Fallout 76 is a multiplayer game that's more fun on your own

Eurogamer with a hot take on Oblivion with guns (with friends).

Agree?

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-11-14-fallout-76-is-a-multiplayer-game-thats-more-fun-on-your-own

Everyone loves a party, right? I know I do. I'll jump at any excuse to hang out with my mates for a good old sesh of music, games and lovely, lovely booze. But, in the case of today's Reclamation Day celebrations, I'll think I'll be partying by myself because to be honest with you, Fallout 76 is a multiplayer game that's much more fun to play on your own.

Fallout 76 is meant to be a social experience. It's been designed with teamplay in mind, what with the 'always on' voice chat, the lack of NPCs, the trading aspects, the timed public events and so on. And don't get me wrong, I tried to embrace these design choices, I put over 10 hours into the beta sessions across PS4 and Xbox One and I've teamed up with friends on both. It's just... I didn't really enjoy myself as much as when I was pootling along at my own pace, doing my own thing. My time with beta convinced me that the multiplayer elements of 76 simply frustrate the experience of what could be a semi-decent single-player Fallout game.

Let's start with immersion - an important thing with roleplaying games and Fallout games in particular. In Fallout 76 we've just emerged from a sealed vault into a ruined world where all your friends and family have been vaporised by a nuclear war. It should be a somber moment, that first step into a new world. A brave new start tinged with sadness, loss and fear. A time for reflection, maybe. It didn't really feel like that for me though because the first thing I saw when I emerged from Vault 76 on the PS4 beta was a group of people in their pants doing love heart emotes at each other whilst one of them pumped Eastern European dance music down their microphone. Don't worry, friends, I'll find a quiet spot to weep for you later...

It's not just randoms who'll ruin your immersion though, teammates are way more likely to make you forget where you are. To replace the lack of NPCs in the game, Bethesda has littered Appalachia with notes, computers and holotapes that are crammed with well written, world-building lore. Most of the Survivor Story holotapes are genuinely great; well acted, grim dark tales that paint a picture of people trying to survive in a world turned to ash. It's just really hard to listen to them properly when they're drowned out by your mate who's screaming for backup because an indestructible Radscorpion is trying to sting his legs off.

When I played by myself I could invest my time in those little scraps of paper that I found next to shrivelled corpses. I could sit back and slowly flick through pages of data on glowing computer screens, soaking up the lore at my own pace. It was nice! Somewhere amongst all the digital blurb there might be information about the Overseer's motivations, perhaps. Maybe there's a clue to some random loot stash hidden in the hurried scrawls. You won't know that if you play in teams though, because it's terribly hard to absorb written information when you've got mates jabbering away in your ear. Or forcing you to run forwards to the next objective because they're bored and ready to move on already. Sure you could mute them and catch up with them once you're done, but by that point they'll have already powered through most of the mission leaving you with pretty much nothing else to do. Except for reading more notes and listening to more holotapes, I guess.

One of the real problems with Fallout 76's forced multiplayer though, is that no one really interacts anyway. There'll be people playing in teams who will chatter and barter with each other, sure, but the majority of players I've seen in Appalachia just skip on past me without so much as a thumbs up emote to show that they've registered my presence. I had a few trade or teaming offers in my first couple of hours of the beta on each platform but after the novelty wore off, everyone just went about their own business. It's almost as if Fallout 76 players have turned to treating other people on the map as if they were side characters to be ignored and forgotten about. Is this what Todd Howard meant when he said he wanted human players to take the place of NPCs? Surely not, but that's what's happening.

So yeah, I was at my happiest in Fallout 76 when I was on my own, tinkering with my house that I'd built from scratch, using wood that I'd scavenged during solo trips into the surrounding towns. It was in those quiet moments that the game actually felt like a proper Fallout experience. Without the pressure of keeping track of my friends, or the guilt for not running to their aid, I could explore the huge map that Bethesda has created to my heart's content. I was back in the Wasteland, a lone survivor in a hazardous land, learning about the past and working to turn a little bit of that burnt world into my own little paradise. It's just shame that there's always the risk of other people turning up to gatecrash my party for one.

I never wanted a multiplayer Fallout. I'm happy for those who did, but this is just the opposite of what I want from the series

Weird, IGN had an article saying the opposite.

Brand name is the only thing carrying this thing. Why do people even bother making threads about it?

That depends. Watch some youtubers that actually play and communicate with other players.(It doesn't look that bad if you are into that stuff)

Yeah the problem is we are not youtubers, so we don't have any friends ?

@ivangrozny: ?

I appreciate a man's opinion.... but he is wrong and right. It's great with friends and great when you want to ignor everyone around you.

All I seen since I been playing is people helping people.... I've seen no griefing.

That's because Bethesda made the game anti PVP. Player that dies doesn't loose his loot, player that kills can't loot the body but only gets a meager reward plus a bounty on his head for killing. There is literally no profit for hunting other players like in other survival games. Stop inventing excuses for this lazy and poor game design. The game looks like a mod for Fallout 4 at full price.

Youre complaining about not being able to grief... and then you are calling a game developer lazy from a video game forum. The same developers that hand crafted the beautiful world I am playing in now.

Your whole post is invalid to me. I disagree with you... fundamentally.

@uninspiredcup: I'm on level 10, so I haven't played it that much yet. But, it's kinda more fun with people than without. There are no NPCs, so it feels quite... lonely without companions.

You *DO* lose your loot if you die and someone else pics it up. And, why would you not want an anti-grief system? Or, are you one of the &$#$! who likes to ruin everyone's time by being a griefer?

Exploring and questing is more fun alone or with friends but participating in events is a lot more fun with others than solo. I believe it would benefit the game more to have more one off group events that people will congregate upon and go their separate ways once it has finished. In general the game needs more things to facilitate interaction with other players because that is where the meat of this game is going to come from.

With factions and more PvP coming in the future, I think it will get a bit more lively in that regard.

Hah funny yet true

I have a feeling this game's reviews are going to be all over the place.

I am enjoying this game without ever having spent any time playing it; I have just been watching glitch videos from early gameplay, which are hilarious!

I'm gonna catch so much hate for saying this, but Fallout76 sounds like a Fallout game for people who thought "You know what would make one of these games better? I know. What if everyone was Preston Garvey?!! I'm a genius!"

It's fun solo or with friends.

How come nobody argues which consoles look that best for this game but all the cows do for RDR2 lol?

Bethesda games always look like shit unless modded.

Probably the worst game I've played in the last year or two.

That makes me more interested than before.

After spending maybe 10 hours with it, I think the hate this game is getting is incredibly hyperbolic.

basically its Fallout 4, on a new map, with a restructuring of all the quests so that you don't have to talk to or deal with NPCs.

the worst part of Fallout 4 (IMO), which was largely well received, was any kind of interaction with friendly NPCs. the dialogue wheel sucked. the facial animations sucked. the writing sucked. the voice acting was flat. NPC companions had terrible animations, broken-ass AI and mostly just served to break immersion. Yet, the main thing I see people complaining about are the lack of NPCs. Really? People miss that shit?

the best part of Fallout 3/4, again to me at least, was exploration and scavenging, and the environmental storytelling that went with it. I didn't mind the combat either. Fallout 76 is built ENTIRELY around these elements. Quests still exist an as excuse to move you around the map, which is bigger and has more to explore than FO3 or 4.

so, in my opinion, Fallout 76 largely plays to the strength of the series (at least, as far as Bethesda's Fallout entries go). The main issue I see is that the multiplayer feels kinda pointless. Its kinda fun building a base with friends and fighting tougher groups of enemies, but as the Eurogamer article points out, its hard to read notes or listen to audio logs when you are on voice chat with friends. The writing/VO work in 76 is actually better than Fallout 4 in my opinion, its just not delivered by goofy looking, dumb-ass NPCs or crammed down your throat as much.

I think Bethesda's mistake was in marketing and pricing this like a major Fallout entry. they should have made it a $40 standalone expansion to Fallout 4. In most ways, it feels EXACTLY like Fallout 4.

If you enjoyed Fallout 3 and 4 for the exploration, atmosphere and environmental storytelling, there is no reason you wouldn't enjoy Fallout 76 as well. its not a great game, but its not anywhere near as bad as the general sentiment towards it online seems to be.

anyway, I guess you can call that a first impressions update from me

It’s more fun if you play something else.

Can you play offline or is the premise that you need a online connection to even play any part of it.

I believe you need to be online to play it

That's my problem I don't want to be forced to connect online. I'm old school like that I'll pass on this.

You need to be connected,

It's a really boring game, would have been a mediocre exploration game but they added the annoying inventory juggling and food/water system which mean you spend almost the same amount of time in the inventory screens than actually exploring.

I still havent played FO 4 , so anyone can give a reason why should i play Fo 76 instead of FO 4 ? Btw FO 4 is on sale on psn right now.

From what I’ve heard the game is more fun if you buy a different game and play that instead.

Thanks ! Fo4 pretty cheap now so i might stick with this

I really enjoy Fallout 76 but Fallout 4 is a much more enriching experience. 76 is good if you have already played all the other Fallouts and looking for a little bit more but I wouldn't recommend it ahead of any of the others (Except Brotherhood of Steel)

yea i'd agree with this.

get FO4 instead. its much better value if nothing else

The game is absolutely nothing like Oblivion in any way, shape, or form. On that note, no, I disagree.

This game is trash.