The good devs have continued to improve and keep Fallout 76 going through the years. The vanilla version had a rocky start, but as the years and updates have rolled out, the game has taken shape and has firmly established a foothold in the Fallout series for the foreseeable future.
To further solidify its place in the family, Update 68 arrived on the public test server (PTS) last week and will be arriving tomorrow. The latest update introduced a mode called Infestations. If you’re familiar with games like Destiny 2, then you will easily understand not only why this is an important addition but also how much value it adds to the overall gaming experience. Infestations are random occurrences that activate on the field of play and require the player to go and search for a group of enemies that have infested a location. The events are meant to be difficult, yet rewarding, and very much a group effort to achieve. If you want a game to stick in a multiplayer environment, then events like this are a necessity. They give purpose to playing the game and provide a goal to the team to achieve.
Let’s talk about how Infestations work.
Literally, the Fallout 76 map will alert a player to a location by showing a circled area. Within that circle, somewhere deep in that location, lies a specific spot where a group of enemies has infested. A team must explore the circled area to find the group. Kind of like hunting down a wild animal, except this is a group of animals. The enemies could be a group of people who have settled in, or even Super Mutants that are filled to the brim with defensive measures to make life hell for the player.
Regardless of what type of infestation might be out there, the game makes it difficult for the player to oust said infestation, as it’s not a quick one-and-done, even for the more experienced players. It is packed with a four-star reward at the end of the rainbow, which should tell you how difficult the extraction of the enemies will be. Should the player complete the batshit insane clearing of the area, random legendary gear has a chance to drop, which makes the effort worthwhile. Destiny 2, on its best days with Mars incursions, did this well, and it made exploring an area of its map addictive and rewarding, especially when randoms showed up to help. With Fallout 76, this is more of a group/team effort that is concentrated, difficult, and definitely an uphill battle depending on the player’s character level, but rewarding nonetheless. Before we move on, it should be noted that Raid rewards are still top-tier when it comes to winning an event or scenario, but Infestations will satisfy players with what it delivers upon victory.
Now, getting back to difficulty and character level, the new mode is scaling to the player’s current character level. If you have seasoned veterans on your squad, then this is going to be a veteran-level Infestations match. This means the monsters will be more difficult and will give the player one helluva time. As the devs told us during the PTS preview, come packing because the fight will be an actual horse of a time for those powerful enough to participate in it.
With that said, that doesn’t mean that Infestations isn’t a good entry point for new players or those who left the game and are coming back to see what’s up. As I said above, the difficulty is scaling, which means that some will have easier times than others, but rewards will be easier to obtain with a more difficult leveling system. That will certainly poke and prod players into getting serious with Fallout 76 again. Anyway, the mode was built for everyone, which is a huge plus considering how much fun the mode actually is in the game. No one should be missing this.
On the more nitty-gritty side of the tracks, the new update pops up on 40 unique locations in Appalachia. As stated previously, the infestations are random, so continually refreshing the map and being on the lookout for infestations is part of the fun, as they come and go. The purpose of this mode, as was stated in our preview of this game by the devs, is to keep the map relevant and fresh, and to breathe some new life into a respectfully aging game. Having additional locations where shit goes down and revisiting areas that maybe serve no narrative purpose is a good way to keep the player hooked and engaged with familiar content.
In addition to keeping the game fresh, the live version of the game that launches tomorrow will be more robust than the PTS version of Infestations. There will be a larger variety of incursions on the map that will last far longer than the test server’s version. Infestations on the live server will happen about five at a time and will be far more difficult than what is currently being shown on the PTS.
Anyway, on that fine note, the preview given adds hope that the devs for Fallout 76 are continually finding new ways to keep game content fresh and interesting. Infestations is a wonderful effort in the right direction to keep Fallout 76 going.
