Fallout 76 Is Sadly Far From Almost Heaven

Here we are finally with a belated Fallout 76 review which I have to say has been a lot more difficult to write than normal. You might say “But.. Luis!?!.. You *love* Fallout! You own every game that has ever been in the franchise including the precursor Wasteland DOS game and you ordered the tabletop game! How can *you* write a review without being biased!?!” Well really it comes down to two very important things: 1.) My editor would beat me with a hose if I tried to insert some heavy bias [Ed Note: Nerd Caliber does not condone violence as a way to reinforce journalistic integrity. -rhb] and 2.) if you love something that much then you should always make a strong effort to love it but also be critical enough to judge it’s flaws. So let’s jump right into this article and I’ll lay out my feelings and you digest it and let me know what you think.

Fallout 76 is a game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and its newest location, Austin, formerly BattleCry Studios. Using an upgraded version of the Creation Engine that had been used in Fallout 4, Fallout 76 is set a mere twenty five years after the nuclear holocaust that wiped most of the life from the Earth. “Reclamation Day” is the day that you, the vault dweller locked away deep in an underground city vault, rise to the surface of West Virginia and take back the new world from the ashes of the old.

This time however it’s not just you walking the world and trying to right the wrongs but you and 24 other people all rushing out with reckless abandon to see the world and plant your flag in it. Conceptually it ties Fallout 4’s settlement plans with a more robust world meant to be tamed by the players themselves. Out in the dying world there remain factions fighting over it’s carcass with their own varied ideas of how to build the new world. Old factions like the Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave and newer factions like the Responders and Free States vie for control over the new world while dealing with a looming threat of a new(er) enemy faction (if you want to think of them that way) of creatures called “Scorched” that have overrun the land.

The Overseer, the de facto leader of your vault, is on her own quest and one of the main plots revolves around following her footsteps a la Fallout 3’s “dad” plot. Littered around the trail of her footsteps are stories of those who died doing various things in the world. Holotapes, notes and computer entries exist to nourish the hungry lore hunter who wants to learn more about what happened in the wilds of Appalachia. You and three other friends can join together to work as a team to tackle the challenges and quests that are thrown at them.

Location, location, location
Bethesda has always been a stellar environmental storyteller and that hasn’t changed in Fallout: 76. The world teems with story and manages to keep you relatively engaged on the quests it provides. Bethesda says that Fallout: 76 is four times the size of Fallout 4’s world and it shows as you travel about doing what you need to do to continue the story. Enough locations dot the landscape that any direction you turn you can see something on the horizon that calls to you. New locations filled with loot, scrap and things that could help you on your path. While you explore, endless super mutants, scorched, mutated wildlife, ghouls and other creatures will test your mettle.

My friends and I have been logging in every night to build our houses, mine the dead towns and cities for scrap, money and supplies. Our Discord channel is lively with discussions about new items that vendors have, locations where certain items spawn to help facilitate our need to repair and mod our weapons and armor. One time we all ran into an empty house as a massive winged bat creature dove down and defecated acidic poop all over the house we hid in before turning around to sonic attack us. Other times we explored deep into a mine that burned around us and echoed with the screams of monsters looking to end our quest prematurely. Any time we logged in, we found ourselves excitedly talking about the latest lore, the latest monster or quest that we’ve completed. This is where Fallout 76 shines in terms of gameplay and the communal nature of the world and it’s needs. Between gorgeous looking landscapes, open quests that let anyone assist and strong lore content, this game delivers on those promises.

Bugs abound in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Now that you’ve heard me talk glowingly about the things I enjoyed, let’s get down to the real reason why you’ve read through all of my fluff so far. The lack of polish on this game is clear from beta to launch. The world in all it’s sharp beauty has areas that just look bland and uninteresting and for a rural place it is so empty that even animals seem to only exist on the sides. There is a lore reason for the lack of animals and that brings me to my next issue — the world feels so empty. Not just the lack of real ambiance but also just a general emptiness that really bangs home the idea. The lack of human npc’s might have been a bad angle to use. With the amount of factions in the game and their varied and involved story lines, just showing up at the end of a genocide/massacre or murder becomes old and depressing.

These harrowing holotapes/terminal entries and notes of people who perished before your arrival leave you wanting want more in terms of interaction. Sure there exists robots to talk to, super mutants but it doesn’t feel the same as having settlers, raiders and the like to engage with. The idea of players creating the interactions is a fun idea but the real mechanics to facilitate it just doesn’t exist. The trade system is incredibly basic and nothing else really exists to allow you to open places like stores and the like. The idea of community in the wasteland is boiled down to possibly running into a player and maybe engaging with them on some level. If you don’t have friends or prefer to play alone then Appalachia will be an empty and lonely place.

Worse than that are the bugs, and I don’t mean the honey beast. I mean graphical bugs that cause your frame rate to fluctuate rapidly and your screen to stutter. Glitches like building your homestead only for it to not be placeable in most of the areas on the map because the terrain doesn’t allow it. Players have written articles on how to build a house that won’t have this conflict glitch but it shouldn’t be up to the players to develop ways to combat that glitch especially when the developers promise that function to be an important part of the game mechanic. Other glitches include quests that don’t register as complete, A.I. that freezes and stops working and sometimes glitches beneath the world and forcing the player to restart the quest. Glitches where you spawn at your home and sometimes clip right through it or (as in my case) fall from a great height and almost die from the fall. The issue with the stash limitations alone is a frustrating thing in a game where you’re told to collect scrap but can’t store it properly.

I have run into different glitches like my V.A.T.S. not working or making it so my gun only worked in V.A.T.S. or the damage not calculating right so creatures absorb more damage than they should be able to. There is a literal mountain of glitches that the game has and some of them are so frustrating that it makes you want to put down the game and walk away. We’re told by Bethesda to expect glitches as this is new territory for them but that only buys them so much in terms of leeway. A lot of these issues like the stash limit should have been resolved before the game came to market.

I give Fallout 76 is a 5/10 based on the numerous issues I’ve had since before launch, coupled with everything I’ve experienced in the game. It’s definitely a fun game to roam around in and explore with friends. Deep beneath the glitches, bugs and empty space, I can sense the promise Bethesda has made and the structures in place for future expansion of content and story. I’d be remiss if I rated it higher as all those hopes and promises are not present in the now. I can’t in good faith, rate a game higher than five based on the potential for growth and content. If you can get Fallout 76 on a discount (like Black Friday/ Cyber Monday) then I recommend it but otherwise I’d wait a few months until more content and fixes come out to make the game out to be worth more than what it is right now. As a die hard Fallout fan this has been a super hard review to write. The fan in me wants to give it a 10/10 rating but the journalist in me refuses to allow that. I hope that Bethesda works diligently to make this game a greater experience for me and everyone else.

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YOUR VOICE

Have you played Fallout 76? If so, let us know what you think in the comments below![/box_dark]