On November 14, Fallout 76 was released. Our authors Benedict and Tarek had almost two weeks to play the first Fallout with multiplayer themselves and make their own impressions. They don’t agree.
The release of Fallout 76 was quite controversial. While the game was bombarded with negative ratings on Metacritic in the first days, the readers of MeinMMO are more lenient. You can read how Fallout 76 performs in our community in the detailed test.
Our authors Benedict and Tarek were also able to play Fallout 76 intensively themselves. What they think of the game and who might like it, you can find out here in this review.
What is Fallout 76?
Is it a “real” Fallout? Fallout 76 is an online game that mixes many different elements:
- RPG features: There is a comprehensive skill and perk system and detailed character creation.
- Survival: In addition to hunger and thirst, you have to deal with diseases, mutations, and radiation. To combat these, there is food and chems.
- Building: With the C.A.M.P., you can establish or move a camp almost anywhere . You can build your own home with the numerous materials. The system has been adopted and expanded from Fallout 4.
- Crafting: You can build and modify weapons and equipment. You will find blueprints and mods throughout the game world. By disassembling equipment, you can learn to craft some modifications yourself. However, to craft everything, you must first unlock corresponding ranks with perks.
- Quests and story: There are quests and a main story in Fallout 76 that you can follow. But unlike in previous Fallout titles, human NPCs are not among the quest givers. The only living people in the game are the players themselves.
- PvP: You can also fight against other players. However, this is subject to some restrictions. If you shoot at a person, they initially take only minor damage. The player must fire back before the fight can really begin. Through the radio, you can specifically search for other PvP players.
As the first Fallout with multiplayer, players can roam the wasteland together with friends. A group can consist of up to four players. A total of a maximum of 24 players are on a map. This makes it difficult to compare to classic single-player titles.
Fallout 76 takes a lot of familiar elements like the typical Fallout humor, the classic gameplay, and even the look of Fallout 4. This makes it feel familiar right away. Nevertheless, elements like multiplayer, survival, and PvP turn it into a different kind of game.
For us as Fallout fans, it was clear early on that we would take a look at the game one way or another.
What Tarek thinks of Fallout 76
What I like: Playing Fallout with friends is simply fun. Roaming the huge game world of Fallout 76 with buddies always creates new moments. You have more variety and can engage in all sorts of shenanigans, or simply complete quests and trade equipment. That’s what I envisioned.
Regardless of the graphics, I also like the game world very much. There is always something to discover. Bethesda has beautifully realized the virtual version of West Virginia and done a lot to give each location its own atmosphere. Whether you are wandering in the Toxic Valley or in the Cranberry Bog, each area has its own flair.
The selection of perk cards is huge, and you look forward to every level-up. You can really put a character together as you like, both visually and in terms of gameplay.
What bothers me: Fallout 76 doesn’t know what it wants to be. You can tell by the way it tells its story. In my impressions from the beta, I praised the environmental storytelling. It can be a great thing, and Bethesda has partly mastered it.
But in combination with multiplayer, it doesn’t seem to work properly to me. It feels like a solo experience has been stitched onto an online game, or vice versa.
Technically, Fallout 76 is in a questionable state. Frame rate drops are a constant companion. They often occur at the most annoying moments, such as when surrounded by hordes of enemies. Additionally, aiming on consoles is made more difficult.
All other bugs and glitches I encountered were rather insignificant and didn’t really annoy me. However, there are several major issues overall, and I expect significantly more effort from developers for a full-price title.
What I would wish for: Apart from fixing technical issues, Fallout 76 needs some improvements:
- Loadouts to quickly switch between different builds. Especially since they plan to introduce the resetting of special points in the future.
- Let us build camps together (properly)! You should be able to pool your resources. Ideally, camps would remain in the game world permanently, and you could play on a fixed server.
- PvP needs a serious overhaul. Typically, a fight with players escalates into a duel of “who has more Stimpaks”.
- Human NPCs could be reintroduced later through DLC expansions. Real factions and dialogues would significantly enhance Fallout 76.
I really hope that Bethesda will get it together and address the many problems. Because the potential for a good game is there. Currently, Fallout 76 is more like early access than a full-price title.
What Benedict thinks of Fallout 76
What I like: I find the quest design and the world of Fallout 76 really well done. A world where no one survived and I only learn what happened through partially incomplete records captures the feel of a world after the atomic war very well.
The quests are varied and the events on the map encourage team play by automatically grouping you with other players. For that, there’s also good loot from bosses that encourages replayability.
Especially, I find the community great. Although I like to play PvP myself, I know how annoying that can be in survival games. However, players in Fallout 76 are friendly and helpful in almost all cases. If you urgently need help, you can almost be sure that someone will support you quickly.
What I don’t like: Right now, the only thing that bothers me is that there are still many bugs in the game that make playing somewhat tedious and in some cases almost unplayable. While there are also funny errors, even those can lead to issues like frame rate drops.
On PC, I frequently experience crashes, although relatively few players report these kinds of problems. This is particularly annoying when I drop out in the middle of a long quest and have to do everything again.
Additionally, some enemies have obvious glitches. At least I don’t believe that flame beasts shouldn’t stop firing, making them neither visible nor targetable. Killing them is nearly impossible and consumes massive amounts of ammunition and Stimpaks.
What I would wish for: Aside from obvious bug fixes, there are a few gameplay elements that would make the game better for me:
- Improved crafting with higher limits for building and storage
- Better overview in the inventory
- Improved UI for building and modifying equipment
At least some of these problems are being addressed by Bethesda with the upcoming patches for Fallout 76. Fundamentally, Fallout 76 is a lot of fun for me, and I see the potential for it to become one of my absolute favorite games.
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