The biggest difficulty you encounter will comes from the new enemies. The stealthed Chinese commandos are the biggest challenge, as they'll open up on you from their invisible state, usually getting the first few hits in. Considering that they love to use sniper rifles, this can mean big chunks of health lost. Small mechanical spider drones are also introduced, a testament to Chinese ingenuity. These little robots blow up something fierce, so you'll want to nail them at range unless you want to end up a bloody mess.
If you're still spending tons of time in the Capital Wasteland then you're the target audience for this update, and the most likely to appreciate what's in store as far as weapons and armor. The new suit of Winterized Power Armor doesn't do much for you that other suits couldn't provide in the core game, though it does have a more classic look to it. The suit comes with a heaping load of armor, as well as sizable radiation resistance, making it a great suit to wear in any situation that you don't need to sneak around in.
The Chinese Stealth Armor, on the other hand, is more impressive in terms of what it brings to the game. It offers a persistent stealth bonus much like that of the Stealth Boy item, activated simply by crouching. The stealth field that comes up has a distortion effect, especially when moving, so you're quite difficult to spot. It also looks very ninja-like, which will no doubt make it a popular option as everyday wear for stealthy and melee-based character builds. The melee weapon you can pick up after completing the mission goes very well with those themes.
It's a sure bet that the new gun, the Gauss Rifle, will become a staple weapon. It zooms like a sniper rifle, but with a high-tech-looking reticule and a high-energy projectile that does ridiculous damage. It's terribly slow to reload, however, just like a sniper rifle. The real benefit is for those who specced out their characters as Energy Weapons specialists, meaning that they now have an option for sniping that doesn't require the Small Guns skill.
If you're thinking about picking up this first in a planned trio of downloadable updates for Fallout 3, then you have to ask yourself how much game you expect for your 800 Microsoft Points. You'll get somewhere around three hours of gameplay, 100 achievement points, and some nifty new gear out of this premium download. It's what you'd pay for the full version of most Xbox Live Arcade titles, which will arguably provide a longer-lasting gameplay experience.
Another issue is that it doesn't feel much like the game that we know and love. Looting objects from the environment has been nearly stripped out, as you'll only pick up the occasional grenade or missile here and there. There's not much as far as NPC interaction, and if you wanted to try and use charm and your Speech skill to talk the Communists out of fighting, it's just not an option (with one interesting exception). The RPG elements and loot consumption that made exploration such a key aspect of the original game have been usurped by run-and-gun and stealth-and-kill gameplay. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as Fallout 3 also mixed things up here and there, but if the entire game were like this, we probably wouldn't have been as in love with it.
Ultimately, it's the die-hard Fallout 3 fans that should enjoy this new chapter in the series' history, and those same fans who may end up slightly annoyed after the fact. Operation Anchorage doesn't answer many questions regarding the lead-up to the big war, but it's an interesting piece of the puzzle that fits into the overall game without feeling out of place. It feels like a lot of money for just a couple hours of entertainment, but considering that Fallout 3 is already a great value, it's hard to balk at the price.
