Fallout 76is the most poorly receivedBethesdagame ever made. A reliance on grinding enemies in a multiplayer setting that had a cash shop turned many gamers away. The negative reception for this game was legendary in its volume, but Bethesda didn’t abandon it.
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They stuck through withFallout 76for 2 years now, adding new content updates and patches to morph the game into something fans wanted.Wastelandersis the newest development in this transformation, introducing NPCs and dialogue choices to the game for the first time. Both newcomers and veterans alike can get something out of this update, butFallout 76is nowhere near perfect. Here are 5 ways the Wastelanders update forFallout 76fixed the game along with 5 ways it fell short.
10Fixed: Solo Experience
Playing solo inFallout 76was rather strange at launch. Engaging in PvP was based more on dueling others than all-out combat while co-op was focused more on killing enemies for loot than questing.
Thanks to the inclusion of Pacifist mode—a mode that was added beforeWastelanders—and the inclusion of companions, playing solo is a much more enjoyable experience. The difficulty ofFallout 76while leveling can be unforgiving to newer players, which is why having companions and the ability to opt-out of PvP is such a great change for anyone who wants to ignore its social systems.
9Falls Flat: Tied With Main Quest
Leveling is still a rough experience for anyone wanting to try outWastelanders. For whatever reason, Bethesda included parts of the coreFallout 76story as a requirement to experience most of theWastelandersstory.
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It makes sense from a narrative perspective, requiring the player to become Inoculated before interacting with other people. The issue is the core story is so dull and painful compared to the new content that this alone can dissuade newer players from experiencing the new questlines.
8Fixed: World Investment
Appalachia is one of thebest open worldsBethesda has crafted. Since the game did not have NPCs at launch, the developers doubled down on environmental storytelling and note entries.
So much character resides within each location you visit. It was enough for some players to stick withFallout 76, but the lack of NPCs resulted in predictable resolutions to quests. Since NPCs have been added to the game, exploring abandoned locations might reveal surviving NPCs. Appalachia still feels desolate, but it no longer feels artificial as it did at launch.
7Falls Flat: Bullion Farming
Quests and NPCs weren’t the only things added in theWastelandersupdate.New weapons, armor, and faction reputation systems were introduced to give dedicatedFallout 76players something to chase.
The grind for these items is somewhat high, however. Players must earn Gold Bullion, a new currency that has a daily cap on the amount players can earn. Weeks must be spent grinding activities for the resource to purchase the cool new itemsWastelandersintroduced.
6Fixed: Performance
It’s no secret thatFallout 76ran at unacceptable frame rates at launch for consoles. Even higher-end PCs would buckle under the stress of this game. It can look pretty at times, but nothing aboutFallout 76should be reducing performance as much as it was.
Thankfully, Bethesda has made great strides to improve the performance of the game. Server issues are much more uncommon than they were on launch, making combat feel more responsive. Frame rates are much higher on both consoles and PCs as well. Stutters still exist but usually occur when loading new cells while exploring.
5Falls Flat: Choices Only Impact Instances
There was a great opportunity for the player’s choices to impact the world state to makeFallout 76rise aboveFallout 4and evenFallout 3. This has not happened sadly, and it’s likely due to76’sonline nature.
Decisions you make do impact the state of the story and NPC interactions but only in instanced locations. Dynamic events and the state of locations across Appalachia disregard the player’s accomplishments in the base game andWastelanderscontent. This can be jarring when you complete theWastelandersquestline.
4Fixed: Role Playing
Role-playing is back on the menu! S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats and the removal of a voiced protagonist have allowed for great character expression through dialogue choices.
Players can still use their microphones to roleplay when encountering other players, butFallout 76did not allow this in the base game due to a lack of a proper dialogue system. This has been remedied inFallout 76to great effect, arguably executing the dialogue systemas well as classicFallouttitles. If you spec for a certain build, your dialogue choices and avenues of completing quests reflect that.
3Falls Flat: Bugs
Bugs are part of virtually any Bethesda game going as far back as the firstElder Scrollsgame.Fallout 76is the worst offender of this, frequently breaking quests and enemy AI at random.
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Strides have been made to address these issues, but it is nowhere near perfect. Wastelander quests can still bug out and fail to complete, NPCs will t-pose for seemingly no reason, and the game is still prone to crashing—although not nearly as often as it did on launch.Fallout 76still needs serious work before it can be considered stable, and the talented modding community can’t help them this time thanks to the game’s online-only nature.
2Fixed: It Feels Like Fallout
A small niche of players loved whatFallout 76brought to the table when it released. Most players, however, found the game to be lacking core traits of aFalloutexperience.
The game looked likeFallout, had the world of aFalloutgame, had combat likeFallout, but it simply wasn’t aFalloutgame. Besides its insignificant survival mechanics,Fallout 76felt more like a strange multiplayer mod than a proper game. Now thatWastelandershas added NPCs and proper dialogue into the game,Fallout 76now provides a narrative and apocalyptic escapism that so many fans wanted the base game to be.
1Falls Flat: It’s Still Fallout 76
Sadly, Bethesda did not change the coreFallout 76experience. This game, regardless of your stance on it, is aFallouttitle very few asked for. Beyond its open world and borrowed systems fromFallout 4, this game is a strange experiment using theFalloutIP that most consider a complete failure.
Wastelandershad no chance of overhauling the core foundation ofFallout 76because it would constitute making a whole new game. This isn’t aNo Man’s Sky Beyondthat overhauled virtually the entire game.Wastelandersis a great addition on top of a confusedFalloutgame that wants to appeal to lore fans and those who enjoy survival games with crafting. If you fall into that niche camp,Fallout 76is a fun game. Those who couldn’t stomach its different design priorities will be left disappointed with this update. Beyond this, redeeming the reputation of Bethesda andFallout 76will take much more than a simple update. Its broken launch, character-wiping bugs, PR disaster with duffle bags and Nuka Dark Rum, and multiple monetization methods through a subscription and cash shop make this game near-irredeemable.Wastelandersis a great step in the right direction, but Bethesda has a long way to go.
