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Bethesda expands the world of Fallout 3 even more with the addition of the newest DLC entitled The Pitt.

The Pitt allows the player to travel to the booming industrial city The Pitt, formerly Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before the bombs dropped. The city suffers from a disease in the air that transforms those who live in the city for extended periods of time into mindless monsters.  The player is given the choice to either help the slaves and steal the cure from the slavers who are keeping it from the slaves, or help the slavers quell the slave rebellion that occurs when existence of the disease comes to light.  The most interesting aspect to this new mission is the “gray” choice the player must make.  Helping free the slaves may seem like the “good” thing to do at first, but later has the player pondering over who he or she should help.  Neither choice is “good” nor “bad.”

The Pitt adds a few new weapons, such as the Auto Axe weapon which is basically a spinning blade used to cut up metal or, in the player’s case, mutated people.  The DLC also adds new outfits for the character, one example being a sort of spelunking helmet.  The most interesting aspect to the game is how different the city of The Pitts looks and feels compared to the rest of the Fallout 3 world.

The Pitt is for lovers...

This difference should come as no surprise, especially since The Pitt is located in an entirely different area of the country than the Capital Wasteland, where the main chunk of Fallout 3 takes place.  However, even Bethesda’s previous DLC, Operation: Anchorage, did not feel this different.  Apart from the snowy weather, the first DLC’s buildings looked much like those in the Capital Wasteland, even down to the caved-in doorways.  The locations in The Pitt share some similarities to those in the Capital Wasteland, such as gothic statue heads and the way some buildings are set up, but the overall feel of the city is completely different.  Smelting factories belch out streams of flames into the air, the slavers tower over their slaves from the safety of “Uptown,” high-rise buildings connected by make-shift catwalks, and the inclusion of a sparring pit used to gain the player’s “freedom” from slavery all add to the atmosphere of the city.

One of the only downsides of the DLC is how short the actual mission is.  The Pitt has many areas to explore, but most of them have nothing to do with the main mission of helping either the slaves or the slavers.  The short length of time is made up by allowing the player to revisit the city after the mission is completed.  There are shops to trade and barter in, short side quests to complete, and  even experience to gain by giving an in-game character certain items.

For those who want to add to their Fallout 3 experience and are unsure whether to buy this or Operation: Anchorage, this is a sure bet.  The inclusion of essentially a new city to explore and trade in that is completely different than any other city in the Capital Wasteland is a great addition to an already superb game.