Game:

Fallout 76 (2018)

Category:

Review

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Copyright: @bathesdasoftworks

Developer(s): Bethesda Game Studios[a]
Publisher(s): Bethesda Softworks
Director(s): Jeff Gardiner
Designer(s): Emil Pagliarulo; Chris Cummings
Programmer(s): Guy Carver; Patrick Labrie; Jason Hasenbuhler

Fallout 76 is an online action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 14, 2018, it is an instalment in the Fallout series and a prequel to previous entries. Fallout 76 is Bethesda Game Studios's first multiplayer game; players explore the open world, which has been torn apart by nuclear war, with others. Bethesda developed the game using a modified version of its Creation Engine, which allowed the accommodation of multiplayer gameplay and a more detailed game world than in previous games.

Fallout 76 was released to generally mixed reviews, with criticism for the game's numerous technical issues, overall design, lack of gameplay purpose, and initial absence of human non-playable characters. The game was the subject of several controversies, chiefly with regard to the quality of physical content. A number of Bethesda's responses and attempts to provide ongoing support related to Fallout 76 in the months following its launch were also met with criticism. The game sold 1.4 million copies by the end of 2018. Wastelanders, an update that reintroduces non-playable characters in the series, launched in April 2020.

Fallout 76 is Bethesda Game Studios' first online multiplayer game. Players may play individually or with a party of up to three others. The servers for the game are public dedicated servers, with the player automatically allocated to one of them. While the game was expected to launch with public servers only, executive producer Todd Howard revealed plans for private servers to be introduced some time after the game's launch. These private servers allow players to invite friends and to prevent undesirable aspects of player versus player gameplay such as griefing from affecting an individual player's experience of the game. Howard described the delay as being necessary to allow Bethesda time to assure the stability of public servers. Elements of previous Fallout games are present and are modified to work with the real-time game. The V.A.T.S. system—a mechanic introduced in Fallout 3 that allows players to pause the game to target specific locations on an enemy's body to attack—is used in Fallout 76 as a real-time system, though it still allows players to specify targets on an enemy's body.

The game features an open world four times the size of that of Fallout 4. The game world is called "Appalachia" and is a representation of West Virginia. It features recreations of real locations in the region, including the West Virginia State Capitol, The Greenbrier, Woodburn Circle, New River Gorge Bridge, and Camden Park. The game features numerous new mutated monsters, several of which—such as the Mothman and the Flatwoods monster—were inspired by West Virginian folklore.

The game includes revisions to the SPECIAL progression system. Character attributes fall into one of seven categories: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck. As the player levels up, they are able to spend skill points to boost their attributes on a scale of one to fifteen. Players are able to choose perks, or passive abilities that offer gameplay bonuses. These perks fall into each of the SPECIAL categories and take the form of trading cards. Each card has a value and the player can adopt perks equal to their respective value; for example, if the player has a strength rating of five, then they may equip strength perks worth five points. The player can merge similar cards together to create more powerful—albeit more expensive—perks. The system is designed to encourage the player to recognise the situation they are in and choose perks that aid them rather than passively selecting them and having them for the duration of the game.

Upon release Fallout 76 did not feature any human non-player characters (NPCs) as all surviving humans are other players. This required Bethesda to change their approach to storytelling as previous games in the series relied on NPCs to assign quests, engage the player in dialog and advance the overall narrative. Fallout 76 instead uses a combination of NPCs in the form of robots, recordings such as collectible holotapes, terminals throughout the game world, and environmental storytelling where the player uncovers fragments of a narrative by exploring locations that they piece together themselves.

Artist(s): Istvan Pely & Nathan Purkeypile
Composer(s): Inon Zur
Series: Fallout
Engine: Creation Engine
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows; PlayStation 4; Xbox One
Genre(s): Action role-playing
Mode(s): Multiplayer

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