Fallout 76: 10 Reasons It Failed

Under the microscope with Bethesda's most controversial game.

Fallout 76 Screenshot
Bethesda

Despite all of the hate it's been getting since, well, its reveal, Fallout 76 isn't completely without merit.

The idea of having a game like Fallout that focuses on post-apocalyptic characters being playable with a few friends is certainly an entertaining one, and with the mild success of The Elder Scrolls Online, there was no reason to expect Fallout 76 to do this badly.

To be honest, there are quite a few good ideas. The world and monsters are interesting, and more unique than what we've seen in the series before, plus things like a photo mode are great implementations.

It has potential.

The thing is about potential is that it actually has to be used properly. Just having potential isn't enough to make a game good, and that's a lesson that Fallout 76 clearly missed.

Wherever you looked following 76's announcement, bad news seemed to follow. As more and more gameplay features were revealed, things started to look worse and worse. Now we're here, and Fallout 76 is the most confusing game of 2018.

The sad truth of the whole situation is that Fallout 76 failed, and it will be incredibly hard to pull things back.

10. It Doesn't Feel Like A Full Release

Fallout 76 Screenshot
Bethesda

This is a triple-A release? It really doesn't feel like it.

For the type of game that Fallout 76 is trying to be, it would certainly be much more suited to a free-to-play format.

Although that might introduce microtransactions into the game, it might actually be a much fairer trade-off than paying $60 for something that feels like an add-on to Fallout 4.

That's one of the key problems with Fallout 76: It doesn't feel like a full game. That's not because 76 is a spin-off either, it just feels like Bethesda hasn't put enough in to justify the price tag.

Fallout: New Vegas added so much to the Fallout formula, and is actually considered as being one of the best and biggest games in the series. That was a spin-off and felt so much more substantial, so there's no excuse for Fallout 76 being as half-baked as it is.

Fallout 76 needs to add more content, or go free-to-play, it's as simple as that.

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Jumping through portals, swinging through cities, destroying beings made of darkness and occasionally shooting a gun or two. I also write about games.