Oh Fallout 76, you had so much potential. A co-operative post apocalyptic sprawling open world, with Fallout’s fantastic narrative sewn in alongside a dash of survival elements and some tense PvP encounters for good measure. Alas, Fallout 76 is something else. Something that just simply feels a little…lost.

76 is a prequel to the previous Fallout titles, taking place twenty-five years after the nuclear war that devastated the Earth. You play a dweller from Vault 76 – one of the first vaults to open up after the bombs dropped. It’s Reclamation Day, and you’re tasked with re-colonising the Appalachia wasteland.

Fallout 76 feels just like Fallout 4 from a mechanical perspective. The gunplay, movement, menu systems and visuals all feel incredibly familiar – for better or worse. The difference here is that 23 other players fill the world alongside you. Players can go at it alone, or team up with up to 3 others to take on the dangerous wastelands.

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Where the game makes its most egregious error however is in the story, something which the series is well regarded for. Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4 have some brilliant story beats, side quests, decision making, unexpected world events and great characters. 76 does away with that mould almost entirely. There are no proper NPCs here. No real decisions to make. No interesting characters.

As a player knowing you’ll never encounter an actual living NPC causes a huge glaring issue from a story angle. When you’re reading those terminals, listening to the holotapes and following quest chains you just know in the back of your mind that the person you’re following is guaranteed to end up being a corpse at best. It’s anticlimactic on so many occasions. There are no memorable witty characters, no real stand out story beats. The best parts of Fallout, are gone from 76. Instead, in its place is multiplayer.

What makes the whole package all that more disappointing is that the multiplayer side of Fallout 76 doesn’t even feel as well explored as it should. It’s almost as if just getting the game’s ageing technology working with 24 players simultaneously was the team’s real challenge here. Yes you can co-operate on missions and explore the world together, but whilst quests objectives themselves can be seen by others and 76’s progression based perk cards can be shared, completing a quest objective itself has to be done by every single player individually.

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The PvP also seems riddled with some baffling decisions. It feels like the team at Bethesda were far too concerned with griefing and other nasty aspects of PvP that they went in the complete opposite direction. Once you hit level 5 you can attack other players, doing so will damage them, but only by a minuscule amount. The other player has to attack back to initiate full PvP damage. With the limited ammo and survival aspects of the game, all this means is…nobody bothers with PvP.

After the first few days of launch players quickly realised the PvP side of things is generally just far more hassle than it’s worth. Shortly after the game released we were being blasted by another player, pummelling a tonne of ammo into us, whilst we simply stood there emoting at him – pointless. This side of Fallout 76 could be so freakin’ good with some simple tweaks. Imagine roaming the wastelands with the added tension that a band of enemies could appear at any moment, it’d give the world an entirely different vibe. Why Bethesda can’t simply ask players whether they want ‘Full PvP’ or ‘Normal’ modes when they start the game is beyond me.

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Playing with others does make the experience more enjoyable though, there’s no denying that. Despite the issues above, I’ve actually had some great moments playing the game with friends. It is still fun to explore this post apocalyptic open world, especially with others.

The world of Appalachia that the team have created here, might be one of the better environments we’ve seen to date in a Fallout game. The map itself is massive, with various biomes and different environments full of areas to stumble upon and explore. Sure the lack of NPCs does also impact the joy of exploring, but the world itself is still intriguing enough to remain interesting. I spent hours just wandering the wastelands alone and with others. It’s one of the game’s major strengths.

I actually really like the card based progression system too. Each time you level up you’re tasked with selecting a stat to improve, from the usual ‘SPECIAL’ list (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck). Depending on which you pick, there’ll also be a range of cards to select from, each providing different bonuses such as targeting limbs with VATS, Lockpicking, Hacking, weapon improvements and a lot more.

Fallout 76 Review Perk Cards

Every so often from levelling up you’ll also receive a ‘card pack’, which contains various cards to pop into these SPECIAL slots. Each card has a Rank value to it, starting at one – one point in Strength equals space for a Rank 1 Strength card. Got two of the same cards? You can merge them to improve their Rank and potency. Two points in Strength for example would equate to two Rank 1 cards, or one Rank 2 card. It’s a system that works surprisingly well, and adds a bit of randomness to the levelling process which forces players to build a potentially different character to their norm. I liked it a whole lot more than I expected.

Building also makes a return from Fallout 4. If you enjoyed it there, you’re sure to enjoy it here. Personally, I found it to be mostly pointless busywork. You can setup and move your CAMP anywhere, offering a free mobile fast travel point. It’s fairly straight forward and intuitive to use, and in fairness actually serves somewhat more of a “point” than it did in Fallout 4. Your CAMP allows you to build crafting stations and resource harvesters too. It’s useful to help with managing the survival aspects of Fallout 76 (such as needing to drink / eat on a regular basis), however I found it largely ignorable outside of building a straight forward basic CAMP full of the essential crafting stations.

Prior to launch Bethesda released a statement telling fans to expect bugs and issues during the game’s pre-launch BETA phase – something which the company is notorious for having plenty of in their games. 76 is no different, in fact it might just be the worst offender of any Bethesda game to date. Arguably Fallout 76’s biggest problem is that it feels like a full priced Early Access title that released far too soon.

I encountered numerous bugs in my playthrough, from some more amusing ones to incredibly frustrating ones – for example at one point I moved the location of my CAMP only to find that every single one of my previously built crafting stations weren’t present in the storage tab like usual. This meant all of the stations I’d built over hours of playtime had vanished into thin air…gone, vamoosh. To add insult to injury the game left a single wooden platform in there though, thanks game, real useful. Thankfully I’m the kind of player that sets up CAMP then dumps a bunch of stations wherever, however if I’d have  actually spent hours finely crafting my base this would be an absolute killer of a bug.

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There’s also plenty of quest related bugs, robots getting stuck on pathing, and even quests that can’t be completed (granted one notorious quest-breaking bug did get resolved via the first major update post-launch). A few issues here and there are acceptable, but the severity of these issues can’t be ignored. Not forgetting those performance problems either – Fallout 76 runs pretty terribly on all four current-gen systems and even at times on a PC. With plenty of stuttering and framerate counts often dropping into the 10s on console when things get hectic, it’s not good at all.

What makes the performance problems feel worse is that 76 doesn’t really look all that good either. Even playing in 4K, Fallout 76 can often look downright ugly particularly in-doors. The game’s weather effects and fairly nice lighting do help to add a welcome bit of flair to the presentation however. There’s moments when the game actually looks pretty great…then others where it just looks plain bad. It’s an odd mixed bag.

Overall Fallout 76 isn’t a terrible game. There’s still fun to be had here, especially when adventuring with others. Despite all the issues and missed potential, throughout my tens of hours with the game I have actually mostly enjoyed my time with it, which makes placing a score on it all that more difficult. It’s not entirely horrible, it’s just not particularly good either.

Fallout 76 Review Screenshot

The inclusion of multiplayer is something which could be so great. Instead it feels half baked, paired with the removal of elements which in my opinion largely define the series’ high points. Combat is still meh, as it always has been in Fallout, and VATS feels like the developers felt forced to include it, rather than something that belongs.

As a package it just feels underbaked throughout. The game feels like it almost needs another year in the oven. Bugs and issues are prevalent and mechanics feel crammed in with numerous questionable design decisions. There’s enough here for your money, it’s just not all that great. It’s undoubtedly the worst Fallout game to date, with unfortunately arguably some of the biggest potential.

The premise of an online Fallout is still a tantalising one, the series offers so many possibilities. Fallout 76 however takes that opportunity and destroys it, which is a damn shame. Hopefully Bethesda can build and improve upon what’s here over time to create something genuinely ‘SPECIAL’. There’s a glimmer of something great under all this rubble. We can only hope.

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Overall Score
VIAGame provided by publisher for review
Charles is the editor of Gaming LYF. Self proclaimed industry news addict, currently researching ways to feed Twitter, Reddit and other news sources straight into his veins.
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