Fallout 3 – Mothership Zeta Review

The Day Fallout 3 Stood Still

Before films like Star Wars, Alien, or The Terminator became blockbuster franchises, before 2001 dazzled the world with its special effects, and even before Star Trek went where no science fiction series had gone before by becoming one of the largest phenomenons the world had ever seen, the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s gave birth to what is known as the Golden Age of Science Fiction. During this era, classic films were produced, such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, Forbidden Planet, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, that have become staples of the sci-fi genre. One theme many of these films shared in common though, was aliens. Be it alien beings or alien worlds, a focus on the topic was pretty clear. Therefore, considering that the world of Fallout 3, let alone the entire series, is derived from this era, it would seem like a logical choice to include aliens in the game. Thus, we have Mothership Zeta, the fifth and probably final DLC add-on for Fallout 3. However, is this voyage into the stars worthy of its $10 price tag?

The story in Mothership Zeta isn’t terrible but isn’t excellent either.  Instead, it falls somewhere “it’s just good” category, while at many times still being exhilarating. Basically, upon reaching the Alien Crash Site that can be found without the DLC, you will be abducted (the abduction itself looks pretty cool). After awakening, you find yourself in a cell on board an alien vessel. The point of the DLC then becomes escaping the alien ship and finding out what the aliens want with the people of Earth. From there, you have to, much like Operation: Anchorage, destroy something to get somewhere, in this case three generators to get to the top of the ship. Kind of a dull idea but it plays out rather interestingly. Yes, there is a spacewalk but that isn’t the highlight (because it’s actually rather slow anyway). The best part is who you get as followers. Basically, the aliens have been abducting people for centuries and putting them in cryo sleep. So, instead of a bunch of people from the Wasteland (besides one person), you get a samurai, a cowboy, and a medic who served in Anchorage. There’s also a little girl who was born during or shortly after the Great War (the nuclear war the created Fallout’s setting), but she doesn’t actually fight you. This colorful cast of characters adds a sense of uniqueness to Mothership Zeta and provides some interesting conversations between the characters with each other, as well as with you. Plus, it adds a nice perspective of the Fallout universe in regards to the medic and the little girl. So overall, the story is a plus. The Mothership itself also looks pretty cool and has some cool set pieces and moments as well but a lot of its impact is taken away due to its design (which I’ll get to later).

You can actually fire the Death Ray...at Canada. So much for seeing the effects

The gameplay in Mothership Zeta is more of a mixed bag. Building off the formula of Operation: Anchorage, Mothership Zeta is largely combat-based, which is yet again good or bad depending on your personal preference. However, the addition of a legitimate story makes this a bit more acceptable. Unfortunately though, the combat within itself is also a mixed bag. It is certainly harder than in Operation: Anchorage due to the strength of the new alien weapons and the aliens themselves (both of which I’ll get more into detail about later). However, where the combat lacks is really in the close-quarters design of the ship. One of Fallout 3’s greatest strengths was in the wide-openness of the world, which not only really paid off in terms of the length game, but also in terms of firefights. The new add-on basically takes this concept and constricts this concept to the point that it’s like your playing DOOM (not that there’s anything wrong with DOOM, but it uses close-quarters combat). This makes some fights much harder to win, since the aliens can corner you easily and just blast away at you. At least with Operation: Anchorage you could move around like in the regular game. So although the combat is harder, which is good, it’s often harder for the wrong reasons.

As far as the weapons go, they’re pretty awesome. There’s an alien rifle called the Disintegrator with a unique version, an alien pistol called the Atomizer with a unique version, seemingly a grenade launcher called the Drone Cannon with a unique version (that is more like a Missile Launcher), as well as some Cryo Grenades and Cryo Mines, an alien shock-stick called the Shock Baton with a unique variant, a non-scoped .44 Magnum, a prototype Plasma Pistol (that’s pretty damn powerful), and a Samurai Sword. Generally, I’d complain about how the good majority of the weapons are Energy Weapons, like the Small Guns issue in Operation: Anchorage, but considering you retain your gear in Mothership Zeta, it’s not too much of an issue. There are some other issues though. For one, you can’t get the non-scoped .44 Magnum (called Paulson’s Revolver), without killing Paulson (the aforementioned unfrozen cowboy), which you won’t want to do (I’ll talk about that with later since it’s more of a problem with the new armor). Thus, the two bigger issues only concern the new alien weapons. The first of these issues is the limited amount of ammo you can get for these weapons. By end of my time with this DLC, I had roughly 2000 Alien Power Modules (yeah, there’s another type of alien ammo). Anyway, despite their large number, the only way to get this ammo is to kill aliens, of which there are also a finite number of. Thus, you are eventually going to run out of ammo for these weapons. Now, Interplay/Black Isle Studios made a smart decision in Fallout and Fallout 2 to use Small Energy Cells (of which there are an unlimited amount), for the Alien Blaster. So it simply puzzles me that, especially when paying for these weapons, there aren’t other sources of ammo, such as Microfusion Cells or Energy Cells that can be used. It’s also kind of stupid to have another type of alien ammo as opposed to using the pre-existing Alien Power Cells. Speaking of which, there are more of those in Mothership Zeta for the Alien Blaster. And you might as well use then because the second problem with the weapons is that none of them are as powerful as the Alien Blaster, aside from the unique Disintegrator and the Drone Cannon and its unique variant (which are a “grenade launcher” and a “missile launcher” respectively so obviously they would be more powerful). But it’s not even those, weapons like the Terrible Shotgun and many other weapons are more powerful than any alien weapon on this list. It’s pretty ridiculous that the alien weapons are so lacking in power, especially when you can use them so limitedly. I mean, they’re still pretty powerful and the Disintegrator has 100 shots per clip, which is the best shot per clip ratio in the game besides the Minigun and Gatling Laser (which should be higher anyway). But the fact that you’re paying $10 for alien weapons that aren’t as powerful as the one already in the game, let alone some other guns, is unfortunate, regardless of whether they’re good or not.

You'd figure that paying an extra $10 for new alien weaponry would give you some of the most power weapons in the game that have a constant source of ammo; it doesn't

The new armor on the other hand…well let’s talk about the armor. Let me ask you a question, have you ever wanted to run around the Wasteland as a samurai? I know I would want to, or at least think it would be awesome. Thus, I was quite excited when I heard that such s piece of armor was included in Mothership Zeta. That brings up the next question, would you like to kill the samurai wearing it that you just unfroze after centuries of cryo sleep in order to obtain it? Well, if you’re like me, you really don’t want to kill a “follower” so the answer is no. So thus, my next question is would you like to lug armor all the way to Mothership Zeta (or from one area of Mothership Zeta to another) and reverse pickpocket it off the samurai, which could take hours to do it successfully? I’d answer yea, just because I want it but this is one hell of a hassle. The point of those questions, anyway, is to show just how annoying it is to get half the armor in Mothership Zeta. These two ways are the only ways to get both the Samurai Armor and Paulson’s Outfit (a cowboy suit), and it’s just stupid that you can’t just pick them up from a container or something. Like why weren’t those two wearing some sort of cryo suit, it just doesn’t make sense. The only other armor on board is Winterized Medic Armor (which can be obtained without the two aforementioned methods), a spacesuit, and General Chase’s Overcoat. Yeah, the guy from Anchorage, although the item is glitched to look like Winterized Combat Armor so it kind of defeats the purpose. Other than those, there’s not any other new armor, making the selection here pretty weak, especially since the best armor is a hassle to obtain.

As far as other items go, there are some alien crystals that serve as money (I guess), Alien Biogel that heals you with some side effects (it can be made stronger but still with side-effects), and some alien food. However, above all these is probably the best non-weapon or armor item in the DLC, let alone the game, Alien Epoxy. This item repairs any weapon you have by 15%-30% depending on your repair level. So for those of you who have their Gauss Rifles, Tesla Cannons, and Alien Blasters in poor condition, this is the solution. The Alien Epoxy alone makes the items in Mothership Zeta a solid offering but the rest round it out nicely as well.

The final aspect to Mothership Zeta is the new enemies and they can be very tough. The Aliens themselves aren’t really that much tougher than a Raider but many have some special armor on that makes them quite durable. Plus, their weapons are powerful so that makes these enemies pretty damn hard. I mentioned earlier the thing about being cornered easily and how that makes them harder than they should be but even so, the aliens are still pretty hard. In addition to the aliens though, there are also alien robots that, while not quite as durable, do a lot of damage. There’s also a third enemy that’s pretty powerful, despite being about as durable as the robots, whom I won’t spoil in regards to the plot. So overall, a much more challenging set of enemies than Operation: Anchorage, let alone much of the game. I’ll also say that, despite rumors, there are no Wanamingos in Mothership Zeta (they’re not aliens anyway), so don’t get your hopes up Fallout 2 fans.

You want that Samurai Armor without killing the samurai? Well then prepare for a lengthy ordeal of reverse pickpocketing

Aside from all this, there’s also other things to in Mothership Zeta. You can explore the ship, which is fun, and collect Alien Captive Recordings, which are interesting to listen to. The problem with either of these is that after the main quest is complete, half the ship is inaccessible, so if you want to get all the recordings, you had better have an earlier save. This is probably the stupidest design choice in the whole DLC. Why can’t you go back to other areas? I mean, there’s a reason in the plot but you can even get around that, so it doesn’t make sense. This pretty much minimizes the whole DLC and virtually eliminates any reason to go back to Mothership Zeta once your done with it.

Finally, as far as glitches go, there really aren’t that many that I encountered, aside from the aforementioned General Chase’s Overcoat bug. There’s also only lag in one section during a massive, but very cool, battle. Other than that, I don’t know of any glitches so I’d say this DLC is probably the least buggy of any.

Mothership Zeta isn’t the bang Bethesda was hoping to go out with that they would’ve with Broken Steel or Point Lookout, nor is it better than The Pitt, but it’s definitely better than Operation: Anchorage. The combat is thrilling, the story is exciting, the setting is cool, and the weapons and items are awesome. That said, the armor is almost non-existent, the weapons aren’t quite as powerful as we’d all hoped for (as well as limited in their use), the design of the DLC is ridiculous in terms of exploration, and just about everything else has some flaws here and there. Still though, it’s at least worth a look and gives you a chance to experience Fallout’s take on aliens from the era in which Fallout is derived. Mothership Zeta’s frustrating aspects make it harder to balance things out when compared to the positive aspects about the DLC, but it still manages to make itself at least somewhat worthwhile.

As a final and more personal note and given this is more likely than not the last of Fallout 3 DLC, I’d just like to say that I’ve been thoroughly pleased with what Bethesda has offered and that it has been both a solid and meaningful effort.  It has nearly doubled my time with the game and I cannot thank Bethesda enough for that.  Playstation 3 owners, you have one hell of an experience coming your way.

+ A great story, fantastic setting, and awesome weapons and items, as well as virtually no glitches and challenging combat

- The limited usage and unfortunate power of the weapons, the inability to continuously expire the ship, and the hassle to get most of the armor

8.0 Ninja Heads out of 10