As the wait forFallout 5intensifies, there will no doubt be questions about what it will borrow from previous games in the series, including the much-malignedFallout 76. There are opportunities for Bethesda torecontextualizeFalloutseries tropes and traditions, but there’s room for further experimentation as well, meaning that the likes ofFallout 76could diffuse into the project’s DNA.
It was slammed at launch for being buggy, incomplete, poorly balanced, and devoid of meaningful content, but against all odds,Fallout 76seems to have made a comeback. Following major content updates like 2020’sWastelanders,Fallout 76experienced a significant metamorphosis, addressing leading criticisms like the lack of friendly NPCs and the prevalence of copy-paste quest design. Indeed, the questionable live-service venture, which many assumed would have been put down after its first year, has enjoyed a major glow-up, turning into something almost unrecognizable. This may embolden Bethesda to transplant some of its winning features intoFallout 5, which might not be the best idea.
Fallout 76 Is Much Better Now, but It’s Still Not ‘Fallout’
Fallout 76 Is a Different Sort of Fallout Experience
Theredemption arc ofFallout 76has been shocking, as its launch state painted a bleak picture, but not a totally unexpected one. The game was released in 2018, during the first few years of the rising live-service phenomenon that would swallow so many potentially promising games. But unlike other ill-fated games-as-a-service leaps likeConcordandRedfall,Fallout 76was following years of single-player RPG tradition, which is almost totally at odds with the conventions of live-service MMO design.
So, even though most would agree thatFallout 76has seen massive, transformative improvement over the years, it is still fundamentally opposed to whatFalloutstands for.Fallout 76presents interesting gameplay and narrative opportunities, alongside a compelling open-world, but it’s such a departure from otherFalloutgames that it almost seems like a different franchise altogether; whatever attracts players toFallout 76isn’t likely to be the same things that draw them to the otherFalloutentries.Fallout 76proves that theFalloutworld can be a decent enough backdrop for a live-service game, but it requires sacrificing key elements like a contained main story, reactive world, and a focus on fleshed-out side narratives.
Fallout 76 Could Embolden Bethesda to Put Multiplayer Elements in Fallout 5
Clearly,Fallout 76is a title that Bethesda cares a great deal about—the company wouldn’t have invested so much time and resources in it otherwise. This commitment has led to the reward of a passionate and dedicatedFallout 76playerbase, which is surprising in retrospect, considering the whirlwind of negative press surrounding it to this day. In other words,Fallout 76is an undeniable, unlikely success story, which could inspire Bethesda to cutFallout 5from the same cloth.
Bethesda has exhibited an iterative process in the past:Fallout 3’s radical shift in mechanics and perspectivewas a hit with players, resulting in the series as a whole adopting these now-definitive design elements.
PerhapsFallout 5could have some light co-op integration, allowing players to hop into their friends' games for side missions, or maybe there could be some sort of hub area similar toDestiny 2’s Tower, where players could socialize and compare gear. Forfans ofFallout 76, these might not seem like terrible ideas, and from Bethesda’s perspective, it could be giving these players more of what they want—public perception of76has changed quite a bit, after all. But at the same time, these multiplayer elements could adulterate theFalloutidentity, possibly being a bridge too far for fans of the main series.
Fallout 76
WHERE TO PLAY
Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of Skyrim and Fallout 4, welcome you to Fallout 76. Twenty-five years after the bombs fell, you and your fellow Vault Dwellers—chosen from the nation’s best and brightest – emerge into post-nuclear America on Reclamation Day, 2102. Play solo or join together as you explore, quest, build, and triumph against the wasteland’s greatest threats. Explore a vast wasteland, devastated by nuclear war, in this open-world multiplayer addition to the Fallout story. Experience the largest, most dynamic world ever created in the legendary Fallout universe. Expand southward to Skyline Valley – a brand-new region of Appalachia. Investigate the cause of the electric storm circling overhead and unveil the mystery around Vault 63 and its dwellers, including a shocking new Ghoul type – The Lost.
