3 Fatal MMO Traps Fallout 76 Has to Avoid

Treating the Story as Secondary

For years, Fallout has been one of the most beloved single-player franchises in video games, so understandably, a move to a multiplayer-centric format in the upcoming Fallout 76 is likely to cause plenty of trepidation amongst fans. Of particular concern is the impact on the importance and emphasis placed on narrative.

I want to believe that Bethesda learned their lesson with Elder Scrolls Online in this regard. While the MMORPG now is in a great place, it didn’t start out that way, and people at first lamented on how off it felt compared to the single-player entries. It took time before ESO actually felt like a part of the franchise’s extended universe, simply because the storytelling wasn’t up to par.

Thankfully, that’s changed all changed —recent expansions have matched the standard of writing found in Bethesda-developed single-player titles. Yet we’ve seen all too often that MMORPGs do push story content to the wayside, and for that reason, I understand why people would be nervous. I’d be less worried myself if I would have gotten more of a taste of the game’s story during E3, but that wasn’t the focal point for whatever reason. It’s OK if Fallout 76 is meant to be more of a sandbox game, but there needs to be something there to anchor fans of the mainline games expecting a story that are giving Fallout 76 a try out of brand loyalty, otherwise, it’s going to be problematic.

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.

Content Treadmills

One staple of modern MMOs is a consistent stream of new and better loot added in with every patch or expansion. You’ll run through everything there is to see, get everything you want to get, and then you wait for the next update to give you something new to chase. Lots of games do this. It’s very common in Destin, for example, to see a surge of players dive in for a month or two when new content comes out. Some will hop on that treadmill and chase the new, hard to get stuff, and the rest will move on until new stuff is released again once they’ve given everything a try. Hopefully, Fallout 76 steers clear of this.

All of the recent mainline Fallout games didn’t need any DLC. They were complete experiences out of the box, offered up countless hours of worthwhile content, and all the DLC did eventually release, was just a cherry on top. Fallout 76 hopefully won’t lean too heavily on player-driven activities being the main thing that keeps people busy. It’s exciting that we’re finally going to be able to interact with real-world people in a Fallout universe, but it would be quite disappointing if turns into a situation in which that interactivity takes the place of actual content. I don’t want to have to play the waiting game for weeks on end because I’ve finished everything there is to do in a short space of time. Again, it works for some games, but it would feel at odds with a franchise that has always prided itself on boundless amounts of quest and activity content.