Fallout 76 was released in 2018 to a paltry reception. It was a shell of a game, boasting a bleak open-world environment (even for an apocalyptic game), and ultimately, Bethesda Game Studios had fallen short of its promises for this overly ambitious game.
It was an enormous change to the well-established Fallout formula to introduce an MMORPG to the scene, and five years after its launch, plenty of potential players and uninformed gamers still wonder if Fallout 76 is good now.
Let’s break into a snapshot list and break down the reasons why Fallout 76 is good now.
Is Fallout 76 Good Now?
Fallout 76 has experienced a lengthy turnaround that has lasted half a decade, and it just keeps on going today. With countless changes having been made to the platform and dozens of updates having been applied, it’s not the same game that it was when it was released in 2018.
1. It Has Content Now – and NPCs!
Back in the day, Fallout 76 launched with very little content – it almost lacked a core campaign, it was devoid of any NPCs, and overall, it felt dead and bland. Now, following several sizeable updates, Fallout 76 is more of a living, breathing game, and it has had several lengthy questlines, factions, and some large settlements injected into the core of it.
Bethesda Game Studios has worked hard to keep up the content stream in Fallout 76, expanding the map and adding new world events, quest branches, and endgame activities, such as running caravans, fishing, and participating in C.A.M.P. build contests.
Related: Fallout 76’s Secret Patch Fixes The Game
2. It Takes You Outside The Map
It started with The Pitt – an ‘Expedition’ that takes players back to Fallout 3’s ‘The Pitt’ expansion. In this Expedition, players are charged with flying hundreds of miles in a ‘Vertibird’ to take on missions outside of the base map – and that’s a concept that Bethesda Game Studios is expanding on over time.
After that, the team introduced Atlantic City, another out-of-the-map expansion that players enjoyed quite nicely. It was after that that the team at BGS started expanding the core map of Appalachia, many years after the game hit the market.
Related: Dev Diary Expands on Fallout: Atlantic City
3. It Has Heaps of Lore
It’s a canonical title and pumped full of the lore that Fallout fans the world over both know and love. From the cryptids to the mysterious wrongdoings of Vault-Tec, and from the iconic factions to a whole new host of mutated enemies, there’s a lot of lore and backstory to soak up in Fallout 76.
There are several events referenced in the game that have a huge impact on the complete timeline for the series.
4. It’s Still Fantastic With Friends
Admittedly, there are still thousands of Fallout fans who’ll say that Fallout 76 ‘isn’t a real Fallout game’ because it’s a multiplayer-only title, but that’s the beauty of it. It’s still remarkable to be able to venture out into this post-apocalyptic, mutated landscape, fight enormous creatures, loot buildings that are hundreds of years old, and complete entire questlines with your friends by your side.
It’s quite a unique experience, and going by the numbers preached by Bethesda Game Studios, it’s a popular one at that.
Related: Fallout 76 Was Saved By PlayStation
5. It’s More Resilient
Back before Fallout 76 was given any real attention, it was rather buggy and quite a chore to play. However, thanks to BGS pouring resources into the game’s development – which has included reaching out to third-party studios to give a little support – Fallout 76 offers up a much cleaner, resilient experience today.
It’s a visually pleasing game that manages to edge out Fallout 4 – especially when it comes to vistas – and despite being an always-online game, it’s rare that any network issues are present.
6. Truthfully, It’s All They’ve Got
Frankly, Fallout 76 is good now because Bethesda Game Studios has probably realised that this is it for the foreseeable future. There are no other Fallout games in development, and Fallout 5 – the ‘one-pager’ game – likely won’t be released for around another decade or so.
This ‘live service’ model is perfect for Bethesda, as it means the firm can simply keep updating it as time goes on, adding in more content, more questlines, fresh Expeditions, and more ways to experience the post-apocalyptic wasteland with your friends.
Related: Our Fallout 76 Interview with Double Eleven
Are you still playing Fallout 76? Perhaps you never played it in the first place! Let us know below or on the Insider Gaming forum.
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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