Fallout 76 is an intriguing experiment, devoid of traditional narrative and moral choices, and focusing on pure gameplay. This won't satisfy everyone, but the turnout on the servers indicates that the game is already popular.
Many players liked the aspect of building camps known from the previous part. The only thing missing was sharing your own space with others. So Bethesda decided to offer group play to experience adventures together in the post-war wasteland in the new game.
We play the role of one of the inhabitants of Vault 76, who sets out to explore the post-apocalypse world 25 years after the end of the nuclear war. The whole story is just about following the footsteps of the crypt supervisor who left the shelter ahead of us to carry out a secret mission. With no restrictions on the direction of exploration of West Virginia, we begin the journey and the long process of exploring the wasteland.
Discovering tidbits and secrets is done mainly by reading journals and listening to recordings, because there are no NPCs in Fallout 76 - apart from a few robots. By default, players are the first to populate the new world, so the surface is inhabited mainly by mutants and monsters. All this adds up to one coherent whole - it's a game in which we create the narrative and story ourselves.
Similar to Sea of Thieves, the experience of Fallout 76 is based mainly on interacting with other players and having fun together. The emphasis on a relatively stress-free adventure is so great that even malicious and ruthless users cannot kill us, because they deal very little damage. Only when we decide to return fire, the barrier is removed and we can die. Fortunately, apart from raw materials for construction, we do not permanently lose any equipment items. This does not mean, however, that the game loses the entire survival element.
We constantly have to take care of a number of indicators. We keep an eye on hunger, thirst, overall health, and even the load that may limit our ability to sprint. Eating stale food leads to radiation and lowers parameters, the effects of which have been slightly modified. Currently, in addition to raising a specific statistic, we gain access to advantages in the form of collectible cards that we attach to a given statistic. We can change perk cards at any time to adapt to the needs of the team. This solution also works for loners, because some cards strengthen us when we play alone.
The axis of the game is discovering subsequent locations on your own, completing missions that activate automatically after entering a specific area, shooting omnipresent enemies and collecting raw materials needed to build your own fortifications. We collect practically everything, because even cans, wires and other garbage are a valuable source of resources that we use to create items and all parts of our own base - this time we can place it anywhere.
There is quite a lot of equipment, and each weapon can be modified, improved and repaired. This last one is crucial. As soon as the durability of the weapon drops to zero, it will not be completely destroyed, but we will not be able to use it. This is especially important in the case of the best toys in our arsenal - so you need to constantly take care of them so that they do not fail at a crucial moment.
The tasks are not the most ambitious, and some even seem excessively humorous. Some of them seem to assume that we will die - which makes it a bit difficult to feel the post-nuclear atmosphere. A certain robot sends us on numerous expeditions, the goal of which is always our injury or death. These challenges are linear and leave no scope for creativity, so we accept absurd assumptions or give up the mission. The main plot is on an equal level, but most of the side quests are bland.
The landscape and the locations visited are diverse and interesting in terms of exploration, but visually they are a serious step back even compared to Fallout 4. The new part is simply ugly. It is difficult to accept such a setting in a year when God of War or Red Dead Redemption 2 were released. Low-quality textures, errors in lighting and shading of objects are only the beginning of the list, as they result in outdated character animations and technical errors related to online play. Signal transmission delays often occur, which magically move opponents, cause movement suspensions, and even serious "crunches" of the entire game.
However, it would be unfair to say that the latest installment of Fallout is a definitively bad game. This is not indicated even by the number of users. The servers are relatively small and most often we see about 20 players on the map, but we have never encountered an empty server. Companions are easy to find thanks to the markings, and limiting PvP to mutual consent makes us much more willing to form teams and explore more challenging areas together.
The ability to attack specific locations with an atomic bomb that not only destroys life, but also offers more treasures and more difficult enemies in the explosion area makes players write their own stories in this world. We decide what we want to do. Do we share shelter and hiding place with others, or do we want to make the lives of strangers so miserable that we turn their beautiful corner of the new world into an irradiated crater.
The advantage of old Fallouts was always the character development system, which was strongly coupled with the gameplay. Fallout 3 and 4 never did it as well as the first two parts or the great New Vegas, so I wasn't too concerned that Bethesda gave up its not very interesting solutions in favor of the inspired S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and a card-based perk system that the player can arrange freely. What would look bad in a classic role-playing game works quite well in Fallout 76. It provides flexibility and, consequently, the ability to adapt to the changing conditions of the world that the player now shares with others. Not everyone wants to deal with the consequences of their choices and test different builds, but prefers to be able to edit their character here and now.
The PvE mode is definitely the best, but it still calls for expansion and more varied content. Exploring the game world together and participating in community events is good fun, but in the long run and without a good idea, it can simply be boring. I think that the key to having fun and enjoying the game for as long as possible is to find a good team - if your brothers in arms don't want to get into the post-apocalyptic atmosphere, they may spoil the experience of the game. The direction chosen by Bethesda perfectly fits the building mechanics, which are already known from Fallout 4. Hardcore fans of the cult series will complain that this is not The Sims, and while in the case of "4" I will be the first to admit that they are right, in F76 it finally makes sense. The possibilities it offers are truly impressive, which could already be fully experienced in Fallout 4.
A certain constant for the Fallout series, and not only parts 3-4 and New Vegas, but also 1 and 2, is a multitude of errors. Fallout 76 certainly stands out from its predecessors in terms of their number. Overlapping and loading textures, broken mission markers, enemies appearing out of nowhere, low frame rates and game crashes to the desktop are commonplace here. The explanation that it's Bethesda and its famous engine is already a mockery and only works to the manufacturer's detriment.
Speaking of the engine, it has its better moments, thanks to which West Virginia looks downright charming at times, but this does not change the fact that Bethesda must finally switch to a new engine. The situation is saved by the fact that the old one still fits the Fallout style, but the same can be said about the engine of the first two parts. Fortunately, the audio, especially the soundtrack with the inseparable radio at the forefront, is of a really decent standard.
Fallout 76 debuted on the market in mid-November 2018 and almost immediately became the most hated game of the year. A year and a half later, there is still talk about it, and although many would like to bury this unfortunate title, along with its publisher, of course, somewhere very deep, the latest installment of this post-apocalyptic series is still developing and (to the despair of many) making money.
The internet courts have issued a verdict - all players devoid of taste, honor, dignity and common sense who still have the nerve to play Fallout 76 and (horror of horrors!) have fun are to blame. And if someone, as if that wasn't enough, still makes money from a soulless corporation by buying new add-ons or skins - well, maybe it's worth restoring the medieval tradition of burning at the stake? As a representative of internet pariahs, the owner of the collector's edition of the latest Fallout and a subscriber to Fallout 1st, I will try to explain why I dared to love Fallout 76 at all.
Years ago, when the news first spread around the world that Fallout 3 was to move away from the classic isometric projection and move to three dimensions, I was very skeptical - like everyone else, I was simply afraid of the change. When, after quite a long delay, I finally finished the quite good Fallout 3 and the phenomenal Fallout: New Vegas in one go, I breathed a sigh of relief - it's still the same Fallout, but tailored to our times and technology. And what really ties all the previous Fallout parts together? Climate. The American dream of the 1950s was brutally interrupted by nuclear destruction. I had a great time in the world of Fallout 4, because all the elements worked perfectly together - exaggerated and idealized American suburbs, characters suspended at the junction of two realities, behaving as if the bombs had never exploded. In addition, this soundtrack - a classic from Diamond City Station that accompanies us while exploring or exterminating subsequent hordes of ghouls - stays in our memory for a very long time. Fallout 76 is actually Fallout 4.5 - a larger map, more mutant creatures, an optional multiplayer mode. The whole atmosphere is further enhanced by the plot layer - in retrospect (at the time of writing this text, the release of the Wastelanders expansion has already taken place and human NPCs have returned to Appalachia), I think that the initial abandonment of humanoid side characters was a bull's eye. Especially since each time we learned about the "robotic" nature of the NPCs we encountered at the very end of a given chain of quests, when we were almost sure that we would finally meet a flesh-and-blood human. Such a colorful world makes you want to explore it, and it just so happens that this is the next item on my list.
If I were to describe F76 in a few words, I would call it post-apocalyptic Skyrim. The creators took the best (according to many, the worst) elements from Fallout 4, transferring them to an even larger world that is bursting at the seams with side locations, and these - although they do not always add much to the plot - simply beg to be used without restraint (and mercy for the enemies present there) explore.
In practice, while playing F76, it is impossible to focus solely on one task - Appalachia constantly lures you with side activities and secret locations. It happened more than once that I strayed from the path I was following "for a moment", only to realize after almost an hour that I had wandered into a completely different part of the map, filling my backpack with items and emptying my magazines of ammunition along the way. If it weren't for some of the plans and diagrams that can be obtained during story missions, the latter would seem almost completely unnecessary. When exploring post-apocalyptic North America, time flies quickly - I am convinced that Fallout 76, after its debut on the Steam platform, will become a worthy opponent of Skyrim, in which many players have spent over several thousand hours, and the record holder has spent as much as 55,000 hours. Where do you get that confidence? Well, F76 has one more, very time-consuming, ace up its sleeve - more about it on the next page.
In practice, while playing F76, it is impossible to focus solely on one task - Appalachia constantly lures you with side activities and secret locations. It happened more than once that I strayed from the path I was following "for a moment", only to realize after almost an hour that I had wandered into a completely different part of the map, filling my backpack with items and emptying my magazines of ammunition along the way. If it weren't for some of the plans and diagrams that can be obtained during story missions, the latter would seem almost completely unnecessary. When exploring post-apocalyptic North America, time flies quickly - I am convinced that Fallout 76, after its debut on the Steam platform, will become a worthy opponent of Skyrim, in which many players have spent over several thousand hours, and the record holder has spent as much as 55,000 hours. Where do you get that confidence? Well, F76 has one more, very time-consuming, ace up its sleeve - more about it on the next page.
The situation with modifications and creating new equipment is very similar - I spent hours selecting equipment, searching for missing ingredients, and finally choosing the right paint pattern or skin. All this allows you to completely personalize your character - the chance of meeting our clone here is close to zero.
The number of elements we can influence when creating our unique inhabitant of Vault 76 is truly impressive. Weapons, power armor, normal armor, faces, emoticons, backpacks, camp decorations - these are hundreds of hours taken from our lives. And very pleasant hours. And when we fully equip our character and secure the base, it's time for the next step.
Typical F76 fight scene - Pip-Boy plays Mr. Sandman, the fusion core in the power armor, slowly measures the last percentages of power, and the red-hot minigun spits out subsequent rounds of 5 mm ammunition, killing super mutants. There are plenty of similar scenes here - only the music, weapons, type of opponents and place of the fight change. The combat in the latest installment of the Fallout series turns out to be incredibly satisfying, and best of all - it is intertwined with the previously mentioned exploration. I also really like the selection of character skills and the fact that we can change them almost freely - thanks to this, we can try different types of gameplay with the same hero. For complete happiness, it would be useful to have the option to freely change attributes - it is currently available only to a limited extent. The lack of a full-fledged V.A.T.S. system is a step back, although this is understandable considering the multiplayer element of the game.
Typical F76 fight scene - Pip-Boy plays Mr. Sandman, the fusion core in the power armor, slowly measures the last percentages of power, and the red-hot minigun spits out subsequent rounds of 5 mm ammunition, killing super mutants. There are plenty of similar scenes here - only the music, weapons, type of opponents and place of the fight change. The combat in the latest installment of the Fallout series turns out to be incredibly satisfying, and best of all - it is intertwined with the previously mentioned exploration. I also really like the selection of character skills and the fact that we can change them almost freely - thanks to this, we can try different types of gameplay with the same hero. For complete happiness, it would be useful to have the option to freely change attributes - it is currently available only to a limited extent. The lack of a full-fledged V.A.T.S. system is a step back, although this is understandable considering the multiplayer element of the game.
The feeling of immersion in the game world also depends on the preferred type of weapon and combat. It's truly amazing how different a fight against the same opponent feels using different methods. For example, when fighting a deathclaw, one instinctively wants to keep a distance, close contact seems unwise - and in fact, when exchanging blows with such a beast, we almost feel the weight of its powerful arms and claws. This element of the gameplay has consistently fascinated me since Fallout 4 - a real masterpiece. And that's still not everything on my list, because there are little things ahead of us that make us happy, sad and delighted.
Once we have pushed our character and its equipment to the limit, we can delve into this amazing, atmospheric world, enjoying its exploration and fighting hordes of mutant enemies. It then seems that we no longer need anything to be happy - or is that really the case? The last, although seemingly really small, element are all these "small stories" that we come across on our way.
We are talking about notes left for loved ones, entries in terminals, unfinished meals and other manifestations of everyday routine interrupted by the war ravaging the world. They don't seem to add anything important to the plot, but encountering them is often more moving than even the best plot twist. I don't know if all these tidbits are the work of one person or the entire team, but they definitely deserve applause - it's a great piece of work that can so easily be missed unintentionally. Small stories are an integral part of exploration, a kind of reward for the time spent thoroughly searching a location. At times I found myself being so impressed by a few lines written on a computer that had not been touched for years that I began to feel a special sentiment for their author and a given place. Dramas of people deprived of normality and sometimes humanity by the war, fathers and mothers searching for lost children, and finally children suffering after the loss of their parents - each story tugs at the heartstrings equally, if only we give it a chance.
The elements listed above are only my subjective list, certainly anyone who has fun playing the latest Fallout installment could make a similar one. If you've made it this far, you deserve some explanation. Yes, I'm really having fun playing Fallout 76. No, I'm not a fan of everything Bethesda serves up, and like you, I find many of its recent decisions highly questionable. Yes, I am aware of all the problems of F76 and I am not saying that it is a perfect product, on the contrary - it is a very difficult love, full of bugs, microtransactions, unfulfilled promises and unused potential. It would be easier for both you and me if this title was released as a free add-on to Fallout 4 - then we would all sing with delight.
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