Fallout 76 is an online action role-playing game and the first multiplayer entry in the Fallout series. Set in 2102 in Appalachia, West Virginia, players control a resident of Vault 76 who ventures into the open world 25 years after a nuclear war. The game features exploration, questing, base building, and combat against mutated creatures and hostile factions. It can be played solo or cooperatively, with players sharing servers and engaging in trade or PvP combat.
In 2024, Fallout 76 finally captures a lot of the post-nuclear experience I love. It trades roleplaying decision-making for multiplayer shooter antics, but it still needs more endgame content and a fair inventory solution.
Fallout 76: Steel Reign isn't much to shout about by itself, but it offers a good overview of just how far the game has come since its disastrous launch.
Fallout 76 feels like an atavistic reprisal of a late-2000s MMO.
Fallout 76 is barren of good ideas and littered with giant bugs, far too closely resembling the wasteland it depicts.
There's no sugarcoating it: Fallout 76 comes up short at nearly everything it aims to be. It's not a good role-playing game and it's not a good multiplayer experience. It never really feeds into the gradual RPG power fantasy but it's also inadequate as a survival simulator. In wanting to be so much, Fallout 76 doesn't amount to much at all.
