*sigh* Alright... I think Fallout 76 might have Bethesda's best world (and faction questline) yet.

[Swiggins]

This is a great write-up.

One of the reasons why I was so disappointed in Fallout 76 is because it squandered so much wasted potential. Waste Virginia is just OOZING fucking atmosphere and charm that was almost completely absent in most of Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. All of the locations on the map are distinct without being overly noticeable or out of place; and there are several locations in 76 that are incredibly well designed, such as the Crawler Vine Swamp and the Flooded town of Charleston.

Not only that but the enemy design is everything I've ever wanted in a Fallout game, with the usual assortment of classic Fallout enemies (Super Mutants, Ghouls, Deathclaws, etc.) along with a fantastic assortment of new additions that really felt at home in the Fallout universe (Cryptids, Molemen, Scorchbeasts).

If this had been a traditional Bethesda single player RPG, with exciting quests and dialogue to go along with the fantastic world; maybe even with some limited co-op options so you could play with a friend in the Wasteland; it might've been Bethesda's best Fallout game, something that could stack up against New Vegas. Hell, you wouldn't even need to change much of the origin story, the prospect of an actual Vault opening and it's denizens spilling out to "reclaim" the wasteland has many interesting implications if done right.

What happens when the orders the Vault Dwellers received clash with the needs of the already existing survivors in Appalachia? Do the Vault Dwellers recognize the legitimacy of the Enclave as the governmental authority? What happens when other members of Vault 76 go rouge and begin aligning with different factions, like Raiders or the sovereign citizen like Free States? With the game only happening 20 years after the bombs fell, are there any vestiges of the US Military that aren't affiliated with the Enclave still kicking around? How are West Virginians dealing with non-feral ghouls considering they're a relatively recent phenomenon?

 

[Violet]

If this had been a traditional Bethesda single player RPG, with exciting quests and dialogue to go along with the fantastic world; maybe even with some limited co-op options so you could play with a friend in the Wasteland; it might've been Bethesda's best Fallout game, something that could stack up against New Vegas. Hell, you wouldn't even need to change much of the origin story, the prospect of an actual Vault opening and it's denizens spilling out to "reclaim" the wasteland has many interesting implications if done right.

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I think there's been some revisionist history with the big Bethesda flagship games, that actually all of the Elder Scrolls games and Fallout 3 had terrible stories and only New Vegas was good. The one biggest positive takeway you could take from 76 is that they can still create a compelling story and world.

 

[Chairman Yang]

I was going to make a joke to the effect of "I'll bet the story will end, like 90% of Bethesda Fallout stories, with discovering some skeletons and audiologs", and, well...

That said, your recap does make it sound interesting.

 

[SCB360]

I kinda agree, I had a lot of fun in FO76 as a solo player, I've not gone back to it since the update


Also you owe it to yourself to play Fallout 4's DLC they're really good, I love the idea of Nuka World and the others are fantastic

 

[Swiggins]

I think there's been some revisionist history with the big Bethesda flagship games, that actually all of the Elder Scrolls games and Fallout 3 had terrible stories and only New Vegas was good. The one biggest positive takeway you could take from 76 is that they can still create a compelling story and world.

Click to shrink...

I didn't mean to implicate that Fallout 3 or 4 were terrible, I consider both of them good games, I'd even call 3 a great game considering it was the first of the Fallout series to go in a new direction.

Fallout 3's major problem is that it's world is kind of boring once you really get down to it. The criticism of "it's all ruined buildings and subway tunnels" is not unfounded because 90-95% of the games locations are just that...bombed out buildings and subway tunnels. There ARE unique, fun and memorable environments in 3 (Little Lamplight, Megaton, Republic of Dave, National Mall, Raven Rock, Oasis, etc.) but most of the games locations look the same, bombed out office building, bombed out suburbia, subway tunnel, etc. The DLC somewhat remedied this, by introducing unique environments in The Pitt and Point Lookout, but overall 3 felt very 'samey' no matter where you went.

Fallout 4's major problem was that it stymied any sort of player choice and role-playing with it's stilted dialogue system. The voiced protagonist was kind of cool up until you realized that you had virtually no control over any of the events happening in the game out side of which color teammates you wanted to carry on your back for the duration. You could not say "no" to anybody who asked you to do something for them, your only response options were to agree enthusiastically, or sarcastically. I think Joseph Anderson brought this up in his critique but I had a similar experience where at one point I was the literal fucking leader of the de-facto authority in the Commonwealth after destroying the Brotherhood and the Institute, and yet I still have to handle all of the rank-file work myself with no option to order Preston to do his own goddamn errands. 4's environments also felt kind of samey in places, but nothing like 3's never-ending cavalcade of tunnels and office-buildings.

4's other biggest problem was a lack of weapon diversity and the "legendary" weapon system. Fallout 3 also had some problems with weapon diversity, but it was alleviated somewhat by the ability to track down unique, powerful variants of pretty much every weapon. Even though most of these were nothing more than the gun with better damage/bigger magazine/etc. finding one felt like a real accomplishment, on par with finding a bobblehead. New Vegas did this even better by not only having much greater weapon diversity, but also making every "unique" variant of a gun look, sound and in some cases even handle differently. It also fixed a problem with 3's unique loot, namely that it was just flat out better than stock variants; by making it so unique guns couldn't accept mods.So a fully modded stock gun could have some advantages over the unique variant of the weapon even if it didn't do as much damage. 4's legendary weapons on the other hand are fucking painfully dull, with most of them either being purchased from vendors or leaving yourself to the whims of RNG for a legendary enemy to drop you a variant worth a damn, it sucked pretty much all the fun out of chasing down weapons.

 

[Prolepro]

This is one of the worst games to release this generation... some poor bastard may now give it a shot (under the impression that there is something of value here). You are a villain, OP.

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Ive played worse.

 

[Trace]

Fallout 76 is a straight up better game than Fallout 4.

 

[Sha_96]

God the world of Fallout 76 is such a wasted opportunity, I wish Bethesda would just take it and make New Vegas 2 or something with it

 

[Truant]

Is there still a half second delay between your shots and enemy hit reactions? That was the worst part of the game for me. It felt so laggy.

 

[Prolepro]

Is there still a half second delay between your shots and enemy hit reactions? That was the worst part of the game for me. It felt so laggy.

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Depends on the server. Sometimes it's bad, sometimes it just works™.

 

[Reinhard]

I also really liked the game's aesthetic, it's clear that 76 was kneecapped by being multiplayer. Everything that's wrong with it originates in it's forced shared world and always online requirement.

Saddest thing is that the devs were likely perfectly capable of being Bethesda Maryland's "B-Team" and producing excellent singleplayer spinoff games to satiate fans during the agonizing wait between main titles. Instead, they've been stigmatized by multiple failed projects and are now likely facing an uncertain future.

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Yeah, they really should have gone for a New Vegas type spinoff with optional co-op play to give a little bit of online play or something like Dark Souls invasions, but the focus of the game still on the story/quests from actual NPCs with a beginning and end. Allow for multiple NG+ scenarios to extend gameplay for the limited multiplayer aspect.

 

[joe_zazen]

This makes me happy. Thank you.

context: I was the Lead Agent Designer on AoM

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Another satisfied deep discount customer who retroactively wishes he could have bought it day one full price.

I think it was Quater to Three's game of the year as well. It is a shame there was no 100 million in marketing as with a fallout game.

 

[Deleted member 224]

I do not think 76 has a better map than New Vegas. Bethesda's style of open worlds in general have fallen far behind the competition because the way ai interacts with the player in their games still feel so incredibly "video gamey". This makes their worlds feel artificial, like one giant prop. It's designed decently (though visually, the age of the engine is showing) but it's just a bunch of static objects with sound effects of birds and insects playing next to the ambient music.

The only reason I'd say New Vegas manages to somehow overcome this is because Vegas itself feels like a hub of activity even if it's separated by loading screens and filled with awkwardly animated ai.

I believe that "world design" includes how well the world comes alive. At the end of the day, does it feel like a world you could actually exist in? Does it feel like a world that could continue to exist without the player? Certainly not for 76. That's where the lack of npcs is really felt though. BGS wanted the player to feel like they're immersed in nature while exploring the world. But they didn't do any work to make the wildlife interesting to interact with (unless you want to kill it).

 

[joe_zazen]

I was going to make a joke to the effect of "I'll bet the story will end, like 90% of Bethesda Fallout stories, with discovering some skeletons and audiologs", and, well...

That said, your recap does make it sound interesting.

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Lol.

Yeah, audiologs are kinda shit and way over done and this game is built on them.

 

[Mikebison]

I think if 76 had just been a single player Fallout. Quick turn around sequel from 4 type thing, I'd have been really excited. Always thought the world looked really great by Fallout standards. It was just all the other stuff that turned me off.

 

[Deleted member 4292]

Honestly one of my favourite gaming experiences of this past year. As I've stated before, I adore the game and think it's one of Bethesdas best games. I'm overly excited to see where they bring the game and I'm ecstatic that they are listening to the fans and customers and making the game for us, how we want it (NPCs)

 

[A Ream of Paper]

I really enjoyed FO76's world as well. It's really damn interesting and even beautiful at times. I've tried to get into previous Fallouts like 3 and 4, but their worlds never pulled me in as much as 76's. It may honestly be the reason why I put as much time into the game as I did.

 

[Razorrin]

Bumping this thread due to recent discussion on Fallout 76, and I want to say that I sincerely appreciate the efforts of these developers to put interesting ideas into this game, which makes the constant controversy and issues that crop up a tragedy.

I sincerely look forward to this game finally getting a proper turnabout, and I hope we can see even more interesting content when it happens!

 

[BizzyBum]

The sheer size and locales of the map were always one of Fallout 76's biggest draws.

The game was in a rough state at launch but Bethesda has done a really good job sticking with the game and doing their best to fix bugs and give content updates. The game has its dedicated fanbase and I feel is doing pretty well population-wise. My unpopular opinion with this was I kinda enjoyed the barren, no NPC world. The game does a stellar job of making you actually feel like the last person on earth which I find cool.

I recently tried the BR mode and it's actually pretty good, too. I mean, it has no shot to be as popular as Fortnite, Apex, and PUBG, but this is a very serviceable BR for Fallout fans.

Between that, NPC story quests coming, adventure mode, and survival mode this game is shaping up to have something for everyone.

 

[Paul]

God fucking dammit.

You just had to make this thread, huh?

Ok, I will play it. Once they add the NPCs.

 

[Deleted member 56752]

I do not think 76 has a better map than New Vegas. Bethesda's style of open worlds in general have fallen far behind the competition because the way ai interacts with the player in their games still feel so incredibly "video gamey". This makes their worlds feel artificial, like one giant prop. It's designed decently (though visually, the age of the engine is showing) but it's just a bunch of static objects with sound effects of birds and insects playing next to the ambient music.

The only reason I'd say New Vegas manages to somehow overcome this is because Vegas itself feels like a hub of activity even if it's separated by loading screens and filled with awkwardly animated ai.

I believe that "world design" includes how well the world comes alive. At the end of the day, does it feel like a world you could actually exist in? Does it feel like a world that could continue to exist without the player? Certainly not for 76. That's where the lack of npcs is really felt though. BGS wanted the player to feel like they're immersed in nature while exploring the world. But they didn't do any work to make the wildlife interesting to interact with (unless you want to kill it).

Click to shrink...

Fallout NV was an obsidian game and irrelevant to the title of OP.

 

[lorddarkflare]

I was going to make a joke to the effect of "I'll bet the story will end, like 90% of Bethesda Fallout stories, with discovering some skeletons and audiologs", and, well...

That said, your recap does make it sound interesting.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, even Obsidian did their share of that routine with New Vegas.

 

[ZeroCDR]

Thanks to this topic and the E3 announcements, I picked up the game recently and am really enjoying it. It feels far more survival oriented without being unfair, and greatly encourages exploration which is great because this map is very appealing. I didn't find much to like about NV or 4's map, this is much better. I'm not generally a BR guy, but the Nuclear Winter mode I found to be pretty fun and will probably play more of.

Anyone interested, I bought this bundle and it looks like it went on sale again, $17 and comes with a box of Fallout themed trinkets:

https://www.walmart.com/co/Fallout-...-CultureFly-Fallout-Collectible-Box/224571091

 

[Deleted member 224]

Fallout NV was an obsidian game and irrelevant to the title of OP.

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Is that all you have to say? New Vegas is a Bethesda style Fallout title. I believe it's relevant.

But even then, Skyrim is a better world than 76 for a lot of the reasons I outlined in that post. 76 is an open world made with last gen design philosophies. It's dead , unmoving, and lifeless. Boring would be another word to describe it.