Speaking to Bethesda’s Jeff Gardiner MTV Multiplayer was curious as to whether or not the level cap in the upcoming Fallout 3 DLC ‘Mothership Zeta’ would again be raised. ‘Broken Steel’, one of the previous DLC releases, raised the level cap from 20 to 30 due to player demand; but would this be happening again, or is there no actual need for it?

“I know from the outside this seems like a fairly simple proposition, but doing this could unbalance the game in a variety of ways.” - MTV Multiplayer

Gardiner says that the game was meant to be played with a variety of different character set-ups, so if someone really wanted to continue their Fallout 3 experience they should think about starting from scratch and creating a new character. However, he does say that future games may change their approach.

When I hit level 20 I immediately downloaded ‘Broken Steel’ (I had periods where I wouldn’t play Fallout 3 for a long while, which explains why I was only reaching level 20 after ‘Broken Steel’ was released) so I would continue gaining experience from the tonnes of things I still had to do in the Capital Wasteland. When you reach 30, however, there’s no real need to continue gaining experience because you’re pretty much set to overcome any challenge the game throws at you. I don’t believe another increased cap would add anything to the game, because it’s all about the experience of new content than being allocated a two number level that has ceased to mean anything. I’d rather just enjoy the new quests, stories and characters than worry about where my experience is going. It just doesn’t really matter like it did when I first stepped out of Vault 101 as a relative n00b.

Fallout 3 is more than a level cap, it is one of the best experiences I’ve had in a video game. I loved the setting and the stories, so ‘Mothership Zeta’ just means more of what I love regardless of whether or not I gain another level

‘Mothership Zeta’ is set for release 3 August on PC and Xbox 360.