Fallout 76
Fallout 76 is a 2018 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is an installment in the Fallout series and a prequel to previous entries. Initially set in the year 2102, players control a resident of Vault 76 who must venture out into the dilapidated open world set in Appalachia in order to re-colonize the region and uncover a mysterious plague that has killed off its inhabitants.
Fallout 76 is Bethesda Game Studios' first multiplayer game. Development began in 2013, and involved a collaboration with developer BattleCry Studios. The game uses a modified version of Bethesda's Creation Engine, which allowed the accommodation of multiplayer gameplay and a more detailed game world than in previous games. Fallout 76 was reportedly subject to a troubled development, which included a restrictive crunch schedule. It saw a high turnover of staff, attributed to both a lack of leadership and clarity about the game's design, while numerous glitches were ignored by quality assurance.
Fallout 76 was initially released to generally mixed reviews, with criticism for the game's technical issues, overall design, lack of gameplay purpose, and initial absence of human non-playable characters. A number of Bethesda's responses and attempts to provide ongoing support for Fallout 76 in the months following its launch were met with criticism. In October 2019, a premium subscription service called Fallout 1st was added to the game. The first major update, Wastelanders, which introduced human non-playable characters, was released in April 2020, to more favorable reception. The game was the subject of several controversies, chiefly with regard to the quality of physical content, and is notable for its negative reception. The game sold 1.4 million copies by the end of 2018. Fallout 76 saw an increase in player count over time, peaking in 2024 with the release of Amazon Prime's television series Fallout.
Gameplay
Fallout 76 is an action role-playing game that can be played from either a first-person or third-person perspective. Set in the Appalachian region of West Virginia, the player controls a character who leaves a fallout shelter 25 years after a nuclear war left much of the United States decimated. The game is entirely online, and utilizes dedicated servers. While players are able to play the game solo, they are encouraged to complete quests with other players on the server. Additionally, players can trade with each other, and engage in combat. Private servers are only available through the use of the monthly membership Fallout 1st.Fallout 76 features an open world map that the player can freely explore. The map replicates many real locations from West Virginia, such as the cities of Charleston and Morgantown, as well as landmarks like The Greenbrier resort and New River Gorge Bridge. The game features numerous enemies, including raiders, mutated animals, and ghouls. Some enemies come from West Virginia folklore, such as the Mothman and the Flatwoods monster. The player is equipped with a wearable computer called the Pip-Boy. The device serves as a menu, and allows the player to access items they have acquired, view detailed character statistics and active quests, and look at the map. The player can use the Pip-Boy to fast travel to previously discovered locations, and as a radio to listen to makeshift broadcasts. There are a variety of weapons in the game, including standard guns, energy-based guns, melee weapons, and explosives. While in combat, the player can utilize a gameplay mechanic known as V.A.T.S., which automatically targets an enemy and displays a percentage chance of hitting the enemy with an attack. Unlike in previous Fallout games, V.A.T.S. does not pause or slow down time, and instead displays information in real time.
The player accrues experience points by completing quests, killing enemies, and crafting items. Once the player earns a certain amount of experience points, they can level up. Each level up allows the player to increase one of seven attributes: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. These attributes, known as S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, govern certain aspects of the player character; for example, the strength stat determines how many items the player can carry, as well as the damage of melee attacks. Additionally, the number of points the player has for a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat directly correlates to the number of perk cards they can use, which act as permanent beneficial upgrades. For example, the endurance perk card Rifleman increases the damage of non-automatic rifles. Perk cards can be reassigned or removed at any point in the game.
An important mechanic in Fallout 76 is the ability to build and defend bases. At the start of the game, the player is given an item called the Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform, which allows the player to convert raw materials into base structures. C.A.M.P. bases can be placed anywhere on the map, and can be moved at anytime. At a C.A.M.P. base, the player can craft weapons, armor, and modifications. Enemies can attack bases, and the player can mitigate their attack by equipping the base with turrets and traps. If the player joins a server that already features another base where their existing base should be, the player's base will be removed, and can be replaced in a different location.
Fallout 76 features an in-game currency called atoms, which can be used to purchase items from a marketplace called the Atomic Shop. Atoms can either be purchased with real-world money through microtransactions or by completing in-game challenges, such as crafting a piece of armor or leveling up. The Atomic Shop sells cosmetic items, such as outfits and short character gestures called emotes.
Premise
Fallout 76 is a narrative prequel to previous Fallout games. It is set in an alternate history, and takes place in 2102, twenty-five years after a nuclear war that devastated the Earth. The player character is a resident of Vault 76, a fallout shelter that was built in West Virginia to house America's best and brightest minds. The player character exits the Vault on "Reclamation Day" as part of a plan to re-colonize the Wasteland.Plot
Twenty-five years after the Great War, Vault 76 is opened up and its residents given the task of repopulating the Wasteland. Shortly after they emerge from the Vault, the player character is contacted by the Vault Overseer. She reveals that Vault 76 was given a secret mandate to secure an arsenal of nuclear weapons deployed throughout Appalachia in three still-functioning nuclear missile silos: Site Alpha, Site Bravo, and Site Charlie. The player character is directed to contact the Responders, a faction of emergency services personnel who tried to aid the residents of Appalachia during the war; however, they discover that the Responders evacuated after they came under attack from the Scorched. Further investigation reveals that the Scorched are human beings infected by the "Scorched Plague", and are led by the Scorchbeasts; massive mutated bats that came into contact with an Enclave bioweapon kept in an old mining facility, causing exponential growth and a symbiotic control over the plague that created them. This relationship with the plague elevates a single Scorchbeast to the role of Queen, making it far larger and more dangerous, and allowing it to lead the legions of humans and animals in Appalachia through the use of a hivemind.As the Scorched represent a threat to the Wasteland beyond Appalachia, the player character decides to secure a nuclear weapon and use it to destroy a Scorchbeast nest. In order to achieve this, they start searching the bunkers of survivalists calling themselves the Free States who were working on the means to detect the Scorched until the Scorched overran them. The player character is able to build a radar system that detects the viral signature of the Scorched, but its limited range makes it ineffective. The player attempts to boost the signal first by gaining the friendship of Rose, a Miss Nanny robot trying to rebuild the local Raider gangs that lived in Appalachia before being scared off by the Scorched; and by investigating research done by the local Brotherhood of Steel into the Scorchbeast as they had tried to stop it spreading from its main lair. The player hacks into a government network and draws the attention of the Enclave, the remnants of the United States government. The Enclave are led by MODUS, a centralized artificial intelligence system located in a secure nuclear fallout bunker beneath the Whitespring Resort. MODUS asks the player character to help connect them to a series of isolated computer networks across Appalachia through the Sugar Grove SIGINT base and reestablish contact with the Kovac-Muldoon orbital platform, and in return offers to connect to the radar system to detect Scorched across the region.
Once connected to MODUS, the player gains the ability to locate the Scorchbeast nest, known as Fissure Site Prime. This nest is situated near the site where the Brotherhood of Steel had previously attempted to combat the Scorchbeast menace, ultimately meeting with failure. Guided by MODUS, the player is directed to one of three nuclear silos and launches a missile at the nest. Upon entering the irradiated area, the player discovers a laboratory at the heart of the nest, which had also been discovered by the Brotherhood of Steel. This suggests that the Scorchbeasts might have been artificially created. The missile detonation awakens a formidable Scorchbeast Queen, forcing the player to engage in combat with her. Upon vanquishing the Queen, the collective consciousness of the Scorchbeasts is shattered, and the danger they posed to the wider wasteland is neutralized. Having successfully defeated the Scorchbeasts, the player rejoins the other residents of Vault 76 in their collective efforts to rebuild the post-apocalyptic wasteland.