Has Wastelanders Salvaged Fallout 76?
This massive update aims to save the much-maligned game from the scrap heap
Fallout 76. Anyone who’s remotely familiar with the gaming world will instantly recognize the infamous title of this online RPG developed and published by Bethesda Game Studios. Until recently, Bethesda was the king of the bespoke RPG world, releasing instant classics like Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas (developed by Obisidian Entertainment), The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and V: Skyrim. For a time, it seemed any games award show couldn’t go five minutes without mentioning a Bethesda title. The amount of hours the masses have spent within the worlds Bethesda has brought to life is astronomical, and to this day people are still playing and modding some of Bethesda’s oldest titles.
Their supreme reign over the RPG sphere seemed complete, but in recent years, things have started to falter. After the well received, but ultimately disappointing, release of Fallout 4 in 2015, the studio starting making some strange decisions. First off, they re-released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim seemingly infinitum; seven separate platforms total, in fact. This included a VR game and an HD remaster less than half a decade after initial release, both for the original release price of $60 USD. Bethesda hadn’t developed anything new in some time (they had published multiple titles in the interim) while continuing to release the same game over and over again. It was starting to feel like a cash grab, and fans of the studio started clamoring for something new — the next installment in any of the many beloved Bethesda franchises.
Then came E3 2018. During Bethesda’s conference, the company’s director and executive producer Todd Howard went on stage and announced the release of the next Fallout game: Fallout 76, releasing later that same year. Needless to say, fans were excited, a little apprehensive, but mostly confused. The lukewarm reception to Fallout 4 showed that Bethesda had a lot to prove with next installment, and they decided to make it a massively-multiplayer online RPG you can play with friends? Up until this point, the protagonists of the Fallout universe had monikers such as, “The Sole Survivor” and “The Lone Wanderer”, only for the next chapter to be an unheralded multiplayer experience? Fans were skeptical of the new direction the series had decided to take, and for good reason. Fallout 76 was an absolute disaster at launch; game breaking bugs ran rampant (complete with a 50gb post-launch update to fix the issues, which it did not) a beta which ended up being the same as the released version, mold growing in their GameStop merchandise, the notorious “bag-gate,” microtransactions added after promises of leaving them out, the refrigerator controversy, the Fallout 1st debacle, the list of faux pas is seemingly endless. Despite all these issues, Fallout 76’s most egregious sin was that it was boring. There was very little content upon release, and what was there was bare-bones Fallout.
Fallout 76’s most egregious sin was that it was boring.
Wastelanders — a huge update released April 14th, 2020 — is attempting to change all that. The massive 60GB update (the game itself, pre-patch, is only 45GB) brings a ton of new content to Appalachia: human NPCs, new factions, more events and daily challenges, new enemies, items, weapons, locations, along with even more bug fixes. The biggest change is the NPCs, now scattered throughout the wastes, delivering quests, exploring, and confronting the players. These NPCs add a new layer to Fallout 76, and make the world feel impressively less desolate. They make up two factions for the player to side with: The Raiders at Crater, and the Settlers at Foundation. There are also groups you can’t side with but who play a significant role in the world: the hostile deranged Moth Man cultists, the confrontational raider group called the Blood Eagles, and more. While these interactions aren’t exactly ground breaking (another settlement needs your help) they do make the world of Appalachia feel much more, well, Fallout. The NPCs are interesting, like the ghoul Mort (voiced by Jason Mewes of Jay and Silent Bob fame) and his instructional tapes on how to use the C.A.M.P — 76’s base building UI. Or raider leader Rose who, while not human, has a quirky and delightfully malevolent personality. They’re all written and performed relatively well, and provide the player a reason to explore Appalachia for something other than exploration’s sake. These characters flesh out the world building, as the player is no longer limited to spending their time making Swiss cheese out of yet another Scorched hideout (instead making Swiss cheese out of unhinged cultists). Still, the variety is surprisingly refreshing.
The new quests are unexpectedly engaging as well. While most of them are fetch-quests, sending the player after yet another Macguffin, the inclusion of Fallout 3-style dialogue options creates an air of urgency for these missions. The inclusion of a human beings — or other interactive entities — doling out these tasks really does negate the feeling of checking off a list. There’s also a new sense of accomplishment and the feeling that you’re changing a community, creating a weight to your decisions and the illusion that you’re altering the world rather than just reacting to it. Should the player support the Raiders at Crater, accepting life as a vagabond in this new hostile world? Or should they try to rebuild with the Settlers at Foundation, providing services so the good people can make something worth saving? With Wastelanders, these questions are posed and their answers feel meaningful. In the long run, it may not tangibly change anything since it’s a world shared with multiple players, but that illusion is incredibly important for immersion. Wastelanders also gives you the option to recruit an ally for your C.A.M.P. These allies will live in and defend your slice of Appalachia, as well as give you daily quests and even present some romance opportunities. When super mutants or raiders come knocking on your hastily built hovel’s door, it’s nice to know there’s someone else there watching your back.
There’s also a new sense of accomplishment and the feeling that you’re changing a community, creating a weight to your decisions and the illusion that you’re altering the world rather than just reacting to it.
The new events introduce some more dynamic gameplay into the mix as well. Riding Shotgun enables players to become a hired gun, protecting a group of merchants and their two Brahmin from the Blood Eagles as they make their way from Cranberry Bog to the Ash Heap. Radiation Rumble sees the player defending scavengers from an onslaught of enemies as well as roving the Emmett Mountain Disposal Site for precious irradiated ore. While not ground breaking, these events add variety in their own right. Most goals or tasks throughout 76’s history boil down to “kill this” or “defend this,” so the change up is welcome. Additionally, the events add yet another dimension to the world, as the player will be directly changing the lives of people in the wastes. The illusion is broken the third or fourth time the player completes these events, but they do become a decent source of loot instead.
Somehow, despite all of these changes, it still seems like a stretch to call Fallout 76 a “good game.”
The rest of the updates include lighting improvements, new enemies, a longer day cycle, user interface updates, as well as general quality-of-life improvements. Somehow, despite all of these changes, it still seems like a stretch to call Fallout 76 a “good game.” As soon as you boot it up — but before you get to the menu screen — you’re affronted with a huge splash screen urging you to go to the store and dump more cash. Fallout 1st remains a point of contention for many, as the game is still $30-$40 new, with a year of Fallout 1st being a whopping $100. The business practices remain shady. The game itself runs much, much better than it did on launch, but that doesn’t mean it’s fixed. Graphical and mechanical bugs still abound, with enemies sliding across the map, textures taking a full minute to load, and NPCs getting caught on various pieces of architecture and foliage. Most importantly, Fallout 76 feels like a game that’s constantly at odds with itself. The dichotomy of exploring the wastes like a traditional Fallout game; reading computer logs and journal entries, listening to holotapes, and letting the atmosphere take you in being opposed by playing with your friends; having company to explore and fight with and having constant chatting in your ear, can be too much to ignore. However, the strides Bethesda has made in Fallout 76 is a phenomenal start. It may have taken more than a year, but for the first time 76 actually feels like Fallout. All in all, Wastelanders does a great job at making the game seem so much less empty. The NPCs and new quests in conjunction with the new areas and enemies make Appalachia feel like a real, inhabited place trying to reconnect and rebuild in the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse. It remains to be seen whether or not Wastelanders has come too little, too late, but if you still have your copy of Fallout 76 collecting dust, it may be worth it to check out the new content. After all, the next Fallout game may not be for quite some time, and astoundingly, there’s worse ways than Wastelanders to get your post-apocalypse fix. Just don’t tell anyone I said that.
Hello everyone! Thank you for reading. I’m genuinely enjoying Fallout 76 with some friends and I think the updates are worth checking out. Let me know if I’m the only one actually enjoying 76!
Jared McCarty