Fallout 76 Review

Multiplayer:

Bethseda were clearly targeting some kind of co-op experience, but boy, they make it hard sometimes. The instances have no matchmaking, and there’s no server browser, so you’ll end up with other people spread all over the ginormous map, and normally a huge spread of levels. In one play session, I was online for 3 straight hours and never encountered another human. The player counts are pretty low (20?), so playing with friends is definitely preferable. Having said that, when I did find other players they were generally good-natured and we worked together for a few minutes. That’s probably because PVP is pretty useless in Fallout 76.

Both players need to be above level 5, and then attack each other before any real damage can be done. There’s little reward for killing another player either, and when you do, you’ll then become Wanted, with the rest of the players on the server invited to take you down.

Presentation:

The Fallout games have always had better visual design than technical prowess, and that’s unfortunately still the trend here. Sure, on Xbox One X, you’ll get a 4K framebuffer and some pretty decent HDR lighting, but there’s still an awful lot of texture pop-in, and animations are still bargain basement when compared to the competition. Being online just serves to make things worse, with laughably broken physics. Bodies will just ragdoll off into the middle distance sometimes. Appalachia does have some great areas to it though, with the thickly forested starting area being a highlight.

The far south of the map has a red tinge to the sky and is filled with huge, abandoned earth moving machines, and has a suitably dark feel to it.

Meanwhile Inon Zur turns in a predictably excellent score as usual. Just a shame there’s not more speech, but it’s hardly a surprise given the lack of NPCs.

Conclusion:

Maybe it was originally planned that Fallout 76 would be a sci-fi ESO, but pared back in case it took players away from Bethseda’s MMO? Maybe it was originally planned as a single-player RPG where other players could interact, before having more MMO features added? Whatever the case, Fallout 76 sits awkwardly in the middle, with average quests that you’d expect from a MMO, but without the freedom, or playercount or late-game content that requires you to team up and build relationships with other human beings. Frankly, I like what Bethseda do enough that even B-tier quest content can keep me entertained for hours, and I don’t think this is the disaster-zone that many fans and critics claim. However, it’s neither as personable nor interesting as one has come to expect from the studio, and it’s certainly a disappointment.

If you have a committed group of friends, or are quite content to play alone, Fallout 76 has a few memorable moments. But don’t expect any kind of RPG revelation or to have a fantastic, new experience with strangers.