Fallout 76 Critic Reviews

If you are more of a single player gamer like me, don’t let the online nature of Fallout 76 put you off… it’s eminently playable as a single player experience. If you are put off by the issues mentioned at the start then maybe steer clear (or at least wait to see if patches address your concerns), otherwise I’d say grab the Deathclaw by the horns and jump in (but maybe wait till you have powerarmour to do that.).

Fallout 76 is Fallout, and it isn't Fallout at the same time. And for all the hype around the multiplayer, both friend and foe, it seems inconsequential most of the time. Just passer-bys on the street more often than not, it's there but it doesn't matter. It's a fun game, but I don't think it's going to be a timeless classic I return to time and time again years from now once I feel I've had enough.

Exploring is still the most interesting part in Fallout 76, but your adventure tour is limited by empty open-world, and outdated graphics performance. It is more like an MMO mod of Fallout 4, rather than a brand-new work.

If you love multiplayer survival games with heavy duty environmental storytelling and exploration, then Fallout 76 will probably appeal to you. If you go into Fallout exclusively for the solitude, stories, and characters, then Fallout 76 is going to feel like an empty, boring country road.

Multiplayer is a wonderful addition to the Fallout franchise and the world created in West Virginia is unique, gorgeous, and fun to explore. It may not be in line to win any awards but if you enjoyed the previous installation, Fallout 4, it's quite likely you'll find the same fun in Bethesda's Fallout 76.

Playing with buddies looting collapsed shopping centres and derelict towns is a blast and the robust crafting and character development mechanics are excellent. However, quests’ repetitive nature and a lack of human players filling the vast world can make Fallout 76 feel a little sterile and hamper its long-term appeal, especially if you don’t have friends to accompany you on your journey through the wasteland. This makes Fallout 76 a good, not great, entry into the iconic franchise.

Fallout 76 isn't the best Fallout ever, but it turns out to be an interesting experiment, able to grow and thrive with time, despite an unjustifiable technical aspect.

Regardless of how Fallout 76 transforms and mutates in the months to come, the present version is a brave, imaginative, and rewarding exploration, but its true glory is revealed among friends.

Fallout 76 retains the same captivating immersion, atmosphere and organic exploration that made Fallout 4 so enjoyable thanks to an excellent open world, though you’ll have to contend with a poorly implemented online component and the typical Bethesda technical hiccups and rough edges.

Fallout 76 is one of those games which makes us uncertain. I can't call it complete trash, but can't call it a good game either. But somehow, I believe in it. If Bethesda keeps working hard on the game, in a year, it will become a game which deserves to be played.

Ultimately the big change, and kind of the whole purpose for F76, is the multiplayer component, and how that plays out is going to depend a lot on the community, a quantity that I believe is still very much to be determined.

I don't think I've ever had a game in the test that was so difficult to judge. It doesn't grip properly, but Fallout 76 makes me feel very contradictory. On the one hand, I really enjoy the game world, the exploration and all the stories told here. But I'm also someone who can get involved with this indirect way of telling stories. I can understand that for many this doesn't work without NPCs and dialogues. But I enjoy reading the different diary entries and listening to the holobands. On the other hand, the poor technical condition of the game really annoys me a lot. The poor performance despite average graphics quality is hard to understand. You can and must expect more from a modern game in 2018.

The bottom line is that Fallout 76 was an experiment that was created on an outdated engine incapable of implementing the vision Bethesda has for it. This has led the game into a full blown identity crisis, as it doesn't really play well as a single-player game, sucks at PvP, with its only saving grace being its multiplayer experience, specifically with friends. Sometimes it's better to be great at one thing than good (or not so good) at many things. Promised updates in the future may eventually get the game where it needs to be, but as of today, it's not what fans wanted or expected.

Putting aside its many technical issues, Fallout 76 offers an empty world in which, paradoxically, there are many things to do, but everything appears to be an end in itself. There is something good in this game, but it’s crippled by a bland world design and a non-existent plot. This is a game that may be able to entertain, but boredom is always dangerously around the corner.

Fallout 76 is an underwhelming and disappointing mess, but may have the potential for greatness if Bethesda chooses to support it long-term.

Despite the considerable issues with the PC version, I've still had long stretches of fun with Fallout 76. I really wish PvP had more at stake then lost junk (or at least more willing participants) but the world retains a lot of what I love about Bethesda's previous RPGs with finely crafted environments, enjoyable weapons and crafting, and surprising little scraps of story to uncover and investigate.

Fallout 76’s premise may have made a lot of sense of paper, as many people love surviving with friends in a huge world, but in practice it has a lot of things that keep it from reaching greatness: From the sparse open world with too few players, to the non-engaging story, to actual clunky multiplayer, both cooperative and competitive.

Fallout 76 aspires to offer a lot with West Virginia and exciting co-op, but fails due to unbalanced game design and technical flaws.

It’s easy to be critical with Fallout 76. The flaws are so easy to see that it has every single chance to be this year’s best meme in gaming. But if you enjoy multiplayer experiences with plenty of loot and a great leveling system, you can have a nice time cleaning up its radioactive wilderness.

The bare-bones plot and general lack of direction mean you must make your own fun. It's set in a largely static world that doesn't care about the choices you make, and the few times when you can impact the world may be lost to you or circumvented by others with a mere server hop. There's fun to be had if you enjoy the thought of poking around a Fallout wasteland with a friend. Otherwise, very little here feels new, and it feels like a lot of content is missing in comparison to previous games in the series.