Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. impressions: hell is the others



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It's a familiar ritual, creating my last Fall character. Under the harsh light of the Vault 76 fluorescent lights, I sting and produce, carving the face of a man who, I suppose, entered this glorified bunker while he was young and emerges into the bombed remains. from West Virginia much older, covered with wrinkles, hair gone white, eyes always kind. For a moment, I feel the familiar swell, "Oh wow I'm about to play a Fall game "sensation of unlimited potential.

And then a microphone stops. "Yes, no, I'm still creating characters. What is he doing? " Who is this person?

Another voice says "Hello?" And repeats a few seconds later the same message of precaution.

"Wait, do you hear me?" Said the first man. welcome to Fallout 76, where your surviving comrades are so annoying that you will almost want a nuclear winter.

Not quite paradise, West Virginia

Fallout 76 ($ 60 pre-order on Amazon) launched its beta version for PC this week and so far, I've played maybe three or four hours – a small part of a very big game. in no way my final feelings, and I plan to spend 60 or 70 hours on the outing of the game, judging by my time with Fallout 4.

Do you think these 60 hours will be rewarding? I am not sure.

Fallout 76 - B.E.T.A. IDG / Hayden Dingman

At the hour, Fallout 76 is the game I want. It's rare, but I've had moments when I'm fascinated by its post-nuclear West Virginia, so lush and green compared to the Capitol Wasteland or even the bomb. Fallout 4Is in Boston. It is a beautiful and dense world. At each step, there is another ruin to explore, another quest to grasp, another holotape to listen to.

You leave Vault 76 barely 25 years after the nuclear war that destroyed America and civilization as we know it. "Reclamation Day". Your job is to rebuild, recover the supplies and lay the foundation for a new company.

These are the big shots, at least. On a more concrete level, your initial goal is to hunt down the Vault 76's supervisor. She left earlier than others, with Vault-Tec's instructions to secure three nuclear missile silos somewhere in a rural area of ​​Virginia. West. It's supposed to be his job, and his job alone, but you get into his computer and find a recording asking for your help.

Fallout 76 - B.E.T.A. IDG / Hayden Dingman

The best part of Fallout 76 is actually this arcade game recreation Your fear.

You and everyone, I could say. You see, here's the thing: Fallout 76 is not a multiplayer game. Not really. It's a one-player game in which many other people run.

He feels ashen, at least in the early hours. Aside from the silent gaffes of vocal chat, Fallout 76 The feeling of "MMO of the mid-2000s" is very real: everyone is supposed to be elected, and you all do the same thing at the same time. So, you and a score of other survivors, get out of the safe 76, then you all head to a small dump, then to the town of Flatwoods, and so on.

I imagine that this feeling disappears as you play, when people disperse on the map and decide to focus on side quests, exploring or building bases, in all case. This is a terrible first impression, however, a bunch of idiots soaked in combinations that crisscross the city queuing to use quest-critical terminals and shoot in the air.

Fallout 76 - B.E.T.A. IDG / Hayden Dingman

"In use" Cookpot? I guess I'll just … stay here while this guy looks at a boiling pot.

Yes, align use terminals. You heard me well As if the heckling of fake MMOs was not enough, Fallout 76 also implements one of my least favorite features by requiring you to wait for other people to progress through the missions before you can continue. Someone uses the cooking station for which the mission directed you? Stand up and wait for them to finish. Someone uses the terminal? It is better to hope that they will read quickly.

And for a series that was traditionally based on the atmosphere, Fallout 76 is quick to undermine his own strengths. There is nothing more disappointing than diving into a ruin in ruins and hearing the footsteps of someone else. Destiny 2 solves this problem by strongly instantiating certain areas, such as lost sectors. I wish that Fallout 76 did the same thing – and maybe it does, for the highlights of the story, but nothing that I have met up to now.

It's less than I'm against a multiplayer Fall. I do not think so Fallout 76 gets there. I remember meeting other players in DayZ or Rust and how that threatened. The stakes were high for all participants.

Fallout 76 - B.E.T.A. IDG / Hayden Dingman

Fallout 76 feels like the theme park version of these ideas. It's a survival game, of course, but you'll hardly have to think about water or food – it disgusts you a lot. And there is no consequence for nothing. When you die, you lose no progress, no object. You reappear elsewhere and keep playing.

From the point of view of the limitation of sorrow, that makes sense. You do not want that an asshole spoils the fun for everyone. In contrast, the multiplayer mode seems totally superfluous. Nobody really cares about their death, and no one really cares (at least for the time being) to meet other people. There is no tension, no confrontation between you and your weapon. The quick moves are a little easier if you team up, but I was not too surprised during my session that everyone has solitary-except, with the exception of two dozen solitary wolves in the same sector.

Personally, I would prefer a Warhammer: Vermintidetype of game, a four-player cooperative version of Fallout 76 where you and some friends can loot the world together. In theory, you would experience the same kind of experience, but with more narration possibilities and fewer live microphones.

That's not what we got.

Fallout 76 - B.E.T.A. IDG / Hayden Dingman

Is it all bad? No of course not. If you can get away from idiots enough, there are a lot of Fall to explore. Of course, the story is told in pieces of audio recordings and archived emails. Bethesda's commitment to zero human NPCs actually limits his storytelling options, and these boundaries become clear very early. But it's interesting to see FallIf shortly after dropping the bombs, find out who survived a few days, weeks, or years later, and what difficulties they faced while sitting in the vault. Some still do not feel very Fall But it is at least more interesting than jumping even further into the future and wondering why an unfortunate ghoul did not drag the debris out of his garden after 300 years.

Bottom line

I'm curious to see how Fallout 76 Rates in the weeks and months following the exit, as well. This is the only aspect that I can not even imagine at the moment. If this follows a game model as a service … what does it look like? New quests? New areas added to the map? How does Bethesda prevent people from playing this game once West Virginia is a known quantity?

It's an issue though. Probably 60 or 70 hours, as I said. There is a lot West Virginia to explore before Bethesda needs to add anything. I will probably come back in the remaining beta sessions this weekend, and then there will be only two weeks left before the actual release. Take me home, country roads.

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