Fallout 76 represents a bold shift in direction for the popular open-world RPG series. While we have no doubt that Fallout 5 is probably going to get made at some point, Fallout 76 is an interesting spin-off game that we found ourselves conflicted about.
On one hand, exploring the wasteland together with friends is fun as hell. There’s so much role-playing potential here, and if we’re being real, being able to play with friends automatically makes any game infinitely more enjoyable. But on the flip side, Bethesda ended up having to sacrifice so much in order to make this online shared world possible, and we’re not sure if the results were worth it.
Let’s take a look at everything that Fallout 76 got right, and several other missteps that we would’ve liked to see fixed before launch.
Everything Fallout 76 Gets Right, and Mistakes that Need Fixing
The Good: Role-playing Potential
I love the idea of role-playing in a role-playing game —crazy, I know— and Fallout 76 gives you ample opportunity to do just that. Aside from just teaming up and being friendly with every player you come across in the wasteland, you could take on the role of a merchant instead, and sell goods that other vault dwellers would be interested in.
With Fallout 76’s trade system, you could become a cap-amassing mogul by selling ammo to passersby, or other valuable items. If that isn’t really your thing, though, you could also build an isolated cabin in the woods, lure unsuspecting players into your humble abode, then reveal your true nature as a cannibal and eat them.
The possibilities are endless!
Everything Fallout 76 Gets Right, and Mistakes that Need Fixing
The Good: Multiplayer Base-Building
Speaking of building an isolated cabin in the woods, Fallout 76’s base-building mechanics are pretty fun to tinker with as well. The UI honestly isn’t that much more improved from what we saw in Fallout 4, but it does seem a little less unwieldy.
What makes it even better, though, is the fact that you can create a base with a friend, and there’s a lot of flexibility here, in case you find a better location and want to move your base there instead. With the CAMP module in Fallout 76, players on your team can use their own resources to help build structures in your own base, and you can essentially create a shared house where everyone gets their own room. It’s fantastic.
Of course, this does come with a few drawbacks, the most annoying of which is the fact that if the base owner logs out of the game, teammates can no longer interact with the base until they come back online.
Everything Fallout 76 Gets Right, and Mistakes that Need Fixing
The Good: West Virginia Is a Great Setting
Fallout 76 is probably the prettiest game we’ve seen in the series thus far. The open world is so vibrant and full of color, and it’s a very welcome change from the dreary wastelands we’ve seen over the past few years.
Not only that, Fallout 76 actually makes use of West Virginia’s folklore and incorporates them into the game in interesting ways. The most obvious example is, of course, Mothman. For those who might not be familiar with the folklore, Mothman was a strange creature that was reportedly sighted in the area in 1966. It soon got a lot of mainstream attention through books and movies.
In Fallout 76, you can visit the famous Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, and even encounter the creature itself out in the wild. It’s terrifying. And also awesome. It’s not the only one, either, with the likes of the Grafton Monster, the Wendigo, and the Flatwoods Monster also all featuring.
Everything Fallout 76 Gets Right, and Mistakes that Need Fixing
The Good: Extensive Character Creator
Character creation is an important element in any open-world RPG, and the same rings true for Fallout 76.
Right from the start, Fallout 76 gives you tons and tons of options to play around with when creating your new vault dweller. Both male and female characters have different hairstyles to choose from, and there are so many to scroll through.
And don’t even get us started on facial features. Yes, there are sliders you can play around with for your character’s forehead, nose, mouth, upper and lower cheekbones, jaw, and ears. Outside of that, you can also choose from a decent selection of scars and blemishes to give your dweller a bit more character. It’s honestly pretty crazy how detailed the creator is, and it’s great for setting your character apart from every other cookie-cutter handsome/pretty player out there.
Everything Fallout 76 Gets Right, and Mistakes that Need Fixing
The Good: Radiation Isn’t Automatically Bad
Radiation has always been a big pain in Fallout games. Drink a bit of water? Radiation meter goes up. Wander a bit too closely to some corpse? Better watch that radiation. It’s incredibly annoying to have to keep managing your radiation levels so that your health doesn’t take too much of a hit.
However, Fallout 76 puts a nice spin on things by introducing mutations, which can only be obtained by letting your character get radiated. Mutations can have positive and negative effects, and it’s up to you to decide if the trade-offs are worth it. For instance, Healing Factor gives you much faster health regen, but your Chem effects will be halved. There are also mutations that can give you stat increases, and it’s a fun way to shake up the game, and have you actually running head-first into that radiated water.
Everything Fallout 76 Gets Right, and Mistakes that Need Fixing
The Good: The Hunt for Nuke Codes Is Fun
The Fallout universe is set in a nuclear wasteland, so of course there’s gonna be a way to launch some nukes. In Fallout 76, there are nuclear silos located all around the map. If you and your teammates can work together to figure out the access codes for them, you can straight up launch a nuke at any part of the map.
In a traditional single-player Fallout game, this would be entertaining for a few minutes, but you’d forget about it soon after. But in a shared online world, you can use nukes to just cause havoc everywhere and cackle gleefully as you watch them scurry away before the nuke hits.
The quest to get the codes and access to these silos is tough as well, which is fitting for such a fun reward. They’ll usually be guarded by high-level enemies that you and your team will need to work together in order to dispatch.
Everything Fallout 76 Gets Right, and Mistakes that Need Fixing
The Good: Photo Mode Being Used in Interesting Ways
Photo mode is becoming increasingly commonplace in most modern games, so it’s no surprise that it’s found its way into Fallout 76 as well.
As you might expect, the photo mode itself is crammed with cool features to make use of. There are a few filters and frames to choose from, along with other sliders you can tweak in order to get the perfect shot. However, Bethesda also goes the extra mile when it comes to incorporating this function into the game.
All the photos you take with photo mode are occasionally used as loading screens in Fallout 76, so you can always admire your handiwork when you’re waiting to load into a server or fast travel between locations. This encourages players to use photo mode more often as well, and it’s a great way to share images from your adventures.
Everything Fallout 76 Gets Right, and Mistakes that Need Fixing
The Bad: Bethesda Jank
Let’s face it, there’s jank in every game Bethesda puts out. The company’s been using the same engine for years, and it’s definitely starting to show some wear and tear. During the beta period, Fallout 76 suffered from so many issues, including a ludicrous PC bug that caused the entire game to be deleted from players’ systems. There were also issues on PC where players could speed hack their way through the game.
Most of these issues have been resolved now, and Bethesda’s also re-balanced a few things in the game. However, Fallout 76 continues to lack a sense of polish that you’d typically expect from a major developer. When playing with friends, sometimes you might see an enemy that doesn’t appear for your friend or vice versa, and one of you will be left to deal with an invisible foe. There are still frame rate hitches on the console versions, and the occasional game freezes and crashes that you’ll have to deal with across all platforms.
Everything Fallout 76 Gets Right, and Mistakes that Need Fixing
The Bad: Fallout’s Gameplay Style Doesn’t Mesh Well with Multiplayer
As a whole, the Fallout series suffers from some pretty dated mechanics, and all of those flaws are exacerbated when put into a multiplayer environment. For starters, VATS is now a weird auto-aim program that you can use against both players and PvE enemies. If you’re not using VATS, you’ll be shooting and punching enemies instead. The Fallout series isn’t exactly known for its super smooth gunplay, and if you’ve got a bad internet connection, it’s going to feel worse in Fallout 76.
The bigger problem, though, is the fact that Fallout 76’s story suffers greatly from the online nature of the game. There are no human NPCs in the game, no dialogue options to explore, and these make the game feel way emptier than they should be. It’s a damn shame, especially considering how pretty the game looks. Having to glean bits of the story through holotapes is a huge bummer, and single-player fans will definitely be disappointed.
There are other annoying things about the game as well, such as how slow and clunky the Pip-Boy menu is. Previous Fallout games could get away with this to some extent, but in Fallout 76 where you’re not allowed to pause your game, it can be very frustrating to sift through these slow ugly menus while you’re getting pelted with bullets from every direction.
Everything Fallout 76 Gets Right, and Mistakes that Need Fixing
The Bad: Both PvP and PvE are Bland
Alright, so maybe the weak single-player story isn’t such a big deal. Maybe Bethesda chose to sacrifice the single-player aspect so they could focus on making a truly great multiplayer game. Unfortunately, that’s not the case either.
The PvE side of things is bland and boring, and the PvP elements aren’t exactly great either. For starters, if you want to attack another player, you’ll have to hit them, then wait for them to hit you back before both of you can start dealing actual damage to each other. This means that both parties need to consent to engaging in PvP before PvP can actually happen. If they don’t attack you back, you could continue trying to hack away at them, but it’ll probably take you an hour to even get them down to critical health. It’s ridiculous.
This takes away any tension you might’ve initially had when stepping out into the wasteland for the first time. Sure, other players could attack your base, but all you have to do is log out of the game or change servers to dodge the attack. Fallout 76 does feature a radio station that lets PvP-centric players hunt each other down, but the fact that it’s so easy for people to dodge that aspect of the game makes it boring.
Without fully committing to either PvE or PvP, you’re left with a shell of a game that doesn’t manage to excel at anything.
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