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Whether or not you're on board, Bethesda's decision to make the next entry in the Fallout franchise is online-only game is bold. But it's just because it's an endeavor that does not mean you're forced to play with others. Among all the questions I had about Fallout 76, the most important one that came to mind: Can the game work as a single-player experience? So, when the first beta is launched, it's a one-man party. After about four hours of exploring, looting, and shooting, the foundation of Fallout is apparently apparent, albeit diluted. Of course, you'll be missing out on an important aspect of it. As a result, lone wanderers are likely to be rewarded in complete ways.
Fallout 76 as a group, I understand it's a tacit agreement to move at a fast pace, or to be able to do it. While this is not exactly what the Fallout series is, it comes part-and-parcel to this style of game. That does not leave a lot of room for reading, but it is left alone in the narrative pieces. Playing alone affords you the opportunity to do that.
Environmental storytelling has become a bit of a cliche when describing how to play a story. It's an indirect approach to story, and one that Fallout 76 has to rely on the absence of NPCs and dialogue trees. Audio logs serve to paint the picture of how townships tried, and failed, to survive the world while being guided through the game's world and systems. Audio logs are also the crux of the Vault 76's overseer – the seemingly "handy" questline. It's your way to West Virginia. Admittedly, they are important, but they are critical to worldbuilding.
The wonder of discovering and rummaging through a new lease, or taking in the scenic views after brutal swaths of the wasteland, has an intrinsically rewarding feel.
We've seen other games using these narrative techniques in the past. Much of the original Bioshock was built on the premise of listening to recordings from Rapture's citizens as you navigate the desolate underwater society. Some of the most impactful moments in the past of the world. Fallout has used these elements in previous entries, but they are now more than ever.
While what's missing are the societies and factions that made previous games' roleplaying dynamic, it's thematically fitting given that the setting predates the lore established from past games. And it's strikingly lonely out there playing online – only 24 players roam around West Virginia in the same instance. There's a lot of ground to cover it's hard to see a collective of online players emerging from it; very rarely did I run into other parts. West Virginia is huge. It's been in headlines that Fallout 76 contains the largest map in all the franchise; about four times the size of the Fallout 4's rendition of Boston. It sometimes feels good for its own good, as there is a noticeable lack of density. However, like any other Fallout game, the world is more of a reality than anything else.
The wonder of discovering and rummaging through a new lease, or taking in the scenic views after brutal swaths of the wasteland, has an intrinsically rewarding feel. After getting a grip of the game in the areas near Vault 76, I wandered to the Northeast and stumbled upon Grafton – a snowy town populated by Super Mutants, Protectrons, and the high-level blob-like Grafton Monster. It was a definite highlight digging up the town's history and how it came to be run by Protectrons, and getting into firefighting with enemies above my level. Unfortunately, I had to move on. Over the next northern range was an abandoned amusement park where I dabbled with the photo mode to take selfies with its alligator mascot on a broken rollercoaster. All the while, my radio is playing the undeniably catchy tunes of old-timey Americana (many of which are reprised from earlier games). These moments are, of course, available if you play in a group, but they make the single-player approach more meaningful.
Fallout 76: Watch 50 Minutes Of Gameplay Before The Beta
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Catastrophic events and inter-player tension very much seems to be integral to the end-game, so it's tough to speak on the sustainability of exclusively playing alone. So far, what is structure and public events? And by virtue of axing traditional RPG interactions, combat becomes a bigger portion of what you do. Fallout 4's shooting mechanics are the basis, and it's more fluid than Fallout 3 or New Vegas, it does not stand up to the best modern shooters (and VATS will not slow down for targeted dice-roll shots) – it sometimes feels at odds with the type of game Bethesda's trying to create.
Fallout 76 is a little unceremonious in its early hours, but I'm willing to give new approaches to long-running franchises to chance. It still has a distinct charm, where both the disturbing and the disturbing aspects of an era of post-apocalyptic retrofuturism. As more beta windows open up, I'll be continuing to search for the game's story and trekking along to see what's beyond the wide forests and mountain ranges. Also, there are just a few questions left even after four hours. I can not say that the single-player experience is going to be entirely new, and we should not expect it to be with the likes of New Vegas, but it is there that it can work, and I'm hopeful. I'm sure where it's leading me, and it seems to be exactly what Fallout 76 is about.
