I Do Not Find Fallout 76 So Bad: What Am I Missing?

I remember the first time I emerged from the Vault into the world of Fallout 76 during the B.E.T.A. phase of the game. I was instantly transported into the Post-Apocalypse world of the Fallout universe and I prepared for the adventures ahead. As I explored from the B.E.T.A. version to the retail version I made notes of bugs and things that I thought needed to be fixed. But one thing was clear, I kept coming back to the game again and again. As the ire of some consumers and fans of the series filled the internet, and low review scores followed; I started to wonder what I was missing. Yes the game has bugs and gameplay issues; but I found myself still enjoying the game. Yes some quests did not pay off and were basically running all over for now real reward; yes the combat and crafting were clunky; and clipping issues popped up again and again.

Yet even last night I was playing the game for several hours as I wandered into unexplored areas. and took on Scorchers, Mutants, and a bevy of dangerous creatures.

I kept asking myself what is it that I am missing as while I do see issues with the game; I do not see issues that warrant reviews like 1.5/10 and 3/10. I find myself in a review range of 3/5 or 60% which while not great, I think is fair as if you can overlook the bugs, there can be some enjoyable gameplay to be had.

I know my viewpoint puts me fairly in the minority of gamers who have played it but I have put in several hours into the game and have had some enjoyable gameplay despite the frustrations that have been mentioned in many other articles and reviews.

Many games like this often have rocky starts as players flood the Internet with reports of bugs, connection issues, crashes, and such and the issues are usually sorted out in time by the developers. The public is basically one big Beta Test and I get how asking consumers to pay full retail to play a game that many believe was not ready for launch is an issue. My standpoint is from the gameplay side; not the business side as even with other options to occupy my time such as Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII, Battlefield V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and others; it is Fallout 76 which keeps drawing me back in. I have played most of the game solo, and look forward to getting in with some players I know soon, but there seems to be plenty to do in either as a group or solo.

I think the big issue aside from technical are expectations. Fans were not overjoyed with the prospects of an Online Fallout game and as such have reacted negatively to the game. They wanted Fallout 5 and what they got was a simplified Fallout game that based on performance issues needed more polish before being released. I am sure the game will play very differently a few months from now as Bethesda will patch the game and hopefully will continue to listen to the feedback from fans. I only hope that more people will give it a try as there is a fun and solid game in the core; but the issues get in the way for many. I have enjoyed it alot and think with some patching and patience, Bethesda will hopefully turn things around for players

10 Comments

  1. WhatupG3 said:

    I don’t know what pipe you’re smoking sir but I want some of that and maybe I can see the game through your eyes because this game sucks and it has mothing to do with me wanting Fallout 5 and getting Fallout 76. This game is broken to the core and I recommend that no one picks this trash up until this game is fixed maybe a few months from now and it will probably be $20 and then if you want maybe give it a shot.

    How can you get off a game like Red Dead to keep going back to something thats pretty much unplayable. I guess to each its own so good luck with all that and stop spreading the lie and telling people to pick up this mess you call a game.

    November 30, 2018
    • gareth said:

      I have video up of my experiences playing. RDR2 is a superior game no question about it. It however is slow in the early chapters and Fallout 76 does get you into the action. I hope the Online for RDR2 Grows as I think this will be an ideal situation. I do prefer playing on a PC vs a console when it comes to shooters though.

      November 30, 2018
      • Watcher said:

        Okay, let’s get right inti it: Dozens of bugs ported over from fallout 4, bland outdated graphics, server crashes, overpriced mundane store items, useless realtime vats system, lack of npcs creating a hollow world environment.. I can go on, but I’ll wrap up with saying anyone who can’t tell the difference between a polished, high quality product and bugged, alpha code has no business reviewing games. This game should have never passed QA let alone ship as a finished product!

        November 30, 2018
        • gareth said:

          I have not had one issue with a server crashing on me. I simply said this game is not as bad to me as others have said and I have had fun playing it. I never said it was better than other games; I said it is pulling me in to play more than the others have so far.

          November 30, 2018
          • Steven said:

            I agree with the reviewer. This game isn’t without its faults, but I can’t stop playing it. I also find myself thinking about my next play sessions, where I’m going to go and what I’m going to improve on, more then any game in recent memory. And that is a sign of something great.

            November 30, 2018
          • gareth said:

            Do you find group or solo more enjoyable? I played with one other on the B.E.T.A. and waiting to play with some staff.

            November 30, 2018
  2. andrewsqual said:

    Its fine that you like it. But the literal millions upon millions of us that have avoided this thrash since its E3 announcement have saved this developer and their future projects as they will NEVER make a game like this again.
    The only thing I wish now is for them to just stop updating this crap and get on into full swing of making The Elder Scrolls VI, a purely offline game no doubt, and have it ready very early into next gen because this awful game is only going to hold all other projects back.

    December 1, 2018
    • gareth said:

      Bethesds claims millions are currently playing so it will be interesting to see what the long-term is.

      December 1, 2018
  3. Anonymous said:

    I felt the same way and I have an answer to your question,..it’s in the formula
    Playing thru BETA and early FO76 I got increasingly frustrated the more I play. Not wanting to quit I thought could it be just me or my equipment? I tried to rationalize why no one (at the time) is complaining about the same bad experiences I came across. So I did an experiment.

    I restarted my Fallout 4 game. Updated a few mods and realized I never bought the Far Harbor DLC. So I did and for the last week or 2 I’ve been having a blast with LongFellow, DiMA and the High Confessor. So much that I by-passed all the hate-train, the fanboy-lash-backs and generally had a great time with my Fallout.

    After finishing the DLC, I came back to FO76 after the 1st Dec patch and within 10mins of play I was promptly disconnected (sigh). For 1 min I contemplated relogging, but instead simply exited and went back to FO4. With the updated mods, My FO4 looks beautiful and runs buttery smooth.

    The gist of my answer is that,..
    Yes, the fallout formula does have the magic of making you return to the game. I don’t have RDR2 but I did purchase Kingdom Come Deliverance recently. I really like KCD, but somehow I still enjoy the freedom of the explore->loot->get-back-to-questing experience more than the linear story of KCD. So, to me at least, the inherent open-world-ness of the Fallout Franchise since FO3 is what draws some people back to play. You could have just as much fun with FO4, if you were living under some rock the last few years and completely missed FO4 launch,

    Its the other stuff Bethesda tried to do on top of the formula that is messing everything up. Multiplayer Coop is a good idea but trying to stifle griefing completely messed up pvp. Like many I expect bugs may (I dare not say “will” anymore) be fixed but there’re some working mechanics that have been badly shoehorned into FO76. Fanboys defend BGS saying haters expected a different game than what BGS claimed. But that doesn’t excuse VATS and settlement building being worst than in FO4. Everyone who has played FO4 are gonna compare these existing mechanics to how they experienced it before no matter what BGS promise.

    I could even agree with those who said. BGS should shutdown all the servers and focus on fixing the game. But I have one more suggestion on top of that. BGS should shut it down and open Test Servers to the modding community. Modders *will* probably fix FO76 better and faster than BGS. It’s clear they are incompetent of fixing their own game! Dec3 patch was supposed to fix the stash limit issue (its not a bug, its a terrible design), but they went and mess up the excavator (sigh). Don’t you guys see the evil cycle? Things that used to work keeps breaking after every patch !!

    December 5, 2018
    • gareth said:

      The Data Breach issue is also a problem as they have had so much bad P.R. around this game the fact that people had customer names, address information, and credit card information and were bragging about it on Reddit only makes things look worse.

      December 6, 2018

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