Fallout 76 - My Impressions

[AgentBJ09]

Okay, this is pretty interesting at least. So you could pick up something completely at random that gives major benefits, that comes with a serious trade-off and a considerable rad-count (no one ever calls it Grays or Sieverts... although Fallout: Nevada uses the legacy term Roentgen... there's that I suppose). That's interesting either way.

I am also curious as to how the story plays out for "single-players" (quotation marks intended). Or even how the story remains relevant at all. Although that'll be something that probably won't really be realised until the final release, as is customary.

It's kinda a moot point in my case. Wifey and I have already decided we'll probably sit this one out (bear in mind that we completed BOS on playstation in co-op, so... we don't scare easy). It just doesn't seem my kind of game, by any stretch.

Thanks for sharing anyway. It's been interesting.

No problem.

In terms of the story, it looks like what might end up happening is, at the end of the main quest, you launch the leftover nukes to try and kill the Scorch Beasts, but nothing really happens in turn outside of torching one area for about 24 hours of server time. I'd imagine it won't be balanced for players going solo, though I'll be damned if I play this game beyond the release date for casual reasons, much less with anyone outside of the few on this site who want to play this thing.

HITMAN 2's going to be taking up my time this month anyway.

 

[Rheios]

No problem.

In terms of the story, it looks like what might end up happening is, at the end of the main quest, you launch the leftover nukes to try and kill the Scorch Beasts, but nothing really happens in turn outside of torching one area for about 24 hours of server time. I'd imagine it won't be balanced for players going solo, though I'll be damned if I play this game beyond the release date for casual reasons, much less with anyone outside of the few on this site who want to play this thing.

HITMAN 2's going to be taking up my time this month anyway.

Hell, if I were you I might see if I can back out now and get the money back - assuming you paid for a preorder to see the tire-fire up close. We thank you for the sacrifice of your precious life hours, but there's no need to keep hurting yourself, or your wallet, on our account.

 

[AgentBJ09]

Hell, if I were you I might see if I can back out now and get the money back - assuming you paid for a preorder to see the tire-fire up close. We thank you for the sacrifice of your precious life hours, but there's no need to keep hurting yourself, or your wallet, on our account.

Thanks, and way ahead of you. I've already cancelled my pre-order, which I placed for this very reason; that money's going towards HITMAN 2 this week, which I can't wait to play. (Been hunting down old challenges and other things in HITMAN 2016 this last week.)

EDIT 11/6 - Once again, you have to download tens of gigabytes when an update arrives. There's no excuse for this unless the team doing the bug hunting and updating has never done any previous work in making patches.

 

[AgentBJ09]

- Session 4 (Last One) Impressions -

Before I get into this, here's a few tidbits I've found thanks to the video below.



- All the DLC is already installed within the client. All six pieces.
- The client-side data that gets sent from your system to the Bethesda servers is unencrypted, meaning someone could identify you by IP address or other means thanks to you playing this game.
- The code of this game is unchanged from Fallout 4, so most mods would work with this game if it was a single-player only game.

Now, with all that said...

* Seems some PERK cards can be buffed to level 5 instead of just 3. One of these is Makeshift Warrior, which also unlocks the ability to make certain melee weapons. (I've come to find out that SPECIAL stats cap at 15 now instead of 10 as before.)

* The lag when doing crafting is getting insane. I sometimes have to mash my controller buttons twice to make something happen; the item models hiccup every time a new one loads and even after that they stutter. Makes me wonder how much of this is client-side versus server-side.

It seems however that scrapping enough of one kind of weapon unlocks new mods for that weapon. That said, if you craft/find a better/higher level weapon later on, you cannot pull mods off existing weapons and attach them to the new one like you could do in Fallout 4. Waste of resources right there.

* One of the loading screens tried to explain away the existence of the Super Mutants: They existed before the Great War, another retcon Bethesda can get fucked for, because of West Tek lacing the water of Huntersville with the FEV.

I'm done. No more Fallout 76 for me. Just HITMAN 2 and SoulCaliber VI now.

 

[Ediros]

@AgentBJ09 , thank You for your sacrifice. No matter how You look at it, it looks like a trainwreck just waiting to happen. With the unecrypted data someone could some real physical harm. In fact it it could get as bad as stealing personal data from your pc or something.

Mods working in multiplayer game like this. I have got a feeling it is going to end badly for bugthesda.

 

[Norzan]

One of the loading screens tried to explain away the existence of the Super Mutants: They existed before the Great War, another retcon Bethesda can get fucked for, because of West Tek lacing the water of Huntersville with the FEV.

I already knew this, but it's still so forced. And the worst part is people doing mental gymnastics to justify these pointless retcons that add absolutely nothing.

The worst part is that this kind of shits on The Master. Him creating these strong beings, specially being the first to create them, made him look powerful and menacing, at least one of the reasons why he looked like this. But nope, some company made them before him, effectively diminishing this feat.

 

[Rheios]

An aside: Should you have put that post as part of your prior edit?

Anyway, the code thing sounds about right when so many people are just calling it a mod. I'm still not *absolutely* sure its completely accurate but at this point, close enough.

The PERK card having more level and the SPECIAL stats having more cap is, a thing I guess. Its not like they matter. Once you have, say, makeshift warrior, you can slot it when you need it for crafting - which will be annoying and tedious and oft forgotten - and then once done you just stick in your combat cards again. The stats don't matter in context of the world beyond simplistic mechanics and so they don't matter. Its bone without muscle.

Wow, the managed to make Fallout 4 crafting worse. Is it still as linear too? That's almost an achievement.

I'd heard about the water thing and just...fuckin' really? Water laced FEV *PRIOR* to the war? Not only are they not trying anymore they're criminally not trying. This is like the weird guy at the school staring at the kids getting out of his car to prove, yes, he isn't wearing pants.

Like Ediros said - go, be free, and enjoy your other games. No longer shall you be shackled to a falling Joe Dirt poop comet.

 

[Post-War Tribal]

Well Bethesda gotta chill with those wild wasteland type spin-off "games"

 

[Radiosity]

Kudos for the impressions. It sounds like 76 turn out just like I though it would. I'm gonna have to wait for people to explore the game more, cause I'm legit curious to why we have construction power armor all of a sudden lol. Maybe people salvaged some frame and customized them.

... wow. I actually wrote construction power armour into something I wrote for Fallout 4. It was a parody in a similar vein to this, not serious at all. Trust Beth to take something intended as a joke and make it canon.

 

[AgentBJ09]

@AgentBJ09 , thank You for your sacrifice. No matter how You look at it, it looks like a trainwreck just waiting to happen. With the unecrypted data someone could some real physical harm. In fact it it could get as bad as stealing personal data from your pc or something.

Mods working in multiplayer game like this. I have got a feeling it is going to end badly for bugthesda.

Personally, I'm hoping they start having issues with cheaters from Day 1 so they'll come to realize how much work goes into creating and maintaining a game like this.

I already knew this, but it's still so forced. And the worst part is people doing mental gymnastics to justify these pointless retcons that add absolutely nothing.

The worst part is that this kind of shits on The Master. Him creating these strong beings, specially being the first to create them, made him look powerful and menacing, at least one of the reasons why he looked like this. But nope, some company made them before him, effectively diminishing this feat.

Another example of how Bethesda destroys IPs and ideas just as well as EA does.

An aside: Should you have put that post as part of your prior edit?

Probably, but I've found putting videos into new posts helps with exposure.

Anyway, the code thing sounds about right when so many people are just calling it a mod. I'm still not *absolutely* sure its completely accurate but at this point, close enough.

It has to be. It's the only way to explain how, three years after Fallout 4, they've not changed one worthwhile thing about this game engine.

The PERK card having more level and the SPECIAL stats having more cap is, a thing I guess. Its not like they matter. Once you have, say, makeshift warrior, you can slot it when you need it for crafting - which will be annoying and tedious and oft forgotten - and then once done you just stick in your combat cards again. The stats don't matter in context of the world beyond simplistic mechanics and so they don't matter. Its bone without muscle.

I believe there's a level cap of 50. It's the only way to make team-based gameplay worthwhile because otherwise, every player could max out their cards and become the all-powerful if they put in enough grind.

Wow, the managed to make Fallout 4 crafting worse. Is it still as linear too? That's almost an achievement.

No joke. Pulling mods off weapons is something everyone does in Fallout 4, and it's the smartest way to play. Now? Go hunt down more respawning junk and rebuild the mod again every five levels. What morons.

I'd heard about the water thing and just...fuckin' really? Water laced FEV *PRIOR* to the war? Not only are they not trying anymore they're criminally not trying. This is like the weird guy at the school staring at the kids getting out of his car to prove, yes, he isn't wearing pants.

I had to take a few seconds to stop sighing and shaking my head at how contrived the whole thing was. Another example of why Bethesda fails as a Fallout creative team.

Like Ediros said - go, be free, and enjoy your other games. No longer shall you be shackled to a falling Joe Dirt poop comet.

Until the time comes for us to write a review of this pile, and it's coming soon. Until then...

 

[Alphons]

The worst part is that this kind of shits on The Master. Him creating these strong beings, specially being the first to create them, made him look powerful and menacing, at least one of the reasons why he looked like this. But nope, some company made them before him, effectively diminishing this feat.

It's nothing new that Bethesda shits on Master, but in this case they shit on their own creations.

It took years and several subjects for Vault- Tec to create yellow orcs in Washington. It took almost 200 years for the Institute to perfect their green orcs in Boston. And now we discover that the answer was to dump it into the river... And that West Tek did it before the war in West Virginia.

Anyway, I'll be also supporting IOI by buying Hitman 2 (again).

 

[RetrospectiveGaming]

Thanks for the impressions .. I personally don't want anything to do with the game and I doubt that will change even a year from now ... I can't believe they did a closed beta weeks before release .. this is the first MP only game developed by Bethesda and they don't even try to stress their servers as much as possible months before release with a public beta to prepare for it.. I don't think Fallout should ever be focused on MP but just looking at the technical side of it ..its gonna be a god damn clusterfuck!