Fallout 76 (2018)

My friend asked me to brush off my 2021 save file and jump back into Fallout 76. Despite starting several new saves over the years I still haven't really found out what this game is about. Today I saw locations I'd never seen before since owning the game in 2019. My higher level friend fast travelled all over the map and I followed him on a whistle stop tour of the wastes (it doesn't cost caps to fast travel to a team member).

What I found was that I had been playing the game all wrong. To progress, you're best off following the chain of in-game 'Events' that pop up every few minutes as they dish out a ton of XP and rewards such as caps, meds, and weapons. What this results in though is the game effectively becoming a wave based shooter with high level players blitzing enemies in seconds, and a loading screen slog fest as you drag your backpack from location to location. This might be a lot of peoples cup of tea, I am a fan of wave based shooters after all. But personally, because it's the fallout franchise, I feel incredibly let down by this installment. For me, this is not what the last three major fallout games have embodied, and I feel as if the soul of the game has completely dissapeared in this case. Hopefully one day in the (probably distant) future we'll return to the franchise.

It does seem that 2nd time is the charm here (See older updates here: https://www.grouvee.com/user/3DMYSTIC/status/?game=67004)

I have officially burned myself out and need a few days away from this, but somehow FO76 has become my "main game" as of late-- my most enjoyable casual "turn it on and chill" game, in my rotation.

There is a sense of disappointment and sadness that I am sure I share with the developers of this game. Many people will never play it because of it's horrible launch and further disastrous issues. While I view the game design as outdated, played out, and a dangerous look at what we may receive with Starfield and ES6 if Bethesda cannot innovate-- the designers here have really landed on something unique with 76. There is a clear vision that they attempted and for those who are paying attention, it will connect. This is a different type of Fallout game, and a different type of open world survival crafting game.

It seems to me that they succeeded on many fronts when it comes on giving us the feeling of being one of the very few sole survivors of an apocalyptic wreck where most of the others who made it are still locked underground.

I really would like to be able to go back and play a "legacy" version of the game before the (much needed, well received) updates. I would like to see where they were able to further develop on their vision by adding NPC's and addressing other player complaints, and also where they may have had to compromise/dilute on this vision.

Looking forward to having this around for however long dual completion on Xbox and PC takes. Great casual game. Running into some issues in the level 20's with keeping currency (Caps) and healing items (Stimpaks) around. I don't mind that, as this is giving the game a hardcore feeling that I always self impose when playing other Bethesda Fallout games.

2nd time is the charm?

I am attempting to play this for the 2nd time, trying to appreciate what good there is. I am about 2 hours into this newest session, this time on Xbox Series S with Game Pass. My previous playthrough was on PC via Steam.

Thus far the music is excellent as I remembered. There is a great deal of story telling through holotapes which is fantastic, although flawed in practice, as picking up a new holotape while listening to one you had previously just picked up will automatically stop the tape that was playing.

I recall these small issues slowly mounting up, and with the addition of some serious game breaking technical issues, I quit my first playthrough after 5 or 6 hours in, out of pure disgust for the product I had paid for.

My intention with this playthrough is to finish the "main" quest and enjoy the atmosphere for what it is.

Playthroughs-

• Got about 5 or 6 hours in, started building a cool base

• Half of the quest/map markers didn't work when I played back in January 2022. Making quests basically not completable. Some quests also repeated infinitely when you would get to the last step. Most bullets went through enemies, who would electric slide their way all around the game in a frozen pose. Easily one of the worst pieces of software I have ever tried to use. Stinks too, I was eager to see more of West Virginia.

Started this game again for the third time, this time with friends in an attempt to find some level of enjoyment in the game. I'm a huge Fallout fan and I thought the fun factor would increase dramatically with friends but despite joining the same team I could not find a way to track quests together as a party?

Is this really how fallout was designed to be played? teams going around doing their quests together but all separately repeating each others actions over and over in order to try and keep track of the same quest? Or did they design the game to be played solo but with multiplayer aspects like meeting other players, trading etc?

To me, judging by the fact there's no team sharing quest progress I suspect its the latter... But then why make the game so bland if at its core its a singleplayer experience? The more I think about this game the more frustrated I get. It seems caught between two worlds - Singleplayer and Multiplayer.

They should have given the fans what we wanted, which was a singleplayer fallout game with co-op features at best.

I FOUND THE FINAL PAM’S HOUSE AND I WASN’T EVEN TRYING

I mean it was on my to-do list but I didn’t even realize I was in the area, I just happened to be visiting another player’s camp and figured I’d check the other houses in the area for loot, and...huh, there’s a baby doll’s head in the fridge, that’s weird, and the remains of a Mr. Handy in the kitchen, and WAIT A SECOND THOSE ARE THE LETTER BLOCKS ON THE TV

also I took a selfie with Roachie (uh and I was wearing a demon mask because of Fasnacht, but also it seemed like the type of thing Pam would appreciate)

the real problem with me and Bethesda Fallout games is that I’m really just...pathetically easy to please

like, maybe it’s buggy as hell and the writing is just so-so and Bethesda kinda sucks as a company and it’s an obvious cash grab that isn’t that great with existing lore, especially when they’re more or less becoming the capitalist parody that the series used to satirize, and Fallout 76 in particular is weird because I do hate that it’s online-only and the addition of human NPCs two entire years after launch makes a lot of things really strange in an immersion-breaking way, and really you could keep going for a while in that vein

but

is it 3D? is it pretty, at least from a bit of a distance? is there a massive open-world ruined wasteland you can explore for hours, constantly stumbling across pieces of environmental storytelling in the fascinating remnants of the old world and the ways people have started to build a new society in the (often still irradiated) ashes? even better, does your new engine, despite its limitations, at least allow for more than a small handful of basically the same interiors repeated over and over again so that you’re genuinely coming across new stuff ALL THE TIME? is the character creator reasonably robust? can you switch between first and third person so you can actually see your character? can you loot anything that isn’t nailed down and actually do something with most of it? can you have a house of some kind and decorate it?

then I probably will quite happily explore for hours, constantly getting sidetracked from whatever quest I meant to be doing because ooh, what’s that? hey, new building I haven’t looted! building I’ve already looted but not recently so there might be new stuff, oh god I’m never going to be done, ooh what’s that weird building over there? abandoned hotel!! I love an abandoned hotel!!!! abandoned factory? abandoned museum? abandoned amusement park? I LOVE ALL OF THOSE!!! mmm retrofuturism, love that! this skeleton is holding a teddy bear and that’s sad but oh my god the bear is striped yellow and black and its name is BUMBLEBEAR that’s so cute, haha they made it look like this garden gnome was driving this giant truck, ohhhh wow actual nuclear explosion, I know it’s not that great for lore but wow it’s jawdropping up close

...like I said, when it comes to Fallout games, I’m easy to please