Fallout 76

Today I want to look at Fallout 76, Bethesda’s next instalment in the Fallout series and the first multiplayer focused Fallout game in the franchise. This review won’t be as long as normal as I covered a lot of the gameplay in the BETA before its initial release (A link of which is here: Fallout 76 (BETA) First Impression ) Fallout 76 released on November 14^th 2018 and is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

tl;dr – rating: 7/10

Positives:

+ Complete freedom in a huge open world.

+ Anti-Griefing mechanics make soloing safe

+ Huge amount of quests and side stories

+ Friendly online community

+ Superb Multiplayer and can finally explore a Fallout with friends

Negatives:

— Huge 50GB update

— Occasional disconnections

— Level-locked weapons and perks

So as I said above I’ve already covered a broad overview in my BETA coverage so this review will look to go into further detail about some of the finer points that the game has to offer. Before this though I have to say that Bethesda’s execution of the game was quite poor in the opening launch week. The pre-launch BETA’s were mostly at awkward times for most people who work 9-5 jobs, meaning not a lot of people could join them. On top of that they were all closed BETA’s meaning you had to be given an invitation code or pre-order the game to get access. Even if you did have a BETA code the download was over 50GB which for most people without a high grade internet speed meant that the download would take a day or two at least. To make matters worse the game had a huge 50GB update in its launch week that meant I couldn’t review the game when I wanted to as I hadn’t played it enough at the time.

However, in spite of all this the actual gameplay is very engaging, true Bethesda hadn’t had the smoothest launch but they had, after all these years, finally given us a Fallout game with multiplayer, something fans of the series had been asking for since Fallout 3. The idea behind Fallout 76 is that every (living) human you meet in the post-apocalyptic wasteland is another player, meaning your all sharing the experience together. That’s not to say there aren’t traders and NPC’s in the game but just means there aren’t any human ones. Meeting another human then, another player, is exciting and there’s always a sense of ‘will they, won’t they’ when it comes to conflict. For most parts though the community for the game is incredible and it’s partly down to the anti-grief system Bethesda have put into play.

To stop player griefing (which is to say, stop a player from killing another player over and over again) Bethesda have made it so that if a player shoots or damages another player, the player receiving the damage will lose hardly any health whatsoever. This means players have to go to great lengths to do any sort of notable damage to other players and so it loses appeal. However, if the player receiving the damage returns fire or hits back then all damage resistance is turned off and players will both do full damage and receive full health loss against each other (meaning people who want to actively participate in player vs player combat can do so).

One of the best things about Fallout 76 is the total and complete freedom to do whatever you want. This is extremely rare in games nowadays and even more so in games with huge open worlds like Fallout 76. Once you leave Vault 76 the game has advised areas depending on your characters level as well as advised questlines to do but in truth there is nothing stopping you from making a bee-line straight towards the furthest corner of the map. It will be incredibly difficult to make it there due to level differences with the enemies but it’s not impossible. The world itself, on top of being enormous, is well designed and even has a completely fleshed out weather system that includes gorgeous sunny days and radiation-inducing nuclear storms!

There are a few other impressive mechanics too. Players (like in past Fallout games) have an inventory which you can fill up with weapons, armour, teddy bear collections and hundreds of other knickknacks on your post-apocalyptic adventure. Pick up enough items though and your carry capacity will be reached, each item has weight and if you exceed your characters weight limit you’ll become over-encumbered. In Fallout 76 when you become over-encumbered you’ll lose the ability to sprint for starters, moving at normal speed will also use up your AP (Action Points) which you use to activate VATS and attack amongst other things, so being over-encumbered has many negative effects. Some of you might be thinking you could just use Fallout 76’s fast travel system to teleport back to your base and dump all your clutter, but once over-encumbered you can no longer fast travel until your inventory is back within the weight limit of your carry capacity.

Speaking of the fast travel system, it allows you to revisit any previously discovered location and teleports you there almost instantly (there’s a loading screen) but at the cost of caps (Fallout 76’s world currency) the further you want to fast travel the more caps it costs, with the one exception of your base camp/C.A.M.P which you can always fast travel to for free. As I mentioned in the BETA coverage, the C.A.M.P allows you to build a base. I didn’t realise just how many option you have until I got the chance to play the full game more. The base building has tonnes of tabs that contain things such as power generators which can be used to power electrical machinery, water pumps to provide a consistent water supply, crafting stations and item storage and even base defences like traps and turrets to fend off against the hordes of mutated creatures and even unfriendly players. You can even make a bed which your character can rest in to restore health and even give bonuses to experience points. One of the most interesting things is that you can make a door and even apply a lock to it which means unskilled players wouldn’t be able to lockpick their way into your safe haven. I do wish that they had kept the robot workshop from Fallout 4’s first add-on, which allowed you to make robot companions at your base. But I think due to the multiplayer aspect of the game having any companions (robotic or otherwise) would cause terrible balancing issues and so there are no companions in the game. Instead you can team up with other players, which is the main focus of the game anyway.

There are some tiny details that I still found very interesting though. Some of the songs on the radio return from past titles such as Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4. One such nostalgia-rich song: The Ink Spots “I don’t want to set the world on fire” always warmed my heart whether it was whilst tinkering with my weapons or gunning down hordes of hideously mutated bugs, all that was missing was good ol’ Three Dog. Another thing is that the Pip-boy has a built in light that you can use to illuminate the area around your character (though beware this makes you easier to spot by enemies). As I was playing on PS4 however I was delighted to find that the light bar on my controller lit up in a charismatic bright green whenever I turned it on. Sometimes it’s just the simple things but I thought that little detail was brilliant.

I did find my share of small annoyances though. After battling my way to the centre of a radioactive-zombie infested mineshaft and looting the big crate at the bottom I was delighted to find a grenade launcher along with a handful of grenades to shoot from it. Unfortunately the weapon is locked for me until my character reaches a high enough level to use it, which in my opinion isn’t very fair and feels very strange when you contrast it to the extremely open free-roaming the world of Fallout 76 has to offer. Another level restriction I found was on certain perks you can apply to your character. The perks I wanted (after reading through the guidebook) I found were only available after level 25, at the time I was only level 12. Again this felt like a huge clash against the freedom the game normally promotes, especially since I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, which was to unlock the next line of base defence turrets (which requires a certain perk). So I decided I would just have to try and level my character up, though there was one last nasty surprise the game held in store for me…

Disconnecting. So I’ve played a fair few hours of the game now and I can’t say it happens consistently but every now and again, normally after I’ve just found a rare weapon or moved something in my base, the game will disconnect from the server and kick me back to the main menu. It only means losing a few minutes progress but it’s very annoying when it happens. At the time of writing though I will say it hasn’t happened in a while so perhaps Bethesda is doing their best to remedy this.

To bring this review to a close then. Fallout 76 has some absolutely amazing gameplay in a rich and varied world. The game has so many quests to do and secrets to reveal and to be able to do it all with friends, whether from the real world or new friends made conquering the nuclear wastes, makes the game even better. True the game has had a rocky start but I feel it’s only getting better from here on out. If you’re looking for a game to put some hours into, or are just a fan of the Fallout series in general, there is no better game to adventure into, and no gaming community I’d rather adventure with, than Fallout 76.

BcT Review Rating: 7/10

Reviewed on the Playstation 4

Thanks again for reading!