Game Review: Fallout 76

I don't normally get games right when they come out anymore, however fallout was a game I fell in love with when first playing Fallout 3. It was my first introduction to the game series. I still say Fallout New Vegas is my favorite. Even though I wasn't as big of a fan of Fallout 4, I still played it a lot. You see my problem with Fallout 4 is the lack of just anything going. I couldn't kill my way to victory without teaming up with the brotherhood and the minute men were just there no matter what I did. Not to mention, settlement building seems like nothing more than a novelty. Sure I would have ideas and try to make them happen, but in the end it was just a frustrating extra I spent the majority of time avoiding.

Now we have Fallout 76. I set my expectations as low as I could for this without just outright hating it. Multiplayer in Fallout sounds cool, but I don't often play with people online anymore and in the Fallout world, it just seems incompatible. Building comes back with camps and workshops. I actually like the camp ideas and have not stepped foot on a workshop because just no. The world is huge. Things have changed. The short story... the game isn't bad, but it's just not good. I have it right now ready to go in my PS4, just got it in today and I just don't have any desire to play it. I also got the power armor edition, so the helmet came in with it. Cheap. Broken. Plastic. The harness so it can be worn is missing and the part it clips to is broken. The voice modulator would be better from a dollar store. The plastic feels brittle and cheap. It's a display piece you stand about 10 feet away from so it looks somewhat nice.

So let's start with positives about Fallout 76. It functions as a FPS. It's not the greatest FPS, but it works.

CAMPS are a cute idea that can be helpful. They aren't a focal point, but they can be fun when you find places they can actually bet setup.

It's Fallout-ish. It feels like a Fallout-skinned spin-off which is okay if you like the look and feel of fallout.

That's about the best I got for it, so buckle up for everything I don't like about the game. It's gonna be bumpy. Ready? Let's do this...

I can't sell ammo. I have hundreds of rounds of ammo that is now just useless junk. I'm not gonna hunt down someone to trade my useless ammo to because most people only use a handful of different weapons anyway.

The fact that I need to eat and drink starts out okay, until you realize that you now need to find places to hide to access some menu or another to eat and drink.

Stimpaks are now the right d-pad, when every game before used up. SERIOUSLY, THIS IS ANNOYING AND I CAN'T SEEM TO CHANGE IT.

Weapon wheels suck for console. I just want stimpaks and 3 weapons (4 d-pad buttons) I always do a melee, a short range, and a sniper. Since left on the d-pad only brings up the previous weapon, it's just a toggle for two weapons. Why the hell do I need another menu to bring up like 30 item slots? It's gonna take just as long going through the damn Pip-Boy.

There are no local maps. None. Good luck.

The map is huge and I spend more time just running around than anything else. Run, maybe run into an area with enemies, clear it out in a minute or two, run for another ten minutes. FALLOUT RUNNING SIMULATOR 76. Run, eat, drink, then take a shit while digging through all the menus to access everything else.

Weapon levels. Strength for shotgun perks. Slow firing weapons do more damage because reasons. Just give me a chinese assault rifle, they should be all over the place since it's just 20 years after the war. Or are we just never gonna bring that gun back?

Food goes bad. Thanks. Not like I don't already deal with that in real life, now I got leftovers I forgot to through away in game, too? Seriously, just piss off with this.

According to the guide, super mutant behemoths are in the game as well? How can they be when they are supposed to be very old super mutants. You're now telling me there are 25 year old super mutant behemoths? Really?

Only feral ghouls. Wasn't the idea they go feral more so over time and initially most weren't? No, screw normal ghouls that are coherent, let's make a new enemy called scorched, which are basically the same thing only they just don't live past this game and you've never heard of them before because reasons.

There is no interactive dialog. Unless you want to talk to other people. I overheard a conversation that involved something along the lines of a naked picture of Harriet Tubman and saying she had a nice ass. I wish I was making that up. Give a round of applause for the classy kids on this game.

Holotapes. Narration. Robots. It's like an audiobook with periodic shooting, lots of walking, and making sure your tomogachi... I mean character, is well fed and hydrated. Fallout tomogachi? I think that might actually be more entertaining.

Lots of stuff that makes me question if the game is even lore friendly that may seem like nit-picking.

In all seriousness though, the game isn't terrible as a game. From my perspective, it's just not something I asked for or even wanted. I'm left with the feeling that Bethesda is making games for Bethesda, not the fans. A friend of mine who enjoys it described it as like GTA, but Fallout. If I wanted to play GTA, I'd just go play GTA, or RDR. I get it, other games have mechanics that people seem to think are so cool. Here's the thing, I play Fallout to play Fallout. Not GTA or Fortnite or whatever else the kids are playing these days. I don't play Fortnite or GTA or Minecraft or Rust or any of that. So why would I play a Fallout skinned version of these?

If you enjoy the game, that's great. I'm not here to say your opinion is wrong and the game sucks, I'm just saying the game isn't for me. Also, if you hate the game but were a fan of Fallout, I feel your frustrations. It's the same frustration felt when Fallout 3 first came out to those who like the gameplay style of 1 and 2. But here's where I'm at... I'm done with Bethesda for now. I may play the game just because I have it, but I'm just disappointed with Bethesda as a whole. It's like when I tried playing Rage after I picked it up on sale. It made me wonder how they ever manage to make a decent game.