How to Fallout with the fans.
Bolder than the bright blue jumpsuit your character strides out of the Vault in, Fallout 76 proves that you indeed cannot make a Deathclaw omelette, without first breaking a few eggs. Almost cheerfully accepting that it will not please everyone, but will still try its hardest to make for an enjoyable experience, nonetheless. While it has a plethora of interesting ideas and twists on the established formula, it ultimately struggles - noticeably lacking one final ingredient: heart.
Set
twenty-five years after a nuclear war, Fallout 76 sees the eponymous Vault open
its gate. Its mission: to release its inhabitants - only the finest human
specimens - and repopulate the United States. You are one such inhabitant and
upon taking your leave you are free to progress how you feel, in typical
Bethesda fashion. Are you the saviour of Appalachia, or its scourge?
It's
implementation of light survival elements, including; benefits from consuming
nutrients, cooking, crafting, weapon degradation and disease implementation - along
with a reworking of the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system - are all welcome additions. They're brilliant in fact and Bethesda got them balanced perfectly.
Even
base building has made a return. This time with an upgrade, as you can build
anywhere you choose. Simply pop down your camp, and providing you have the
plans and the materials - craft away.
Even though these elements are fun, what none of the above can do is repair the damage done by the initial release. The game was simply empty. Over the years the game has been bombarded with content and changes to try and offset that emptiness. However, all that has happened since is that Bethesda have set out on a crusade to destroy what lore is left.
It has body and it has substance, but it feels soulless and misguided. When an MMO feels more fun to play solo, alarm bells begin to ring.
Fallout's past is brimming with colour and intrigue. Bizarre characters and crazy factions established within a wacky and wild wasteland alongside witty pop culture references. Fallout 76 lacks this creativity, and even goes some way to ignore it. I appreciate that Fallout's creative direction has been subjected to contradiction over the years, but now that Bethesda owns the property, and seems to be developing all of its games going forward, I'd hoped to see more lore consistency. It's as if the design team, missed the point. It almost tries to compensate by throwing more things in for the player to simply kill. Fallout should not all be about killing.
Except for a handful of noticeably new and interesting creatures, everything else otherwise feels: cut, copied and pasted. Bethesda is seemingly recycling content at this point. The wasteland is a big and crazy place, where is the originality? The majority of players picking up this game are Fallout fans, and although Bethesda would like to entice new players, it is these recurring fans that have to suffer the poor creative.
When you consider its frankly overpriced membership, Fallout First, it all comes across as a bit of a cash grab. An experiment that went sideways on the starting line and now exists just to recuperate funds.
All in all, it is difficult to recommend. As I have mentioned it does have plenty of interesting features - basically taking Fallout 4's gameplay and refining it to truly beautiful levels. It then throws it away on inferior creative and recycled content however, and that is a genuine shame. It's easy to sell this game on its mechanics alone, but far more difficult to sell it as a complete experience.
Fallout has always been more than just gameplay. If Bethesda seemingly doesn't care for their Fallout content, then why should I?
all images ©: Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios
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