Written By: Tristan Rickey
With Bethesda’s E3 presentation come and gone, we got to see them reveal quite a few games they’ve been working hard on, especially Fallout 76 which was first teased from a live stream by Bethesda a few weeks ago. After the 24 hour live stream of a Fallout themed waiting screen, a teaser to Fallout 76 was shown, then a few days ago Bethesda at E3 not only showed the actual trailer to the game, including gameplay, but Todd Howard the lead developer to the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series talked in depth about what Fallout 76 is after being shrouded in mystery and held in contention on what the game was going to play like. Todd answered many of the questions everyone had about the game but new ones emerged. Is this game just a cash grab brought to you by Bethesda with one of its most popular IP’s?
Here is what we know about the gameplay so far.
Always Online gameplay, No solo play.
PVP with other players and Co-op team play as well on the same server.
No NPC’s (besides robots?) in the entire wasteland, only humans other than you are actual people on the same server.
The West Virginia wasteland is 4 times larger than Fallout 4’s playable area.
Fallout 4’s building system has come back.
Main quest takes player to "6 different areas” but what you do/need is not revealed.
Fallout 76 is going to be always online with an undisclosed number of other players in the same wasteland as you, hunting you, running from you, or just trying to scavenge enough supplies to build their own base. Todd Howard specifically said that the wasteland was so new, that it was too soon after the bombs dropped and that there would not be many people in the wasteland hence the decision to not have any NPC’s except for other players. All this seems so distant to what most fans would call a usual fallout game.
This new rendition of Fallout is so different that its polarizing to the fanbase, for years some have wanted Co-op gameplay similar to Borderlands but not this Rust-esk style of a game. Being a huge fan of the Fallout series myself, I'm internally divided about Fallout 76. The main quest that your character is tasked with is vague at best but we know that there are no human NPC’s in the game, and half the reason they exist in any game is to add story to the game like any RPG. How empty will this new game feel with no one to talk to and 4 times the amount of space to explore than Fallout 4? How will the story progress with no one to interact with is a major question I’ve been asking myself since the big reveal. Story has always been such a big part of the Fallout games. It also seems that building is less important than previously implied unless it directly relates to the main quest but we did not see that or hear that.
Bethesda is essentially taking a one of their biggest IP’s and completely changing it to possibly reach a whole new audience which seems fairly risky, even though this is not a main game in the series. Indie survival adventure games have gotten so popular the last 5 years that there are so many of them, these would include, Ark, Rust, Conan and others which leads us to think that Bethesda is only making this game to cash in on their interpretation of the “survival adventure” genre which is not inherently a bad thing. Bethesda is known for its amazing games and any triple "A" title they make will definitely have their quality behind it, but at the cost of butchering the Fallout name and polarizing hardcore fans in the process. Bethesda has been known for its cash grabbing, leaching every penny from consumer from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim which is a meme at this point and was even made fun of by Bethesda’s own Todd Howard at the E3 conference.
Though trying to get some quick cash isn't the only reason this title may exist, with their lineup being spaced out a little bit and their bigger titles a few years away they need something to not only fill the space but keep Bethesda and the Fallout name relevant, after all Bethesda is the king of hype and not many companies can do it better than them, as this was the perfect time to announce something fans would latch onto.
So...In the end I feel let down by this news but don't get me wrong, I do love Bethesda and I only want the best for them and from them. Fallout 76 looks so good and the gameplay compelling, more than any other Fallout game from just a trailer. The amount of different and cool looking monsters drive me to want to play this game, but Its looking like its not going to be my kind of game and possibly many other hardcore fans, which is strange to say about a Fallout game and a little sad. but we’ve got 5 months to learn more about the game and things might change in that time. ALSO if you want to know more about this game then what I explained, I encourage you to listen to Todd Howard’s full explanation of Fallout 76 as he sheds a lot of light, so If your interested watch it all.
Thank you for reading! I appreciate you’re time even if you disagree. If you’ve got any feedback or just want to let us know what you think about Fallout 76 just email us at nerdentials@gmail.com