I played Fallout 76 all weekend and kind of loved it

I finally gave up. After years of being solicited by my friends and motivated by the new TV show, I spent this past weekend largely gaming Fallout 76, Bethesda's MMO survival game based on open-world RPGs. When it was first launched in 2018, Fallout 76 There can be no more action against her. It seems that many did not want it to exist in the first place, as a special edition of the game Overrated players get a dirty bag, and was released uncut and blank. Its development was a Total failure of managementand it seems that the inhabitants of the game have completely given up Fallout 76 Within a few months. However, Bethesda refused to give up on the game, and in 2020 a kind of miracle happened. Fallout 76's Wasteland expansion It more or less overhauled the game, introduced human NPCs, and introduced a new story that breathed some life into its presentation of post-apocalyptic Appalachia. slowly but surely, Fallout 76 to improve.

Flash forward several years (and Expansions) and we arrive in the year 2024, where, after completing Great new He falls DisplaysEveryone has left Screaming for games It's based on. Some pick up Fallout: New Vegas And modify it appropriatelybut And even more than that is captured Fallout 4, the last major single-player release in the franchise with an intact reputation. And then, somewhere in between the two are people like me, who have never played in the past Fallout 76introduction Before, I heard that it has been rehabilitated over the years, and we are now investigating to see what all the hype is about. Well, after spending several days straight playing, I'm happy to report that I… Kind of Get it.

Fallout 76 It was clearly built of bones Fallout 4, focusing on personalization and rule-building to foster communities in the online environment. It was with that in mind that Bethesda It appears that the game was released without real characters. The developer ambitiously believes that players are meant to be the characters in each other's stories. Wasteland It seemed to have course-corrected after this massive stretch, adding a treasure hunt plot and relevant characters that did a better job of guiding me around the world than my friends were offered when they first played.

What was most clear and interesting about my time with him Fallout 76 It was a tension between the new and old parts of the experience. I gathered a couple of my friends who played the game before it was updated (and who have been trying to get me to play for years) and got in with them. While my character was new, they put in many hours of playing. Fallout 76 Over the years, they've been charitable enough to replay some of its early content with me.

Throughout our adventures a new combination has been created Wasteland The story and introductory missions of the base game, I kept hearing some variation of “this is new” from them every couple of hours. They highlighted quests and characters that weren't there when they first played the game, especially all the people they had to talk to, and at one point one of them pointed to a chest called the Overseer's Hideout and told me, “That was the whole quest from before. It was inside The box is the latest in a batch of notes from the Vault Overseer that I've been tasked with tracking down ever since Fallout 76Initially, suggesting that the experience consists of picking up notes scattered throughout the wasteland with little to no interaction with the actual characters.

This admin is hanging like a ghost Fallout 76The main task, and this cache was indicating how to do it It is used to tell its story. Holotapes, leftover notes, and other navigation keys were the only signs of life outside for other players when Fallout 76 Launched. However, much of this content sits alongside the more dynamic quests and stories introduced in its expansions, meaning both versions of the game. Fallout 76 An experience competing for your attention in the early hours. In contrast to the remnants of this fetch quest, the game begins with directions towards the Wayward – a bar constructed in Wasteland An update intended to serve as a secondary introduction of sorts – as I was immediately thrust into a turf war with an attacking faction. Throughout the brief introductory story, I met a slew of actual characters, made dialogue choices that seemed important, and decided who would live and who would die in the end. I don't look very sexy, but I think I role-played those early hours more than that Fallout 4 Allowed within a similar time frame.

My friends had a harsher attitude when they first picked up on it Fallout 76. The absence of characters and any real direction in its initial missions has it flitting around the world with little to no context and precious little depth. I know this because I'm also doing these remaining tasks now, which I feel should have been eliminated or reworked at some point. the Wasteland The expansion introduced human NPCs and more compelling stories, which my friends gladly welcomed, though the Wayward bar proved to be a bit of an annoyance. One of them had previously built their in-game camp in what used to be a remote location, but is now the location of the new tavern. He jokes that Wayward and its inhabitants are “enslavers,” forcing him to move his camp a respectable distance away. The point is that they were able to enjoy themselves in spite of the match, not necessarily because of it.

Overall, this early material is pretty bad, and I'm effectively grinding it for XP before moving on to the real meat Fallout 76. But for my friends, that's all there was when they first picked up the game, which is a terrifying thing to think about.

However, despite the obvious discomfort of both experiences, I am enjoying myself and so are my friends. Fallout 76 It's clearly the first kid's survival simulator, making it a remarkably low-stakes world that you can pop into every now and then and hang out with friends. It's like if Days Her edges were smoothed out and everyone in the world was the nicest person she had ever met.

A friend was taking on a cell (lack of a surplus gas mask prevented me from helping him) and I was waiting outside in the skimpy swimsuit I'd found. When another player bumped into me, we gave each other a shout-out, and they gave me a 20-push before going about their own business. Sometimes my friends and I would go on a scavenger hunt, sometimes I'd just go exploring while building the base, and other times we'd all sit on stage at Wayward, pick up some instruments, and dream of being a post-apocalyptic touring band; In addition to the band. from Station eleven. Well, I often dream about exactly that, but they're enjoying the music and singing John Denver's “Take Me Home, Country Roads” out of tune.

It turns out that after completion DisplaysWhat I needed was less by Bethesda He falls The story (your mileage may vary) and more A familiar apocalypse to wrap around with friends. Somewhere I can make my own sh*t with the irreverent characters in my life. And while no one was looking, Fallout 76 It has quietly become the most efficient game for this very purpose. Sometimes you just need to have a good time, but there's truly never been a better time to go to Appalachia.