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Fallout 76: Our Biggest Hopes and Fears
Here are four reasons we're stoked for the new Fallout game, and four things that have us concerned.
With the recent reveal of Fallout 76, a lot of us were surprised at the game’s online, multiplayer focus. And while the idea of venturing into a vast post-apocalyptic wastelands with friends sounds enjoyable to some of us, others were left questioning if this is something fans of the core Fallout franchise should be excited about. Here are some of our biggest hopes and fears for Fallout 76.
Hope -- Home Improvement
The building mechanics in Fallout 4 were….fine. But 76 is daring to up the ante with an all new C.A.M.P. or the “Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform” which allows you to build settlements anywhere you please. And with an improved Sims-like building interface, 76 is promising a much more robust approach to settlement building that seems very promising.
Fear -- Losing Our Progress
Our biggest fear that comes with these new settlement features is this voice-over heard in the E3 trailer, which says, “but don’t become too attached too quickly." We’re then treated to a montage of various creatures and robots destroying built camps. We even learn that your camp could become the target of a nuclear blast. With all this information, the question has to be asked: will building become too much of a hassle? Are we going to spend hours constructing a warehouse for our crafting tables, or a house with perfect symmetry, just to watch it get destroyed moments later?
Hope -- Raids and Public Events
If this is a world Bethesda wants us to live in, there has to be a reason keep logging in. This is where we hope something like public events or raids can help keep things fresh. The footage we’ve seen shows vault dwellers grouping together and taking down elite creatures. Hopefully these events give players the motivation to not only work together, but continue coming back to the world.
Fear -- PVP Griefing Getting Out of Control
On the topic of player interactions, Bethesda hasn’t quite yet laid out exactly what those could end up looking like. We’ve been told that Fallout 76 is completely playable solo. But for those lone-wolves out there, how safe will it be to roam the wilds of West Virginia? Are players going to be able to spot you from a distance and kill you at will? Will there be times that you literally aren’t able to enjoy the game at your own pace without constantly looking over your shoulder to make sure you aren’t being followed?
In our interview with Todd Howard at E3, he stated that Bethesda doesn’t want the game to be too ‘greify,’ and that while there will be incentives to partake in PVP, it won’t be forced on players. He also said that it’s a work in progress at the moment, so time will ultimately tell.
Hope -- Scope and Variation of the Map
Bethesda has always made it a priority to fill their game worlds to the brim with interesting places to go, characters to meet, and things to discover. But can they really pull that off with a map that’s touted as being four times the size of Fallout 4? We really hope so, because in a land absent of NPCs and reliant on player-created stories, exploring and finding interesting objects might be one of the only ways to dig into the world’s lore.
Fear -- Lack of a Meaning Story
That is of course assuming there’s any lore to be had here. Bethesda has been clear that we will not be seeing any human NPCs in 76, but instead having quests and story elements delivered from holotapes or robos. Couple that with the obvious “always online” component, and the insistence that players are here to “make their own story” and we’re a bit worried that we’ll be missing out on a compelling hand-crafted story like the ones Bethesda’s known for.
Hope -- Feeling Like Our World is Our Home
Something Bethesda games always seem to nail is giving you a world to live in. When you clear a zone, that zone stays cleared. When a base or shelter is built, it’s there when you return to the game. These are features we hope remain in this shared Fallout world. With base building being at the core of 76, the idea of being able to log into the game and spawn at a base we’ve built sounds incredible. Being able to keep track of cleared zones and fully looted areas will make this feel more like a world and less like a “server”.
Fear - Meaningful Decisions
And finally, making world-altering decisions has always been a mainstay in the Fallout franchise, but we unfortunately don’t see how that can even be possible in Fallout 76. Pair that with the lack of actual NPCs, and there’s a good chance there won’t be any meaningful decisions on the level of Megaton in Fallout 3.
What are you hopeful for in Fallout 76, and what are you worried about? Let us know in the comments, and make sure to check out our interview with Fallout 76’s developers, and our extensive look at the history of Vault 76.