Two weeks later, Fallout 76 is a lonely mess, glitchy and flawed

When you exit Vault 76 and you have a first glimpse of Fallout 76Appalachian region, the world seems full of possibilities. The scenery is beautiful, all the autumn foliage and breathtaking mountains; the map is huge and decorated with all kinds of seemingly unique places; and you are led by holotape on a journey that promises to be epic.

Unfortunately, this sense of wonder turns out to be difficult to maintain. The vacant lot ends up feeling empty and lonely, this lush world can quickly become a nightmare in the hands of other players, and a host of technical problems hinders the entire experience. In the two weeks following its launch, Fallout 76 It turned out to be fun and frustrating in equal measure, feeling more like an unfinished experience than a finished game.

Almost paradise

Located in the Appalachian West Virginia coal mining region, Fallout 76 does a good job by integrating real life cities and monuments into the deep tradition of the franchise. Clues around the world show how the arrival of Vault-Tec initially offered the community a brighter future, especially for those who attend Vault Tech University or who chose to stay in the prestigious Vault 76.

The virgin region of West Virginia is full of familiar creatures such as Death Claws, Wild Ghouls and other mutant monstrosities. Despite the new environment, Fallout 76 reuses a lot of assets from previous games in the series, especially Fallout 4. This sometimes gives the impression of having seen everything before. Associated with the absence of interesting characters, the irradiated version of West Virginia does not exploit all its potential.

That said. there are many new bad nightmares. The most important are the burned humans, victims of a mysterious disease at the forefront of Fallout 76The main story. Unlike ghouls, they can still use their weapons competently, which makes them more dangerous than the average irradiated corpse. Those who are trapped in a mining suit when the bombs have fallen have turned into mole miners, small leathery creatures that have a lot of punch. Local myths such as the terrifying Wendigo bring a touch of region-specific tradition, and you might even find the mysterious Mothman in the lost lands.

One is the most lonely number

As the first online entry only in the long run Fall series, Fallout 76 avoids the usual distribution of non-playable colored characters in favor of scattered robots, holotapes and notes strategically placed around the world. There are no computer-controlled humans. Therefore, the only other people you will see are live players who have emerged from the same safe. It's reasonable on paper, but in practice it makes the vast Appalachian region feel incredibly lonely.

Early in Fallout 76it is up to you to find a group of respondents: civilians who took the initiative in the early days of the nuclear apocalypse to help others by providing them with health care, clean water and basic training . This tracking quickly becomes tedious when you realize that all you will find are corpses. This is a trend that is repeated throughout the match. Whenever you find a note, tape or radio station asking for help, you know for sure that your eventual target will be long gone or that it will be mechanical.

Playing alone can be a serene and enjoyable experience, but even in the best of times, it's hard not to feel lost. Although the map is many times larger than Fallout 4'S, the world of Fallout 76 feels smaller and more empty. previous Fall the games were filled with NPCs with dynamic personalities; this time, the only person with defining characteristics is your own character.

The creator of the character is deeper than in previous games, allowing you to customize the shape of the face and body, the color of the skin and hair, and more details about your own inhabitant of the safe. One of the improvements is that outfits can now be worn over armor, so you do not have to sacrifice your protection in the name of your personal style. Every player you meet will have his own style, whether he's wearing a Civil War dress and gas mask or showing his Vault 76 pride in a blue and yellow bodysuit.

You can also build your own house through the game C.A.M.P. system, which plays similarly to Fallout 4Workshops. You will need to find plans to build elements such as chemistry stations, cooking fires and beds, but with a little effort you will be able to create an impressive center to store your superfluous objects, heal them and develop better ones. weapons and armor.

Unfortunately, your camp will be exposed to the dangers of fallow land, including other players, while you explore the rest of the Appalachians. Spending resources to build extravagant buildings and lush gardens is useless if any random player can come in and destroy your belongings. Of course, you can build turrets and defenses, but how long will it really prevent someone from doing something else? Fortunately, once you've logged in, your stronghold also leaves the server, but it was not unusual to come back after a few hours of exploration to find broken walls and devastated crops.

While creating colonies in Fallout 4 was a robust creative experience, setting up the camp in Fallout 76 is more a way to reach a goal; a simple place to store your belongings, repair your weapons / armor and sleep. And because you share servers with other players, you risk losing your real estate capital if someone else decides to configure themselves while you are offline. In these cases, your structure is saved as a blueprint, so it is at least easy to rebuild.

Fallout 76 They also have workshops, but they require so much maintenance to pretend that it is not worth it. You will have to constantly defend the workshops against hordes of enemies, which will make you feel like a full-time job. As you can move your camp at any time (for a small fee), there is no reason to waste precious materials to build a public space.