Pinball FX3 - Bethesda Pinball (DLC)

Pinball FX3 - Bethesda Pinball is a three-table DLC pack from Zen Studios, dropping Doom, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Fallout onto digital felt with an unusual design philosophy: each table doesn't just wear the franchise's paint, it borrows the actual systems. That means character sheets, skill trees, faction alignment, and quest logs sitting inside a pinball game. If your reaction to that sentence is confused curiosity rather than immediate skepticism, this pack was built for you. The Doom table is the easiest entry point and, by most accounts, the strongest individual table in the pack. It runs two difficulty modes lifted directly from the game - Hurt Me Plenty for a normal run and Nightmare, which strips ball saves and other aids in exchange for boosted scoring. Mission selection works through a skull target at the centre of the table, branching into Rune Trials, The Pit, and Lock 'n' Load, each requiring different shot patterns to complete. Weapon progression is tied to hitting a captive ball at the rear of the table enough times to swap out your starting pistol. The lane and ramp distribution is generous enough that even newcomers feel productive, which is a harder design problem to solve than it sounds. Doom functions like a proper pinball table first and a theme park second. Skyrim and Fallout are a different calculation. Both tables open with full character creation: Skyrim asks you to pick a race and assign stats, then tracks stamina, magicka, and health across sessions, with your character's condition actually affecting flipper strength mid-ball. Fallout runs the full S.P.E.C.I.A.L. point allocation at the start, lets you pick a companion for a perk bonus, and layers in faction quests, vault raids, radiation management, and a shop accessed by rolling the ball down side in-lanes. Completing the faction storyline pushes you toward a Wizard Mode with a faction-specific bonus. The depth is genuine, and the fidelity to the source material is impressive. The tradeoff is that both tables can feel less like pinball and more like light RPG sessions where a ball happens to be bouncing around. Pacing stalls, menus interrupt momentum, and players who just want to chase a high score will find the RPG scaffolding more friction than fun. From a pure decision-depth standpoint, this is one of the more interesting DLC packs in the Pinball FX3 library. The systems are coherent, not just cosmetic. The licensed audio, voice lines, and 3D models are used with care, meaning the tables actually sound like their source games rather than a budget tribute act. The weak point is table balance: Doom overperforms so cleanly that the other two can feel like supporting acts. The Fallout table's open layout also demands precise flipper control that the mission structure doesn't always give you time to develop before the ball drains. Neither table is bad, but neither quite matches Doom's accessibility curve. For Xbox Series X and Xbox One players specifically, this version benefits from updated physics that give the ball noticeably more realistic weight compared to older iterations of the same tables. If you already own Pinball FX3 and have any connection to these three franchises, the pack rewards the time you put into learning its systems. Pure pinball traditionalists who want clean, fast tables with minimal menu interruption should probably start with Doom and adjust expectations before committing to all three.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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