The Fallout franchise has been highly regarded ever since the original release of Fallout 1 in 1997, although hype for the next Fallout would start to fizzle out after the misfired launch of Fallout 76.
Fallout 76, What Went Wrong?
On launch day, the game was met with heavy criticism over the sheer amount of bugs in the game; mind you, these aren’t small minor bugs; these bugs could make you have to reinstall the operating system you are on or could even break your computer.
On top of this buggy mess of a game, it had a lackluster story, boring gameplay, and being pay to win. The merchandise was pretty crappy; the power armour edition said it came with a duffel bag and a power armour helmet; although the helmet was fine, the duffel bag (which was promised to be made of canvas) was made of cheap nylon, and when fans convinced Bethesda to send them a canvas bag, a bug in the site made everyone who submitted a request for their bag have their private information visible to all who went onto the site. (that’s right, if you asked for a bag, you got doxxed)
On top of this, there was a Nuka cola merch drink called “Nuka Cola Dark” or “Nuka Dark,” when it was expected to arrive, an announcement was made saying that it had been delayed But, in exchange, they created a promotional video on the making of it, but, on one frame, you can clearly see that it isn’t even a Nuka cola bottle. It’s just a rum bottle with a Nuka cola-shaped plastic shell; Bethesda claimed “it costs more to make it out of plastic, ” but I’ll let you decide if they’re telling the truth. Also, it was 80 dollars! Obviously, fans didn’t like this, so most canceled their orders.
The actual review. Has it gotten any better?
To start off, the Fallout 76 developers have removed most of the Day 1 bugs that made the game basically unplayable and added a bunch of new stuff, like locations, quests, expeditions, and events.
The game is way less buggy than it was at launch, though you will probably encounter some bugs in your playthrough. Now, let’s move on to the specifics!
Pay to win
Though the game is not the buggy mess it once was, it still has a relatively pay-to-win system. The Atomic Shop is essentially a place to buy overpowered items or cosmetics for your playthrough; this may include buildable things for your camp that are extremely useful yet cost money, purely cosmetic skins; for your power armour, weapons, etc., the only way to buy these items is to buy the in-game currency known as “atoms,” these can be obtained via completing daily quests, buying them with real money, buying Fallout 1st to get 1650 atoms monthly, or leveling up on the S.C.O.R.E. Board (battlepass).
So what is Fallout 1st? Well, it is a subscription to the game to earn 1650 atoms monthly, different profile pictures, emotes, armour, access to atomic shop items that are Fallout 1st only, two absolutely overpowered boxes called the “scrapbox” and the “ammo container” (these are to store items so that your scrap or ammo doesn’t fill up the capacity of your stash (your bases storage) so you can have as many resources in your base as you like, and access to single player mode) on top of the monthly atoms.
Plus, you can use atoms to rank up to any level on the S.C.O.R.E. board without spending any time or effort on the exp needed.
Gameplay
When I first played Fallout 76, I didn’t really enjoy it, but I fell in love with the game the second time I played it. I played it so much that I even got Fallout 1st and paid for atoms, but the gameplay can sometimes be a bit repetitive; for example, if you’re being swarmed by ghouls (which are usually just disease-infected scorched), you have to reload your ammo, about 40% of the time you’re fighting with melee because your guns don’t do significant damage against most enemies unless you use a high-level death ray or other late-game weapons. The best low-level guns, such as the pump action shotgun, the double barrel shotgun, and the revolvers, have pretty slow reload speeds and small ammo capacity. If you put this on top of the fact that most Fallout 76 enemies are in huge swarms, that makes for an annoying loop of getting interrupted while you reload and having to use stimpaks to heal. But, the game is still very fun if you put your mind to achieving a goal, such as getting a settlement not to kill you on sight, unlocking a unique weapon or armour, doing faction questlines, or doing the main story; these all are fun but as well as that you have a base to build, locations to discover and perks to gain. With all these things to do, it can seem very complicated to start, but once you get into the game, you will learn that it’s not all that hard.
Is it worth buying?
At the end of the day, it’s your decision whether to buy the game or not. Despite its flaws, it’s a great game with great graphics and will supply you with a long supply of fun times with you or your friends. It’s not too bad of a game.
Fin.