The Fallout of Fallout 76 and Bethesda

The name Bethesda is far from unknown in the video game industry. Their name is tied to critically acclaimed games such as Dishonored, Elder Scrolls V Skyrim and of course the Fallout series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9FGaan35s0

Bethesda just released their new game in the franchise, Fallout 76. Fallout 76 is an online action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 14, 2018. Fallout 76 is Bethesda Game Studios’ first multiplayer game where players get to explore a post-apocalyptic open world alone or with friends.

Sounds amazing right? For a Fallout fan its nothing less than a dream come true. To grab a few friends and go exploring a fallout open world? Count me in. That’s what most of you were thinking when Game Director Todd Howard showed off Fallout 76 at E3. I won,t blame you, so was I. But the phrase “looks can be deceiving” exists for a reason and sad to say Fallout 76 is a primes example.

Through my painful 40 hour playthrough of Fallout 76, the only thing pushing me to play more and more was the fact that it was tied to the name Bethesda and Fallout. Soon I realized I wasn’t playing because I was enjoying it, I was playing because I was a fan of the series and pretty soon, even the fan had to give up on this game.

Let’s start from the beginning. In every Fallout game, the most epic moment for me and I’m sure for many of you is when the vault doors open for the first time. In Fallout 76 that moment just feels dull and washed down. I remembered how good it felt in Fallout 4 compared to Fallout 76 and that was just an omen of things to come.

Bugs. Now this word is not so surprising given that this is a Fallout game but let me tell you, Bethesda just raised the bar on the bugs they have in a game. Enemies waiting in default t-poses, enemies running horizontally half in the ground, crates and enemies spinning for no reason, enemies getting caught in the environment and of course my favorite glitch, the one that turns you into Reed Richards from Fantastic 4, and not in a good way. I could go on but I don’t think you would read this if it’s that long so let’s not. Let’s just say this game is broken.

Bugs aside, this game being completely pvp should be enough to have a great time right? Wrong. Bethesda have created a system where you cannot harm a player if that player did not attack you and vice versa. This leaves me wondering if pvp is this washed down and restricted what was the point of making an open world online Fallout at all. Add in the horrible servers that kick you out every chance it gets and you have a compromised online game. There’s only so much that you can loot and build, hunting other players and taking their loot is what would keep the game running given how horrible the polish is. Honestly, I can’t believe they rolled this game out in this state but hey, let’s not forget No Mans Sky.

Given the number of glitches and not to mention too many game breaking ones such as not being able to get out of the power armor unless you close the game and not reviving after you die and the lack of pvp combat makes the player think all this is a “waste of time”

The engine doesn’t help either, the textures are washed out and not really detailed and the lighting is all over the place especially when the light starts coming out of the ground. Yes, that’s a thing in this game. The engine even after getting updates is starting to show its age.

This game is a mess and needs fixing. No Mans Sky was able to pull itself out of the mud and given the size of the studio they have to be commended. If a small studio like that can do it, fingers crossed that Bethesda can too, their reputation is on the line.

A triple A game such as this coming from a studio such as that has no right to be what it is. False advertising and deceiving gamers is something that has started to pop up from big studios and should be dealt with otherwise it’ll only get worse.

The loot box fiasco from EAs Star Wars Battle Front II is a clear indication that if gamers band together, even big companies are bound to move our way. Gamers are the reason why these companies are alive and sometimes it’s the duty of a gamer to remind them that.