Bethesda will be releasing Fallout 76 on November 14th, 2018 which is already next week! We got to play the final beta for the game and right now Fallout 76 isn’t looking too great so far. From what we have played, the experience is not as fun as other Fallout games out there.
One of my favorite games this generation is Fallout 4 because I loved its story and charismatic characters. I could spend hours roaming the wasteland in order to see new settlements and areas of interest. Not to mention the game had four different possible endings for you to discover making the experience great if you were wanting to play the game more than once.
Fallout 76 on the other hand feels empty and lonely if you’re not playing with any friends online. Your main goal is finding out what happened to your Overseer and this becomes a very boring experience. The main reason this game feels lonely is the fact that there are zero non-playable human characters on the map for you to interact with.
One of the best things about any Fallout game is the side characters that you get to meet. Most of them have exciting backgrounds and it’s fun sometimes to do all of the side-quests. Here in Fallout 76 though, every character is basically dead and you only dive deep into the lore if you just listen to their holotapes or read any messages that are found.
Due to the fact that there are no A.I. controlled humans, landmarks are boring because there are no towns or settlements for you to visit either. Every location looks and feels lonely since there’s nobody around for you to talk to. The only beings you can interact with are some robots and that’s about it.
Most beings you see on the map are enemies that you have to kill, or sporadically you may find other players on your map too. Surprisingly, the people I met were pretty friendly because they let me do my own thing without bothering me. However, your experience could be different since there might be other players that want to kill you all of the time.
You don’t have to engage in PvP if you don’t want to, so that’s kind of a good thing. Still, the lack of NPCs is very noticeable and I got bored of playing Fallout 76 quite quickly because of it. Sure there is a story for you to uncover, but without interesting characters or cutscenes, the experience becomes mundane quite quickly.
Fallout 76 also uses the same game engine as Fallout 4 and nothing much has changed. Bethesda really needs to invest in a new game engine because this game looks very outdated. It’s also worth mentioning the combat feels stiff and clunky most of the time too. The VATS system is back, although it happens in real time this time around. It just feels like auto-aim which is boring compared to the slow motion effects that the other games had.
Graphically, the game just looks like a mod for Fallout 4 – only that this time it’s set in the state of Virginia instead of in Boston, Massachusetts. Overall, the visuals aren’t that great and the combat system also needs more refinements.
Fallout 76 is also a game where a bigger map doesn’t necessarily mean there’s lots of things you can interact with. The landmarks just feel empty without NPCs around and roaming around the huge map feels like a chore now.
One thing I did like about the game though is that the music is still excellent. Sure many of the songs are reused from Fallout 3 and 4, but there are newer old-school tunes for you to listen to this time around. Not to mention the cover to John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” is arguably the best song in the entire game.
Anyway, Fallout 76 feels lonely and incomplete because I don’t think there’s much players can do with the world being so empty and lifeless. Sure this is only a beta, but I doubt much will be added when the actual game comes out next week. Hopefully Bethesda updates the game frequently with free content in order to make the map more exciting for you to explore.
