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At some point this game might annoy you and it may even seem like it's deliberately wasting your time but stick with it because the payoff is more than worth it. One of my favourite video game stories. Combat and the way the chip system makes for such diverse builds are awesome too.

8. Fallout 76: Wastelanders (DLC). (Trophy completion 100%)

9. Fallout 76: Steel Dawn (DLC). (Trophy completion 100%)

I platinumed Fallout 76 about two years ago and reinstalled recently just to check out the new Steel Dawn expansion and get the remaining DLC trophies. As is the nature of Fallout, I ended up basically doing way more than was necessary. 

I think 76 cements Fallout as one of my favourite explorative open worlds. Every inch of, in this case, Appalachia beckons you to uncover it to the point where you can turn off all markers and just go in any direction because you’re bound to find something interesting. Within each discovery you’re led so far down the proverbial rabbit hole that it becomes almost impossible to bookmark progress. Additionally, the music and sound effects are just so iconic now, from the little lip-smack when your XP bar goes up to the ch-ching! when you pop an enemy to the thunderous pounding when you acquire a bobblehead. And, of course, Inon Zur’s brilliant score. Just existing in this world is a joy.

It’s worth noting, though, that despite containing the DNA of a Fallout game, 76 plays a lot better when you accept it as a co-op survival adventure rather than trying to brute force it into being the traditional single player RPG it once was. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an RPG and you can make a right mess of things if you haven’t spent perks wisely by about level 25. Enemies are also scaled for co-op here regardless of whether you play solo or not so your build is more important than it’s ever been. But yeah, at its core, this is a survival game and after being (rightfully) watered down or just outright removed in Fallout 4, the survival genre tropes are back with a vengeance.

Alongside the return of weapon and armour degradation, you now have to contend with diseases, hunger and a thirst gauge. Food can spoil in your inventory and will not provide healing benefits while in a spoiled state. Spoiled food also comes with a high risk of disease so you’ll have to weigh up whether it’s worth consuming when your character is suffering from starvation. If you had pitched this to me prior to the release of 76 it would have sounded like nails on a chalkboard but Fallout 76 is well balanced enough that the rewards you get from main and side quests are somehow always exactly what you need to survive.  And with the Steel Dawn update, Bethesda has made some much needed quality-of-life improvements since the last time I played. Food and water now provide buffs for being well fed and hydrated rather than debuffs for starvation and thirst - although you are going to want at least the well-fed buff for the extra carry weight (more on that later). Additionally, when you loot an NPC there’s now a ’loot nearby corpses’ option too which I don’t recall being there before.

On that note, I decided to start a second character that really leaned into the survival element. My go-to build for every Fallout game is close-range melee specialisation but this time I’m a pistol wielding VATS expert who can find food and chems (pills/medicinal consumables) in high abundance due to Luck perks. Most of my acquired perks tie directly into survival, e.g. alleviating how quickly food in my inventory spoils or how often weapons break, how thirsty or hungry my character gets etc. Even though I never had to go out of my way to secure supplies with this build, being mindful of ammo consumption was new territory for me. This led to making conscious decisions about whether an enemy encounter was worth it in situations where my tank character would normally just storm in and bludgeon anything that moved. It’s actually more rewarding when those risks pay off rather than just knowing you’re going to win and leave. 

The perk system has been slightly tweaked. The way it works now is that each time you level up you get a point to put towards your SPECIAL (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck). The amount of points in each SPECIAL dictates the number of perk cards you can have for that SPECIAL. You can also level up your perk cards but then doing so counts as two perk cards so you need to always make sure you have enough points in that SPECIAL before you level up a card.  The highest amount of points you can put into any SPECIAL is 15. Though each SPECIAL only allows up to 15 points each, perk cards are infinite so you can always swap perks in and out for the right occasion.  At level 50 you get no more SPECIAL points, instead each time you level up you have the option to move points you’ve already applied to other SPECIALs, or you can spend it on a perk. Most of the SPECIALs function the same apart from Charisma. While high Charisma can still be used for better barter rates and dialogue checks, it’s mostly about co-op team building now. As I play Fallout mostly solo this was the least amount I’ve invested in Charisma in any Fallout game, but YMMV. Am I making sense? I’m not. Let’s move on.

I’ve said this before but one of the things that was so impressive about the Wastelanders introduction and, likewise, Steel Dawn, is how much Bethesda so seamlessly integrated the two expansions into Appalachia without having to take the player to a new map. You’d be hard-pressed to figure out what is vanilla 76 and what isn’t (without peeking at the trophy list) because even vanilla quest locations are now jazzed up just by having NPCs around it or having NPCs referring to your previous exploits. Most importantly, it bodes well for the future of 76 because, with Appalachia, Bethesda has created a world with so much room for growth that the devs can keep building on top of it without necessarily having to take it apart to do so.

As for the story, I’m just going to assume that everyone, by now, knows that Fallout is a nuclear holocaust series with a 40s/50s take on the future. This time the story sees you, a Vault-Tec boy/girl, newly emerged from Vault 76 (vaults are like survival shelters) following the disappearance of your vault overseer, finding out what happened to her and just learning to survive against all manner of things, such as radiation, raiders, mutated creatures and the new scorched plague. Without spoiling too much, Wastelanders feature two new arrivals in town, Foundation and Crater, who you must get inoculated against the scorched plague (a virus that turns people into zombies crazed monsters). Typically, that involves doing some loyalty missions before they can trust you. Like previous Fallouts, you can do both factions’ missions up to a point before you’re locked out of one branch forever. Sort of. Kinda. Maybe. Not really. More on this later. 

My first character was an antagonist arsehole so I had him side with Crater, the no-nonsense raider group. This time, I sided with the Settlers (Foundation) who are salt-of-the-Earth type construction workers. Having completed both quest lines I think it’s fairly obvious that Crater is the one Bethesda valued the most.  Meg, Crater’s leader, is more fun to talk to than the leader of Foundation to the point that I had to remember I was role playing this time as a righteous do-gooder who abhorred everything Meg stood for. Every time she ended a compliment by referring to me as, “7,6” I kept yelling, “stop making me like you!”

The Crater path is also less buggy which further convinces me that was the quest line Bethesda was more preoccupied with. The final mission for the Settlers had some bugs at various stages that caused me to server hop, fast travel, run round until I could get it working right. Additionally, at the end of the mission I had NPCs talking about other NPCs as if they were dead when they were literally in the next room… It was sobering because Fallout 76 generally ran so well for me up until then that if I hadn’t played previous Bethesda titles I would have sworn players were exaggerating about bugs at launch. This broken-ass mission also highlighted one of the (many) faults of Fallout going online because being unable to reload a previous save meant any resources spent was gone forever while enemies continued to respawn. Again, a rare occurrence but this issue persists two years after Wastelanders’ launch so be warned.

Shortly after Wastelanders, I completed the Steel Dawn expansion and I think I like it even more. Even though it’s about the hypocritical and bigoted Brotherhood of Steel trying to retrieve technology they think lesser beings should not have access to yet again, its central conflict is more interesting, revolving around in-family feuding rather than turf dominance between opposing factions. Also, the traumatic event that predates the narrative here has so many layers you can peel away that every time a character revealed something about their participation in said event I’d later find out that there was more to it than they let on. It made one particularly unlikable Brotherhood member more sympathetic, and I mourned that individual when they forced my hand.  By the end, I really felt like I had been on a journey and the promotion the Brotherhood awarded me for helping them, while mainly symbolic rather than having any gameplay benefits, felt meaningful. Sadly, it was upon the completion of Steel Dawn that I could feel a dark cloud gradually looming because I knew that, with all main quest lines done, there was only one thing left: the endgame.

Soooo this unfortunately brings me to what still remains a persistent problem with Fallout 76 and that’s the fact that it’s a live service. Now, before I say why Fallout does not work as a live service it’s worth noting some of the benefits of it being online. For one,  with checkpoints being more frequent now, all progress is saved regardless of whether you die. So, in theory, you can sprint into an area, grab the quest item, get killed and then respawn with the item now in your inventory. The only thing you lose upon death is the junk needed for base building (more on base building later). I also like that there are no take-backsies for fail-states or bad dialogue choices, as being able to roll with the punches makes every decision more meaningful. They’ve even fixed the level scaling, as in, you don’t encounter level 68 enemies spawning around level 9 players anymore…That sounds ridiculous but it was a design oversight where NPCs would scale to the highest level player in the area. This was usually resolved by simply logging into a new server but it was still annoying. That’s where most of the positives end though. 

What’s funny is that the two expansions actually expose the problem with Fallout adopting the live service model, despite being excellent in isolation. Take, as an example, your reputation with the two factions, the Settlers and Crater. The only difference between your choices in the final mission of Wastelanders is that it hastens or slows down the speed at which you can reach the max faction reputation reward. This has the unfortunate domino effect of lowering the stakes during certain story beats in Steel Dawn which tasks you with a choice that can potentially piss off one of the factions. Though my goody-two-shoes character did the morally right thing, I knew that going the other way wouldn’t have mattered - Fallout 76 needs your continuous engagement in order to survive so you’re never going to be locked out of dailies for a faction.  

The reputation XP is predictably slow and finite - you can only earn a certain amount each day (without exploits). In fact, XP accumulation in general is still noticeably stingy once you finish the main quest lines. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as egregious as, say, Marvel’s Avengers which prevents the player from seeing the very best it has to offer for far too long. A low level vault boy/girl can still have a blast here because the quirky post-apocalyptic world of Fallout is inherently wonderful. But the XP for endgame content needs to be at least x 1.5 by default OR, better yet, endgame content just needs to be, you know, fun because the daily “events” are still tedious.

The lack of consequences I mentioned earlier also spill into the game world itself: You can’t kill some NPCs because they need to be alive so that other players can talk to them, and there’s no travelling companions because that negates the need to play in co-op. In any other RPG things like this wouldn’t bother me but because the old Fallout games enabled these features it can’t help but feel like a compromise. On the other hand, some of the mechanics Bethesda retained should have been completely overhauled or taken out altogether. For instance,  VATS (Vault Assisted Target System), once a turn-based game of chance, is in real time now so percentages can flip on a dime to the point where I essentially just use it as a makeshift lock-on now. And while Bethesda has made some nice QOL additions to the inventory on the Pip Boy (a wrist device that enables you to keep track of everything), having to heal mid combat in real time is cumbersome even with a favourites wheel. 

The only good thing about Fallout being a live service is the very thing I think most fans were dreading when 76 was revealed: other players. Firstly, player bases double as fast travel points and the game very cleverly hops you into servers where there are bases in areas you haven’t explored yet. This cuts out long treks across the map if you’re not feeling like doing much exploring that day. Secondly, the community is kind of...awesome? Fallout is the first multiplayer game I have ever played where I looked forward to seeing another player. As in, other players make 76 even more enjoyable which was previously inconceivable to someone like me who generally avoids multiplayer modes at all costs, unless it’s made by Dice and/or has trophies bolted on.

There’s an unspoken rule of civility that I haven’t seen in a gaming community since No Man’s Sky, and it’s not necessarily because Fallout has amazing fans, it’s because Bethesda actively encourages players to be nice to each other through the game's systems. For example, both players must attack in order to start a PVP encounter and most of the emotes are friendly/neutral so everybody says hello or does a little dance when they see each other. I remember early in my second playthrough a random high level player skipped over to me and dropped some stimpaks and chems - because you can actually do that. I’ve since paid that kindness forward whenever I see a low level player. Other live service games outright prevent this or put a limit on what you can share. In Fallout 76 being nice towards others just feels like the default state. Also, it’s a cliché but endgame is, indeed, “better with friends”. Seasonal events like Fasnacht (the only endgame content I enjoy) features a parade where you have to escort some friendly robots, and typically the lower level players will play the instruments or dance to the music while the higher level characters will make quick work of enemies as everyone marches forward. At the end we all get the same rewards and congratulate each other emotes. It’s great fun. And that sense of community very much plays into the premise of 76 where the first vault boys and girls are tasked with building a new civilisation by trying to get humanity to work together. 

However, while other players make the endgame more tolerable, the inherent systems of Fallout can’t accommodate co-op even though the sponginess of enemies dictates that combat is best tackled in co-op. Somebody has to be the sidekick because progression is rarely shared in critical path missions and I sure as hell don’t log into a game to roleplay as an NPC... Additionally, people have different playstyles so unless all players are willing to be extremely patient it just doesn’t work. For instance, I like to search every nook and cranny in a building whereas another player may only want to do what is essential to the mission, as is their right. I like to read the terminal logs and I know other players do as well but are we supposed to just wait in a line until everyone has finished reading? There’s a reason why Destiny put its lore dumps in menus.

I haven't even got into what is by far and away the worst thing about Fallout 76, bar none: the inventory space. It’s so pitiful that you have to put at least one or two points into Strength for a reasonable amount of carry space, otherwise you're gonna lose your sanity. Even ammo and bobby pins have weight now FFS. I digress. What does inventory space have to do with Fallout 76 being a live service, you say? Well, previous Fallout games had way more manageable inventory space but, then again, previous Fallout games also didn’t have Fallout 1st. Oops. Ezio Voice: There he is. The monster I came to kill. Yeah, so amongst other benefits such as private servers, for £12.00 a month (bloody cheek) players get a ‘survival tent’ which you can plonk anywhere without having to relocate your CAMP (Construction & Assembly Mobile Platform).  Within that, you have an unlimited scrap box where you can put any excess items in so that you’re never over-encumbered. Coincidence? I think not. Oh, and did I mention it allows you to customise difficulty with modifiers like negating resources for workbenches? This is Bethesda, the monster I came to kill. This is what they do. They lean in to listen to community feedback… and then they weaponise that feedback against you.

Speaking of weapons of mass destruction, the dreadful atom shop is still bopping away in the background with its stupid, chirpy music trying to bully players into visiting it. Now, in fairness, Fallout 76 has loads of in-game challenges that you will undoubtedly complete just by naturally playing the game and they all reward atoms. Additionally, there are seasonal challenges that now grant various rewards for milestones which can include atoms and other cosmetics. But if you’re into base building you’re gonna feel the pull of the atom shop especially because the best furniture in the shop can’t be bought with the atoms currency, you have to buy them with real world cash; it’s a disgrace.

I know many Fallout fans don’t care about the base building but, in my opinion, it’s the best addition the series has seen to date. And clearly, it was popular with enough players because now it’s nothing more than an excuse to funnel cash out of the weak minded who want to forgo the grind for plans. Even the most basic of furniture, like a sofa, is locked behind endgame grinding or a quick trip to the atom shop. Having a decent base is not purely cosmetic as it once was in Fallout 4, it’s a crucial part of surviving in Appalachia and even if it was cosmetic, Marvel’s Avengers shows how cosmetic microtransaction can be used to wage psychological abuse against the player. *breathes* All that being said, the microtransactions are always optional so long as you put the proverbial blinders on and just ignore it, but it’s worth mentioning because its mere existence bothers me. 

Despite the online nonsense, when all is said and done, I feel confident recommending Fallout 76 to Fallout fans. In 2022, there’s kind of no reason not to jump in. The game runs very well for the most part and it’s no more than a tenner in most places I look.  No, it’s not quite up to the level of your traditional Bethesda Fallouts but it’s still a great game. Its lore,  addictive exploration and pleasant community more than offset its lacklustre online elements and predatory monetisation. Even if you only stick to the main quest lines and peace out once endgame starts I believe you'll be satisfied. There’s more than enough content until then to still make 76 feel like a complete experience. Obviously, if you don’t like the Fallout series then 76 won’t convert you. If you haven’t played any of the previous instalments then, again, don’t start here. Fallout 4 is probably the best entry point as it’s the most accessible to new players. But Fallout 76 proves to me that even at its alleged worst, the Fallout franchise is up there with the very best.