Let me lay it bare I am not a major fan of expansions. They are rarely cost effective, usually pretty bland, and they usually come with shitty trinkets with zero carryover value. I purchased Broken Steel for two reasons. The first is my plate was a little empty, and I had a lot of free time. Second those additional ten levels that are unlocked let me finish some in game business. Specifically getting some perks that would allow me to finish some minor quests, and get said achievements.
Surprisingly to me this expansion was actually of incredible quality, and obviously well worth the coin. Let me give you the bullet points. Ten hours of addtional story driven content at least. Perhaps a dozen new foes that are radically different, and radically difficult. Gasp I actually had to crack out my Fatman which I had never used. Half a dozen new weapons. With six dungeons or so I counted. The last dungeon is three stacked upon one another. All wrapped together in a modest story. The result was a very full package.
The story is only a moderate success, but at least there is a story. Where the game shines is the dungeons which are varied in both style, and approach. The later dungeons give you multiple paths, and there is the easy way and the hard way. While actually feeling rather intense. Thanks largely to the newer enemies which actually make you feel at times like your out of your league forcing you to step back and say wow. I cannot just duck behind a wall anymore this guy shoots through walls, or I cannot just back peddle on this guy he makes Deathclaws look like chumps. My trusty terrible shotgun quickly took a back seat to my newer artillery, and high end weapons I had just relegated to the two expensive to use category. Then on the balance it actually made crippling a viable tool. I actually found myself shooting weapons, and legs. Yeah those extra levels were needed.
The enemies are not just given more hitpoints they come at you with new tactics thanks to their new weapons. The incinerator is a daunting foe a near miss is the same as a hit. New ghoul enemies attack in swarms. The overlord has incredible fire power. Going toe to toe is just not an option. To fluster you further the enemies have a strong placement protocol. They will properly space themselves, and approach from blind spots. So you cannot bottle them up in doorways. They will just wait you out. Take cover hold their position, and deliver whithering fire. This is a real game changer.
The new equipment is a solid addition. There is new armor to find off of the enemy. New weapons are well defined, and different. The Incinerator is a projectile flamethrower. The Tesla Coil is a cross between a rocket launcher, and a flame thrower. The Laser Gatling is a solid upgrade. The Tripple Laser was decent. The Deathclaw Scrambler was sadly disappointing as in nearly useless. Could have been more satisfying. Though on the whole they were both useful, and necessary.
There are a few downsides that need to be mentioned. The new environments are still overwhelmingly dark tunnels that corkscrew in an entirely random fashion. Though there are a few good loot points, and I found no envionmental loot of mention. So no need to scour. Unless your short on caps or stims. You absolutely need an assload of stims easy path or hard path. Expect to use between two hundred and three hundred stims. The difficulty can be pretty heinous, and I got crippled more in this dlc then I did in the rest of the game. Everything just seems to love to cripple.
So to put it simply it you do not have a solidly built character as in resources, or you already found the game fairly challenging steer clear. The enemies hit hard, and they are not slouches you can exploit. Your going to die period, and your going to die a lot if your dependant on exploiting the bum rush with a shot gun, or tossing a couple frags. Often enough if you get mobbed you will die before you can even pull up your pip boy for a heal. You have to be fairly clever. Let me put it this way to handle one group of enemies I had to cripple their legs with a rocket launcher, and a dozen rockets. This after I poured a thousand into them from my flamethrower. Seriously difficult enemies in this content.
Overall I give the content a 8/10
Pluses
Decent additional dungeons, decent new weapons, excellent new enemies, solid volume of content, extra levels create more access to existing content.
Minuses
A very poor story with poor pacing, environmental skins are getting noxious, steep learning curve, poor looting, piss poor soundtrack. Yes it is the same as the main game with two new blurbs, and it is a carryover gripe it just gets more grating with time. New audio is an absolute must its become a serious detractor.
