it’s also a lot of fun to use.</blockquote>Edge Online, 6.<blockquote>You could even go as far as to say it’s Fallout 3 at its worst, most of the enemies being the berserker variety – Mirelurks and the like – best dealt with by turtling and spending vast amounts of ammo. Most of its awards replenish that inventory, the suspicion being that much of the game will simply cancel itself out unless you’re grinding, which, chances are, you’re not. Like Operation Anchorage and The Pitt, you can visit Point Lookout whenever you like, making it a potential goldmine of perks and experience points. But for level 30 characters, which might well account for most of its visitors, it’s little more than a day at the seaside.
So, then: the best expansion so far and the game at its worst. Such a contradiction could only be made by Bethesda. Here’s another one: while they’re all fundamentally the same, no two bits of Fallout DLC have been alike. Fans are comfortable with these enigmas, and with just six weeks passing since Broken Steel, it’s hard to begrudge such a regular supply.</blockquote>Stick Skills.<blockquote>The creepy tone is set early. The new Hillfolk enemies look like they’ve been ripped straight from Deliverance. During battles, it’s common to hear them yelling "SCREAM! SCREAM FOR ME! AHAHA!" They also can pack quite a punch in a group and are more than formidable. But the creepiest moment comes in a bog, where inhaling a certain gas sends you on a hallucination. There are fake bobbleheads, giant sewing needles that pop out of the ground, exploding Nuka Cola bottles that rain from the sky, and, at one point, you find a skeleton that is apparently your mother. It was a mind trip that had me on the edge of my seat, and really made the experience come alive.</blockquote>Wonderwallweb 8.<blockquote>The feel of Point Lookout is very different to the main quests with it having a haunted feel for inspiration, with the spooky houses, crazy locals at the swamp and an awful lot of dolls heads on pikes it feels like something out of an 80's slasher movie. The whole experience is like a mini version of the main game with all of the adventuring and fighting you would expect.</blockquote>
