Things About Fallout 76 That Aren’t Terrible
An Attempt at Something New
Fallout 76 delivered exactly what Todd Howard promised in the E3 2018 reveal of the game. We got a Fallout game, that’s a Bethesda open-world adventure, with always-online multiplayer.
Unfortunately, the real product lacked some of the content that the on-paper description implied. In a Bethesda promotional video posted a little over a month before the game’s release, Mr. Howard optimistically describes what amounts to be Fallout 76’s current state:
“One of the things that we really like about Fallout 76 is that we’ve built it so that we can support it on a month-to-month and week-to-week basis … We have the game that we’re launching, but then we also have the game that it’s gonna be a year from now and two years from now. And we’re gonna do that with the community, so that makes it extra great.”
In an ironic, twilight-zone sort of way, Fallout 76 has turned out exactly as Howard promised it. Whether he planned the new content and fixes to roll out in the way we’ve seen is unknown.
Survival games aren’t new, RPGs aren’t new, but this weird amalgam (that doesn’t currently work) is at least breaking new ground in the series’ progression. In Fallout 76 the combat is more visceral and exciting without the ability to pause (but is still very clunky).
Questing with friends, PvP, and group events are all intriguing (yet currently hollow). And the map in Fallout 76 is large enough to explore for hours without encountering another player, but there’s not much to do… yet?
