Repetition of Content/Heavy Instanced Gameplay
There’s a time and place for heavily instanced, organized, and structured MMORPG gameplay. For some titles, it just makes sense and works better —lots of content in World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV are instanced, and they are both great games. As for ESO, some stuff is instanced, but you’ll spend just as much time free roaming, too. Other games, like Dark and Light, focus instead on survival, or other elements seen in a sandbox styled games.
Fallout 76, really should try and lean into emulating the single-player game’s gameplay as much as possible and avoid grindy, repetitive, instanced content seen in some of the other MMOs I mentioned above. It works for those games —I’m not complaining at all— but it would be super out of place in Fallout 76, and would do nothing but feed into the worry that so many people have about the game. Part of the fun in Fallout is exploring something off the beaten path in the map and coming away with a really strong weapon or equipment you didn’t expect. Hopefully, that’s still the case. What I’d hate to see is that new and improved gear comes from repeating the same optimal content run over and over until you have enough of a currency, or get lucky on a drop.
Justified or not, it seems to me that a primary concern is that Fallout 76 isn’t going to capture the magic of the franchise and will feel like a soulless, generic MMO. As with the story, Bethesda has to make sure they weave in the familiar aspects of gameplay that will make 76 feel like it truly deserves to carry the Fallout name. After all, this is a special franchise for many.
