The Fallout series, and even Bethesda as a whole, tends to have a bit of a cult following. Much of the criticism the series has received in the past about bugs, glitches, and the like has fallen on deaf ears to those within that Bethesda “cult” because they tend to believe that when you create the kind of ambitious open worlds that Bethesda does with both the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series, you’re going to experience a few issues. How do I know this? Maybe it’s because I’ve heard some players talking… or maybe it’s because I still have the sweet sweet taste of Bethesda cult kool-aid on my lips. Ahem… anyways, Fallout 76 has even divided that group of die-hards. Some are excited to trek into this brave new frontier while others are clamoring for the tried and true formula that made the series a success in the first place.
Well, like it or not, ready or not, here Fallout 76 comes. I spent some hands on time with the Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. (Break-It Early Test Application), and the following supremely well-articulated thoughts will cover my major takeaways from the experience…
It was good.
There you have it, folks. I hope you enjoyed my preview of Fallout… I’m being told I need to go into more detail. Well, here we go, ladies and gentlemen. More detail!
It Still Feels Like a Fallout Game
There has been a lot of discussion about what this game is actually going to be. Is it a survival game? Will it have MMO tendencies? Well, the first thing I noticed was that it felt very much like all the other single player Fallout games, at least at the beginning. You wake up in a vault and through careful exploration, you learn more about your environment and your purpose. This is pretty standard when it comes to the series. My first instinct was to go out into the world and explore as quickly as possible, but I wanted to make sure I was adequately prepared. So, between character creation, which is almost identical to Fallout 4, and scouring the vault for items and information, it probably took me about 45 minutes to actually exit the vault. While this is kind of funny and seems to border on being obsessive compulsive, I should point out that there are things you want to discover, both tidbits about the story and items to help you along your way, before you leave the vault. You don’t have to spend 45 minutes doing it, but if you do… good on you.
Once you leave the vault, there is a massive area to explore. One thing that is conspicuously absent from this world is NPCs that you can speak with, trade with, and, if you’re a really cold son of a bitch, kill. This makes sense in terms of the lore considering not a lot of time has passed since the bombs fell, so not a lot of settlements would have popped up by this time. However, just because there aren’t any NPCs to speak with, that doesn’t mean that you don’t feel the presence of other characters, alive or dead. You will discover holotapes lying around the world, sometimes next to bodies, that will tell you about a character, usually the dead body the holotape was found next to. I only got the chance to play for 4 hours like everyone else, and I ran into a plethora of these, so I think this will help make the world seem a little more populated… even if the people are dead. It makes sense if you don’t think about it.
How the War Has Changed
In addition to the lack of NPCs, there were a few other things about Fallout 76 that felt different than previous installments of the series. The first and most obvious change? You guessed it. Other players were running around near me. I came across a lot of them during my time in post-apocalyptic Appalachia, and the tension was palpable. It was reminiscent of the feeling one would get when exploring the dark zone in Tom Clancy’s The Division. When you run into someone, there’s always a bit of a standoff at first. You know that you could all help each other, but you also know that you have the ability to kill one another as well. So, I would usually signal my peaceful intent by holstering my weapon and throwing a friendly emote their way. This was usually reciprocated and then we would go our separate ways or help one another out temporarily. I feel as if this dynamic is going to be one of the driving forces of this game. Just as the dark zone was best part of The Division, in my humble opinion, the interaction between players will make Fallout 76 a lot of fun and ensure that no two sessions are the same.
One of the other changes, which seems like a pretty obvious one to me, is the change to the VATS system. The reason this change had to be coming is that in the single player Fallout games, VATS usually either slowed down time or stopped it completely. To do this in an online world, Bethesda would have either had to slow down the entire server every time one of the players entered VATS mode or they would have had to learn how to change the way time is experienced by different individuals… which is a feat you wouldn’t expect to be achieved by a video game company. Instead of achieving this miracle of modern science, VATS has basically become a way to lock on to an enemy and perhaps target a specific body part. I found this to be an adequate use of the system.
Last but not least, in Fallout 76, you must eat and drink to survive. This is a little problematic because most food and beverages you come across will be irradiated; therefore, you must be able to find a balance between staying fed and hydrated and not becoming a ghoul. If you’ve switched the difficulty in Fallout 4 to Survival, then you are plenty prepared for this. You can cook most food you get at a campfire to reduce the amount of radiation you are taking in by eating it. Just like real life.
It is Visually Impressive
Pretty much all of the previous Fallout games, with the exception of a few areas here and there, have taken place in a barren, irradiated wasteland. Fallout 76 takes place in West Virginia shortly after the bombs fell. Since there is nothing in West Virginia worth targeting, tactically speaking, the bombs fell far enough away that we as players are able to be treated to the beautiful flora and two-headed fauna that makes West Virginia wild and wonderful. I feel I should mention that in real life most of the wildlife only have one head, but in the game, you’ll find plenty with two.
The detail that Bethesda put into creating this area will not be fully appreciated by every single player of this game, but I can tell you 1.8 million potential players who will definitely appreciate this effort: residents of West Virginia. That’s right. Cards on the table… I’m a lifelong resident of WV, and that fact enhanced my exploration experience to a massive degree. I imagine residents of the DC Metro and Greater Boston areas probably felt similarly about Bethesda’s previous offerings. Even looking at it objectively, though, I feel like plenty of players have been wanting to see a little more greenery in their Fallout environment. A plethora of mods exist for the previous titles that allow you to have just that, so we know the demand is there.
The Verdict – The Problems Weren’t So Problematic
Due to Bethesda’s reputation for buggy games, warnings from the studio itself, and the fact that they were calling the beta the “break it early test application”, people were sort of expecting a glitchy mess from this early look at Fallout 76. I, like everyone else, only got to play for 4 hours, but I can honestly say nothing that buggy really interrupted my enjoyment of the game. There were frame rate drops now and again, but it wasn’t anything catastrophic.
Another concern people had about an online Fallout game was griefing. I ran into a lot of players during my time playing the game, and I never saw one player acting hostile towards another player. Now, I’m not naive, and I realize that is going to change as people begin to figure out competitive advantages against their fellow Vault 76 dwellers, but I also think you’ll find plenty of cooperation as well. For every player who goes through the Appalachian wasteland looking for players to grief, there will be another player who fancies himself/herself a white hat wearing bounty hunter who will go after him/her. So, I think it will balance out pretty well.
When you look around the internet, you see a lot of complaints about Fallout 76 from people who hadn’t even gotten a look at the game. I, on the other hand, was actually pleasantly surprised by just about everything I saw during my time with the game. It felt like Fallout with your buddies, which may very well be the proverbial dream. I have concerns about the longevity of the game, but it will take some time before we figure out whether or not that’s going to be a problem.
