The Only Disappointment in the Fallout Series
I recently bought Operation Anchorage, having (and still having) thoroughly enjoyed Fallout 3. I'm still playing it, and really enjoying the mod scene.
That being said, Operation Anchorage is a big disappointment. Did you enjoy exploring environments and scavenging for things you need? Gone. Linear path. No scavenging dead bodies; dead bodies just vanish.
Canabalism is just dropped. If you have that perk, find a way to get rid of it: you can't use it here.
Did you like locational damage, and the ability to use that to your advantage in a firefight to slow down and/or disarm your opponent? Gone. They'll still stumble, at least.
Did you like choosing many different ways to approaching combat? The choice between pure melee, an explosive expert, or using one of the three kinds of guns? Tough. You'll be using small weapons, mines and grenades. Oh - did you bring in a character who isn't great with small guns or explosives? You really liked the role-playing skills like speech and science? No use for those here. Just use small guns. Aren't good with small guns? Well, those assault rifle-toting Chinese will be able to snipe you from outside the max distance of a sniper rifle itself, so tough use small guns. No, it doesn't make it harder, just much more annoying.
Bug: Gauss gun, for me, often only knocks enemies down: No damage. Doesn't matter that I'm using a lvl 15 character with 100% energy/small weapons. Nope nope.
Bug: Trees in skyboxes everywhere. Actual try models, objects, floating around in the skies. 30-50 of them in different skyboxes. Why were trees left in the sky? My theory is that the entire map itself was ripped from somewhere else, and they couldn't get the trees to stop appearing where there used to be land, so they just left them. Boy do I love looking into the skies and seeing hundreds of trees for no reason floating around.
Questionable light effects: Next time you're in a cave with a hole in the top letting light in (don't worry, you'll find them one after another. The US must have drilled holes into every cave system's roof. Look at the glow effect. It's actually centered well below the hole itself, so that from many angles it just looks like magic light hanging in the air. Let me put it this way: First time I saw this effect I tried to shoot it to see if it was an actual object. (No, not my gfx cards: dual 8800 512s). Bad effect.
Also: the unique guns and armors you find in OA *can't be taken out*. That's right - this is an expansion that will not allow you to use the new items outside of its set campaign. Love that cool new gear? Enjoy NOT using it in the full game!
Did you like using stimpaks and food to keep your health up? GONE. Enjoy the occassional instant-full-health containers that make you invunerable by being next to. Being shot to death, just look at the health container by your right shin and press E. Presto, you're a god!
You won't find guns. They'll be placed out in the open in specific areas. You won't find much ammo - it's all in insta-fill ammunition containers: of course, those will only work on most small guns so if you're specializing in, say, energy weapons you're going to have a harder time.
Your friend from the beginning, Major whomsoever, *cannot move his eyes*. Nice model. Nice animation... Come on! You could have ripped the father's model if you were going to be that lazy about it! Whenever I look at my friend his eyes are glassy, unmoving, and staring at about a 50 degree angle to the ground. I don't feel like there's anyone with me, and it totally breaks the impression that I've got a partner. Just some weird doll who gets confused and often just isn't around in a battle because he's running up and down stairs.
Cornered by some enemies and low on health? No problem! Just run around a corner and hit "wait" for 24 hours. Don't worry, they won't hassle you while you're standing around healing. You'll be fine. (This is what made me alt-f4 and not play it any longer, finally)
Travesty. If I wanted to play a dumbed down version of Call of Duty I would have bought, well, Call of Duty! This is boring, uninspired, and removes most of the elements that made Fallout 3 an interesting immersive game. This is uncreative, lackluster, buggy, and whatever you do in it will amount to almost nothing in terms of the larger game. It will turn Fallout 3 into an uninteresting shooter where your role playing choices are all but non-existent.
I wish it had only cost $3, because I think that would be a fair price.
Don't buy it.
~Chris Turner~