Noah DeSantis ’19, Managing Editor
Bethesda’s Fallout has been a consistent hit with every installment released. With interesting storylines and creative characters, Fallout seems to be one of the most anticipated games every time a sequel is announced. However, with the most recent entry, Fallout 76, there have been many issues surrounding the game. Based in the wasteland of West Virginia, 76 misses some key elements that makes the player ponder over the whether the game is worth the price.
Fallout 76 is the first installment to be an online role playing game. Before, every Fallout game has been a solo survivor game. But with Fallout 76, it is an entire new world. 76 is a game where you can team up with friends and do quests together or even fight monsters. But, even though this new concept is fun, there are a lot of new issues introduced to the game as a result.
One main flaw of the game is that there is generally no plot. The most commonly suggested plot brought forward within the game is figuring out what happened to all of the other people in the wasteland. Besides the actual players, there are no other survivors in West Virginia. This baffles users as to why Bethesda did this. Even though this seems to be the main aspect of the plot, many fans are frustrated about this because now, the only way to see other survivors is by playing with your friends or other users. While this may be the closest thing that there is to a narrative within the game, there are no other quests that seem to be close to matching anything to a main adventure. With no other survivor, non-player characters (NPCs), the game is a frustration to play. Players want other human life, not just robots to talk to. The personalities though that are shown from the surviving robots is something that is very interesting. For example, players can meet robots dressed as bowlers and even robots dressed up for Halloween. With these additive things in the game, it presents a much better appeal by having robots that have personality and not just computer entities. In addition to this, it also explains a reason for not having human NPCs within the game.
Nevertheless, with no clear plot, this leads to boredom during the game. When asked about his enjoyment of Fallout 76, Troy Brinkel said, “I liked Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, but Fallout 76 has no story line to follow and is tiresome to play.” With no main quest to follow, the only other thing to do is either explore the vast wasteland or complete side quests; in which the only things for a player to do is fetch items for robots. While exploring may be fun, this entertainment only last so long before the player gets tired of fighting the same super mutants or gathering their hundredth piece of junk.
While the main quest line may be a problem, the countless bugs also add to the frustration within the game. One main bug that the player can endure is a glitch where players suddenly get disconnected from the server. As a result of this, anger arises from the fans because all they want to do is play the game, but when the server keeps crashing, there is barely anything to do in the small amount of time. This is just one of the countless bugs that the game presents. Gamer Sky review said, “Fallout 76 is meant to change the very concept of the series; however, with all of the bugs in the game, it is almost unplayable.”
However, even with these issues, for a lot of fans the game is still a blast to play. With new weapons being introduced into the game, there is a bigger assortment of arsenal to add to your collection. These new weapons allow players to play in a new fighting style. In addition to weapons, new kinds of armor were added as well.
With all these issues and only a few key specific differences from other Fallouts, is it really worth is to purchase the game for $60? I would say, yes. For die-hard Bethesda fans, this is the perfect game to spend downtime doing quests and collecting new things. And even for people who are not big fans of the Fallout series, the game will still provide a fun and a vastly different experience to any other role playing game in the business.
Photo courtesy of Game Revolution
Lyon Life 