Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta

While At First glance it's a bizarre concept, an alien mothership beaming up Fallout Js Wanderer actually sits well into the sequel's, and its predecessors', stories (remember the crashed flying saucer in Fallout? How about the TARDIS? Or the crashed Star Trek shuttle in Fallout 2?). Little green -well, green-ish - men running around in flying saucers wielding rayguns fit in well, juxtaposed with the wasteland's nuclear Cadillacs, day-glow cafes and grinning Pip-Boy caricatures.

That's the strongest feeling you'll find from Mothership Zeta - constant, pleasant surprises from what could have been a dull-as-ditchwater mess. When you find a crashed spaceship in the middle of the wastes, you're taken into the mothership via a spooky, wavy teleporter, and find yourself on a table being probed by bald-headed extraterrestrials.

It's not long before you trick the jabbering midget creatures into releasing you from your cell and, with the help of a little girl called Sally and your newfound friend Somah, make your escape. It's a really bizarre tale that takes an interesting stab into the history of Fallout - let's just say the aliens were around long before the Great War. The combat is claustrophobic, somewhere between Lost In Space and Dead Space, and the new weapons are remarkable both for their power and '50s B-movie sound effects.

The icing on the cake is the constant introduction of recordings by the aliens of their former captives. These can be played (much like other notes/radio signals) as you do other things, and help round out the history of some of the captives you discover. You even get a chance to walk out into space - and the conclusion, for the first time in a Fallout 3 expansion, is truly satisfying.

Get Probed

That said, it's probably somewhere in the middle as far as length goes, lacking the depth of Point Lookout (though it's a damn sight more interesting) and a real connection to the world of Fallout 3. While this can be explained by saying that Bethesda didn't want to damage the mise en scene, it would be good to see the aliens having a reason to return. It also errs on the side, as has been the case for most of the expansions, of pure combat.

Overall, though, Mothership Zeta is dramatic, entertaining and charming in the way that every Fallout expansion should be from now on.