Author: Derek Kraneveldt

October 23rd marked a pretty big day for Fallout fans. The date (59 years from now) marks the beginning (and ending) of the Great War – the day that nuclear bombs fell across the planet and essentially ended… well, everything. Fittingly enough, Bethesda chose this same day to begin the Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. (Break it Early Test Application) for Xbox One players. Anyone with a valid pre-order for the game was able to get their first taste of the hotly anticipated title that’s left Fallout fans everywhere highly wary since its initial reveal back in May.

Fallout is my favourite active video game series, and Fallout 3 is one of my most highly regarded games of all time. I put way too many hours into Fallout Shelter based on its branding alone, and I’ve even dedicated an entire shelf (singular) to some of my favourite Fallout merch (and some sweet rarities I snagged back at the Bethesda Gameplay Days at PAX West). As someone who nearly exclusively plays single player games, a Fallout title set so closely to the day that the bombs fell is unbelievably intriguing to me, but the revelation that I’d need to share that world with other players worried that hell out of me.

Now that I’ve spent a few hours with the game, however, I really (mostly) have no freaking idea what I was worried about.

Vault 76 is located in Appalachia (West Virgina), and is the first of the Vault-Tec vaults to unseal its doors and let its dwellers out into the world, just 25 years after the bombs fell. You (and the other dwellers) are essentially tasked with ensuring that your great nation (America, obvs) can be rebuilt and recolonized. Rather than being a lone wanderer or a sole survivor with a highly personal goal in an unfamiliar world, this general goal means that having other dwellers in the world actually makes a lot of sense.

Bethesda has spent a ton of time detailing many of 76’s new mechanics, including the new card-based perks, the game’s unique PVP system, C.A.M.P., and so much more. Rather than focussing on things like that, I’d like to spend a bit of time detailing just what my time with the game has been like so far.

It’d be hard to do so without spoiling something, so consider this your warning.

Following the classic ‘War Never Changes’ video, you’ll jump right into the game’s character creator. Endlessly adjusting aspects of your character’s appearance is not something that I typically care about, and things didn’t change here. This looks like a slightly more powerful version of the character creator in Fallout 4, and while I simply chose one of the game’s default characters (which I found out later sported a man-bun), Mikaela’s eyes absolutely lit up when she saw just how easy it was to modify every piece of your character’s face.

After you create your character, you’ll awaken inside your private (roomy) room inside Vault 76 surrounded by party supplies and empty liquor bottles. An animated envelope on your nearby terminal catches your eye, and you soon learn that the previous night saw a massive vault-wide celebration take place. Apparently you drank too much and woke up late, as at this point the Vault is mostly empty – Reclamation Day is here, and it’s time for everyone to leave the Vault and begin to rebuild America. You leave your room, and while in past Fallout games I’ve loved spending as much time in the Vault exploring and absorbing the environment as possible (well, aside from Fallout 4 I guess), at this point Vault 76 is mostly locked down because, well, it’s time for you to leave it. A few other dwellers were running around the vault at the same time as I was, and while we tried to unsuccessfully punch each other (I had forgotten that PVP can’t even be enabled until you hit level 5) and traded emotes (I particularly like the Vault Boy thumbs up and vomiting options), at this point the game still mostly felt like a solo affair.

Before leaving Vault 76 you’ll head down a series of long hallways full of helpful robots that offer you your first supplies and introduce you to two of the new mechanics in Fallout 76: thirst and hunger. Here, you won’t just need to manage HP and Rads, but you also have a hunger and thirst meter that you’ll need to keep your eye on, and it’s pretty interesting to manage. Hunger and thirst are always visible in your Pip-Boy menu, but won’t show up on the main HUD unless either is low. Naturally, each depletes over time, and while I never felt like either meter became annoying, I was definitely more excited in 76 to come across any quality food or clean water than I had been in any previous Fallout game. Getting too hungry or thirsty will have some adverse effects, so there were definitely times that I chose to drink irradiated water, which in Fallout 76 not only increases your rads, but also has a chance of giving you a disease.

Yeah, you can get diseases in Fallout 76 too. They cure themselves over time, and there are items that you can use to instantly get rid of them, but they sound annoying as hell, which just adds to the risk / reward system of should I drink the water out of this toilet or not. I didn’t catch a disease from drinking bad water, but did catch ‘Swamp Itch’ from sleeping on a dirty mattress on the ground (resting on a mattress will slowly heal your HP). Swamp Itch gives you -2 Agility, which at this point in the game left me with -1 Agility, which had a huge effect of my AP (energy which is drained by attacking, or sprinting, or jumping, or doing pretty much anything), and just generally made exploring harder while I was suffering from it.

The moment you leave Vault 76 it’s clear just how different an experience Fallout 76 will be from previous Fallout games. This world feels lush and alive – you’re just removed from civilization instead of hundreds of years from it, so cities and buildings appear far less dilapidated than in previous games. West Virginia is a far cry from places like Washington D.C. or Boston, and I feel like I saw more foliage in my first hour of 76 than in the entirety of Fallout 4. Lighting systems have seen huge improvements (gorgeous god rays everywhere), and while it would be tough for Bethesda’s dated engine to hold a candle visually to many of the beautiful games that have released this year, the company has some of the best art direction in the business and I definitely stopped to simply stare at what was in front of me numerous times during my time with the game.

Fallout 76 also introduces a new mechanic called ‘Challenges’. To start, these kind of act like a guide of things that you should do in the game. You’ll complete a challenge for crafting your first item, roasting your first piece of meat, boiling your first pot of water, collecting X amount of wood, etc. Completing each challenge will reward you with Atoms, Fallout 76’s premium currency. At launch you’ll be able to buy Atoms with real money too, but it also seems like I was earning at least a few at a time (most challenges rewarded 10 Atoms) quite regularly. There didn’t seem to be a way to actually spend Atoms, or even see what was for sale at this point, so it remains to be seen just how many Atoms these premium cosmetic items will cost. Gamers were pretty up in arms to learn about the potential for microtransactions in Fallout 76, so I was definitely excited to see Atoms coming in at a steady clip during my time with the game, while also keeping in mind that any items purchasable through Atoms will be cosmetic only. As soon as we see some Elder Scrolls themed premium items come down the pipeline, you can bet I’ll be spending money on those.

You exit Vault 76 with a mission to find your Overseer somewhere south of your starting location. I usually play games fairly linearly, but as I wanted to feel how Fallout 76 played out as a solo player (and this opening area was swimming with other dwellers), I decided to wander off in another direction instead. I briefly migrated west of the vault before running into some strong, scary robots – I didn’t think that my fists would be any match for them, so I changed direction to avoid them and came across a battered wood mill. The outskirts of the mill was patrolled by some unfriendly looking (different) robots, so I snuck past them into the mill and gathered some wooden scraps (which I assumed would be used to build my home, or CAMP, whenever I decided to do so), some health items, fought my first hostile creature (a gross, giant tick), and found a corpse sitting on a balcony with a note next to him. The note must have been written by a friend of the corpse, and it talked of a much better mill that had better pay and no robots, among other things. A location north of me populated on my map, and I decided that as this was the direct opposite direction of my current story mission it seemed unlikely that I would come across many other players, and that there could be some useful supplies there.

So, I walked North. And I walked and I walked and I walked. It’s long been known that the Fallout 76 map is four times (four freaking times) that of Fallout 4, but it was in trekking north to the other wood mill that it finally hit me just how expansive this region is. Sure, I was distracted a few times along the way – I found a cool amusement park (an event triggered while I was here that would have me hunting wolf packs, but as I still didn’t have a gun at this point I definitely ran away as fast as I could), some sort of drug production RV (yes, Breaking Bad style), an old provincial park gorge-like area with a ton of tree-laden Scorched (freaky, irradiated humanoids with guns) and a ‘plank’ overlooking a cliff that they’d used to kill their prisoners, a random Mr. Handy robot called Mr. Veterinarian that had a myriad of cats following it, and even a neat old plane that coincidentally featured Vault-Tec colours. I continued to traverse, received a notification that I’d been playing the game for an entire hour (it really didn’t feel that long), and at this point I realized just how differently I’d been playing than I would have in previous titles.

I played 76 differently, mostly out of necessity (at least to start). That hour passed, and the only weapon in my inventory was a board (well, and maybe a knife at that point). Just an old piece of wood (it didn’t even have a nail in it). At this point it was stained red from molerats, ticks, and the odd, thankfully weak Ghoul that I had encountered so far on my journey. I had collected a little bit of ammo and even some gunpowder, but trekking across the massive wasteland without a single projectile weapon felt incredibly tense, and simply scary. Enemies that you’d typically take out long before they’d ever know you were there actually felt dangerous, and seeing a pack of feral Ghouls running at you when you had no choice but to wait for them to get within swinging distance absolutely felt threatening. I spent much of this hour walking carefully, crouching often to ensure that I wasn’t detected, legitimately avoiding areas that looked to have too many enemies (or those damned fast shooty robots), and searching thoroughly for a gun so that I could finally feel some semblance of safety (this is ‘Murica after all). I was also legitimately excited each time I found some quality food or some clean water, and anyone that’s played a previous Fallout game knows that consumables like these would often just flood you inventory, and be more trouble than they were worth.

I finally made it to the other wood mill, which as it turns out was crawling with Super Mutants.  I had spent well over an hour in the world and still did not have a gun, and there was simply no way that I was going to take on a group of (even low level) Super Mutants without more firepower. I’d spent a ton of time getting here, and I simply couldn’t do anything about it. I decided to cut my losses and to fast travel closer to the actual missions on my Pip-Boy to try to get a sense of what the story in 76 felt like… but as it turns out, fast travelling in Fallout 76 costs a small amount of caps, and at that point I didn’t have any.

As I wandered back towards Vault 76 (which again, took a very long time) I finally found a gun, along with some caps, and fast travelled back towards the first mill where I had gone off the beaten path in the first place. I traversed south and came across a supply drop request holotape, which apparently can be used in radio towers to send supplies near your location. I then found the tower itself, killed some robots (which was much easier with a firearm), and called in some supplies. These landed in a small town not far from the tower, and once I hit the town I was introduced to some of the most interesting content that I would experience in my first beta session.

The supply drop was useful and gave me some much needed food, (clean) water, and even a few stimpacks, among other things. I decided to explore the town, and was introduced to something called ‘Survivor Stories’. These are found in the environment (I’m not sure if they’re everywhere, or just in this area), and are decent length holotapes that tell the history of a specific survivor. I listened carefully to the story of a scientist, of a priest, and others, and it’s here that I first noticed just how improved the voice acting is in Fallout 76 over previous games in the series. These stories are gripping and interesting, and I ended up scouring the town hoping to find more as these tapes tapes gave so much meaning to the degraded corpses and the remnants of lost lives. Carefully searching the environment will turn up a myriad of supplies necessary for survival, but after finding just a few of these tapes, more survivor stories are what I was truly hoping to discover.

While exploring the town, I was also introduced to one of the game’s factions, the Responders. Responders were once firefighters, police officers, and medical professionals, who post-war dedicated their lives to simply helping those in need. A self-serve volunteer kiosk offered an introduction to the group, and had me testing nearby water samples for contaminants and radiation, and searching for townsfolk that had been reported missing. It also introduced the ability to collect and boil water (which I’m sure was there prior, but that I wasn’t aware of until it became part of a quest). These Responders quests made me more familiar with this world, and the content and delivery was interesting, but it was at this point that I began to feel, ironically, a little lonely in this world.

The town had multiple, real people running around, throwing me emotes, inviting me to trade and to party up (which I declined as I wanted to be the one to control this session), yet I was missing the interesting NPC’s, the vast quest lines (which I certainly hope turn up once you’re more acquainted with the world), and simply seeing humans that were not taking part in the same journey that I was.

At the same time, this loneliness absolutely felt deliberate. Your vault was the first to open, and you’re still so close to bombs falling and to the world ending, that things simply haven’t had an opportunity to rebuild at this point. In fact, that is literally your job. I miss the NPC’s and their often expansive storylines, and at the same time, it just wouldn’t feel right if they were present.

As I continued to wander, I came across the CAMP of another player on the side of a cliff-face. The CAMP had some turrets that didn’t shoot at me (I’m not sure if this is something you get to choose or if they would have only shot if I’d attacked the CAMP, as I definitely didn’t develop my own CAMP this much during my time with the game). I used the stash box there to store my junk (all stash boxes are instanced to you, and only you can access them), and the CAMPS owner passed by just as I was leaving. I waved at him, a sort of “thank you” for being hospitable with his home, and continued on my way. I’m not quite sure why, but this throwaway moment so early on felt meaningful, and it even though I was playing alone in this session, made me excited to be a part of this shared world. I’m beyond interested in seeing just what CAMPS will look like when someone is 20 or 30 or 100 hours into the game.

Eventually, I received a warning that the game would be shutting down in just a few minutes. At this point, just off in the distance was a massive, incredibly elevated bridge. I decided to head to the centre of it and to end my session staring off into the distance, and soaking in a little more of Fallout 76’s lush greenery before the game forced me to stop playing. It was here that I realized just how vertical Fallout 76’s map is compared to that of Fallout 4 or earlier games in the series. In my four hours with the game I’d climbed massive hills and looked down off of giant cliffs, but this bridge, and the tiny, tiny, world below it reminded me more of the mountains and verticality of Skyrim than the cities and sewers of Fallouts prior. It was really a breathtaking view.

The servers shut down. I was kicked back to the main menu, and I simply sat there for a moment soaking in the game’s beautiful, best in the series score (even as Mikaela watched she noted just how good the music was), and wishing that it wasn’t over.

Most of my fears, and most of my potential qualms went unrealized very quickly. Fallout 76 is Fallout, through and through, in a different age and from a different perspective. The series has never looked or sounded better. Even in just a few hours of playtime I’ve seen some incredible environmental storytelling, and I cannot wait to see what else there is to discover in this unbelievably massive world.

The game’s main story (at least to start) has you searching for Vault 76’s overseer, who left the vault just before everyone else did. Things started out a little fetch-questy, and it felt a little hard to connect with a character you’ve never actually seen – hopefully this turns around as you learn more about your overseer. I also hope that without NPC’s there to offer quests and dialogue, that the quests continue to feel as interesting when delivered by notes or by robots. I also hope that a world without human-like NPC’s, especially one of this magnitude, doesn’t feel empty over time – this early on the lack of humans makes sense setting wise and feels deliberate, but how will this feel a few dozen hours from now?

Playing the Fallout 76 beta answered a lot of questions, and naturally raised even more. I think that most important question of all, however, is: does this weird multiplayer experience feel like Fallout? And yes, it absolutely does. I’m extremely curious to see just how much content the full game has to offer, how players will treat the endgame, and just how Bethesda plans to expand Appalachia as time goes on, but I think that running a beta like this, for so long (the game doesn’t actually launch until mid-November) and in such an expansive form (the beta is the entire game) shows without question that Bethesda wants Fallout 76 to release in the best form that it possibly could, but that it also shows an amazing level of confidence in the product, a level of confidence that couldn’t be shown to wary, distrusting players through trailers or interviews or preview articles, but that players and Fallout fans needed to experience for themselves.

If I know one thing about that game after spending four hours with it this week, it’s that I’m absolutely itching to play more. I was into the game before I played it, but now I feel obsessed. I’ve been reading countless player stories to see what they’ve discovered, absorbing all of the Greenbriar footage from a few weeks back that I possibly can, and the wonderful Copilot Music + Sound cover of ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ has absolutely been playing on repeat. I’ve spent just four hours with Fallout 76 thus far, and now I can’t think about anything else. That’s a damn good sign.

Fallout 76 releases on November 14th. Play the beta? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!

https://youtu.be/FRPeYP6gS-s