Fallout 76 was Bethesda’s big new announcement at E3 this year, and they surprised everyone by taking the series in a very different direction. Fallout 76 is going to be Bethesda’s take on the shared-world RPG experience, and that is something that has displeased a great many people who were hoping that the developer would continue to make great single player experiences (which, to be fair, outside of Fallout 76, they still are).
Bethesda’s Pete Hints recently spoke with Variety about the game and what kind of experience it is going to be, and explained that though it is completely the player’s choice if they do not want to play the game due to its online nature, he still feels that a lot of people haven’t understood what kind of game 76 is going to be, and that if you do want to make the decision to not play it, you should do so once you’ve understood just what exactly it is.
“I think some people get it and and some absolutely do not,” Hines said. “They think it’s straight up PVP. They think it’s running around and shooting folk or that you can’t play by yourself, or that nukes are going off every minute or that you can grief people. They are judging it based on other things that say ‘online’ or ‘post apocalyptic.”
“The whole theme of this game is that you emerge and the world is a blank canvas,” he continued. “It’s your job to rebuild the world and everything that means.” And while that means you can build wherever and whatever you want, Hines explained, that also means that, if you so wish, you do not have to build anything at all. “If you want to be nomadic and never puts roots in one place you can totally do that,” he said. “You will find workshops, you can trade or not trade. Its entirely up to you.”
Hines continued, explaining further that it’s not all centred around the building mechanic, and that there’s more to the game than that. “All of the experience that everyone has shared has been over the water-cooler,” he said. “It hasn’t been, ‘We were in the game and did this thing together.’ You can build together together, but it can also be, ‘I don’t want to build, I want to do squads with my friends.’ Then go do that.”
He then went into even greater detail about just what kind of online experience Fallout 76 is going to be. Todd Howard explained during Bethesda’s E3 press event that at any time in any given server, there are only going to be a total of dozens of players, not hundreds or thousands, because this is supposed to be an apocalyptic wasteland, and it needs to feel that way. Hines sticks with that explanation. “This is not an MMO and this is not a battle royale,” he said. “It’s supposed to feel like they just left the vault.”
He then spoke more about how Fallout 76’s PvP will work, talking a bit about some sort of a “revenge” mechanic. “It is important to note this is not just a full on PVP game,” he said. “Where you get in the world and everyone shoots everyone. It’s more like a challenge to another player. You can’t just let things go unfettered. You don’t get all your shit looted if they kill you. There is a revenge thing you can opt into and try to go head-to-head.”
Fallout 76 launches on November 14 for the Xbox One, PS4, and PC, with a closed beta scheduled before launch as well. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more updates on the game.
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