Fallout 76

[Xaios]

I'm an OG fan of the Fallout games. I first played Fallout 1 and 2 back in 2000 when I was in middle school, basically as soon as I discovered they existed. I didn't play Fallout 3 or New Vegas until a few years after they were released because my computer was old enough that it would struggle to run them. When I did play them, Fallout 3 left me pretty cold, and I admit I never came close to completing it. I ended up loving New Vegas though.

At this point in the narrative, I probably seem like your typical "NMA"-type Fallout fan (for those unfamiliar with the nomenclature, NMA stands for "No Mutants Allowed," an old Fallout website where the sentiment that "Everything Bethesda does with Fallout is tantamount to the Holocaust" is quite pervasive). Admittedly, I was worried about Fallout 4 when it came out because of how much I disliked Fallout 3.

Turns out that I ended up loving Fallout 4.

When Fallout 76 was announced, I was excited but with reservation because of the rumors that it would be an online-only game. That reservation turned into full-blown "fuck this, not buying it" when the rumors were confirmed true.

However, as more info began to trickle out, the game really started to appeal to me. I was initially worried that it would be a hardcore griefer's paradise, a la Rust, but as more details became known, it began to seem more like Minecraft. Watching livestreams of the beta (Oxhorn's, to be specific) this past week really cemented my excitement. The level of environmental storytelling looks truly top notch, and the possibilities for roleplaying really seem to abound.

Admittedly, it's not perfect. I was never hardcore enough to play Survival mode in any Fallout game, so the the hunger and thirst mechanics seem a tad onerous to me, although they don't seem to be too intrusive. The stash limit is also an annoying constraint, especially considering how much Fallout 4 conditioned me to collect anything and everything. Still, these are things that can be worked around.

Anyone else planning to play?

 

[TedEH]

I honestly still can't quite get past the always online thing. It just doesn't appeal to me at all, in the sense that I just don't play online games at all. I'm open to being proven wrong, but the idea of it isn't enough to draw me in to bother giving it a shot. I don't doubt there's lots of good content there, and maybe I'd have a good time if I dove into it, but there are enough games out there that appeal to me much more, so I probably will never give it a shot.

 

[Xaios]

I honestly still can't quite get past the always online thing. It just doesn't appeal to me at all, in the sense that I just don't play online games at all. I'm open to being proven wrong, but the idea of it isn't enough to draw me in to bother giving it a shot. I don't doubt there's lots of good content there, and maybe I'd have a good time if I dove into it, but there are enough games out there that appeal to me much more, so I probably will never give it a shot.

That's fair, and at least you're honest about it too, which is appreciated. "Always online" pretty much made me blow a gasket when it was announced, as I also tend to avoid online play like the plague these days. When I look back though, it was because so much precedent has been set in the past few years which creates such a negative connotation for "always online" right out of the gate. Just look at SimCity from a few years ago. That was a game I wanted to love, but the way EA shoehorned in the "always online" but really earned them every bit of ill will that they got from it. For me personally, with everything I've seen of FO76 since the initial announcement, it really leads me to think that Bethesda is trying to institute "always online" is the best possible way: it won't be constantly intrusive and you'll generally be able to avoid it if you want, but it's there juuuuust enough to add a little measure of uncertainty to the gameworld, and at the same time it's there for you to make full use of if you choose to embrace it.

No judgment if it's just not for you though.

 

[Lorcan Ward]

I'm a massive fan as my avatar should give away. I grew up playing 1 + 2 and still do a playthrough every second year. I remember getting fallout Tactics when it came out and thinking how much they had changed things, it doesn't have the biggest rep but it's one of my favourite games, it ticked a lot of boxes for me despite its problems. I would have loved to have seen Tactics 2 and Van Buren get released. They sounded very promising games

It took me a long time to warm up to Fallout 3 since the previous 2 games were cancelled and fallout had moved away from the 2D isometric view. The core games plot was just recycled from the previous 3 games which I didn't particularly like but on a recent play through I realise now it must have been a fantastic introduction for new players of the franchise despite some very questionable moments. The DLC however is incredible, point lookout and The Pitt bring the game to a whole new level.

Fallout New Vegas with its DLCs is one of my favourite games. It brought the franchise back to the richer world and RPG elements of 1 and 2, it does feel like a lot of content is missing from the core game but they only had 18 months to make it. Old World Blues is my fav DLC out of any game, it's just so fun and really nails the originals wacky humour. I'd love a remastered edition with console mods like skyrim.

I was extremely disappointed with F4 since they just disregarded the direction New Vegas was taking the newer series and instead went back more to F3s approach. I played a good 40ish hours but couldn't get into it. 76 doesn't appeal to me right now since it's the RPG and story elements of fallout that appeal to me most. I'll still keep an eye on it. There is a lot of potential with future updates.

I like how NMA has become frowned upon nowadays, some of the main members don't even like 2 so I try not to take that forum to seriously.

 

[Mathemagician]

Fallout 3 was the first one I ever played and I put 84 hours into it over my winter break from college. Sun up to sundown. GF almost left me. Worth it.

Debating picking up fallout 4 on PS4. I already own Skyrim however, and haven’t put more than an hour into it in 6 months.

 

[Grand Moff Tim]

I'm playing it now, and I really enjoy it in spite of all the bugs and glitches constantly trying to get me to dislike it.

I also watched Oxhorn's beta playthrough vids, and they had pretty much the same effect on me as they did on you. I was on the fence before, but watching the vids really made me want to give it a shot. I think his vids did a good job of conveying what to expect from the game, whether that entails the gameplay, the environment, or the bugs.

Many of the bugs so far are just graphics/physics stuff, and I've played Bethesda open world games for long enough now that those don't even really phase me anymore . However, there have also been some more irritating bugs, like quest objectives not updating until after I exit out and restart, or crafting stations showing the crafting animation but not opening the menu. Those are bugs I can definitely live without, and I hope they get fixed ASAP. It'll be interesting to see how much Bethesda stays on top of stuff like that, since this will be the first time they haven't been able to just say "meh, modders will take care of it" when they release a broken product (they wisely got someone else to do ESO, haha).

The most frustrating thing so far, though, has got to be the camp storage limit. Bethesda must know how much people end up hoarding in FO games, especially after FO4, which taught us to pick up everything, because you'll never know what you might need it for when building a settlement or modding a weapon. I don't think I had even passed level 15 before both my player and camp inventories were completely maxed out. That really made it frustrating trying to balance what to pick up, what to scrap, and what to ignore. It's especially frustrating since now you can find items that are locked to a level far above your own, so you have to either find a way to make room for it and save it until you're high enough in level, or just scrap/abandon it. They've said they're working on a solution to that for a future patch, but we'll see.

At any rate, despite all that, I've been having a lot of fun. I actually like the new perk card system, and the world is seriously awesome. I've seen some of the best environments I've ever seen in a Bethesda game, and coming from a FO/TES fanboy such as myself, that's saying something. The New River Gorge bridge, the burning mine, a random unmarked giant tree house in the middle of a swamp... and I've only been to maybe 30% of the map so far.

I also decided to make it difficult on myself by specializing in unarmed right from the get go, just for some extra challenge, and to see how feasible it is. The answer: Surprisingly feasible. At lvl 20 I solo'd a lvl 50 glowing mirelurk king (barely, haha) and a few other tough baddies, with the one who managed to win one over on me being a lvl 68 deathskull giant radscorpion. I didn't stand a chance, haha.

And then there are the scorchbeasts...

 

[KnightBrolaire]

the overwhelming response I saw about the 76 beta was that it was buggy trash that's kind of fun with friends, but sucks solo (so basically like any other mmo out there). It managed to be a halfassed facsimile of fallout 4's mechanics laden with bugs, glitches and a completely pointless pvp system. The lack of npcs was brought up numerous times as well, since that makes the world feel especially barren. The whole reason I was interested in the game was the idea of "fallout with friends" and it looks like it kind of delivers that...

I watched a lot of footage of the gameplay and it just leaves me feeling meh. I don't want to feel that way about a fallout game since i love the series, but I'm going to go with the popular opinion and my gut based off of what I've seen so far.
I'm done buying meh games that my friends will abandon after a few weeks, leaving me to grind out my money's worth like I did with Destiny 2/ESO/Wildstar/Rust/Ark.

 

[Grand Moff Tim]

the overwhelming response I saw about the 76 beta was that it was buggy trash that's kind of fun with friends, but sucks solo (so basically like any other mmo out there).

Buggy: Definitely.
Trash: Another man's treasure, apparently.

I've played solo exclusively so far, and all 35+ hours of Oxhorn and ManyATrueNerd's footage has been solo, too. It's much more doable as a solo experience than many MMOs seem to be.

For what it's worth, though, most of my time in ESO has been solo, too, and I've enjoyed it just fine.

 

[TedEH]

It's much more doable as a solo experience than many MMOs seem to be.

It's hard to take a statement like that and read it as a positive if you're someone who pretty much only plays single player games.

I can understand from a marketing and sales perspective (and given the usual target audience for the franchise) that it's worth trying to convince single-player-only kinds of players to give it a shot, but all the feedback I've heard (admittedly not a lot though, cause I've been out of the loop this past week) is that it's not really a single player game. Which I didn't expect it to be. I almost always avoid online games - I just don't have any interest in having to interact with randos on the internet while playing a game. This doesn't sound like an exception to me.

 

[Kaura]

Haven't played it nor planned to but I'm definitely enjoying all the negative attention the game has received. Not necessarily to enjoy Bethesda's suffering but it's funny to see people so disappointed in something.

 

[Lorcan Ward]

It has been a hilarious few weeks.



This video was painful to watch. It wouldn't be a fallout game if it wasn't horrible broken.

 

[Mathemagician]

Gonna wait for the GOTY edition this time next year to be on Black Friday sale and play with the holiday noobs if there is more “content”. Idk how a fallout MMO works unless they intend to add raids & gear levels, or they plan on being PvP focused.

But for me fallout gameplay has always been about eventually becoming overpowered and doing dumb shit once I’m done with story missions. Have the devs commented on what the “end game” is?

Just curious because IMO, one puts up with weird buggy gameplay for the story content in Bethesda games.

 

[TedEH]

I'm definitely enjoying all the negative attention the game has received

I have to actively fight the urge to come to the defense of a game when it gets torn apart at launch, just knowing how it's insanely difficult to release a tight product on day one - even if some of it is not really excusable.

Kinda seems like the pattern now -> Games get released, they're rarely very solid on day one, reviews tear it apart based on this initial release, game improves over time, but reviews don't really follow... It's a dumb thing to ask for, but if reviews could just wait a year.

 

[Kaura]

but if reviews could just wait a year.

If only the release could be pushed back another year (and therefore also the announcement of the game so you don't have angry people impatiently waiting for the game).

 

[Xaios]

I've also been playing it. Got it on release day, and while I simply haven't had as much time to play it as I would have liked, I've quite enjoyed my time in the world. I'm only level 14 or so, going the whole stealth sniper route, as I am always wont to do in my first playthrough of games like this. I'm only just leaving The Forest now, so we'll see how I fare in the Toxic Valley and then the Savage Divide.

One of the main criticisms of the game is that, because of the lack of NPCs, it's easy to get the impression that the game doesn't have a story. While this is definitely not the case, it does seem possible to completely bypass the storytelling the game offers, which is lots, if you choose to. The storytelling is either told through notes and terminals, or is done environmentally. The case of the latter, the game is trying to get the user to guess what might have happened to these people, to imagine what their lives were like. Yesterday on the road, I came upon the skeleton of a girl in a dress riding a bike, which Royal Jelly and a butterknife next to her corpse. Trying to piece together in my mind what this person was doing, it makes me feel like an archeologist digging through the ruins of Herculaneum. The game is absolutely loaded with these touches, but they're easy to miss if all you want to do is powerlevel. The game absolutely doesn't hold your hand to find these things though, and it really seems like a lot of people are bitter about the fact that it doesn't shove every detail about the game's backstory in the player's face.

As far as bugs go, believe it or not, I haven't really had any. Literally the only thing I've noticed was that, the first time I fired up the game, the animations for the Mr. Handy robots was glitchy. That bug has yet to materialize again though, and I honestly haven't noticed any others. Considering the age of my computer, it has also run fairly smoothly. Obviously YMMV, but that's been my experience so far.

That's not to say everything is perfect. The stash limit is the obvious big one, but Bethesda has issued a statement saying that this will be dealt with before the end of the year.

 

[TedEH]

If only the release could be pushed back another year

I would be extremely surprised if this wasn't actually already the case behind the scenes. It's an expectations problem - games get pushed back internally so often, you just don't see it happen. You can just say keep pushing back, but it has to come out at some point. The product is never going to be perfect, so if you wait until it's "done", it basically will just never come out. And that extra time costs money. If I had to guess, I'd say the majority of games end up missing their original launch targets - either because of bugs, or scope, or expectations, etc. I don't mean that to excuse anything - but at the same time, I find it hard to fault anyone too hard either. I'm sure it's not a games thing. I mean, how many albums have people tried to put out that just didn't quite go to plan. I've said it before and I'll say it again -> it's a miracle that a lot of huge projects, be they movies, games, albums, etc., get made and put out there at all.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

the complaints about NPCs had more to do with the barren feel of the game world. Nothing wrong with environmental storytelling/ or using notes to tell stories, but part of why I personally love the fallout series is the mixing of all the different storytelling methods (ie environmental/notes AND talking to npcs). It's not as though bethesda couldn't do it techwise, and I doubt budget was an issue (considering they already have a decent amount of VO work in-game), which is why I'm scratching my head at the "no NPCs" route. ESO managed to hit all 3 of those types of storytelling (voiced npcs, notes/environmental storytelling) so it's not like they haven't done it in an mmo fashion before...

If I do pick this game up I'm going to wait til the price drops/they spend a lot more time working on it.

 

[Xaios]

Whether the decision to go the no-human-NPC route was a top-down decision from the start or a bottom-up decision that was based on technical or budgetary limitations, I don't know. Only the people at Bethesda really do. The narrative I've come up with in my head, however, for the reason the world is this way is as follows (and yes, obviously this is my own interpretation of the world I've seen thus far).

In every previous game, you play "The Hero." Be you the Vault Dweller, Chosen One, Lone Wanderer, Courier or Soul Survivor, you enter the world at a critical juncture. Events have been set in motion before you even begin your quest which have already brought life in the region to a precipitous turning point, where everything is about to change, likely for the worse, and a great enemy is rising. FO1 has The Master, FO2 and FO3 have The Enclave, FONV has Caesar's Legion (Robert House doesn't really fall under this umbrella even though he can be considered an antagonist) and FO4 has The Institute (or the Brotherhood, depending on your interpretation). Just when all seems lost though, you, the hero, emerge from the darkness and stop the world from falling into the abyss once more. FO76 diverges from the others on these points. No hero ever came forward to save the world from impending doom. As such, you're emerging from the vault into a world that is already lost, and so your goal is to merely survive, as any hope of a greater salvation has long since passed. (I also like the story implication that, even though we know that the world will eventually be resettled and things will get better, or character will likely not live to see it.) Additionally, while all previous Fallout games featured environmental hazards, this is the first time where the main threat of the game ostensibly IS from the environment.

Of course, none of that changes how you might feel about the barren nature of the world. Even though it's ultimately intentionally so, if that's not your jam, that's understandable.

 

[Grand Moff Tim]

It's hard to take a statement like that and read it as a positive if you're someone who pretty much only plays single player games.

Take it however you want, man. The same post you quoted talked about how other players have already put in dozens of hours doing nothing but solo, and how I myself have yet to touch the multiplayer aspect, but you can focus on whatever you need to to help you reaffirm that you don't like it. For what it's worth, I'm not a multiplayer gamer at all. When I first heard about 76, I wasn't excited about it at all. It was only after seeing how much fun the beta streamers I watch were having playing it solo that I decided I wanted to give it a shot.

 

[TedEH]

I just meant from a personal taste standpoint. My point was more that even if other single-player type people are finding things to enjoy, it's still a very hard sell.