Mothership Zeta

The last chapter of the Fallout 3 DLC is finally here, but it has taken a strange twist—you’re no longer on earth! So does this DLC live up to its predecessors, or is it the equivalent of an anal probe for your wallet?Another stray radio signal leads you back to the slightly radiated crash site of a UFO. Once you arrive, you are beamed aboard this ship named Zeta, where unspeakable experiments are conducted on you and your fellow captives at the hands of aliens. You’re soon dumped into a cell with another wastelander, and work with him to break out, locate the other captives, and blow the aliens into tiny green pieces—preferably with their own weapons—until you find your way home.

The simple plot is flushed out by your companion’s stories, which include a cowboy, a samurai, an Anchorage medic, and a little girl named Sally. Scattered audio logs fill in the back story of previous captives' experiences, and some prove to be quite humorous. This DLC is rather tongue-in-cheek, and proves to be a light-hearted adventure without any moral choices. You'll encounter a number of tried and true sci-fi clichés such as alien dissecting tables and even a trip through a trash compactor.

Mothership Zeta goes back to the basics with a linear story, no side quests, and only a few areas off the main path, though you will get to see the entire ship from a UFO hanger to frozen test subjects. Along your way, you will discover a lot of earth gear and a few new alien weapons including pistols, rifles, cryo-grenades, and drum cannons that fire shots of energy which bounce off walls before exploding. You may want to bring the alien blaster found in the main game, as there are several cases of ammo on-board, and the new weapons still don’t pack quite the same punch.

You can complete Zeta in about 6 to 7 hours and return to the ship once you’re done, but annoyingly most doors are sealed after you’ve completed the mission, forcing trophy hunters to boot up an earlier save to try again. This is yet another great DLC package, and while it is somewhat disappointing in that it doesn’t follow the flow of Point Lookout and Broken Steel, it sure brings a lot of laughs and an interesting new area to the Fallout universe.

Score: 8/10