The survival MMO Fallout 76 has now been released on Steam and received a major expansion with “Wastelanders.” Once again, the game is causing a stir, but this time it has mostly positive reviews on Steam. What is it about Fallout 76 that excites people? It is the “franchise trap,” says our author Schuhmann.
Here’s the situation with the Steam reviews: Fallout 76 has been around since 2018, but it has only now been released on Steam with the Wastelanders update:
- Currently, it has 1339 reviews, of which 73% are positive – that is a “mostly positive rating”
But especially the negative reviews highlight the interesting crux of Fallout 76.
Fallout 76 still stands in the shadow of Fallout 4
This is what some Steam reviews criticize: If you go through the Steam reviews for Fallout 76, you will find a word in some negative reviews: “Fallout 4.”
It is stated:
- People wished for a “Fallout 4 multiplayer,” but got Fallout 76 instead
- A Steam reviewer is disappointed because Fallout 76 is not an “open world” game like Fallout 4.
- Wastelanders, another hoped, should bring the epic depth of Fallout 4, but now only brought “typical MMO” quests.
In short: A criticism from players of Fallout 76 is that it is an MMO and not a single-player RPG.
Bethesda is stuck in the “franchise trap” with Fallout 76:
- The fans of the series want a successor to Fallout 4 or a “multiplayer mode”
- The fans have clear expectations for a game in their series: They want to find exactly the strengths that they loved in previous titles
- Bethesda wants to develop an online game to monetize it in the long term. Because no matter how much success Fallout 4 or Skyrim had, these games only make money with releases – an MMO or a “games-as-a-service” title is a secure source of income over the years
Here’s why this is important: The Fallout RPG series is something of a sanctuary for role-players on PC. The series has been around since 1997: It has always impressed with an extraordinary scenario, dry humor, and its own aesthetics.
The “Bethesda of old” is considered alongside the “BioWare of old” as “the RPG forge” for PC.
Both have tried in recent years to excite their existing fans for new multiplayer online projects and have made efforts to communicate that as well as possible. But there have been setbacks.
For fans of Bethesda, The Elder Scrolls Online in 2014 from the sister studio ZOS was a heavy blow. Instead of a Skyrim successor, an MMORPG came. The second disappointment for the single-player fans came with Fallout 76 instead of Fallout 5.
This put Fallout 76 in a difficult situation from the very beginning: Just as it had put ESO in a difficult situation back in 2014. Some people wanted to see the games fail, and both online games provided enough fodder for criticism with mixed release versions:
- There were technical problems
- Content deficiencies
- The typical weaknesses of MMOs that annoy single-player fans the most, like: monotonous quests, unnecessary side missions, grind, and weak NPCs. Fallout 76 even completely eliminated NPCs.
And no matter how such games are communicated beforehand: Ultimately, single-player fans always feel somewhat deceived. Because even the name “The Elder Scrolls” or “Fallout” suggests them a different gaming experience than what they then encounter.
This was Bethesda’s reaction: To the criticism of ESO 2014, the developers ultimately reacted as follows:
- Zenimax Online Studios, a sister studio of Bethesda, brought together some of the core gamers in the fall of 2014 for a meeting, laid the cards on the table and discussed what needs to be done
- They consistently directed the game over the years towards “Skyrim Online” – they changed the payment model from subscription to buy-to-play, reworked the endgame, removed useless limits and restrictions from the game, focused on story-heavy expansions, and simply brought much more content
To the criticism of Fallout 76, Bethesda ultimately reacted similarly:
- Here too, there was talk of “meetings with core gamers” to address the issues. This apparently happened back in 2019 before the “Nuclear Winter” update
- With Wastelanders, the game is now more clearly moving towards a “Fallout 4 multiplayer” than before
- Even the NPCs have now arrived
That this method has had some initial success can be seen in the positive Steam reviews. The mood around the game seems to have improved somewhat.
It is clear: Bethesda will find it hard to reach hardcore fans of single-player RPGs. However, they can find a compromise. Ultimately, time and consistent work on the game will help to escape the comparison with Fallout 4, where Fallout 76 can only lose.
And perhaps in a few years, Fallout 76 will be viewed like ESO: It will be seen as a standalone game that has its strengths and weaknesses, but is no longer trapped in this “This is not a single-player RPG” franchise trap.
A report on how Fallout 76 plays and has changed with Wastelanders can be read here.
