Introduction
I have been a big fan of Fallout since Fallout 3 came out for the XBOX 360. If you have looked at my Twitch streams for a while, you can see that I really enjoy these games and I have also reviewed them.
When I heard about Fallout 76 I was intrigued but not as excited because of the reasons that I will mention below. I love the series but I was hesitant and I believe that I am not the only one.
What We Know About the Game
1) Fallout 76 will have no NPC's.
Your first question may be what is an NPC? This means Non Player character. Polygon had a great article on this.
My personal take on this is that, I do not know what to expect. On the surface it seems that they are taking away one of the main pieces that make Fallout such a great series. Since the human players in the game are real other players, it removes that mystery aspect.
I love meeting random characters in the game and try to talk with them and get a new quest. if this is the case, that means that the missions will not be NPC based and that for me is disappointing.
I am not saying that this will not work but I find part of the soul of the game will be missing. What I was envisioning more in the past was that they include COOP. So that your companion could be your friend. Now that I would be on board with.
Also, what happens if the game cools off. Will the wasteland be empty of players? I know the goal is to have people playing this for a very long time but if it flops what now?
2) Difficulty Settings
We all have our own level of comfort. Some players start with normal and then work themselves up to hard on subsequent plays. Other players like to play for the story so they play with easy.
Since there are no NPC's, and everyone plays I would assume that there will be one mode. Bathesda has also hinted that you can play alone but some missions may be more difficult but not impossible. That to me bothers me and here's why. When it comes to online play, I am a loner. I like to play Fallout on my own terms. For a player like me, I do not see the appeal of having to team up with others to take down a monster. There was a reason they called the character in Fallout 3 as the Lone Wanderer.
3) New Creatures
Like with any Fallout game, the creatures are what makes the wasteland unpredictable. From the Deathclaw to Mirelurks. This game will not be any different and it looks like some of them will be doosies.
To my point in 2, if I am playing alone, it looks like some of the tasks will be difficult and i will lose a lot Ammo. I guess I will see on how people will fare with this one if they play mostly alone.
4) Testing Ground
I truly believe that this game is an in between game to test to see if the gameplay catches on. If yes, then Fallout 5 will be similar to this. If it is a flop, they will go back to the story driven game.
Fallout 76 will be the Fallout: New Vegas of the new gen. With Fallout: NV, they improved on a lot of stuff and tested some new things like crafting and so on. They saw that players liked this and then Fallout 4 came out and it built on that. 76 will be very similar.
5) Settlements
When I first heard that your settlement can be nuked, I was not a fan from the get go. The reason being that there will be people playing that all they want to do is cause chaos. Even if you get a red marker on your back, that will not stop other players from being assholes.
I was not a huge fan of settlement building in Fallout 4. I know that many players love this aspect. However, why would I invest in a settlement when it can just be taken over. That means that I get to enjoy the game less and I will spend most of the game trying to create a nice settlement and then rebuilding it. For me, that is not fun. In Fallout 4, at least you had the option of not really taking care of your settlement once you did the initial setting up at the beginning. I guess it will be another adjustment to make.
Bottomline
As it stands right now, I am not going to be buying this game Day 1. I will see how others play it and then may be jump in. I am sure that many others will find it fun. That is the beauty of games, they are vary a lot. You may like one game and not the other and that is fine.
I just find that with the listed issues that I might have with the game, I think they removed part of the spirit of Fallout. Wandering the wasteland meeting Mutants and clearing areas not knowing what to expect is cool and doing it on my own terms as well.
Like I said I think this will be a testing ground and turning point for this franchise. I think they want this online and add content so that they do not have to do a Fallout 5 and they could may be focus on Skyrim.
I know that I am not the only one. I have spoken to people on my streams that are super excited and others are on the fence like I am. I think many players will wait and see how this unfolds.
What do you think? Am I off the mark for the above or are my concerns legit? Let me know at the coordinates below.
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