OP: Thank you.
Regarding Fallout 76:
I'll preface this by saying I'm the biggest Bethesda fan out there. I have 1000's of hours in Oblivion, Fallout 3 4 and New Vegas, and in Skyrim. I modded Oblivion and Skyrim.
When they announced FO76 I was pretty pissed that Elder Scrolls was barely in development. At best we'll see Starfield next xmas, and Elder Scrolls 6 the year after, but most likely about 3 years after Starfield ships. So From 2011 to 2020-23 for the next Elder Scrolls? I mean I was planning on playing one every 5 years minimum not every 10-12. At that pace, I get what 1-2 more elderscrolls before I'm dead if I live to be the average male? That is BS. And then to find out the reason its delayed is for more Fallout? Most likely not, as I think they subbed FO76 out to other studios mostly.
Now on to the game. First of all the graphics are literally the exact same graphics as Fallout 4. Same models, same textures, same guns, same sounds and some new stuff added. That in itself would be OK if it had been announced like New Vegas was and the quality of New Vegas. But it makes the game feel like a mod and to charge 60 for it like its a new game is BS. Its a fallout 4 professionally made mod. Now if it were actually something fun or cool, all would be forgiven or wouldn't matter.
To me the game lost its soul when the NPCs were removed and all your quests center around finding corpses. Yep he's dead. How am I supposed to get engaged with that story line? From the masters of cool story telling and compelling NPCs to amateur hour snore fest.
Then the pvp is net nanny version. This might be ok but the guy to return fire can win every time because the damage issue of the guy initiating pvp. Then there are no consequences to death, so it might as well be a little mini game virtual experience or something.
My first night playing I had to listen to some drunk guy burping and slurring. Mic is on all the time. Lame. I get it they are green to designing MP games, but really? The fact is humans are not as interesting as NPCs because they are not scripted well paid actors. We can expect them to tea bag and curse with little girl voices.
Its supposed to be a place to build, but you can't change the world. You don't even join the same server each time and when you log out your base is destroyed. Who wants to build a base every time? I know you can save it or something, but it doesn't save right if you build on a hill or whatever. You cant scrap anything. You feel like less of a part of the world than in any Bethesda game ever.
The other annoyting thing is how it feels like an MMO. Everyone ignores everyone and is doing the same thing. I had to wait 5 minutes for some guy to get off the terminal so I could finish the same quest he was doing. It just felt canned and robotic.
Perks? Just use fallout 4. I don't mind the respec part, but you get random perks instead of choosing what you want, so again no choice or consequence, instead take what you get for now then replace it later.
How to fix the game: Fallout is a nasty live by the gun die by the gun kind of world. If it were RUST in the Fallout universe, I think it would be fun. Persistent worlds, base building and raiding. Automated defenses to protect when you are offline, the works. That amount of content the game has would give Rust a serious run for its money.
Add human NPCs, at least immortal traders like we have, and allow an npc follower. Give them a random name and a few personality types and skills.
Even if it were just another Fallout 4 with a new story that you could play with a couple friends and mod, it would be glorious. Maybe the main quests have to be done forever, otherwise you can go solo and sandbox some radiant quests.
One other cool thing would be to have an NPC commander for the BOS and the Enclave, and join those factions and wage war against each other. Do little radiant quests to gain xp and feel like the world is bigger than just the two factions.
I can see a lot of ways to spin this game into a winner but they chose to not commit to anything trying not to alienate anybody and instead alienated nearly everybody. Its a bad pvp game, an annoying pve game that feels like an MMO, The story is weak. You can't build a perpetual base, there is no reason to either, the game is not dangerous. I cannot find a reason to play it. I'm playing 7 days tonight and I have 100's of hours in A17 already.
