As a big Fallout fan, MeinMMO author Andreas Bertits eagerly anticipated the release of Fallout 76. Here is what he thinks after the first few days.
Can Fallout 76 really join the post-apocalyptic RPG series after Bethesda’s bold promises? It seems it will be difficult after the harsh criticism at release.
A fan is waiting for “Fallout Online”
A fan since day one: I got into the Fallout series in 1997, but I had been following the game’s development even before, when it was still planned to be released as a computer game based on the pen-and-paper RPG G.U.R.P.S.
Even back then, I was fascinated by the game world, which brought fresh air into the RPG genre with its dark humor and its post-apocalyptic setting reminiscent of the 1950s. Accordingly, I loved part 2, which was released just a year later, in 1998. However, I found it harder to engage with Fallout Tactics.
When Bethesda showcased Fallout 3 in 2007 and opted for a first-person perspective, I was skeptical. Could it work? Without turn-based combat? And how it worked! Accordingly, I could hardly wait for the release of Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4.
New Vegas remains the highlight of the series for me to this day. Who is my friend, who betrays me? An important reason that Fallout: New Vegas is my favorite in the series is the interesting NPCs that bring the world to life and whose diverse personalities I wanted to get to know. And that’s exactly why my current opinion of Fallout 76 is what it is, as I will describe shortly.
Fallout as an online game? Finally! First of all, I must say that I’ve been thinking about a “Fallout Online” for a long time.
- What if you could explore the wasteland together with friends?
- What could a “Fallout Online” look like?
- Does a classic MMORPG make sense in this scenario?
From the very beginning, I was aware that a “Fallout Online” would have to be different from what one knows from traditional MMORPGs. Thousands of players acting in a virtually non-existent civilization? I couldn’t imagine that. For me, there should be a sense that the world needed to be rebuilt, that there were few people, and that dangers lurked everywhere. Moreover, I thought that Bethesda would never compete with itself over The Elder Scrolls Online.
I wrote an article some time ago about how I envisioned a “Fallout Online”. Accordingly, I was very curious what Bethesda would ultimately make of the project.
A perspective from two angles
Does Fallout 76 work for me from the perspective of the single-player series? When Bethesda announced Fallout 76 and explained that the online game would still be enjoyable for fans of the single-player titles despite the lack of NPCs, I could already hear alarm bells ringing in my head. One of the most important and coolest aspects of the game was to be omitted? I was skeptical.
Now I’ve been playing Fallout 76 since its release on November 13 and I’ve also looked at the title from this exact perspective. The premise that all NPCs are dead is fundamentally interesting. However, it doesn’t work for me in the long run.
- Am I supposed to join factions and complete their admission tests when there’s no one left who belongs to those factions?
- I constantly search for new tape recordings, which feels like typical fetch quests.
- I’m sent to find NPCs I already know are dead.
- The world feels terribly empty without NPCs.
- The search for the overseer feels like I’ve got a carrot in front of my nose. I’m being led on, but never able to bite.
In my opinion, the absence of NPCs would work very well for a city. Why are all the inhabitants of the city dead? Unraveling that mystery through tape recordings would be exciting. However, this kind of story and narrative structure can’t carry a whole game. At least not for me.
Over time, having to listen to the next tape recording feels too repetitive. The outcomes of most quests are too obvious. Many tasks, like joining factions that no longer exist, seem utterly pointless. I constantly ask myself why I’m doing all this? The feeling of having accomplished something and having helped NPCs is completely missing.
Now one might say that there are some NPCs in the form of robots. However, they just recite their lines, and I can’t ask them anything. I can’t decide what I want to say. This causes Fallout 76 to lose an incredibly important aspect compared to its predecessors, which made the games so interesting and exciting: getting to know NPCs and engaging in dialogues.
Not everyone may be bothered by the absence of NPCs. Some may even find it good, which is completely fine. Tastes are indeed different. However, for me, this is an extremely big downside that illustrates why many fans of the single-player games aren’t having as much fun with Fallout and why I have stopped following the story.
Does Fallout 76 work for me from the perspective of an online player? Fallout 76 is an online game. You can tell that at every turn. Completing events in a group is incredibly fun. Proceeding together, strategizing and possibly even involving a player not in the group is a great multiplayer experience.
Simply going out with others and maybe finding an old shack where a fight awaits is enjoyable. Fallout 76 thrives on these situations. Even building bases together with friends – as much as Bethesda still needs to improve upon it – is fun. Just like launching nuclear bombs and then searching for cool items in the irradiated area. Here, Fallout 76 shines and demonstrates that the series can also work as an online game.
Only the entire “single-player approach”, with the tape recordings, the dead NPCs, the story, and the quests feels entirely contrived. As if it was never planned, and the developers had hastily decided to include something for this group out of fear of the wrath of single-player fans. For me, this doesn’t work. It pulls me out of the online game and reveals a side of Fallout 76 that doesn’t fit.
Opinion on Fallout 76
How do I find Fallout 76 now? In my opinion, Bethesda made a big mistake: they shouldn’t have marketed Fallout 76 as a game for single-player fans, because it isn’t. This becomes clear quite early on. At the latest after the tenth tape recording you listen to, yet another computer you scour, and the x-th corpse you need to find, you realize that the story aspect of the game becomes repetitive. The missions and the story simply cannot compare to those of the single-player Fallouts.
Some online game fans may see the quests and the story as a nice addition, but I’ve often noticed while playing that many players, regardless of their level, only spend a few seconds at a computer terminal in the game. This time is never enough to read all the entries and truly follow the story. It gives the impression that many players aren’t really interested in this aspect of Fallout 76.
As an online game, where you complete events together with friends, explore the world, build a base, and maybe engage in role-playing, Fallout 76 works quite well. Is it perfect? No. Especially not from a technical perspective. But it is certainly fun as “Fallout Online”. Only single-player fans do not find what they are looking for here, in my opinion. And Bethesda should have been clearer in their marketing about this.
