My Fallout 76 game review

[Mdk25]

TL;DR A microtransaction based MMORPG, with a near perfect feedback-loop.

Like many others, I started playing Fallout 76 in the wake of the Fallout TV show being released on Amazon Prime in April.
Unlike many others, I’m actually a long time Fallout fan, started with Fallout 1 & 2, played Fallout tactics, Fallout BOS, and obviously the newer Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 4.
I really enjoyed Fallout 4 for the most part.
The graphics there was greatly improved, skills/perks tree was revamped, and crafting and base building was introduced.
I however do acknowledge that some things became worse in Fallout 4. The combat became less turn based, the story wasn’t as good (especially compared to Fallout 1 & 2), and there was too much useless text/fluff. I understand providing some backstory for world building purposes… But at some point some backstory turns into too much backstory, turns the backstory into fluff you don’t want to read anymore.

I realize this is a review for Fallout 76, and not of previous games :)
But I do feel it’s important to mention the previous games, to understand how Fallout 76 fares in comparison.

First of all, this is a much dumbed-down, combat-centered version of Fallout.
The focus of the game is (in that order):

1. Battles with monsters
   
2. Character building
   
3. Crafting
   
4. Base building
   
5. Trading
   
6. Missions / Quests

Unlike the “regular” Fallout games, where the focus is on open-world RPG, and the ability to solve missions in different ways (sneaking, stealing, speech checks, paying money OR combat). Here the focus is on combat 95% of the time spent on missions.
Between missions, you’ll spend most of your time upgrading your character, gear and your base.

FEEDBACK LOOP / MICROTRANSACTIONS

Microtransaction based games are games where the player can spend real money to purchase items, in game-currency or a game-pass. This is a common practice in modern free-to-play mobile games. Noted examples: Candy crush, Plants vs. Zombies, Brawl Stars, etc…
And have no mistake - Fallout 76 is a microtransaction based game. You can both buy in-game currency with real money and buy a monthly game-pass that gives you additional advantages in the game. For example the free-to-play “Brawl Stars” also has the same microtransaction options.
The main characteristic of any microtransactian based game is the feedback loop.
Think of a hamster in a hamster wheel, that is given a treat as long as it keeps running in the wheel.
The more the hamster runs, more treats it gets, which gives it the incentive to keep running.

“Regular” games are sold on content-per-$$$ basis.
You pay a fixed sum of money upfront, and in exchange you get a game with a set content.
The more hours of enjoyment you get from the game, the more worthwhile the game is to you as the player.
This is not the case in microtransaction based games.
Here the goal of the game is to get you to spend as much money, and for this the goal is to keep you playing as long as possible (preferably indefinitely). Much like a casino.
Similar to many mobile free-to-play games, you are limited in the number of things you can do in a day (vendors have a limited number of caps per day, you can only trade a limited number of legendaries for scrip per day, etc.), while you are encouraged to come back and play every day (daily free items, daily missions for “seasonal” bonus awards, daily refresh for caps & scrip, etc.)
So while in a “regular” game you can play the whole weekend, and then not play at all for the whole week, you would not lose anything. Here playing 1 hour for 7 days, can potentially net X7 more awards than playing 1 day for 7 hours.

Another “first” in this game, is fast travel between points now costs money, probably in order to make the players spend their caps instead of hoarding them, so they would need to grind more of the game to get more caps.

MULTIPLAYER-ONLY

Similar to Diablo III & IV, this game even when played alone, is a multiplayer-only game. Which has deep effects on the gameplay.

• You cannot save & load the game. When you leave your inventory and location is noted, and when you return you are spawned approximately in the same location. So unlike a “regular” game, where you can save and leave before a big boss battle, and then return to finish it later. Here you cannot do it. If you leave and return, the boss will simply not be there anymore.
  
• This also means you can’t pause the game if you have something IRL to attend to. And you can’t play the game for a couple of minutes. Every play sessions needs to be long enough to finish a task from start to finish.
  
• For this reason there is also no modding support for the game. Any quality-of-live improvements from previous games - will not exist here. No better UI. No mods for improved carry weight. No nothing.
  
• Like the aforementioned Diablo games, this game is centered around grinding. Until level 50, you are progressing, doing quests, improving your character, crafting items of increasingly higher levels and better stats, etc. Starting level 50, you stop progressing, and the game starts to revolve around min-maxing, building the perfect build, and grinding for more resources and better random rolls on legendaries.

The fun parts of the game:

CHARACTER BUILDING

Character building is different from other Fallout games, and is somewhat akin to Fallout 4.
Similar to other Fallout games, you spend points on S.P.E.C.I.A.L skills.
Similar to Fallout 4, the more skills points you have, the more various perks (perk cards here) you can assign to that skill.
What is new here, is that starting from level 25 you can freely reassign skills, and create different skill combinations based on specific load out you want to use, or specific crafting you’d like to perform.
Compared to Fallout 4, you have much more limited skill selection of skills you can use at any given time, so you need to be much more focused on the specific build.

MODDING YOUR WEAPONS AND ARMOR

Similar to Fallout 4, you can improve your weapons with various mods and improvements, to make them more deadly, shoot farther, be more accurate, faster, etc. (for weapons) and improve various defense types, improve skills, or add additional carry weight or action points (for armor).
All of these require plans (or recipes for food items), which are scattered throughout the game, given as rewards for finishing tasks, or can be bought for bot vendors or human vendors.
Unlike Fallout 4, each weapon can also have up to 3 “legendary” improvements, which give special bonuses you cannot get otherwise. But which are completely random, and you have no control over. You can however, keep re-rolling them, in exchange for scrip. Which you can get (a limited amount of every day) by grinding special events - this is where the game’s feedback loop comes into play).

BASE BUILDING

Similarly to Fallout 4, you can build a base here (even several) called “C.A.M.P”, and design it in accordance with your heart’s desires.
And I’ve seen really beautifully designed houses people have built.
You can also build a huge variety of various improvements that give various bonuses or advantages, from giving you various resources (it collects over time), to recharging fusion cells, or giving you crafting stations you can use to craft weapons, armor, food, medicine, ammunition, grenades, mines, etc. etc.
Unlike Fallout 4, you can place your base virtually anywhere on the map (

TRADING

Another fun thing you can do in the game is you can trade with other players.
You can either trade with them directly (mostly designed to trading things between friends).
You can place items on the floor for them to pick up.
Or any player can set up a vendor/shop in his base, and set any price you like for any of the item you’d like to sell. (The game also has recommended prices for everything)
So this creates a fun little mini-game for you to understand what items people would be willing to pay money for (and how much they would be willing to pay for it).

PLAYING WITH FRIENDS (optional)

I have not encountered it much in the game, but if you have other people who play Fallout 76, you can play together.
Either on a private server (if you’re paying for Fallout 1st) or a public server.
But most people are playing alone, and join groups with random strangers to do daily tasks together.
There are many bonuses for playing together with other people, either friends or complete strangers, and the game actively encourages that.

OVERALL

This is not a bad game (in its current state).
Not by a long shot.
And I have over 140 hours in this game, so it’s definitely doing something right.
There is (in its current state) tons of content, fun stuff to do, a very live and vibrant Fallout world, which scratches the itch very well. (No wonder Amazon gave away the game for free when the TV show was released)
However, even after playing that much hours, and paying for Fallout 1st, I still have this nagging feeling like I’m playing a free-to-play mobile game.
Like the game deliberately limits your carry weight on the one hand, and forces you to carry an increasingly larger amount/weight of items on the other hand in order to progress in the game.
And the only way around it? You guessed it - pay a monthly subscription fee.
So while it may not be a Pay-to-win or Pay-to-play kind of game, it’s definitely Pay-to-progress or Pay-to-enjoy kind of game.

[󠀡󠀡]

Fallout 76 isn't an mmo. GTA Online has 60 players in a lobby and has far deeper RPG elements and that's not an mmo either. No wonder the playerbase never understood what this game was supposed to be, same as Bethesda. Older, single player Fallout 4 that doesn't even get much updates completely dominate FO76 in terms of player size and popularity. Let that sink in

[Feiff]

You know... I REALLY hope you are just doing advanced trolling. Otherwise, perhaps reviewing just isn't your thing since you should actually play the game before write about it. You got so much wrong I am actually embarrassed on your behalf.

[Wade]

In short, not great, not terrible. Just an average slop.

[a sentient mcnugget]

Where is the challenge in this game? Ever been afraid to die? And then...so what?
You only lose worthless junk.

No need to dodge, parry or anything. Just mindlessly press the fire weapon button and stimpak when necessary.

[Jeff Kaos]

Blah Blah Blah Buzzword Recognizable Game Title Buzzword Blah Blah Blah.

First off the Fallout Series is huge and has been for a pretty long time. And this is coming from a middle aged man who played Wasteland on my Commodore 64 when I was 15 in the 80s and got into Fallout in college because it was a spiritual successor to that game. And then you just throw out a bunch of buzzword and make comparisons to games that it's nothing like.

The game is a Live Service Game with all the highs and lows of live service games. And it's a mid Fallout title. Are there microtransactions? Bruh, it's 2024 so of course there are. Especially in a live service game.

[intlgunmonkey]

Mdk25 původně napsal:

vincelang původně napsal:

Please do not say such things, as there is absolutely no way you could possibly know this.

As I mentioned in another response:
Vast majority of Fallout players never played Fallout 1, Fallout 2 or Fallout tactics, and only started playing the newer Fallout 3, Fallout: NV, Fallout 4 or Fallout 76 - that's a verifiable fact.
Source: https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout

That link isn’t the flex you think it is. It lists sales of the main-canon FO games, and shows that the sales increased between 1997 and 2015.

That’s meaningless.

First, compare the install base of PCs in 1997 vs PCs, XBox and PS in 2015. Of course the “sales” numbers ratchet up. You know what else got stronger in that time?
DRM.
That’s what.

I lived the first 20+ years of Fallout’s existence, having played through it at least a half dozen times, without paying for it once.

You see, back in 1997, when someone in your highschool or dorm came back from Christmas break with a new game, anyone who wasn’t an outcast-♥♥♥♥ also got said game for free. Even if you weren’t cool, at most it would cost you a joint or a six pack.

Then, it’s had almost 30 years of being an “old game”, so people have been playing it for free for literally DECADES… people who didn’t pay for it don’t show up in that link’s counts.

I finally bought a copy a few years ago, when it was on a legit bundle sale and I’d realized it was part of my favorite franchise of all time and I’d never actually paid for it.

Bottom line, your link does not support the point you were trying to make, and it was just a gratuitous attempt at a virtue-signal about how, while you didn’t try 76 until Jeff Bezos told you to check it out, but you want to make sure we all know that the air you breath as a fan of FO is somehow rarified.

To that, I can only suggest you GFY.

[intlgunmonkey]

Mdk25 původně napsal:

…Sorry, need to disagree with you right there.
I reached the 1200 weight limit around lvl 30.
You definitely need ammo - because you have no idea which weapon you'll pick up, and what ammo it will use. And buying/crafting ammo is pretty expensive.
Not to mention the stronger guns in the game: miniguns, flamers, energy weapons, even machine guns - all use up tons of ammo.
And this especially becomes acute after level 50, where the monsters continue to level up, but your weapons don't. So you're forced to get stronger and stronger weapons to be able to handle them. While they become bullet sponges for any ammo you throw at them.
Although fighting weaker enemies replenishes bullets somewhat (still you need to replenish), a single boss fight on higher levels can easily eat up a 1000 bullets.

And you need guns - as you'll be fighting with them.
I carry 1 machine-gun/shotgun, for close encounters when you're swarmed by enemies.
1 rifle, for dealing with weaker enemies that come 1-by-1.
and 1 heavy weapon, for boss/legendary creature fights.
In addition to any weapon I might want to carry to try out.

Were you intentionally trying to tell the world that you suck at 76 without saying “I suck at 76”? Because, if so, bravo. You point came across 5x5.

You don’t “need” to have a shotgun, rifle, machine gun and heavy gun. In fact, if you do, you’re not really optimized for any of them.

I’ve spent the last 100+ levels shooting nothing but Ultracite .45. The 75-100 levels before that were just regular .45. I spent levels 1-50 or so feeding both a .308 and a shotgun, but then my character got strong enough to kill with rifles only, the shotgun got retired to my stash for a while (eventually sold on my vendor).

When I primed my receiver, I made a SINGLE batch of Ultracite for it, then went and ran a couple Expeditions. I haven’t crafted ammo since. When I get down to 500 rounds or so, I go do a couple Daily Ops or Expeditions, and that nets me enough ammo for the next 8-10 hours of regular playing before I need to think about stocking up again.

Other calibers that I pick up by accident end up in donation boxes. If I decide I want to try a different style of gun, I’ll gather up a few hundred rounds and set my build. It’ll take more effort than that to actually come up with the gun I want to use.

Set down the tiara, Petunia.

…at least until you know WTF you’re talking about.

[IceMan PJN]

pApA^LeGBa původně napsal:

Stopped reading at "microtransactoin based"

You can play the game without microtransactions without any problem.

That's where I stopped, as well.

[Mdk25]

zukobach5 původně napsal:

Fallout 76 isn't an mmo. GTA Online has 60 players in a lobby and has far deeper RPG elements and that's not an mmo either. No wonder the playerbase never understood what this game was supposed to be, same as Bethesda. Older, single player Fallout 4 that doesn't even get much updates completely dominate FO76 in terms of player size and popularity. Let that sink in

It's not an MMO, it's just an MO.
But MORPG is not a known concept, MMORPG is.

[Mdk25]

intlgunmonkey původně napsal:

Mdk25 původně napsal:

As I mentioned in another response:
Vast majority of Fallout players never played Fallout 1, Fallout 2 or Fallout tactics, and only started playing the newer Fallout 3, Fallout: NV, Fallout 4 or Fallout 76 - that's a verifiable fact.
Source: https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout

That link isn’t the flex you think it is. It lists sales of the main-canon FO games, and shows that the sales increased between 1997 and 2015.

That’s meaningless.

First, compare the install base of PCs in 1997 vs PCs, XBox and PS in 2015. Of course the “sales” numbers ratchet up. You know what else got stronger in that time?
DRM.
That’s what.

I lived the first 20+ years of Fallout’s existence, having played through it at least a half dozen times, without paying for it once.

You see, back in 1997, when someone in your highschool or dorm came back from Christmas break with a new game, anyone who wasn’t an outcast-♥♥♥♥ also got said game for free. Even if you weren’t cool, at most it would cost you a joint or a six pack.

Then, it’s had almost 30 years of being an “old game”, so people have been playing it for free for literally DECADES… people who didn’t pay for it don’t show up in that link’s counts.

I finally bought a copy a few years ago, when it was on a legit bundle sale and I’d realized it was part of my favorite franchise of all time and I’d never actually paid for it.

Bottom line, your link does not support the point you were trying to make, and it was just a gratuitous attempt at a virtue-signal about how, while you didn’t try 76 until Jeff Bezos told you to check it out, but you want to make sure we all know that the air you breath as a fan of FO is somehow rarified.

To that, I can only suggest you GFY.

I was not flexing, I was stating facts.
Quite obvious facts actually.
The purpose is to explain that my expectations from Fallout games would be different from someone who started playing Fallout 3 for example, an expects Fallout to be an FPS with RPG elements (instead of being a CRPG playing in first person).

But it doesn't matter how you try to spin it, the facts remain the same.
Even with more pirating, and people trying out older games - it still won't change the fact that most people started playing Fallout with the newer Bethesda Fallout installments, and not the older ones.
(Much less gamers in 1990s than today, original Fallout games not released on consoles, much less PCs in 1990s than today, etc. etc.)

Even if we drop this useless comparison, and look at what I wrote:
"Unlike many others"...

I didn't say "most others", "vast majority" or any other phrase indicating even 50% or higher.
I used the most benign word "many", which you can interpret as anything that's higher than 1 or higher than 10.

And finally, in this long as review, with over 1000 words (I couldn't even post fully as a review on Steam because it was too long), that's the thing that bothers you?
The fact that many people only started playing Fallout with Bethesda games?!
Or the fact that I mentioned it?!

P.S. I started an anonymous poll in a gaming-related website, and posting it here before it has any results:
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/FV1o5/what-was-the-first-fallout-game-that-brought-you-to-the-series-poll
I'm sure your response is going to be "it doesn't prove anything", "you chose a biased forum" or "you need to poll all the people on planet earth"...

[Mdk25]

intlgunmonkey původně napsal:

Mdk25 původně napsal:

…Sorry, need to disagree with you right there.
I reached the 1200 weight limit around lvl 30.
You definitely need ammo - because you have no idea which weapon you'll pick up, and what ammo it will use. And buying/crafting ammo is pretty expensive.
Not to mention the stronger guns in the game: miniguns, flamers, energy weapons, even machine guns - all use up tons of ammo.
And this especially becomes acute after level 50, where the monsters continue to level up, but your weapons don't. So you're forced to get stronger and stronger weapons to be able to handle them. While they become bullet sponges for any ammo you throw at them.
Although fighting weaker enemies replenishes bullets somewhat (still you need to replenish), a single boss fight on higher levels can easily eat up a 1000 bullets.

And you need guns - as you'll be fighting with them.
I carry 1 machine-gun/shotgun, for close encounters when you're swarmed by enemies.
1 rifle, for dealing with weaker enemies that come 1-by-1.
and 1 heavy weapon, for boss/legendary creature fights.
In addition to any weapon I might want to carry to try out.

Were you intentionally trying to tell the world that you suck at 76 without saying “I suck at 76”? Because, if so, bravo. You point came across 5x5.

You don’t “need” to have a shotgun, rifle, machine gun and heavy gun. In fact, if you do, you’re not really optimized for any of them.

I’ve spent the last 100+ levels shooting nothing but Ultracite .45. The 75-100 levels before that were just regular .45. I spent levels 1-50 or so feeding both a .308 and a shotgun, but then my character got strong enough to kill with rifles only, the shotgun got retired to my stash for a while (eventually sold on my vendor).

When I primed my receiver, I made a SINGLE batch of Ultracite for it, then went and ran a couple Expeditions. I haven’t crafted ammo since. When I get down to 500 rounds or so, I go do a couple Daily Ops or Expeditions, and that nets me enough ammo for the next 8-10 hours of regular playing before I need to think about stocking up again.

Other calibers that I pick up by accident end up in donation boxes. If I decide I want to try a different style of gun, I’ll gather up a few hundred rounds and set my build. It’ll take more effort than that to actually come up with the gun I want to use.

Set down the tiara, Petunia.

…at least until you know WTF you’re talking about.

I was trying to showcase the experience of playing FO76 from my personal point of view.

But your responses have been a real delight so far.

People around you must feel real lucky to have you in their lives...

[4mysou1just1]

Mdk25 původně napsal:

TL;DR A microtransaction based MMORPG, with a near perfect feedback-loop.

Like many others, I started playing Fallout 76 in the wake of the Fallout TV show being released on Amazon Prime in April.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!

OK!
200hrs is a single tear in this ocean of time of game play.
Your views you've shared will change like a roller coaster.
But it's ALL up to you...
I hope you find what makes U happy.
Cus that's what it's really all about!
RIGHT?¿?

[intlgunmonkey]

Mdk25 původně napsal:

I was trying to showcase the experience of playing FO76 from my personal point of view.

But your responses have been a real delight so far.

People around you must feel real lucky to have you in their lives...

Your entire “review” was “Look at me. I’m cool. I gotz old-school cred.” And then a bunch of blahblahblah showing that you had no clue about what the game was, how it worked, and that you suck at it.

Congrats.
I’m sure the people around you must love having a blow-hard in the room.

[Student_Archolos]

Sirius původně napsal:

What in the ChatGPT hell is this nonsense.

Stopped reading right here

Mdk25 původně napsal:

Like many others, I started playing Fallout 76 in the wake of the Fallout TV show being released on Amazon Prime in April.
Unlike many others, I’m actually a long time Fallout fan, started with Fallout 1 & 2, played Fallout tactics, Fallout BOS, and obviously the newer Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 4

because the basic assumption is already wrong.

Well done.

Why is it wrong?? He just mentioned previous games (from 1 to 4 with BOS, NV and Tactics in-between), but he started playing 76 SPECIFICALLY because of TV Show. I see nothing wrong here, really, but I assume you assumed something like "he is lying, because he didn't play 76 right after Fallout 4".

Double digit IQ speaks through you m9.

[Xetelian]

Student_Archolos původně napsal:

Sirius původně napsal:

What in the ChatGPT hell is this nonsense.

Stopped reading right here

because the basic assumption is already wrong.

Well done.

Why is it wrong?? He just mentioned previous games (from 1 to 4 with BOS, NV and Tactics in-between), but he started playing 76 SPECIFICALLY because of TV Show. I see nothing wrong here, really, but I assume you assumed something like "he is lying, because he didn't play 76 right after Fallout 4".

Double digit IQ speaks through you m9.

...Dude...read his profile. It says he writes reviews with ChatGPT on his comments about it

Also...you can tell its chatgpt