Pittfall

The second batch of Fallout 3 goodness was released today and... Oh, it looks like there’s an internet shitstorm calling for the blood of the Bethesda staff. It seems the English language version of Fallout 3: The Pitt for X Box LIVE is extremely messed up, with crashes, bugs and missing texture meshes abound. Fortunately for the higher class- i.e. PC players- The Pitt works fine.

The Pitt begins much the same way as Operation: Anchorage, in which you wait for a radio signal to appear on your Pip-Boy and follow a way point to the beginning location. There, Wherner, escaped slave, will enlist your help in sneaking into The Pitt (the remnants of Pittsburgh) and stealing a cure for the rampant mutation among The Pitt’s residents. On the way in, you slip into an unintentionally sexy slave uniform and have all your awesome weapons stripped away.

In order to maintain the facade that you’re just another dull-eyed worker, your co-conspirators have you collect iron ingots from the steelyards. Sounds easy, but the yards are full of mutated Trogs and Wildmen, beings who want nothing more than to tear you limb from limb. Thankfully, you get one of The Pitt’s new weapons, the Auto-Axe, to help you out. The Auto-Axe is essentially a car motor with a rotating saw blade attached to it, so it’s perfect for making turducken out of the Trogs.

The minimum number of ingots you have to collect is ten, but you can go all the way up to one hundred for some nifty prizes. After you finish your fetch quest, you’re given a chance to fight in the Hole, a death-match arena where you must defeat your foes before you succumb to radiation. If you’ve been a successful ingot collector, you should have some nifty weapons to help you out. If not, beating them to death with your fists is just as good. (The final combatant drops a new weapon as well, making The Pitt already more of a treasure trove than Operation: Anchorage.)

Winning three fights in the Hole grants you your freedom, your gear, and an audience with Ashur, the head honcho of the slaver operation. Here’s your chance to pick you side in The Pitt: do you stay the course with Wherner, or do you take Ashur up on his offer. It’s up to you, but the nature of the cure may influence your decision a little. (No spoilers here, but Bethesda has made this deliciously evil.)

What you do from that point is up to you. I sided with the slaves, so in the end I ended up with access to the ammunition presses and an opportunity to go back and search for a few remaining ingots. I imagine the ending for siding with Ashur is just a lucrative, it all depends on how big a bastard you want to be.

The Pitt clocks in at roughly the same time as Operation: Anchorage, but it has a lot more goodies and the tried and true Fallout morality to go along with it. Overall, The Pitt is a solid addition to Fallout 3’s lore, and should help tide you over until Broken Steel is released.