The Fallout franchise is the more modern counterpart to the Skyrim and Oblivion games. It takes place in the 2200’s usually but you’d think it was still the 1950’s. Well, in-universe, the Cold War didn’t end so well and humans ended up deep underground in vaults while the world experienced a nuclear war. Hundreds of years later, humanity emerged from the depths and society began anew.
This time around Fallout 76 actually takes place as the earliest game in the franchise, canonically. It’ll be interesting to see how they run it back considering in Fallout 4 we had Terminator-esque robots and the ability to hop into people’s minds. Fallout 76 is radically different from the other modern iterations like Fallout: New Vegas or 4. It’s 100% completely online, and multiplayer focused. This time around you and a group of your friends are set on building your own little paradise in this proverbial radioactive cesspool. And the game is actually right around the corner, it’s set to release November 14th, 2018!
Honestly, that’s insanely soon for such an ambitious concept. Bethesda must have been working on this game for years behind the scenes. That said, there’s already a bunch that was confirmed for the game, some new idea’s that change the franchise in interesting ways, and others that hold it back.
30 Already Confirmed: Not On Steam, But Bethesda’s Own Launcher
First things first, let’s talk about where the game will be sitting.
Fallout 76 isn’t going to be on Steam like most AAA releases tend to be. Rather, it’ll be on Bethesda’s own launcher.
I personally have never used their launcher, but I know for sure it’s not as bad as Origin or U-play. As long as it’s better than those two, I think I’ll be okay. That said, it’s a brave choice to release your game outside of Steam. But, Bethesda is pretty big these days, so I don’t think they’ll have any issue garnering sales outside of Valve’s view.
29 Hopefully Not: Hunger And Thirst Meters Are Back
Now onto the game, and right away something’s been confirmed that I’m not into. So many games come out these days sporting the descriptor “Survival” like a gold star. And yes, while I did enjoy the tension of monitoring my hunger and thirst in games, that was only for a little while. The concept has become dated and ends up being little more than a constant annoyance.
Fallout: New Vegas had a hardcore mode that featured these meters, and I personally never played that mode because of it.
Let’s hope these meters stay in their own mode.
28 Already Confirmed: It’s Set In West Virginia
West Virginia isn’t the most…obvious choice, but it seems like they’re making the most of it.
This Fallout will by far have the most variation in terms of its environments and creatures.
Todd’s team seems to have thoroughly done their research on the area. And honestly, I’m a bit excited to learn more about West Virginia as I do my best to survive in its clutches. With a game this size, I wouldn’t be surprised if they include every single tourist attraction West Virginia has to offer.
27 Hopefully Not: Microtransactions
It’s no surprise, but it’s already been confirmed that microtransactions will be in Fallout 76. While this is a bummer, It’s to be expected in the current gaming ecosystem.
With the budget for AAA titles increasing in magnitude annually, the profit margin has to match.
Thankfully, Todd Howard has stated that the microtransactions will only be for cosmetics and that you won’t be able to purchase anything that will give you an edge over other players. Still, It feels scummy, even more so when bigger companies include them.
26 Already Confirmed: It’s The Earliest Game Canonically In The Franchise
So this Fallout is the earliest one to date, that’s right, even earlier than Fallout 1 or 2, which I’m sure only a minority have played.
It’ll be interesting to see how the team adjusts to the level of tech in this game.
Since it’s the earliest, by a good margin mind you, the level of tech will have to match. Hopefully, this means they’ve found a creative workaround, and instead of different variations on a beam rifle, we’ll instead get unstable prototypes and failed experiment weapons. The game seems to be going for an eerier vibe, so it’s possible.
25 Hopefully Not: It’s Always Online
While I expected this as soon as the word “multiplayer” came up, I’m no less disappointed.
Fallout 76 has been confirmed to be an always-online game.
In this day and age, and in the US especially, it’s not hard to get internet. We’re a very digital country, and the idea of someone playing video games without internet is rare. But, that doesn’t mean there won’t be extenuating circumstances, and in those situations, it’s disappointing that there’s no alternative. Video games should always feature an offline mode, and I’ll never personally understand how we’ve gotten away from that.
24 Already Confirmed: You Can Opt Into PvP
But luckily, that doesn’t mean you’ll always have to be in a server packed with aggressive PVP’ers.
Bethesda has assured us that there will be an option to Opt-in to PVP.
They’ve also said that you’ll still see other players if you’re PvE only. I can only imagine something similar to GTA5’s “passive” system where the player is translucent to PvP enabled players, and can’t be touched. Or maybe they’ll just make PvE players like NPC’s in past games that couldn’t be taken out. But that opens doors to all the other avenue’s of griefing, so I hope not.
23 Hopefully Not: The Number Of Penalties For PK’ing
It seems to me that Bethesda is really pushing a friendly online ecosystem.
While that is sweet, Fallout is a post-apocalyptic setting. That means people are looking to survive, and can’t always be nice.
But, from everything already confirmed, it seems that aggressive players are heavily punished in a number of ways just for making ends meet. If you’re planning to build a fully online atmosphere, you have to be able to make both the PvE focused people happy, as well as the battle ready PvPers. Prioritizing one over the other could lead Bethesda to ostracize half of their audience.
22 Already Confirmed: The Map Will be 4 Times Larger Than Fallout 4’s
With open world games nowadays, apparently bigger is better. Each new sandbox title tries to pump up the size of their map to frankly absurd degrees.
Fallout 76 is no exception, confirming that their map will be at least four times the size of Fallout 4’s.
Now, normally these large maps tend to mostly be empty and don’t quite make much use of the space. But the Fallout series is different. Sure there are stretches of nothingness, but Bethesda tends to pack their open world as much as possible with diverse and interesting settlements. So imagine that times four.
21 Hopefully Not: There’s Fast Travel
Now hold on just one second. I know that fast travel has been in every iteration of the sandbox Fallouts.
But I do think they should be more careful with it in an online setting.
For example, say you and your friends finally tracked down the player with the highest bounty, and are about to raid his base. You all run in ready for the fight of your life, but as soon as you see the guy, he boop’s out of existence. He fast traveled. Situations like those mean that Fast Travel should have some restrictions it didn’t have previously.
20 Already Confirmed: There Are Now Perk Cards Instead of Perks
My favorite part of Fallout 3 leveling up just so I could see what new perks I had unlocked.
The perk system in Fallout is one of it’s best mechanics and it’s scary that it’s changing in 76.
Granted, it’s mostly the same, but rather than standard perks, we now have Perk Cards. From what we’ve seen so far, you’re essentially building the deck that is your character. You collect, modify, and even dispose of different Perk Cards all in the pursuit of your best self. It’s an odd way to modify the system, but I’m excited all the same.
19 Hopefully Not: But You Can Trade Them
The best part of the perk feature was how individual it made each playthrough.
No two characters were alike, and when talking about Fallout, which perks you picked always came up.
So when I saw it’s been confirmed that perks are now tradeable, I got a bit disappointed. The idea of trading duplicate or unnecessary perks could easily mean that a lot of characters end up the same. We might end up seeing a “meta” build that a majority ends up using. I’m worried that the franchise is losing a part of its individuality, but Bethesda might prove me wrong.
18 Already Confirmed: Recipes For Crafting Are Tradable
Recipes and crafting have become huge aspects of the Fallout franchise. There was minor crafting in Fallout 3 but not to the same complexity.
Crafting ammo, weapons, and even settlements got pretty complex in later games.
But I’ve personally never liked crafting after Fallout 3. Crafting special weapons like the Shishkebob in 3 was the extent of it for me. But, it’s been confirmed that yes there will be crafting in Fallout 76, and recipes will be tradable between players. Are you telling me I could potentially squad up and have a team running around with flaming swords? Pre-order secured.
17 Hopefully Not: You Can Respec at Any Time
It’s been confirmed that players can respec in the newest Fallout.
Apparently, Fallout 76 will feature the ability to respec anywhere at any time.
This is most likely due to the way that the new Perk Card system words. If you don’t like a perk, trash it. And while I see the appeal of this system, a staple of the franchise has been the finality of your perk decisions. Did you pick a bad perk early on? That’s a part of that character now. It made for a truly individual experience and I hope that is still the case in 76.
16 Already Confirmed: Bounty’s For Aggressive Players
The team at Bethesda has confirmed both verbally and in their amazing animated trailers, that more aggressive players will face consequences.
There will be a bounty system in Fallout 76, where the more you take out other players, the higher the bounty is on your head.
This system has been seen in other multiplayer titles such as GTA5. And while in GTA it was a secondary feature, it seems like Fallout 76 bounties will be much more primary. I’m excited to see the possibilities. Could we get Bonnie and Clyde like criminals online? Constantly aggressive, yet never getting caught?
15 Hopefully Not: No More V.A.T.S Slow-Mo
This one is tragic. A cornerstone of the Fallout Franchise is the V.A.T.S system. This system allows you to freeze time, and pick out specific parts of any given enemy to target. Then, once you decided your shots, you were gifted with a cinematic, slow-motion depiction on how your shots played out.
Since Fallout 3, players were always speculating how they could implement the V.A.T.S system into a multiplayer setting.
Sure you could take out the Slow-mo, but then it wouldn’t be the same. Turns out Bethesda disagrees, because that’s exactly what they’ve confirmed they’re doing for Fallout 76.
14 Already Confirmed: There Are Giant Sloths
Is it weird that I went “Awwww” during the shot of this swole sloth in the E3 trailer? But look at him!
Looks like the sloths in the West Virginia area have been sticking to the gym, and they’ve bulked up.
Each Fallout game has featured dangerous creatures that were signature to the setting of the game, such as Cazadores in New Vegas. But it seems like this time around, we’re getting a ton of different local wildlife attacking us. From the footage, It seems like Bethesda is letting go and getting super weird with their creatures, and I’m ecstatic.
13 Hopefully Not: There Are Also Giant Ticks
But with ever adorable mutation, comes one that’s three times as scary. I have a crippling fear of scorpions, so Fallout’s signature creature the Radscorpion has always been a case of cold sweat for me. That said, the only other creature to get me as bad is the Cazador, turns out big insects are scary.
Bethesda just can’t STOP, they’ve gone and done it again with this giant tick that seems to be hosting a home for its small sized family on it’s back.
Can I please just get one post-apocalyptic adventure without being absolutely scared of giant bugs?
12 Already Confirmed: There Are Dragon-esque Creatures Called “Scorchbeasts”
And finally in our list of newly featured creatures in the Scorchbeast.
This is the flagship creature of Fallout 76 and I can see why.
Seem’s like Bethesda is getting back to it’s Skyrim roots and put a literal dragon in Fallout. In reality, it seems to be a hypermutation of a West-Virginian species of bat. But, in the footage we’ve seen, it can do just as much damage as the fire-breathing creature of legend. Thankfully, it seems like a group of players is enough to take one out, and I’m glad it makes for such a great photoshoot!
11 Hopefully Not: But There Aren’t Any Human NPC’s
The Fallout franchise actually has a lot of amazing characters. You’ve got Moria Brown from Fallout 3, Nick Valentine from Fallout 4, and even Rex from New Vegas.
They’ve always been known for their diverse and insane cast of mutated misfits.
But, apparently, it’s been confirmed that Fallout 76 won’t have a single human NPC. I get that with multiplayer, human NPC’s could spoil the fun of finding people. But the trade-off of losing a host of potentially amazing characters doesn’t seem quite worth it. Who knows, maybe Todd will make a cast of likable and creative non-humans to compensate?
