Fallout 76 Game Details:
Fallout 76 is an online action role-playing game in the
Fallout series developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda
Softworks. Released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on
November 14, 2018, it is a prequel to previous series games. Fallout 76 is Bethesda
Game Studios's first multiplayer game; players explore the open world, which
has been torn apart by nuclear war, with others. Bethesda developed the game
using a modified version of its Creation Engine, which allowed the
accommodation of multiplayer gameplay and a more detailed game world.
Fallout 76 was released to generally mixed reviews, with
criticism for the game's numerous technical issues, overall design, lack of
gameplay purpose, and initial absence of human non-playable characters. The
game was the subject of several controversies, chiefly in regards to the
quality of physical content. A number of Bethesda's responses and attempts to
resolve issues related to Fallout 76 in the months following its launch were
also met with player disgruntlement.
Gameplay:
Fallout 76 is Bethesda Game Studios' first online
multiplayer game. Players may play individually or with a party of up to three
others. The servers for the game are public dedicated servers, with the player
automatically allocated to one of them. While the game was expected to launch
with public servers only, game director Todd Howard revealed plans for private
servers to be introduced some time after the game's launch. These private
servers allow players to invite friends and to prevent undesirable aspects of
player versus player gameplay such as griefing from affecting an individual
player's experience of the game. Howard described the delay as being necessary
to allow Bethesda time to assure the stability of public servers. Elements of
previous Fallout games are present and are modified to work with the real-time
game. The V.A.T.S. system—a mechanic first introduced in Fallout 3 that allows
players to pause the game to target specific locations on an enemy's body to
attack—is used in Fallout 76 as a real-time system, though it still allows
players to specify targets on an enemy's body.
The game features an open world four times the size of that
of Fallout 4. The game world is called "Appalachia" and is a
representation of West Virginia. It features recreations of real locations in
the region, including the West Virginia State Capitol, The Greenbrier, Woodburn
Circle, New River Gorge Bridge, and Camden Park. The game features numerous new
mutated monsters, several of which—such as the Mothman and the Flatwoods
monster—were inspired by West Virginian folklore.
The game includes revisions to the SPECIAL progression
system. Character attributes fall into one of seven categories: strength,
perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck. As the player
levels up, they are able to spend skill points to boost their attributes on a
scale of one to fifteen. Players are able to choose perks, or passive abilities
that offer gameplay bonuses. These perks fall into each of the SPECIAL
categories and take the form of trading cards. Each card has a value and the
player can adopt perks equal to their respective value; for example, if the
player has a strength rating of five, then they may equip strength perks worth
five points. The player can merge similar cards together to create more
powerful—albeit more expensive—perks. The system is designed to encourage the player
to recognise the situation they are in and choose perks that aid them rather
than passively selecting them and having them for the duration of the game.
Fallout 76 does not feature any human non-player characters
(NPCs) as all surviving humans are other players. This required Bethesda to
change their approach to storytelling as previous games in the series relied on
NPCs to assign quests, engage the player in dialog and advance the overall
narrative. Fallout 76 instead uses a combination of NPCs in the form of robots,
recordings such as collectible holotapes, terminals throughout the game world,
and environmental storytelling where the player uncovers fragments of a
narrative by exploring locations that they piece together themselves. Each of
these elements had previously been used in the series, often to provide
backstory for characters and the world of the game whilst remaining separate
from the main narrative. According to Howard, this system allows Bethesda to
tell a story whilst giving players a greater ability to create their own
narratives. In June 2019, Bethesda announced the game's first major update, a
feature of which introduces human NPCs.
The game expands on Fallout 4's settlements by allowing the
player the ability to build bases at many locations of the map. These creations
are assigned to the player's profile and are removed from the game world when
the player is offline to prevent progress from being lost. While other players
are able to attack player settlements while they are online, the game preserves
player creations using "blueprints" to prevent players from having to
start over if their creations and progress are destroyed.
Players are able to use nuclear weapons to temporarily
change the areas of game world. After acquiring launch codes, the player can
access missile silos and fire a missile at almost any point on the map. This
irradiates the area, which the player can explore to find rare weapons, gear
and items. However, it also attracts powerful enemies and the player needs to
be sufficiently strong to survive. The game also includes a photo mode. The
player has the ability to pose their character and choose from a variety of
facial expressions and filters.
Fallout 76, is the first game in the Fallout series to
release a gamemode based around the battle royale genre. This new gamemode,
also known as Nuclear Winter, uses many base features of the game, but expands
upon them following the modes genre. Players start off in Vault 51, which is
set on a timer or until the maximum player count is achieved, which will then
prompt an on-screen map to appear where teams can choose where they spawn.
Nuclear Winter features parts from the base game such as building using
collected blueprints and the ability to launch nuclear payloads via collecting
multiple launch codes and a briefcase.
Fallout 76 System Requirements (Minimum):
- Requires 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
- Processor: Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD Ryzen 3 1300X 3.5 GHz or equivalent
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 285 2GB or equivalent
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Storage: 60 GB of free disk space
Fallout 76 Recommended Requirements:
- Requires 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 7/8.1/10
- Processor: Intel Core i7-4790 3.6 GHz / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5 GHz
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 970 4GB / AMD R9 290X 4GB
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Storage: 60 GB of free disk space