Fallout 76 was released in 2018, and it was a disaster. It was buggy, lacked real content, and was overall just boring. It’s been four years and several updates later, it actually seems playable now, at least from the outside.
Wastelanders
Wastelanders was the first major update after Fallout 76’s release. It added human NPCs, or non-playable-characters to the game. Previously, there were only NPC robots, and they had no personality whatsoever.
This update also brought two new factions to Appalachia, the Raiders and the Settlers. The main goal for either side is to rebuild the economy by using the gold that was transferred from Fort Knox to Vault 79 before the Great War. This brings an old system back to Fallout, reputation. Depending on who the player sides with they will gain or lose reputation with the Raiders at the Crater or the Settlers at Foundation.
Fallout 76 & Bugs
There are still many bugs with quests. There’s one on the Raider’s quest, “Fun and Games”. In the Grafton Steel Underground, a door doesn’t open until the room is cleared of Protectrons, but one of them doesn’t always spawn. This leaves this quest stalled, the only way to possibly fix this is to log out and back in to try it again. But if you decide to do that, you’ll need to clear enemies from the entire building all over again because progress doesn’t save in these “instances”.
This is just one scenario, but there are a plethora of similar bugs within this game.
Gold Bullion
Gold bullion is a new currency which was introduced with the Wastelanders update. Players use gold bullion to buy different items to utilize in their C.A.M.P. They earn gold during public events, and daily quests.
C.A.M.P.
Fallout 76 incorporated the idea of Settlements, from Fallout 4. The type of items you can incorporate in your base-building is almost endless. Although, there is a budget to limit the amount of objects you can have in your camp. When the game first launched, building was difficult. Stairs were nearly impossible to build because they needed to snap into another piece but was also bugged. The developers patched a lot of these base-building bugs.
Shelters
Players can also build their own bomb shelters at their camps. These are pretty much mini-Vaults the player can build in their camp. There is a lot of freedom when it comes to building structures and objects with these Shelters. Another thing I like about the Shelters is the aesthetic. They bring a certain uniqueness to this games version of base-building.
One of the drawbacks I’ve noticed about the Shelters not being able to build everything you can build at your camp. There is also a bug that doesn’t let you build any of the items you have stored into your shelter.
Scoreboard
Fallout 76 has incorporated seasons into the game. Each season lasts a few months, and they have a “Scoreboard”. The player advances through the scoreboard by completing different challenges for “S.C.O.R.E.”. Once the player has enough score, they unlock different rewards based on the theme of that particular season.
Fallout Worlds
Another newer addition to the game is Fallout Worlds. This adds Custom Worlds (exclusive to Fallout 1st members) and Public Worlds. These modes have replaced Nuclear Winter (a previous battle royale game mode). Public Worlds mode give the player to experience Appalachia in a new way. These worlds rotate on a monthly basis. The world available to experience now is “Happy Builder”. It allows the player to build whatever they’d like in their dream camp. The different worlds and descriptions are available here.
Fallout 76 TLDR;
Fallout 76 is in much better shape than it was when was first released. Although this game is far from perfect, I deem it playable. It just takes patience to enjoy the game at times. It’s still buggy, but if you can get past that you’ll have a great time. If you don’t want to replay Fallout 3 or 4 for your Fallout fix I’d definitely recommend 76.
If you’re interested in more survival or base-building content check out the Top 5 Reasons We’re Still Playing Minecraft.