Fallout 76
The hype around Fallout 76 was…complicated, to say the least. It started well enough with a 24-hour stream that culminated in its reveal, teasing the new Vault 76. And while director Todd Howard touted 16 times the detail and four times the map size of Fallout 4, expectations became fairly deflated when it was revealed to be an online title. That too, an online survival title with crafting. Bethesda did its best to assuage concerns, noting that it’s not like Rust or anything.
Unfortunately, impressions didn’t improve in the following months. The closed beta arrived and had several issues, from its absurd download size – which had a habit of deleting itself at random, presumably to spare people – to countless bugs. There was still hope among some players despite launching a few weeks before the full game. This was just a beta and most issues would be resolved. Hopefully.
Fast forward to launch and wouldn’t you know it but Fallout 76 was an utter mess. Crashes, server issues, bugs, performance issues – and that’s not taking into account the horrible combat, lackluster storytelling, lack of human NPCs, insulting PvP, lack of decision-making that defined Fallout, and so on. It was almost like the series had come full circle and become a parody of itself.
It would take a good few years and numerous big content updates before Fallout 76 was deemed somewhat acceptable. Not great, but at least playable. With reports of excessive crunch and Q&A that slowly went insane after crucial bugs were ignored by management, it’s enough to make one concerned about the future of Starfield.
