Fallout 76: First Impressions

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Fallout 76 looks like a game without a high concentration. It makes changes to the time-tested structure introduced in Fallout 4 to make it usable in both single-player and multiplayer modes. But in doing so, both styles of play suffer from major compromises that exist only to serve the other, so that none of them is exemplary.

You and everyone else are melted into Vault 76, an underground bunker populated by extremely competitive and competitive people tasked with rebuilding the world after a nuclear apocalypse. This moment is now, and by leaving, you also discover that the supervisor of the vault has undertaken a personal mission. Finding it becomes your primary quest when you enter the vast remains of a burned world where unknown beasts wander and where every other human being is a real person playing the game.

Fallout 76 has no artificial human characters to interact with. The rationale is that because the people of Vault 76 are among the first to return to this devastated America, there are very few coherent beings, and many of those who survived the nuclear annihilation are dead before your arrival. Without characters set up to populate the world, the mood of Fallout 76 is disturbing, often amplifying one of the series' greatest strengths: the feeling of desolation. There is a curiosity for the environment that leads you to think outside the box, to visit places that were once, to try to imagine what life might have been before everything went to hell and what it was has been there ever since. Exploring uncultivated land remains one of the most enjoyable aspects of 76 years.

But the lack of locals is also the main problem of Fallout 76. It limits the world to a mere environmental showcase with things to kill. This means that the art of conversation, a fundamental function of the series, is unfortunately absent. But more importantly, it means that there is no powerful emotional anchor to help you truly invest in the world, a complication that diminishes the other core activities of the game.

The biggest victim is the quest system. Without actually having people with needs and desires, initiating and conducting quests often involves the use of environmental storytelling tools – listening to audio diaries, reading notes, and browsing computer terminals looking for information. key information. A quest often explores the stories of certain characters, but these are characters that have long gone on, and you only get long monologues and one-way directions from a person who no longer exists and with whom you can not interact anymore. In the end, your actions will not affect anyone, nor the rest of the world – all places where you go are regularly reinitialized with objects and enemies – and staying motivated becomes a problem after a long time.

… there is no strong emotional anchor to help you really invest in the world …

Some of these stories intrigue to be sure, and when you come across the story of a character who stings your interest, you are eager to learn more about their last moments of life. But there is such a dependence on the disembodied voices that speak to you about every aspect of the game that it is easy for these outstanding people to get lost. The lack of more personal and personal connection between your actions, the world and its inhabitants means that it's easy for quests to feel like wild gooses without meaning. The idea of ​​going straight into another quest – listening to more and more audio diaries, browsing the country looking for more Doohickeys, reading more newspaper entries – is exhausting.

Fallout 76 also feels that there are fewer opportunities to complete quests your way, at this early stage, which exacerbates the feeling that you have little impact on the wastelands. Locking, hacking and stealth capabilities remain at 76, allowing you to choose a problem-solving mode. But the quests we've been involved in so far all have the impression of having linear lines up to the point. Exploring the world's quietest and most inactive moments at your own pace remains the most rewarding narrative experience.

The use of elements such as audio diaries and written notes also proves to be the biggest deterrent to playing Fallout 76 in multiplayer. By teaming up, you can explore the world together, get help to eliminate tough enemies and carry out any quest, but some things remain distinct from each player's experience. Containers containing objects, for example, will have a unique loot for each person who will open them. But what is also unique is that the completion of the quest's goals is not shared and each member of your team needs to activate things personally to count for his progress.

This is a great idea on paper because it allows everyone to see each part of a story. But playing with both good friends and strangers, I found that the individual need for each individual to advance the quests seriously hampers progress. Because of the need to wait for your team to catch up, ask each member to take their time to listen to important tapes (which is impossible when you have an ongoing voice conversation) and to search for relevant information on terminals. a lot of patience and courtesy. Add to that the fact that Fallout is already a game that encourages the constant and tedious management of the material, which penalizes your speed of movement because you are congested. The idea of ​​calling another member of the team just seems to be an extra burden.

If you have a team that is happy to skip the narrative content, things will go a lot better, but you are missing the vector that gives the context to these quests. The multiplayer mode is more enjoyable when you and your team just explore the world at your leisure, retrieve items and let you go to the task. Solo quests also have their own obstacles – enemy groups will often have a handful of enemies 10 to 20 levels above you – but not having to wait is certainly a big advantage.

Fighting enemies also does not seem to make sense in 76, the more morbid consequence of the lack of characters in the universe. The Appalachians are filled with an assortment of delightfully mutated creatures, both new and old, including humanoid enemies such as Scorched and Mole Miners, who can brandish guns. But it's not as fun to attack enemies that have not hurt you, or anyone. In the absence of sadistic raiders and their appalling despicable actions, interesting gang factions that should not be on the same side, nor able to understand how this particular brand of super mutants was born, the enemies you encounter in 76 feel like cannon fodder.

Combat mechanics do not deal much with cannon fodder. The Appalachians are filled with dozens of public events that invite everyone on the server to come together and participate in a single task related to a particular location. Of the dozens I have seen so far, it is largely escort and defense missions that require you to hold back several waves of enemies. The Fallout 76 combat system is virtually unchanged from Fallout 4 and is functional enough for small skirmishes with a gun or melee weapon to feel good. But the system is not so good that pulling hordes of enemies for 20 minutes during a test is like a chore: the shooter and the movement are not sufficiently reactive or kinetic to make them enjoyable for long periods of time. periods.

This is also partly due to the VAT change. What was once a strategic break-type ability that allows you to target body parts and take time to assess your environment is now a real-time, self-targeting system that can further damage damage, a change likely operated for the multiplayer mode. It serves its purpose of being able to hit members accurately when the action is manageable, but in more intense situations, VATS hardly makes up for the limitations of the real-time combat system, as it did before.

Fallout 76 is also a victim of the series' now penchant for technical bugs. Whether it is the game engine or the online nature of the game, I have encountered a number of technical problems in the PC version. Problems such as cutting off the world, frozen animations, failures to load entire buildings, enemies stuck in walls, sound logs not playing, enemies appearing in the air, loss of control due to unstable server connections and unable to turn quests due to unresponsive guests are just a few examples.

Some of the changes in Fallout 76 are quite positive, though. The simple but satisfying basic building component is taken from Fallout 4 and plays a larger role in 76. Some smart decisions, such as the ability to move your base camp for a nominal fee and save entire structures plans for place them easily. elsewhere, the construction of complex camps is a pleasant and fulfilling activity. The unique position of the game in player-versus-player competition is also effective in deterring unprovoked attacks when exploring the world. It takes a lot of work for little reward if your target does not replicate. The flexibility of the new bonus system (now based on cards) allows you to modify your abilities at will, which has encouraged me to use the more bizarre skills of Fallout, depending on my situation.

Fallout 76 is trying to get some new ideas for the show, but with a few exceptions, they significantly mitigate many aspects of the game. The multiplayer mode is fun, but it's not an ideal way to enjoy the quests . Shooting mechanisms are not powerful enough to make intense combat activities enjoyable for long periods of time. Things feel better solo, but the lack of characters in the universe makes the emotional investment in the world and the difficulty of your goals.

I will continue to play with the intention of completing the campaign, a good portion of the side quests and to participate in the final content. This review will be updated and finalized when everything happens. But at this early stage, I feel that the only reason I enjoy the game as much as I am because of a penchant for the Fallout series, and not because of everything that can be attributed to Fallout 76.