Six years since its release, Fallout 76 might just be my favourite new game

Six years ago, not to the day but close enough, I remember being sat in the front room of my best friend’s house in Manchester. It was around 2 in the morning of a day I can’t remember, waiting for something major to happen. That event, would be Fallout 76. I was lucky enough to be given a sneak peek of the newest post-apocalyptic world in Bethesda’s Fallout gaming franchise.

If memory serves me right, this took the form of a two or three hour hands-on play of the nuclear MMO. Me and my friend were, still are, Fallout obsessives. We’ve spent years sprawling New Vegas, decapitating raiders in Fallout 4, and birthed Communist utopias from desert dust. Fallout 76, then, was yet another opportunity to forge a new world in the image of our own.

That dream quickly faded away.

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The fallout

To say the launch of Fallout 76 was a failed one would be a gross understatement. Forbes called it an “historically bad launch”, a statement which still rings true to this day. The campaign felt rushed and skin deep. Missions held all the complexity of a bread and butter sandwich. The game ran about as smoothly as a broken tractor, and when it did actually work, we were left wandering a wasteland with nothing to do. In an actual, real life nuclear scenario, no news is good news. But it doesn’t quite translate to the imaginary world.

As critics panned the game and players did, well, exactly the same, I mostly expected Fallout 76 to be quietly taken out to the barn and put out of its misery. But call it sheer will or, more likely, the mountains of cash Bethesda has in the vaults, Fallout 76 persevered. Servers stayed online, updates were semi-regular, and a fanbase grew. Fallout 76 basically did a Cyberpunk 2077, before Cyberpunk 2077 did it themselves.

I for one am overjoyed by this. For one, the swampish landscapes of West Virginia is the perfect setting for a Fallout title. In the real world, Virginia is filled with lush greenery, titanic woodland expanses and, generally, weird people doing weird things. As much as I love past Fallout titles, the desolate wastelands do become somewhat boring over time. “If I wanted to spend hours trawling over sandy plains, I’d visit Australia,” I tell myself from the comfort of my northern England living room. To this, West Virginia offered a new element to the Fallout lore. And now, it feels like is finally delivering.

A new dawn

The world of Fallout 76 finally feels rich with personality. Characters and quests are engaging, immersive, and quirky in a quintessentially Fallout way. The camp system is excellent, where building a towering base for all to visit (or invade) is as fun as it is richly rewarding. There’s seemingly an endless amount of weapons to wield and personalities to inhabit. An array of outfits allow you to to roleplay as a cop in the wasteland, an army soldier, a wandering outlaw or one of many other characters. In that, there’s an endless universe out there to explore amongst like-minded strangers. And on that note, perhaps most importantly of all, I’ve been enamoured for the Fallout 76 community. The wasteland is littered with the die hard players who’ve been there since day one to fresh patriots like myself, all living in harmony amongst the apocalypse.

Can Fallout 76 be better? Of course, but aren’t we all flawed? But right now, I have faith that Fallout 76 will continue to improve, evolve and find longevity…in a way that only a Fallout game can.