Fallout 76 Review - Radioactive Garbage (Topic)

The new Bethesda game - Fallout 76 - from the very first day of the announcement met with deafening criticism, ridicule and reproaches from the fans of the series about the total corruption of Todd Howard. It seemed that the developers from Bethesda did not care at all about the origins of the series and the only thing that drives them - the greed and the pursuit of current trends in the gaming industry. But maybe you shouldn't bury the game right away and give Fallout 76 a chance? We decided to take a chance and solemnly declare - we will never again lead to the eloquent phrases and honest eyes of Todd Howard. You can learn more about the game's issues in our Fallout 76 review.

In search of a plot

The game starts in Vault 76 - another underground bunker that hides people from the horrors of the post-apocalyptic world. But unlike the inhabitants of Vault 101 from Fallout 3, who are ready to live under the protection of metal walls for hundreds of years, the "seventy-sixths" are less cowardly (read - prudence) and after 25 years of nuclear war they go to meet the nuclear wasteland to rebuild America. In general, they follow the motto “Make America great again” in every possible way.

The player has the honor to become one of the freshly baked explorers of the new America and uncover the many secrets of the radioactive wasteland. One of the main secrets of the game Fallout 76 is to find out what happened to the vault caretaker, who scattered numerous holotapes throughout the remains of West Virginia. Although this approach adds points to the game, because the presence of a plot and some kind of motivator for exploring the world is already better than the standard goal for multiplayer survivors - "try not to die", but the presentation of the plot itself is perhaps the worst nightmare of any fan of the original dilogy Fallout.

Unexpected scenario twists, non-linearity, or NPCs were not noticed. Forget pretty much everything you knew about Fallout. The plot of the game is presented through numerous holo-recordings and messages in computer terminals, and in general serves one purpose - to teach the player the basics of gameplay. In some way, completing Fallout 76 can bring back the glorious days of Planescape Torment, when you had to strain your eyes and read kilometer lines of text. Compared to Chris Avelone's cleverly written creation, Fallout 76 is a fifth grader's graphomania.

And not to say that the abundance of text or even its quality is such a big problem. Silent text is fine as an alternative narrative, but in the new Bethesda game, it's essentially the primary way to present stories and missions. Quests, or God forbid, some rudiments of nonlinearity? Sorry, but you definitely came to the wrong address here.

Speaking of "silence". The game met me with absolute silence. As it turned out, the PS4 version of Fallout 76 may be completely devoid of voice acting, which further brings the game closer to the standard Korean MMO. To solve the problem, I had to rearrange the console language to English, and only then the download of audio fragments began. Oh, this Fallout 76 game is always ready to surprise you.

Meet by dress

Having got out of Vault 76, we meet a dazzling veil of light, our eyes slowly get used to the bright sun, and now, we have the same native Fallout 4 in front of us. Moreover, in terms of stylistics, the game looks great: each location is distinguished by unique buildings, a familiar setting accurately hits nostalgia, the design of mutants, as always, surprises with creativity, and the local scarlet deciduous forests evoke pleasant associations with Skyrim. The technical part of the game is another matter. If in 2015 it seemed that the Creation Engine (aka the redesigned Gamebryo, on which Morrowind was created) looks poor compared to other AAA games, then from now on there is no doubt that it is time for the engine to rest.

The abundance of colors and the increased drawing distance cannot hide either mediocre textures, or the ubiquitous bloom, which makes you wipe the screen with a cloth in order to make out at least something in the local landscapes, or primitive animation, reminiscent of the theater of iron woodcutters. But it is worth noting that visual backwardness is only part of the problem, the overall technical flaw in the project is more depressing. Like an artifact from Early Access Steam, Fallout 76 is replete with bugs of all colors and sizes. Some of them can cheer (for example, this bastard of mixing a death claw and a person), others can undermine the mental state.

Walking through the post-apocliptic world at 20 FPS and the sight of enemies teleporting hundreds of meters away and attacking the player with their minds (animation often fails) is a common occurrence in Fallout 76. About such standard problems as the lack of registration of shots to the body opponents and crumbling quests, when the desired item either fell into the ground, or did not appear at all in the marked location, even reluctant to remember. Numerous bugs in Fallout 76 force to perceive the game as a protracted beta testing, to which anyone can join for a "symbolic" price of $ 60.

See you through the mind

The core gameplay has remained unchanged since Fallout 4 - it's the same paradise for loot collectors and virtual architects. There are hundreds of items scattered across each location, which are sure to come in handy in an attempt to collect the best equipment, build a house and plant a tree on the soil saturated with radiation. True, with the promise that it will be possible to erect a structure anywhere on the map, not everything is so smooth, which became noticeable even with Fallout 76 BETA.Due to the differences in heights and unevenness of numerous surfaces, it is not easy to find a suitable place to deploy a structure, besides and the usual Fallout 4 problems, when different interior items refused to dock with each other.

But unlike the fourth part, which offers occasionally creative quests and colorful characters, Fallout 76 is a motley-looking, but lifeless desert inside. Quests range from the intriguing "go-fetch" to the wonderful "clean up that fort", and the characters are limited to faceless NPCs in holotapes, robots and other players, who often, instead of communication, will meet you with an automatic burst. The predominantly aggressive behavior of other players turns Fallout 76 into a poor analogue of the battle royale. Poor because only 24 players can fit in a colossal world.

Rare firefights with other players are overshadowed by the combat component, which migrated from the same Fallout 4 without any changes. all the positive emotions that can be obtained from armed clashes. The famous VATS series has become almost useless at all and is made in the form of auto-aiming, standard for console shooters.

The idea of perks that can be changed on the fly and, depending on the situation, adjust the build of the protagonist looks interesting at first glance. But the question is: why limit the player's abilities, if in the previous parts of the series it was possible to take everything at once? I have two options: either to adjust the balance, or to later sell perks through real money. Let's not forget that perks drop out of loot boxes, which in the long term may open a gold mine for Bethesda to siphon money from casual players who do not want to waste time pumping.

Summary

If, after reading the review on Fallout 76, you got the impression of the game as a total failure, then not everything is so deplorable for the new brainchild of Todd Howard. You can get some fun from the game if you evaluate Fallout 76 as a virtual tour of the sights of the post-apocalyptic world. And the presence of a cooperative copes with its life-giving business, because, as you know, with a friend it is more interesting to watch even how the paint dries, and even more so to play the new "Fall".

But absolutely disregard not only to the canons of the series, but also to the end consumer, when, under the guise of an AAA game for $ 60, a player receives a piece of code teeming with bugs in a familiar setting, makes Fallout 76 nothing more than radioactive garbage. It is a real crime in 2018 to release such an unpolished miracle, and even ask for money for it.

See also the history of the Fallout series and 7 tips before playing Fallout 76.

The Topic of Article: Fallout 76 Review - Radioactive Garbage.
Author: Jake Pinkman