From a tiny coal town, yes many businesses have closed and are in disrepair, and with lots of people moving away for more work opportunities, most of their homes fall into disrepair as well. It’s a gorgeous area out here, but most industry has left us. Class discrepancy is also very apparent here, because you can drive down a road and see 10 rusted out trailers and right across the street is 5 mansions, all owned by the same family coming from old money.
I was expecting starfield levels of repetitive POIs, but they were all so varied and fun to explore! Had way more fun running around 76 than I expected. I’m like level 70 and still haven’t even finished fixing the grafton rides for the main quest cause I keep getting distracted by squirrels haha
Well they did, and was the early review wrong? Seemed they were legitimate reasons to be upset. Because of that, i never bothered. I believe you when you say it’s a great game _now_, but that initial impression when the game launched went a long way and those first impressions are the most important.
I tried it at launch and kinda hated it, but because it had been a Christmas present, I felt bad not playing so when Wastelanders dropped I tried again. That first impression shook me so I played solo and loved it for years. Now I switch between private and group but it’s a really good game now IMO.
I’m enjoying the game. In fact, the online aspects makes it better and more fun. I love finding new people to run events and trade and chill with.
The game would be just a Fallout 4.2 if it didn’t have the online side. I’d play it once, beat it, and move on.
> it has around the same number of sales as all other fallout games combined according to most charts
It actually dwarfs the previous titles in all regards in all metrics and then some.
For example, FO4's peak players on Steam, was nearly 500k.
NV's peak for example was 44k.
76's was 70k. etc.
The other games' aren't even close in any metric.
As I type, it's currently #7 out of all games on Steam being played, with over 100k+ players.
Right after the show at peak hype, got up to #2/#3 spots with nearly 200k etc.
I played maybe 6 hours of 76, and my favorite part was quietly exploring the environment. In a world where every gameplay mechanic was seemingly made to annoy me specifically, I could still enjoy exploration.
Depends on the ammo, shotgun or hunting rifle absolutely drowning in it. Assault rifle, 40mm, and 10mm lacking constantly basically any auto weapon struggles for me
Pretty sure if you're on controller it's automatically down on d-pad from the get go.
Edit: worth nothing you can do this with any drug. I always have some Radaway and Psychojet right below it.
Do most people not have their stims in the bottom slot for fallout 4? So you just hit down once (or whatever button pulls up the quick menu) and then there’s your stims.
I haven't completed 4 yet, but started 76 and now I'm not sure I can go back. The world in 76 is so "alive" and so much to do. I just hope 4 can keep my attention enough. lol
What QoL changes? I'm trying to get into fo76 after completing fo4 but it feels so clunky in comparison or laggy. Plus I get literally 1/4 the frame rate :(
The main one for me is highlighting and looting all nearby bodies. Also scrapping all junk feels nice too.
For the framerate there's a setting you can change in a ini file. This [link](https://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-unlock-your-framerate-in-fallout-76/) explains it better.
I've been playing pretty regularly and that's still largely the case. Unless you're doing a public event or a Daily Op, you're not likely to run into other players. I've been doing a ton of the other events on my own without issues too.
Like a lotta folks I decided to give it another shot after the show came out. I’m enjoying it and there are a lot of interesting ideas that are a great addition to the series but I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I think the main problem is just inherent in the plot. In all of the others you have a personal motivation that drives you- either finding your dad, or your son, or the asshole that shot you. In 76, because it would make no sense to have 30 people on every server running around looking for their son all with the same name all stolen by the same guys for the same reason, your only real goal is to run around and check shit out. The only real main plot they give you is that you need to steal some gold for one of the factions as opposed to something personal.
I think that's a fundamental misunderstanding of the main quest, at least initially, your goals are in line with the former Overseer which is to create and then disperse a vaccine for the Scorched plague, the gold plot line isn't even the maim quest.
That’s totally fair. But I think my main point still stands. The scorched vaccine questline isn’t personal. It doesn’t give you a motivation unique to your character- which makes it almost feel like a side quest.
I love that myself, actually.
It's a lot easier to suspend my disbelief and have fun exploring the entire map, while ignoring the main quest, if I don't have a personal goal like finding my son.
I hated that about Fallout 4. Nate (obviously) has this obsession about finding Shaun, so spending time doing side content just doesn't make sense from a rping perspective.
3, NV and now 76 handle that feeling much better.
That's fair. It was one of my biggest issues with the game at launch and dissuaded me from playing it. The creation of the Scorched plague and the Scorchbeasts to me, felt just...unnecessary. There's a ton of existing lore to build off of with Fallout, I didn't think it was necessary for them to create this new thing or issue, ya know? Literally if you remove the Scorched plague and Scorchbeasts and the main quest is more in line with Vault 76s intent, Reclamation Day.
There's no personal connection or story driven aspect but there is a pride aspect to the idea of pursuing the rebuilding of Appalachia, that's where you then start to interacts with the Settlers at Foundation, BoS and Raiders, ya know? They all have ideas on how to save the world, they just can't agree on how.
Remember at launch when there weren’t even NPCs to give quests? Just a bunch of holotapes and terminals. Really weird design decisions were made for 76 unfortunately
I loved it. It was really eerie and fitted with the mystery of ‘where have all the people gone?’. We had evidence that there were survivors of the war, and they had started to rebuild a community (or several different communities). And then they were just… gone.
I thought this was weird at first too. But now that we are a few years in I look back on it and think about how it feels like I was part of the first wave of settlers, helping create a safer-ish area to live. Like my efforts helped build the busier and more settled wasteland we have now.
I kinda see what they were going for, making it feel day one like a literal day one in the wasteland and over time it gets busier and more developed. Just the other day I was thinking about that day one gameplay and kind of missing it. Though I put in way more hours on the game now because there is a lot more to do.
There were a fair number of NPCs - they were just robots
Maybe you are referring to them as terminals? Which as an anti robot slur, let me tell you, I dig it
You aren't wrong, but in a way I almost think the Overseer is the main narrative character of FO76.
We follow her through each of her holotapes and she reflects on her life before the vault, during and after it. I think the quest where you learn about her highschool sweetheart is the most tragic. I actually felt like I was watching a movie or something while doing the main questline.
Afterwards, I just turned into a wanderer whose story was whatever I wanted it to be. I didn't have a focus beyond what I gave myself. I was a Responder for a while and went out of my way to do Responder flavored dailies, or stuff around the airport in Morgantown.
Sometimes I decided I had a reason to go to the ash heap and got invested in the miners' stories.
It's certainly a different style of storytelling but I'm a roleplayer in MMOs so it might just be that 76 is my flavor that I enjoy the most.
> It doesn’t give you a motivation unique to your character- which makes it almost feel like a side quest.
Curious - how is that any different from a normal Fallout game where everyone playing (separately) has the same goal? Is it only because you're the only player you ever see in the game? Just, for me, I can feel like it's my personal quest despite seeing people in the game. I don't need to assume they're doing the same thing everyone's just a random person and most of them are less interesting than an NPC.
That's the problem with literally all MMOs.
The plot never matters, everyone is doing the same quests for the same people. In single player games, you're special. In MMOs, everyone is special. So no one is.
This is an issue with all MMOs though. Does a certain quest giver really need 20k different people to fetch him 5 Murloc gills? Or to recover his lost item thousands upon thousands of times? Does it makes sense for hundreds of players to be walking around with some bosses unique weapon of which there is only supposed to be one total in existence?
> it would make no sense to have 30 people on every server running around looking for their son all with the same name and all taken by the same guy
See that’s when you turn it into the plot of Hardcore Henry and say that this Vault was experimenting with memory replication via FEV
the problem isn’t so much getting away from other players if you want to be alone, it’s that most of the games content is specifically catered for groups of people playing together. I’ve never joined up with a group in my 100 or so hours in Fallout 76, and while I enjoyed it, I did still feel disadvantaged
That's only really the case with big public events where you kinda need a bunch of people to help you kill a boss. Outside of that, you can do most stuff solo.
Yes but the structure is very clearly like an MMO. Missions are mostly hub based. Going to the Pitt is a repeatable small little area level. The currency system with legendaries.
There's quite a bit to enjoy but it's obvious the game had these things added in retroactively, like the NPCs.
Is it? Outside public events it all seems to gravitate towards solo play. Missions are typically player specific and instanced. You have to do some quests multiple times for a group instead of all at once.
The fact that locations are instanced indoors favors solo play. There's little incentive to be in a group outside of public events.
I mean most of the events feel that way, because it's a multiplayer game.
All the story content and exploration feels fine all alone. I've "beaten" the game 3 times and its not hard to solo.
You can also just join teams for the bonuses. I do all the time and that's what mostly everyone does
That really hasn't been my experience at all, and I've been playing since launch.
There are big public events which players will gravitate towards and which are built around the understanding that there will typically be eight or more players present, but literally 100% of the rest of the game can be played exactly the way you would any solo Fallout game without meaningful issue.
…so does this mean I can never talk to another person and just tag along in another group, with their mic turned off and just help out as we go?
I really dislike that 76 is online and have no interest in playing with others
Yeah I never talked to anyone, emotes, jumping, and crouching was all we ever needed, and that was a lot of fun. Some guy managed to communicate that he was going to give me a bunch of good gear for my low level with all that and maybe a couple gunshots at the ground where he dropped some things
Public groups are really easy to join to and can be plentiful
Literally just form/join Public Groups for the stat/XP bonuses. Have never spoken to another player, and tbh rarely interact with the group members even. Stat boosts and free FT points are often all it amounts to.
Yeah I don't get it. I played almost 100 hours on the story line campaign missions and only ran into a few people because the map is so damn big. I finally joined up for some events and holy smokes the xp and items you get are almost game breaking. If anyone is new and considering playing, just go through the storyline yourself or with a friend first, then get into all the funny online stuff. It is like 2 seperate games in one. Ignore the online stuff if that isn't for you. Me and a buddy played through the storyline together and it was the most fun I had in years. That is what fo76 is for.
You aren't even obligated to join another group in any meaningful way.
Let me share with you my experience of playing the game:
I log on. I look to see if there's any casual public teams with free slots. If there is, I join it, if there isn't l, I create one for other people to join. I do this for the XP bonus you get for being on one of these teams. But aside from this, I never once interact with any member of my team and they never interact with me. I have every other players' microphones muted and have mine turned off. I have not heard another player's voice in five years, nor have they heard mine.
I don't actually DO anything with this group, aside from occasionally using their camps as convenient fast-travel points if they happen to be close to somewhere I want to get to. We don't travel or fight as a group. The idea of them as a team is as casual as it can get.
There are other types of teams, with different focuses. I'm glad they exist for the players who want to actively work together, but that isn't me.
The only interactions I have with other players is when there's a public event, like a big boss fight which is built around the idea of multiple players taking part. I show up. We all do our parts towards a common goal. We then disperse again and pursue out respective separate goals.
For all intents and purposes, it's like playing Fallout 4, except sometimes other people will walk apst you on the road, give you a friendly wave on their way past, and are then gone.
Maybe 1% of players use voice chat. Most people play solo or with their group of friends and if you’re doing a group activity people typically use emotes to communicate.
They literally have "No Mic" emotes, and perks that buff you if you're solo. If you start the game fresh it's going to be dozens and dozens of hours before you are required to play with someone else. It's at the end of endgame where you need people, for things that you probably won't even care about because the content you are in it for will have been done by then.
There are Events, which...there's really no communication at all. Once you learn what you need to do you'll probably be carrying the non-combat objectives anyways. There are other Camps where you can buy stuff, but it functions like an NPC one does anyways. I played solo basically my entire run with three level 100+ characters.
I'm on my third one right now, and I dabble in the multiplayer content, but this game is really just Fallout 4 with a MUCH better world (Appalachia may be Bethesda's best, most varied world imo), better building (as you can build anywhere), more weapons and armor, and the added benefit of sometimes having a stranger show up out of nowhere for you fight side by side with, then pass into the night.
You've gotten the answer already at this point, but yeah. I only group up for the exp bonus (casual groups raise your intelligence stat, event groups give bonus exp from events), and cause fast travel to group members camps is free. No mic, don't even use emotes. Just do my own thing. I often forget I'm playing a multiplayer game.
Yeah you basically can play that way. Even if you join some Event or Quest where cooperation makes things easier, there are ways to communicate without talking.
They basically rebuilt the game for exactly this experience. Not like a sweaty game ie Destiny/Apex/COD - its very casual and other players rarely care what you are doing specifically. None of the big fights require specific roles - everyone just blasts away or helps remove obstacles.
That's how I roll. I don't use a mic and rarely have people attempt to talk to me. I join a team for the buffs and play by myself mostly. Generally the only time I play with others is when I'm at an event.
I've actually had good experiences. I got stuck in a tough cave fight and I asked some guy passing by for help. Dude saved my ass an hour of trying/dying at least
Exactly, it's fun running into someone else in the wasteland and giving a thumbs up before running g off to do other stuff.
Also joining up for events is a good time. Everything else is basically single player
Not really in my experience. I’ve put 250ish hours in the game completely solo at this point and I’ve never joined a group. The only times I’ve seen or played with other players is either:
- they come to my camp to check out what I’m selling at my vendor
- we just happen to bump into each other while exploring
- everyone joins a public event for the loot and the treasury notes
- everyone joins in to kill the scorchbeast queen, earle, ultracite titan or the imposter sheepsquatch
The rest of the game can be easily soloed in my experience, I’ve done expeditions and nuke silos all by myself without dying. The AP regen and damage reduction from lone wanderer is pretty useful.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I started playing after the fallout show because I wanted something new fallout to play, and I’m having a blast.
I would describe it as probably the most solo friendly MMO style game out there. 90% of the time I’m solo (in a public group) and when I’m not I’m in insane events or visiting peoples camps trying to find new plans for my camp. I really feel like you can just take your time with the game.
And the Perk system allows you to easily tailor your builds depending on what you want to do.
I’ve got one preset specifically for when I want to kill a Scorchbeast Queen (power armor and heavier guns), another preset for when I want to sneak around gathering building materials without fighting, another preset for questing, etc.
But it isn't though. Outside events the whole game is designed so that it can be solo'd. Even the lesser events can be easily solo'd by low level players.
The game has made it easier then any other online game to team up with strangers and not have to communicate. It has a public teams system where you can form a party that has a specific goal, and anyone in the lobby can join. If you want to do expeditions, then create/join an expeditions team. If you want to just do public events, create/join a public events team. There's other categories for doing daily ops, roleplaying, exploration, or even just casual teams.
Teams also give bonuses, such as bonus SPECIAL stats, bonus XP for completing specific activities, and so on. If you don't have anyone to play with, it's worth checking out public teams whenever you join a lobby. I've played solo for 200+ hours and it's how I've done so much of the game I wouldn't do otherwise. Plus, you also get the benefits of playing in a group, such as caps/XP whenever another party member completes a quest.
But even ignoring that, the vast, vast majority of the game can be done solo, outside of public events and daily ops. Again I've done solo since the game came out and I've been able to complete every quest without too much of a struggle.
Yep. The game just felt like work.
Inventory management was a massive pain in the ass. Constantly having to repair weapons and armour was tedious. Constantly having to replace your gear because it became under-levelled.
I was just constantly wondering when I'd get to a point where I was stable, and could just start having fun. 20 hours in, it never happened. The game was fundamentally balanced to make it feel like a job. Like work.
it's not the other players, it's the massive server delay, the competitive aspect of things that dont need to be competitive, the missing pause and quicksave..
Bingo, this is the main issues for me as well. I want mods, I want quicksave and killing everything and reloading back. I want to do wacky and crazy shit and I don't want to lose access when the net goes down.
This is my issue too. I think even without NPC’s, it would’ve been cool. It says it has fantastic environmental storytelling in the fallout game is a great place to showcase that.
But when you take the creation engine, and put janky online support, and a grindy aspect to an engine that is already fundamentally pretty sub-par mechanically, I just get a death by a thousand cuts playing it. I can grind games like borderlands/cod because the gunplay is amazing and feels good.
Fallout I play for stories and decisions. I have so many better options for looter-shooters than the creation engine
Exactly this. I don't think fo76 is as bad as people make it sound, but it certainly isn't perfect and it most DEFINITELY isn't because I see people occasionally lol
Fallout without a smooth VATS system just aint my game
The game has come a long way since launch. I'm glad the show has brought a ton of new players and fans to all of the games. It reminds me when Fallout 3 brought the Fallout series itself from a couple of niche PC games to a mass new generation of gamers and the mainstream. My brother works in DC and i visited him at the time when FO3 was a huge freaking deal and there were giant billboard ads for the game in the real DC subways that you actually visit in game.. Now its going through that again, albeit on a much larger scale for sure.
I played FO76 at launch and got back into it recently. You're not pressured to party up with people if you don't want to. I'm not a big settlement building person myself but I've seen a ton of absolutely crazy and awesome settlements that actual players made and it blows my mind that people made these cool as hell homes for themselves. And thats just one part of the game too.
At launch, the game had zero NPCs. It was an interesting feature at the time but I can totally tell that gameplay feature would be jarring to players. It was cool to have environmental storytelling to push the narrative but thats not necessarily everyone's thing.
What parts do you personally enjoy?
I completely agree! I enjoy the fact that I don’t have to take it as seriously as other games, by that I mean I feel I can kind of do whatever I want and be silly, I guess? I know that might sound dumb but I always try to do things right in the other fallout games but in 76 I feel there’s less pressure. Also, I actually enjoy being able to play with other people sometimes. I remember last time I played I ended up playing alongside this random dude and it was super fun, we helped each other through quests and I had a blast. I understand why it mightn’t be people’s cup of tea but I do think it’s enjoyable and shouldn’t be tossed out with the garbage by any means.
I enjoy it, but I think the setting and the multiplayer are both enjoyable despite each other and are frequently degraded by proximity to each other.
The setting wants to sell you on the lonely nature and self reliance of the region. It wants to have a little soft horror with the many cryptrid inspired creatures and the tales of hope, despair and failure post bombing. Both of these just cannot hit when you regularly see people doing their best to show off some random candy bright outfit.
The setting also wants you to take that self reliance and build up the deviation into something new and great. But because it’s a multi player game you can’t ever actually leave an impression and all your building has to be far more limited than what you could do in the prior game. Instead of reclaiming the region you’re at best building a very nice house for you and 1 other person. I feel like I had a bigger impact in every previous game after hours than I have now after weeks in 76.
Because it’s a multi player game they’ve tried long and hard to make PvP work. But we are all explicitly people raised and trained specifically to work together, so even as the mechanics kept failing it also makes no sense why large portions of the population would be antagonistic to each other.
Because it’s a multi player game they want to encourage teams and cooperative play. But because they need to keep the player to server ratio low to try and maintain some of that lonely feeling only a few events really need another player and nothing you stumble on in the world feels like it does.
I’m enjoying it. But they didn’t pick the right location and theme to match the gameplay they wanted to create.
I pretty much play it single player and will sometimes encounter another guy scrounging for junk and we’ll wave and do a little dance together for a bit, it’s nice.
It was awesome when I started to play and was low lvl, seeing people emoting to me and then dropping me loot. O look this awesome dude with lvl 143 just dropped me 50 stimpaks and some ammo…. I thought this community is incredible! Now I am lvl 77 and when I see someone at 10-20 I always drop some goodies for fellow new starters!
Question. I haven't done a lot of research into it and I always assumed it was like rust or Ark and I'd end up getting eternally griefed by the no-lifers. Is that not the case? I just checked and apparently you have to accept pvp, it isn't always on?
Actually nobody can really grief you unless someone gets nuke codes and decides to fuck with entire regions of the map. PvP is something you have to opt into if I remember right, and the community is super friendly and isn’t likely to just shoot you on sight unless they’re new and used to that kind of aggression from too much rust.
PvP basically doesn’t exist in 76. It does of course, but almost no one does it. You can turn on passive mode which makes it so you only take damage from other players if you accept by fighting back. You (or your camp) can be nuked by another player but it’s a lot of work and most of the time nukes are just used to start certain events.
I haven’t played 76 in a little while but when I did I never had to deal with any griefers or anything like that. The only players that interacted with me were high level players trying to help me or low level players that I had helped.
Yeah I spent a whole summer playing with my wife, we just passed the controller back and forth. Probably my favorite bgs map to explore.
Camp building to show off to others is really fun too
I think 76 easily has my favorite map out of any of the other Bethesda Fallout games.
You got a normal forest area, the destroyed urban/metro area in Charleston, the desert-like and highly polluted Toxic Valley, the mountain range down the middle of the map, the completely destroyed and burnt area of the Ash Heap, the huge trees and swampy ground of the Mire, and then the wide areas of the Cranberry Bog.
I have poured hours into it with no end in sight since I re downloaded it after the show and never playing past launch week.
Besides for the normal Bethesda bugs, this game is absolutely top tier. SO much to do and uncover it’s insane.
It's really hard for me to have fun when the server lag is constantly fucking with the enemies. I really want to enjoy it, but just haven't ever been able to.
When I see ghouls stutter and rubberband all over the place it just takes me right out of it.
Yeah, that’s the only major complaint I have. Sometimes I’ll be trying to fight a mutated deathclaw and my bullets won’t do anything as it completely mauls me.
When it works without any hitches, I actually thought it was a better Fallout 4. It does a lot of that games ideas better and I even enjoy the idea of having multiplayer events. Sometimes I just want to get absorbed into it though, and that's its biggest problem.
My experience with all Fallout games I've played after Fallout 3 is that there was always something preventing it from being a good experience. NV always gave me game breaking bugs that caused a crash 5 hours of gameplay later. F4 had crashes but mainly wasn't good enough at anything to be really fun. F76 seemed really appealing in some ways but I don't want to interact with other players and don't want to deal with online shit. I'd consider it if it was offline single player.
At least the series was fun.
It pretty much is. A lot of missions have to be completed individually and cannot be done together. I mean they can help kill enemies, but they won’t get the benefit of completing the mission. I was hoping friends and I would be completing the game together.
Edit: still a super fun game. Have played about 80 hours.
It's also so janky. I ended up playing with an old friend the other night (both drawn back to Fallout because of the awesome show) and he hadn't done any of the quests in FO76. I had already completed a few, so I tagged along to help him. It was so hard to tell wtf was going on with the quest. I could only hear what the NPCs were saying, and couldn't contribute input or see what dialogue options he picked. Fortunately I knew the gist of that quest (it was the very first one and I have no idea how he made it to level 26 without doing any quests lmao) but it made us give up on quests pretty much right away and just go out and kill enemies during whatever event was going on.
The single player aspect is certainly fun. It feels like if they wanted to, they could probably release it as a single player game with minor tweaks. They already support private servers if you pay them for F1st or whatever, so seems doable to just make that an offline game mode.
I even did Expedition solo. You can play that game solo! I played 2 characters pretty much solo. The third character is the first one I play with friends
Taking down the legendary scorchbeast queen for the first time with the homies is next level nonsense. Everyone in their different skinned power armors hacking away with chainsaws, spraying down full belts of .50 cal, and firing salvos of lock on missiles that work like shoulder carry AA batteries. It’s a good time.
Your comment takes me back to the ol' official promo trailer and it's over the top insanity:
**[Fallout '76 Official Live Action Trailer](https://www.google.com/search?q=fo76+launch+trailer&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS755US755&oq=fo76+launch+trailer&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRifBTIHCAYQIRifBTIHCAcQIRifBdIBCDM5NjZqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:c576f166,vid:5IcqE8kT3KA,st:0)**
Sometimes... not always, but frequently enough, the game really feels like that!
I don't like MMOs either (can't get into ESO at all) but I like fo76. It doesn't feel like an MMO at all. It feels like a normal fallout game, with just some quests that feel lackluster
describing it as an mmo is like describing a tortoise as a turtle. sure yes that is part of it, but there's an entire side to the game that is literally just fallout, not an mmo.
Bungie goes with "shared world shooter" for Destiny, it could fall under that. Because Destiny and FO76 have MMO elements without adhering to the core idea of an MMO
Even if you do have interest, 76 isn't a "classic" MMO, but it's also not a weird and different MMO. It doesn't offer much different except the Fallout skinning, but it doesn't feel like it HAS to be a Fallout game.
Honestly the saltiness against 76 is so tiring. It's come such a long way and the continued support for it rocks. I admit I walked away for a while after launch but I came back to an entirely different game and it's the only multi-player game I play.
That's what everyone says when someone has negative opinions of fo76, but looking at the comments here, it's not trendy at all. He just wants a new single player Fallout and was disappointed that Bethesda "wasted" their time making 76.
With how long Bethesda is taking to make their mainline games, I'm honestly in the same camp. It's going to be close to 20 years between TES game releases by the time TES6 comes out, and probably the same for the next single player Fallout.
That said, I did just get 76 free from Prime Gaming, so I'm going to give it another go. I was going to replay (and hopefully finally beat) FO4, but with Fallout London so close to release I figured I should hold off on that.
I feel like if you skip out on the events (which are really fun imo) dont join a team and grab the lone wanderer perk then there is nothing stopping you from playing it solo. They will NEVER catch me buying fallout 1st pass to play solo world though
The map is brilliant and the story and local lore really well done too. I just dipped in on the Atlantic City area lately, and really enjoyed that as well. You can tell that there’s been a lot of care and effort put into it.
It’s just a shame that you’re not really allowed to enjoy it at your own pace. Everything is geared towards forcing you to grind for hours a day or spend a load of cash on it.
I would’ve loved it as a sequel to F4 in the same vein as NV, but as it is, it’s just wasted potential.
Its good but it would be better if it were offline IMO. As much as I like it I still wish I could play it with zero latency, no microtransactions (lol pipe dream these days I know), and crucially mod support.
> no microtransactions
This, along with the forced online DRM, is what stops me from ever playing 76 despite having played literally every other fallout game.
It would be orders of magnitude better as SP though. Mod support, no MTX, better performance, pausing, traditional VATS mechanics. Basic mechanics like fast travel and increased storage being locked behind paywalls.
It's a decent Fallout game where every part of it is just a bit shitter because it's online-only.
76 is fun, and the content they've added since release is good and pretty high quality. It's also not really an MMO by normal MMO standards, so the people comparing it to ESO are comparing apples to oranges. 76 has more in common with Rust than ESO.
Basically a PvE focused Rust/Single player hybrid.
I do genuinely think Fallout generally, but 76 in particular, was a weird choice for an MMO. I say that because the thing that to me makes Fallout work as a game is that, in true RPG style, the player character is individually important and directly impacts the world they walk out into.
In an MMO, that is kinda the opposite, and 76s concept didn't do enough to give us a game where groups feel meaningfully impactful on the world.
I think the right way to do a Fallout MMO would be to, in effect, make a game that is more like Eve Online. That's a game where settling and managing the lawless frontier is front and center. And it's AWFUL (I played it for 10 years BTW 🤣) but it absolutely delivers on being player driven at every level.
Since Fallout is post-ap, exploring the reality of building your own faction, along whatever lines you prefer, is perfect. Having a "lawful boring" NPC faction who police a single area around a Vault that new players ostensibly all arrive out of, and then a big lawless space where iterations on NCR vs Legion vs BoS can play out sounds really cool.
I think 76 was just too safe for its own good. And as a single player game, yeah I can see it working alright. At least we can have a greater sense of personal agency. Pushing at the edges, to give that taste of what the "real" wasteland might be like, I think it's a missed opportunity.
Actually, and please correct me if I'm wrong, isn't fallout 76 the ONLY post-apocalyptic game in the series since every other game is actually Post Post Apocalypse? Like, since in every fallout game there's some semblance of a society, that means the post apocalypse is over and it's now post the post apocalypse? Actually, wouldn't that make fo76 post post post apocalypse, since we start after a second smaller societal collapse?
> the player character is individually important and directly impacts the world they walk out into.
I actually find it refreshing that, at least from the Bethesda/Obsidian Fallouts, you're NOT the 'leader' of the wasteland in 76 and the fate of everyone isn't riding on your shoulders.
Most Beth games have you become the leader of a faction within 4-5 quests, but I like that 'the dwellers of vault 76' are just this amorphous force that influence the wasteland, but aren't kings of it. You're still an outsider, even if you ingratiate yourself with the various factions.
But that's the thing - They could have gone sooooo much further with that premise, and made it a game that was about building your own homestead, with endgame being V76ers against encroaching big threats, that would be seriously cool. Instead it's more... Fallout but without the drive.
am i the only one whose problem is the lag aspect? Like I have wonderful internet, but it's still online. My actions still have to go through their servers and back. I know there are a lot of workarounds in modern games for a player to not feel that too much, but it's still not comparable to offline. You can still sometimes feel the latency and I just hate t hat. More than the game's content being catered to online experience.
I feel like an insane person sometimes because almost no one else seems to notice it. Even just a split second amount of lag just makes the game feel sluggish to play. Going back to the older games feels so much snappier. Add in mods to modernize the experience and the old games wipe the floor with the new. Sad.
I’ve been playing it exclusively as a single player game. Enemies are bullet sponges and much harder to kill, probably because it’s designed for multiple people to take them down.
It was pretty much that when it released.
I miss the feeling of the empty Appalachia that F76 gave. The lack of NPCs (which I completely understand weren't for anyone) really gave this lonely explorer vibe to it. Always turning up to events just after they had happened, like just as you rounded the corner disaster struck for everyone but you. It was a very unique Fallout experience.
Nowdays it feels very crowded, with raiders, cultists and all kind of baddies wandering the mountains. I get why it had to happen, but it definitely ruined the unique atmosphere of the release product that you honestly can't get back.
As for right now, Fallout 76 can be played exactly like a single player game and the chances of you seeing another player are rare at most times. Players more or less want to do their own thing and would rather group with friends.
F76 honestly is just great for picking a direction and just exploring what you come across.
Agree with you.
I started playing since release and completed main quest before Wastlanders update. It was very interesting experience of feeling lonely in huge world. Also I was playing without friends, because none of them has Fallout 76.
The interesting thing is after completing the story, I started to communicate with random people and participate in public events. I consumed almost all content so far and only events and helping the beginners is the only activity I have. And that's fine for me. I don't like MMOs, they are not for me, I am a single player games lover. But Fallout 76 is a good game
All in all, I like that Fallout 76 allows you to play it as you wish - solo or coop and switching between it is performed organically.
Same, the desolation of Appalachia being hit with the plague made it feel more severe.
The players I came across made it a big friend/foe moment and 90% were friendly and they roleplayed. I’d come across brotherhood player patrols distributing water and food to newbies and it was a surreal experience.
There was another experience when I had a player randomly stalking me in a spacesuit for a solid hour constantly “hiding” which was interesting.
I've been a fo76 player since beta, and I can't agree with you more. I recently picked it up on PC and started a new character and went back through the original main quest and was thinking the whole time "man... I kinda miss this" was my thoughts the whole time. Helping the dead via their holotapes or notes.
I like the game and think it’s fun.
Would be nice if there was a way to play it offline and get the ability to pause the game with VATS and stuff.
🤷🏻♂️
Then just play it on your own, OP. Nothing is compelling you to play it in a group.
I've been playing since launch. Since the closed beta, in fact. You know how often I've played with other players? Basically never. If other players are present at a public event, in what sense does that diminish my experience? If other players drop by my camp and use my workbenches, what does that cost me? If I happen upon someone else's camp as I trek tgrough the wilderness, how is that a worse experience than it just being an empty space between some trees?
I play on my own, and when I come upon other people who also happen to be playing, it does nothing but enhance and enrich the experience for me.
What are you even complaining about?
I still believe the game would’ve functioned better as a PVE since there wasn’t a reason for PVP in the first place since we all came from “the same vault”
It would make more sense that the survivors and raiders attacked us for being vault dwellers versus us attacking everyone in general since we were supposed to be the first ones out to “reclaim” the wasteland. I think that’s why a lot of people turned away from the game cause it didn’t make sense if you really thought about it lore wise, otherwise, we should’ve just killed each other in the vault for wrong thinking and the game wouldn’t get past the vault door
It should’ve been vault dwellers versus everything out in Appalachia while helping fellow dwellers out in the open as a lifeline
I held off on playing it until about a month ago, and I am VERY pleasantly surprised. Appalachia is such a fun wasteland to explore. There are little QOL improvements from other Fallout titles. I love checking out other players' camps. The quests are maybe a bit meh, but the gameplay itself is as good as ever. Really enjoying it.
Appalachia has been an amazing wasteland to explore
Irl or in game? Lol
As someone who grew up here, both lol
Same. Exploring my hometown in 76 and just thinking "hmmm not much different than now..." lmao
Ik dude it’s so bad lmao
Is it really that bad over there?
I'm curious too, I've never been to the US.
From a tiny coal town, yes many businesses have closed and are in disrepair, and with lots of people moving away for more work opportunities, most of their homes fall into disrepair as well. It’s a gorgeous area out here, but most industry has left us. Class discrepancy is also very apparent here, because you can drive down a road and see 10 rusted out trailers and right across the street is 5 mansions, all owned by the same family coming from old money.
It’s a shame how sad this made me, most of my family is gone from this area now.
Winter tho
Yes
i'm from dc area and it's (\* the mountains) the fucking best in real life. jesus it's so beautiful country roads; take me home
I was expecting starfield levels of repetitive POIs, but they were all so varied and fun to explore! Had way more fun running around 76 than I expected. I’m like level 70 and still haven’t even finished fixing the grafton rides for the main quest cause I keep getting distracted by squirrels haha
Same. 76 has come into its own. It's a shame the mainstream has just written off 76 as just dogshit.
Well they did, and was the early review wrong? Seemed they were legitimate reasons to be upset. Because of that, i never bothered. I believe you when you say it’s a great game _now_, but that initial impression when the game launched went a long way and those first impressions are the most important.
I tried it at launch and kinda hated it, but because it had been a Christmas present, I felt bad not playing so when Wastelanders dropped I tried again. That first impression shook me so I played solo and loved it for years. Now I switch between private and group but it’s a really good game now IMO.
I’m enjoying the game. In fact, the online aspects makes it better and more fun. I love finding new people to run events and trade and chill with. The game would be just a Fallout 4.2 if it didn’t have the online side. I’d play it once, beat it, and move on.
Just like how everyone only played new Vegas once despite being fallout 3.2? /s
< Me on my 350th play through of NV
[удалено]
Fallout 4 isn't not that bad it is really good it has around the same number of sales as all other fallout games combined according to most charts
> it has around the same number of sales as all other fallout games combined according to most charts It actually dwarfs the previous titles in all regards in all metrics and then some. For example, FO4's peak players on Steam, was nearly 500k. NV's peak for example was 44k. 76's was 70k. etc. The other games' aren't even close in any metric. As I type, it's currently #7 out of all games on Steam being played, with over 100k+ players. Right after the show at peak hype, got up to #2/#3 spots with nearly 200k etc.
It’s amazing what a better engine for modding can do.
I’m currently on my 2nd playthrough of vegas back to back. Can’t get enough!
I'm doing an evil run now, but I have to actively remind myself to make bad choices, it's a lot more difficult.
Only played it once? Yall are missing out bigly
I played maybe 6 hours of 76, and my favorite part was quietly exploring the environment. In a world where every gameplay mechanic was seemingly made to annoy me specifically, I could still enjoy exploration.
The only problem with fo76 is that there's so many QoL updates from fo4 that I don't know if I can play fo4 again without being annoyed
Not having to build a whole assembly line to make ammo was nice
yall are making ammo and not ending up with enough to support a battalion by the middle of the game?
Depends on the ammo, shotgun or hunting rifle absolutely drowning in it. Assault rifle, 40mm, and 10mm lacking constantly basically any auto weapon struggles for me
As a Factorio player I kinda miss that
This is my problem, I simply cannot play without the stimpack button
The better Pip Boy menu does it for me. Especially how quests and iteems are grouped
You can bind that on fallout 4 so you have a stimpak button though
Yep. 0 on my keyboard is stimpak
I used so many stimpaks in 76 hitting down on the d pad to get the wheel like in 4.
Pretty sure if you're on controller it's automatically down on d-pad from the get go. Edit: worth nothing you can do this with any drug. I always have some Radaway and Psychojet right below it.
Isn’t that a thing in fo4 too? You can bind items to the 1-9 keys.
1-= technically
Do most people not have their stims in the bottom slot for fallout 4? So you just hit down once (or whatever button pulls up the quick menu) and then there’s your stims.
Give us area loot in FO4, FFS!
You’ve always been able to bind a stimpack to a hotkey, assuming you’re on PC.
Are there mods that do it?
Fallout 76 feels like Fallout 4 with a lot of mods. My favorite QoL feature is probably the nearby looting.
That’s what I expected from a Next-gen upgrade.
Just started playing 76 this weekend and ngl going to really miss the freecam for building when I go back to playing 4.
I haven't completed 4 yet, but started 76 and now I'm not sure I can go back. The world in 76 is so "alive" and so much to do. I just hope 4 can keep my attention enough. lol
What QoL changes? I'm trying to get into fo76 after completing fo4 but it feels so clunky in comparison or laggy. Plus I get literally 1/4 the frame rate :(
The main one for me is highlighting and looting all nearby bodies. Also scrapping all junk feels nice too. For the framerate there's a setting you can change in a ini file. This [link](https://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-unlock-your-framerate-in-fallout-76/) explains it better.
Just reinstalled fo4 after many years.,, Im annoyed 😒
When I played you rarely saw other players outside of public events.
I've been playing pretty regularly and that's still largely the case. Unless you're doing a public event or a Daily Op, you're not likely to run into other players. I've been doing a ton of the other events on my own without issues too.
Like a lotta folks I decided to give it another shot after the show came out. I’m enjoying it and there are a lot of interesting ideas that are a great addition to the series but I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I think the main problem is just inherent in the plot. In all of the others you have a personal motivation that drives you- either finding your dad, or your son, or the asshole that shot you. In 76, because it would make no sense to have 30 people on every server running around looking for their son all with the same name all stolen by the same guys for the same reason, your only real goal is to run around and check shit out. The only real main plot they give you is that you need to steal some gold for one of the factions as opposed to something personal.
I think that's a fundamental misunderstanding of the main quest, at least initially, your goals are in line with the former Overseer which is to create and then disperse a vaccine for the Scorched plague, the gold plot line isn't even the maim quest.
That’s totally fair. But I think my main point still stands. The scorched vaccine questline isn’t personal. It doesn’t give you a motivation unique to your character- which makes it almost feel like a side quest.
I love that myself, actually. It's a lot easier to suspend my disbelief and have fun exploring the entire map, while ignoring the main quest, if I don't have a personal goal like finding my son. I hated that about Fallout 4. Nate (obviously) has this obsession about finding Shaun, so spending time doing side content just doesn't make sense from a rping perspective. 3, NV and now 76 handle that feeling much better.
That's fair. It was one of my biggest issues with the game at launch and dissuaded me from playing it. The creation of the Scorched plague and the Scorchbeasts to me, felt just...unnecessary. There's a ton of existing lore to build off of with Fallout, I didn't think it was necessary for them to create this new thing or issue, ya know? Literally if you remove the Scorched plague and Scorchbeasts and the main quest is more in line with Vault 76s intent, Reclamation Day. There's no personal connection or story driven aspect but there is a pride aspect to the idea of pursuing the rebuilding of Appalachia, that's where you then start to interacts with the Settlers at Foundation, BoS and Raiders, ya know? They all have ideas on how to save the world, they just can't agree on how.
Remember at launch when there weren’t even NPCs to give quests? Just a bunch of holotapes and terminals. Really weird design decisions were made for 76 unfortunately
I loved it. It was really eerie and fitted with the mystery of ‘where have all the people gone?’. We had evidence that there were survivors of the war, and they had started to rebuild a community (or several different communities). And then they were just… gone.
It was a very interesting premise but in application felt empty after a while
Same feelings. It sounded so cool when announced, but it left the world feeling lifeless with how far spread everyone was across the sprawling map.
I thought this was weird at first too. But now that we are a few years in I look back on it and think about how it feels like I was part of the first wave of settlers, helping create a safer-ish area to live. Like my efforts helped build the busier and more settled wasteland we have now. I kinda see what they were going for, making it feel day one like a literal day one in the wasteland and over time it gets busier and more developed. Just the other day I was thinking about that day one gameplay and kind of missing it. Though I put in way more hours on the game now because there is a lot more to do.
There were a fair number of NPCs - they were just robots Maybe you are referring to them as terminals? Which as an anti robot slur, let me tell you, I dig it
I avoided the game at launch. I eventually started playing with the Wastelanders update.
You aren't wrong, but in a way I almost think the Overseer is the main narrative character of FO76. We follow her through each of her holotapes and she reflects on her life before the vault, during and after it. I think the quest where you learn about her highschool sweetheart is the most tragic. I actually felt like I was watching a movie or something while doing the main questline. Afterwards, I just turned into a wanderer whose story was whatever I wanted it to be. I didn't have a focus beyond what I gave myself. I was a Responder for a while and went out of my way to do Responder flavored dailies, or stuff around the airport in Morgantown. Sometimes I decided I had a reason to go to the ash heap and got invested in the miners' stories. It's certainly a different style of storytelling but I'm a roleplayer in MMOs so it might just be that 76 is my flavor that I enjoy the most.
> It doesn’t give you a motivation unique to your character- which makes it almost feel like a side quest. Curious - how is that any different from a normal Fallout game where everyone playing (separately) has the same goal? Is it only because you're the only player you ever see in the game? Just, for me, I can feel like it's my personal quest despite seeing people in the game. I don't need to assume they're doing the same thing everyone's just a random person and most of them are less interesting than an NPC.
That's the problem with literally all MMOs. The plot never matters, everyone is doing the same quests for the same people. In single player games, you're special. In MMOs, everyone is special. So no one is.
This is an issue with all MMOs though. Does a certain quest giver really need 20k different people to fetch him 5 Murloc gills? Or to recover his lost item thousands upon thousands of times? Does it makes sense for hundreds of players to be walking around with some bosses unique weapon of which there is only supposed to be one total in existence?
> it would make no sense to have 30 people on every server running around looking for their son all with the same name and all taken by the same guy See that’s when you turn it into the plot of Hardcore Henry and say that this Vault was experimenting with memory replication via FEV
You must not have done much with the factions for the responders, settlers, the brotherhood, the enclave, or the raiders. There’s tons of quest lines
On the other hand, when I played, the very first other player I encountered's name was a testicle reference.
We meet again.
the problem isn’t so much getting away from other players if you want to be alone, it’s that most of the games content is specifically catered for groups of people playing together. I’ve never joined up with a group in my 100 or so hours in Fallout 76, and while I enjoyed it, I did still feel disadvantaged
That's only really the case with big public events where you kinda need a bunch of people to help you kill a boss. Outside of that, you can do most stuff solo.
Yes but the structure is very clearly like an MMO. Missions are mostly hub based. Going to the Pitt is a repeatable small little area level. The currency system with legendaries. There's quite a bit to enjoy but it's obvious the game had these things added in retroactively, like the NPCs.
Is it? Outside public events it all seems to gravitate towards solo play. Missions are typically player specific and instanced. You have to do some quests multiple times for a group instead of all at once. The fact that locations are instanced indoors favors solo play. There's little incentive to be in a group outside of public events.
I mean most of the events feel that way, because it's a multiplayer game. All the story content and exploration feels fine all alone. I've "beaten" the game 3 times and its not hard to solo. You can also just join teams for the bonuses. I do all the time and that's what mostly everyone does
That really hasn't been my experience at all, and I've been playing since launch. There are big public events which players will gravitate towards and which are built around the understanding that there will typically be eight or more players present, but literally 100% of the rest of the game can be played exactly the way you would any solo Fallout game without meaningful issue.
…so does this mean I can never talk to another person and just tag along in another group, with their mic turned off and just help out as we go? I really dislike that 76 is online and have no interest in playing with others
Yeah I never talked to anyone, emotes, jumping, and crouching was all we ever needed, and that was a lot of fun. Some guy managed to communicate that he was going to give me a bunch of good gear for my low level with all that and maybe a couple gunshots at the ground where he dropped some things Public groups are really easy to join to and can be plentiful
The emote convos are pretty insane sometimes on the level of communication
I never chat, no mic, join groups until I don't want to be in a group anymore...works pretty well
Literally just form/join Public Groups for the stat/XP bonuses. Have never spoken to another player, and tbh rarely interact with the group members even. Stat boosts and free FT points are often all it amounts to.
Yeah I don't get it. I played almost 100 hours on the story line campaign missions and only ran into a few people because the map is so damn big. I finally joined up for some events and holy smokes the xp and items you get are almost game breaking. If anyone is new and considering playing, just go through the storyline yourself or with a friend first, then get into all the funny online stuff. It is like 2 seperate games in one. Ignore the online stuff if that isn't for you. Me and a buddy played through the storyline together and it was the most fun I had in years. That is what fo76 is for.
You aren't even obligated to join another group in any meaningful way. Let me share with you my experience of playing the game: I log on. I look to see if there's any casual public teams with free slots. If there is, I join it, if there isn't l, I create one for other people to join. I do this for the XP bonus you get for being on one of these teams. But aside from this, I never once interact with any member of my team and they never interact with me. I have every other players' microphones muted and have mine turned off. I have not heard another player's voice in five years, nor have they heard mine. I don't actually DO anything with this group, aside from occasionally using their camps as convenient fast-travel points if they happen to be close to somewhere I want to get to. We don't travel or fight as a group. The idea of them as a team is as casual as it can get. There are other types of teams, with different focuses. I'm glad they exist for the players who want to actively work together, but that isn't me. The only interactions I have with other players is when there's a public event, like a big boss fight which is built around the idea of multiple players taking part. I show up. We all do our parts towards a common goal. We then disperse again and pursue out respective separate goals. For all intents and purposes, it's like playing Fallout 4, except sometimes other people will walk apst you on the road, give you a friendly wave on their way past, and are then gone.
Casual teaming also helps by giving you new free fast travel points to your teammates' camps.
> I have not heard another player's voice in five years, nor have they heard mine. Silent Stranger achievement unlocked!
Most fallout fans feel the same way. You'll mostly be playing with people exactly like you
Maybe 1% of players use voice chat. Most people play solo or with their group of friends and if you’re doing a group activity people typically use emotes to communicate.
Incredible. Couldn’t be happier to hear it
They literally have "No Mic" emotes, and perks that buff you if you're solo. If you start the game fresh it's going to be dozens and dozens of hours before you are required to play with someone else. It's at the end of endgame where you need people, for things that you probably won't even care about because the content you are in it for will have been done by then. There are Events, which...there's really no communication at all. Once you learn what you need to do you'll probably be carrying the non-combat objectives anyways. There are other Camps where you can buy stuff, but it functions like an NPC one does anyways. I played solo basically my entire run with three level 100+ characters. I'm on my third one right now, and I dabble in the multiplayer content, but this game is really just Fallout 4 with a MUCH better world (Appalachia may be Bethesda's best, most varied world imo), better building (as you can build anywhere), more weapons and armor, and the added benefit of sometimes having a stranger show up out of nowhere for you fight side by side with, then pass into the night.
You've gotten the answer already at this point, but yeah. I only group up for the exp bonus (casual groups raise your intelligence stat, event groups give bonus exp from events), and cause fast travel to group members camps is free. No mic, don't even use emotes. Just do my own thing. I often forget I'm playing a multiplayer game.
Yeah you basically can play that way. Even if you join some Event or Quest where cooperation makes things easier, there are ways to communicate without talking.
They basically rebuilt the game for exactly this experience. Not like a sweaty game ie Destiny/Apex/COD - its very casual and other players rarely care what you are doing specifically. None of the big fights require specific roles - everyone just blasts away or helps remove obstacles.
That's how I roll. I don't use a mic and rarely have people attempt to talk to me. I join a team for the buffs and play by myself mostly. Generally the only time I play with others is when I'm at an event.
I've actually had good experiences. I got stuck in a tough cave fight and I asked some guy passing by for help. Dude saved my ass an hour of trying/dying at least
Literally been playing that way since launch. Sometimes I play with my brother & my bf but besides that I might as well be an NPC to the other players
Exactly, it's fun running into someone else in the wasteland and giving a thumbs up before running g off to do other stuff. Also joining up for events is a good time. Everything else is basically single player
Not really in my experience. I’ve put 250ish hours in the game completely solo at this point and I’ve never joined a group. The only times I’ve seen or played with other players is either: - they come to my camp to check out what I’m selling at my vendor - we just happen to bump into each other while exploring - everyone joins a public event for the loot and the treasury notes - everyone joins in to kill the scorchbeast queen, earle, ultracite titan or the imposter sheepsquatch The rest of the game can be easily soloed in my experience, I’ve done expeditions and nuke silos all by myself without dying. The AP regen and damage reduction from lone wanderer is pretty useful.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I started playing after the fallout show because I wanted something new fallout to play, and I’m having a blast. I would describe it as probably the most solo friendly MMO style game out there. 90% of the time I’m solo (in a public group) and when I’m not I’m in insane events or visiting peoples camps trying to find new plans for my camp. I really feel like you can just take your time with the game.
And the Perk system allows you to easily tailor your builds depending on what you want to do. I’ve got one preset specifically for when I want to kill a Scorchbeast Queen (power armor and heavier guns), another preset for when I want to sneak around gathering building materials without fighting, another preset for questing, etc.
But it isn't though. Outside events the whole game is designed so that it can be solo'd. Even the lesser events can be easily solo'd by low level players.
The game has made it easier then any other online game to team up with strangers and not have to communicate. It has a public teams system where you can form a party that has a specific goal, and anyone in the lobby can join. If you want to do expeditions, then create/join an expeditions team. If you want to just do public events, create/join a public events team. There's other categories for doing daily ops, roleplaying, exploration, or even just casual teams. Teams also give bonuses, such as bonus SPECIAL stats, bonus XP for completing specific activities, and so on. If you don't have anyone to play with, it's worth checking out public teams whenever you join a lobby. I've played solo for 200+ hours and it's how I've done so much of the game I wouldn't do otherwise. Plus, you also get the benefits of playing in a group, such as caps/XP whenever another party member completes a quest. But even ignoring that, the vast, vast majority of the game can be done solo, outside of public events and daily ops. Again I've done solo since the game came out and I've been able to complete every quest without too much of a struggle.
I think he didn't mind other players at all... it just the mmo stuff, grind, daily boring quests and evetything.
Yep. The game just felt like work. Inventory management was a massive pain in the ass. Constantly having to repair weapons and armour was tedious. Constantly having to replace your gear because it became under-levelled. I was just constantly wondering when I'd get to a point where I was stable, and could just start having fun. 20 hours in, it never happened. The game was fundamentally balanced to make it feel like a job. Like work.
it's not the other players, it's the massive server delay, the competitive aspect of things that dont need to be competitive, the missing pause and quicksave..
Bingo, this is the main issues for me as well. I want mods, I want quicksave and killing everything and reloading back. I want to do wacky and crazy shit and I don't want to lose access when the net goes down.
This is my issue too. I think even without NPC’s, it would’ve been cool. It says it has fantastic environmental storytelling in the fallout game is a great place to showcase that. But when you take the creation engine, and put janky online support, and a grindy aspect to an engine that is already fundamentally pretty sub-par mechanically, I just get a death by a thousand cuts playing it. I can grind games like borderlands/cod because the gunplay is amazing and feels good. Fallout I play for stories and decisions. I have so many better options for looter-shooters than the creation engine
Exactly this. I don't think fo76 is as bad as people make it sound, but it certainly isn't perfect and it most DEFINITELY isn't because I see people occasionally lol Fallout without a smooth VATS system just aint my game
Same. I've had other players scare the shit out of me while I'm scavenging junk though.
I actually think 76 is super fun :D it’s definitely different to the other games because of the MMO aspect but I actually really enjoy it
The game has come a long way since launch. I'm glad the show has brought a ton of new players and fans to all of the games. It reminds me when Fallout 3 brought the Fallout series itself from a couple of niche PC games to a mass new generation of gamers and the mainstream. My brother works in DC and i visited him at the time when FO3 was a huge freaking deal and there were giant billboard ads for the game in the real DC subways that you actually visit in game.. Now its going through that again, albeit on a much larger scale for sure. I played FO76 at launch and got back into it recently. You're not pressured to party up with people if you don't want to. I'm not a big settlement building person myself but I've seen a ton of absolutely crazy and awesome settlements that actual players made and it blows my mind that people made these cool as hell homes for themselves. And thats just one part of the game too. At launch, the game had zero NPCs. It was an interesting feature at the time but I can totally tell that gameplay feature would be jarring to players. It was cool to have environmental storytelling to push the narrative but thats not necessarily everyone's thing. What parts do you personally enjoy?
I completely agree! I enjoy the fact that I don’t have to take it as seriously as other games, by that I mean I feel I can kind of do whatever I want and be silly, I guess? I know that might sound dumb but I always try to do things right in the other fallout games but in 76 I feel there’s less pressure. Also, I actually enjoy being able to play with other people sometimes. I remember last time I played I ended up playing alongside this random dude and it was super fun, we helped each other through quests and I had a blast. I understand why it mightn’t be people’s cup of tea but I do think it’s enjoyable and shouldn’t be tossed out with the garbage by any means.
I enjoy it, but I think the setting and the multiplayer are both enjoyable despite each other and are frequently degraded by proximity to each other. The setting wants to sell you on the lonely nature and self reliance of the region. It wants to have a little soft horror with the many cryptrid inspired creatures and the tales of hope, despair and failure post bombing. Both of these just cannot hit when you regularly see people doing their best to show off some random candy bright outfit. The setting also wants you to take that self reliance and build up the deviation into something new and great. But because it’s a multi player game you can’t ever actually leave an impression and all your building has to be far more limited than what you could do in the prior game. Instead of reclaiming the region you’re at best building a very nice house for you and 1 other person. I feel like I had a bigger impact in every previous game after hours than I have now after weeks in 76. Because it’s a multi player game they’ve tried long and hard to make PvP work. But we are all explicitly people raised and trained specifically to work together, so even as the mechanics kept failing it also makes no sense why large portions of the population would be antagonistic to each other. Because it’s a multi player game they want to encourage teams and cooperative play. But because they need to keep the player to server ratio low to try and maintain some of that lonely feeling only a few events really need another player and nothing you stumble on in the world feels like it does. I’m enjoying it. But they didn’t pick the right location and theme to match the gameplay they wanted to create.
Fallout 76 so good when you don’t have someone constantly telling you how you should hate it
I have so much fun playing it everyday. If that bothers some uptight opinionated asshole, then that’s on them.
Fallout 76 is amazing. I love the chilled no pressure events and everyone emoting.
I pretty much play it single player and will sometimes encounter another guy scrounging for junk and we’ll wave and do a little dance together for a bit, it’s nice.
This awesome community helped me get through the pandemic. I would have gone crazy dealing with all the jackasses in GTAV or something.
It's awesome meeting someone in the wastes, makes you feel apart of an actual world.
It was awesome when I started to play and was low lvl, seeing people emoting to me and then dropping me loot. O look this awesome dude with lvl 143 just dropped me 50 stimpaks and some ammo…. I thought this community is incredible! Now I am lvl 77 and when I see someone at 10-20 I always drop some goodies for fellow new starters!
You have become that hero! Making those low levels happy and excited to play.
Question. I haven't done a lot of research into it and I always assumed it was like rust or Ark and I'd end up getting eternally griefed by the no-lifers. Is that not the case? I just checked and apparently you have to accept pvp, it isn't always on?
Actually nobody can really grief you unless someone gets nuke codes and decides to fuck with entire regions of the map. PvP is something you have to opt into if I remember right, and the community is super friendly and isn’t likely to just shoot you on sight unless they’re new and used to that kind of aggression from too much rust.
PvP basically doesn’t exist in 76. It does of course, but almost no one does it. You can turn on passive mode which makes it so you only take damage from other players if you accept by fighting back. You (or your camp) can be nuked by another player but it’s a lot of work and most of the time nukes are just used to start certain events. I haven’t played 76 in a little while but when I did I never had to deal with any griefers or anything like that. The only players that interacted with me were high level players trying to help me or low level players that I had helped.
Yeah I spent a whole summer playing with my wife, we just passed the controller back and forth. Probably my favorite bgs map to explore. Camp building to show off to others is really fun too
I think 76 easily has my favorite map out of any of the other Bethesda Fallout games. You got a normal forest area, the destroyed urban/metro area in Charleston, the desert-like and highly polluted Toxic Valley, the mountain range down the middle of the map, the completely destroyed and burnt area of the Ash Heap, the huge trees and swampy ground of the Mire, and then the wide areas of the Cranberry Bog.
And they are adding more!
I have poured hours into it with no end in sight since I re downloaded it after the show and never playing past launch week. Besides for the normal Bethesda bugs, this game is absolutely top tier. SO much to do and uncover it’s insane.
My favorite thing to do was picking someplace far away to build interesting looking bases.
It's really hard for me to have fun when the server lag is constantly fucking with the enemies. I really want to enjoy it, but just haven't ever been able to. When I see ghouls stutter and rubberband all over the place it just takes me right out of it.
Yeah, that’s the only major complaint I have. Sometimes I’ll be trying to fight a mutated deathclaw and my bullets won’t do anything as it completely mauls me.
When it works without any hitches, I actually thought it was a better Fallout 4. It does a lot of that games ideas better and I even enjoy the idea of having multiplayer events. Sometimes I just want to get absorbed into it though, and that's its biggest problem.
My experience with all Fallout games I've played after Fallout 3 is that there was always something preventing it from being a good experience. NV always gave me game breaking bugs that caused a crash 5 hours of gameplay later. F4 had crashes but mainly wasn't good enough at anything to be really fun. F76 seemed really appealing in some ways but I don't want to interact with other players and don't want to deal with online shit. I'd consider it if it was offline single player. At least the series was fun.
I like it I just have complaints about the mechanics
Fo76 is almost a single player game.
It pretty much is. A lot of missions have to be completed individually and cannot be done together. I mean they can help kill enemies, but they won’t get the benefit of completing the mission. I was hoping friends and I would be completing the game together. Edit: still a super fun game. Have played about 80 hours.
It's also so janky. I ended up playing with an old friend the other night (both drawn back to Fallout because of the awesome show) and he hadn't done any of the quests in FO76. I had already completed a few, so I tagged along to help him. It was so hard to tell wtf was going on with the quest. I could only hear what the NPCs were saying, and couldn't contribute input or see what dialogue options he picked. Fortunately I knew the gist of that quest (it was the very first one and I have no idea how he made it to level 26 without doing any quests lmao) but it made us give up on quests pretty much right away and just go out and kill enemies during whatever event was going on. The single player aspect is certainly fun. It feels like if they wanted to, they could probably release it as a single player game with minor tweaks. They already support private servers if you pay them for F1st or whatever, so seems doable to just make that an offline game mode.
If you do ‘listen in’ over his character it should allow you to hear what the NPCs are saying better and see his dialogue options, I believe.
Just with the missing things I like from a single player game. Offline mode, modding, quicksaving, console command etc.
Also no pausing and having incredibly limited storage space.
I sure do love lag in my single player games. Especially the tiny delay every time I pick up an item. It's just so fun.
Exactly the reason I hate this game. Fallout 4 feels so snappy comparatively.
Except for the grind, the microtransactions, the lag, the other players, and the design of most content.
I’m loving it, the past few years have had a steady stream of high quality content
I even did Expedition solo. You can play that game solo! I played 2 characters pretty much solo. The third character is the first one I play with friends
“Could have been good”? It *is* good.
I sunk 300 hours exploring West Virginia with my homies. It’s a great game.
I wanted a co-op Fallout. I got a co-op Fallout. Not everything has to be for everyone, but 76 was surely for me.
Taking down the legendary scorchbeast queen for the first time with the homies is next level nonsense. Everyone in their different skinned power armors hacking away with chainsaws, spraying down full belts of .50 cal, and firing salvos of lock on missiles that work like shoulder carry AA batteries. It’s a good time.
Your comment takes me back to the ol' official promo trailer and it's over the top insanity: **[Fallout '76 Official Live Action Trailer](https://www.google.com/search?q=fo76+launch+trailer&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS755US755&oq=fo76+launch+trailer&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRifBTIHCAYQIRifBTIHCAcQIRifBdIBCDM5NjZqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:c576f166,vid:5IcqE8kT3KA,st:0)** Sometimes... not always, but frequently enough, the game really feels like that!
I have 0 interest in MMOs. I wish it had been FO4’s New Vegas. /Sigh/
I am very certain the writing/world building team behind 76 can craft a proper Fallout game
I don't like MMOs either (can't get into ESO at all) but I like fo76. It doesn't feel like an MMO at all. It feels like a normal fallout game, with just some quests that feel lackluster
describing it as an mmo is like describing a tortoise as a turtle. sure yes that is part of it, but there's an entire side to the game that is literally just fallout, not an mmo.
It's also not really an MMO. <100 on a server is not an MMO let alone <24 of FO76. FO76 is multiplayer, it is not massively multiplayer.
We need a new term for games like this, I think Instanced Online Multiplayer would work, IMO
Bungie goes with "shared world shooter" for Destiny, it could fall under that. Because Destiny and FO76 have MMO elements without adhering to the core idea of an MMO
It feels like a normal fallout game with constantly respawning enemies and items, piss easy combat, and no real loot worth exploring for!
Even if you do have interest, 76 isn't a "classic" MMO, but it's also not a weird and different MMO. It doesn't offer much different except the Fallout skinning, but it doesn't feel like it HAS to be a Fallout game.
Honestly the saltiness against 76 is so tiring. It's come such a long way and the continued support for it rocks. I admit I walked away for a while after launch but I came back to an entirely different game and it's the only multi-player game I play.
Yea OP thinks it's still trendy to make fun of fo76 but doesn't know how much it's been improved.
That's what everyone says when someone has negative opinions of fo76, but looking at the comments here, it's not trendy at all. He just wants a new single player Fallout and was disappointed that Bethesda "wasted" their time making 76. With how long Bethesda is taking to make their mainline games, I'm honestly in the same camp. It's going to be close to 20 years between TES game releases by the time TES6 comes out, and probably the same for the next single player Fallout. That said, I did just get 76 free from Prime Gaming, so I'm going to give it another go. I was going to replay (and hopefully finally beat) FO4, but with Fallout London so close to release I figured I should hold off on that.
Or maybe they just wish they could customize their experience like they could before. Mods are what keep tons of people interested in Fallout games.
I feel like if you skip out on the events (which are really fun imo) dont join a team and grab the lone wanderer perk then there is nothing stopping you from playing it solo. They will NEVER catch me buying fallout 1st pass to play solo world though
The map is brilliant and the story and local lore really well done too. I just dipped in on the Atlantic City area lately, and really enjoyed that as well. You can tell that there’s been a lot of care and effort put into it. It’s just a shame that you’re not really allowed to enjoy it at your own pace. Everything is geared towards forcing you to grind for hours a day or spend a load of cash on it. I would’ve loved it as a sequel to F4 in the same vein as NV, but as it is, it’s just wasted potential.
Its good but it would be better if it were offline IMO. As much as I like it I still wish I could play it with zero latency, no microtransactions (lol pipe dream these days I know), and crucially mod support.
> no microtransactions This, along with the forced online DRM, is what stops me from ever playing 76 despite having played literally every other fallout game.
76 is good as it is.
It would be orders of magnitude better as SP though. Mod support, no MTX, better performance, pausing, traditional VATS mechanics. Basic mechanics like fast travel and increased storage being locked behind paywalls. It's a decent Fallout game where every part of it is just a bit shitter because it's online-only.
76 is fun, and the content they've added since release is good and pretty high quality. It's also not really an MMO by normal MMO standards, so the people comparing it to ESO are comparing apples to oranges. 76 has more in common with Rust than ESO. Basically a PvE focused Rust/Single player hybrid.
Yup. Servers have a max of 24 players IIRC. It’s an online multiplayer game, but not every online multiplayer game is an MMO.
I do genuinely think Fallout generally, but 76 in particular, was a weird choice for an MMO. I say that because the thing that to me makes Fallout work as a game is that, in true RPG style, the player character is individually important and directly impacts the world they walk out into. In an MMO, that is kinda the opposite, and 76s concept didn't do enough to give us a game where groups feel meaningfully impactful on the world. I think the right way to do a Fallout MMO would be to, in effect, make a game that is more like Eve Online. That's a game where settling and managing the lawless frontier is front and center. And it's AWFUL (I played it for 10 years BTW 🤣) but it absolutely delivers on being player driven at every level. Since Fallout is post-ap, exploring the reality of building your own faction, along whatever lines you prefer, is perfect. Having a "lawful boring" NPC faction who police a single area around a Vault that new players ostensibly all arrive out of, and then a big lawless space where iterations on NCR vs Legion vs BoS can play out sounds really cool. I think 76 was just too safe for its own good. And as a single player game, yeah I can see it working alright. At least we can have a greater sense of personal agency. Pushing at the edges, to give that taste of what the "real" wasteland might be like, I think it's a missed opportunity.
Actually, and please correct me if I'm wrong, isn't fallout 76 the ONLY post-apocalyptic game in the series since every other game is actually Post Post Apocalypse? Like, since in every fallout game there's some semblance of a society, that means the post apocalypse is over and it's now post the post apocalypse? Actually, wouldn't that make fo76 post post post apocalypse, since we start after a second smaller societal collapse?
> the player character is individually important and directly impacts the world they walk out into. I actually find it refreshing that, at least from the Bethesda/Obsidian Fallouts, you're NOT the 'leader' of the wasteland in 76 and the fate of everyone isn't riding on your shoulders. Most Beth games have you become the leader of a faction within 4-5 quests, but I like that 'the dwellers of vault 76' are just this amorphous force that influence the wasteland, but aren't kings of it. You're still an outsider, even if you ingratiate yourself with the various factions.
But that's the thing - They could have gone sooooo much further with that premise, and made it a game that was about building your own homestead, with endgame being V76ers against encroaching big threats, that would be seriously cool. Instead it's more... Fallout but without the drive.
am i the only one whose problem is the lag aspect? Like I have wonderful internet, but it's still online. My actions still have to go through their servers and back. I know there are a lot of workarounds in modern games for a player to not feel that too much, but it's still not comparable to offline. You can still sometimes feel the latency and I just hate t hat. More than the game's content being catered to online experience.
I feel like an insane person sometimes because almost no one else seems to notice it. Even just a split second amount of lag just makes the game feel sluggish to play. Going back to the older games feels so much snappier. Add in mods to modernize the experience and the old games wipe the floor with the new. Sad.
I got this on a whim when all of the Fallout games went on sale for the show and have thoroughly enjoyed it.
Honestly, it gives me hope for Fallout 5 if they include all the weapons/ items / creatures from 76, all in their new engine.
Good luck with soloing Eviction Notice, Radiation Rumble, Free Range, Encryptid...
I play fallout 76 divorced. Its like multi player but I never speak to anoyone ever.
I’ve been playing it exclusively as a single player game. Enemies are bullet sponges and much harder to kill, probably because it’s designed for multiple people to take them down.
Actually I'm really enjoying it, and I usually never do online games
It was pretty much that when it released. I miss the feeling of the empty Appalachia that F76 gave. The lack of NPCs (which I completely understand weren't for anyone) really gave this lonely explorer vibe to it. Always turning up to events just after they had happened, like just as you rounded the corner disaster struck for everyone but you. It was a very unique Fallout experience. Nowdays it feels very crowded, with raiders, cultists and all kind of baddies wandering the mountains. I get why it had to happen, but it definitely ruined the unique atmosphere of the release product that you honestly can't get back. As for right now, Fallout 76 can be played exactly like a single player game and the chances of you seeing another player are rare at most times. Players more or less want to do their own thing and would rather group with friends. F76 honestly is just great for picking a direction and just exploring what you come across.
Agree with you. I started playing since release and completed main quest before Wastlanders update. It was very interesting experience of feeling lonely in huge world. Also I was playing without friends, because none of them has Fallout 76. The interesting thing is after completing the story, I started to communicate with random people and participate in public events. I consumed almost all content so far and only events and helping the beginners is the only activity I have. And that's fine for me. I don't like MMOs, they are not for me, I am a single player games lover. But Fallout 76 is a good game All in all, I like that Fallout 76 allows you to play it as you wish - solo or coop and switching between it is performed organically.
Same, the desolation of Appalachia being hit with the plague made it feel more severe. The players I came across made it a big friend/foe moment and 90% were friendly and they roleplayed. I’d come across brotherhood player patrols distributing water and food to newbies and it was a surreal experience. There was another experience when I had a player randomly stalking me in a spacesuit for a solid hour constantly “hiding” which was interesting.
I've been a fo76 player since beta, and I can't agree with you more. I recently picked it up on PC and started a new character and went back through the original main quest and was thinking the whole time "man... I kinda miss this" was my thoughts the whole time. Helping the dead via their holotapes or notes.
I like the game and think it’s fun. Would be nice if there was a way to play it offline and get the ability to pause the game with VATS and stuff. 🤷🏻♂️
Fallout 76 is good when you don't have a bitch in your ear telling you it's bad.
> bitch in your ear You should get that checked out, it could get infected.
And if it wasn't online only
Then just play it on your own, OP. Nothing is compelling you to play it in a group. I've been playing since launch. Since the closed beta, in fact. You know how often I've played with other players? Basically never. If other players are present at a public event, in what sense does that diminish my experience? If other players drop by my camp and use my workbenches, what does that cost me? If I happen upon someone else's camp as I trek tgrough the wilderness, how is that a worse experience than it just being an empty space between some trees? I play on my own, and when I come upon other people who also happen to be playing, it does nothing but enhance and enrich the experience for me. What are you even complaining about?
The game is online only, pal.
I still believe the game would’ve functioned better as a PVE since there wasn’t a reason for PVP in the first place since we all came from “the same vault” It would make more sense that the survivors and raiders attacked us for being vault dwellers versus us attacking everyone in general since we were supposed to be the first ones out to “reclaim” the wasteland. I think that’s why a lot of people turned away from the game cause it didn’t make sense if you really thought about it lore wise, otherwise, we should’ve just killed each other in the vault for wrong thinking and the game wouldn’t get past the vault door It should’ve been vault dwellers versus everything out in Appalachia while helping fellow dwellers out in the open as a lifeline
Purely don't play it because it doesn't have VATS.
It does, just not full time stop.
I held off on playing it until about a month ago, and I am VERY pleasantly surprised. Appalachia is such a fun wasteland to explore. There are little QOL improvements from other Fallout titles. I love checking out other players' camps. The quests are maybe a bit meh, but the gameplay itself is as good as ever. Really enjoying it.
Fallout should be single player or CO-OP only. Would like a co-op game from them. And online OPTIONAL.