Fallout 76 is shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest and strangest games.
On the surface, it’s something quite special. A brand-new Fallout game that you can play with your friends? It should be one of the most-anticipated games of the year.
Yet, there’s a surprising amount of anger and hate surrounding Fallout 76. In fact, we’re willing to bet that Bethesda never expected a modern Fallout game to attract such mixed reactions.
So why is Fallout 76 hated by a seemingly growing amount of people who haven’t even got to play the game? Here are just a few of the reasons Fallout 76 is so controversial.
1. It’s Very Similar to Fallout 4
Granted, Fallout 76 isn’t meant to be the next mainline Fallout game. It’s kind of an elaborate side project. However, it’s reasonable to expect the game to look somewhat different than Fallout 4 (which came out in 2015). Instead, the game looks like it could have come out three years ago.
We’re not just talking about the graphics. The bigger problem with Fallout 76′s familiarity is that Fallout 4 wasn’t exactly a universally beloved Fallout game. In fact, some fans hated its simplified action, lack of role-playing, awful dialog system, and the way it emphasized crafting and building.
Those who didn’t like the changes Fallout 4 introduced are having a hard time getting excited about more of the same. That brings us to our next point…
2. The Game Probably Won’t Be Fun to Play by Yourself
Even those who really weren’t fans of Fallout 4 will probably admit that the game’s story, diverse missions, and (mostly) interesting characters were enough to convince them to keep playing.
It’s only natural, then, that Fallout 76 abandons nearly all of those things.
Fallout 4 won’t have NPCs. Its story seems to feature little more than the bare minimum. Most of the missions revealed so far involve finding a certain number of items or killing a certain number of enemies and then collecting your reward.
Bethesda has spent so much time insisting that Fallout 76 is a fun game to play by yourself that we’re starting to get a little worried. At the very least, we’ve seen little of the game that looks like something we’d get lost in like with previous Fallout games.
3. It’s Not Clear How You and Your Friends Will Have Fun
Generally speaking, things are better with friends. Even bad times can be made better with friends. This is why some games base the majority of their appeal on being able to hang out with your buddies.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s still not clear what you and your friends will be doing in Fallout 76. You can go on missions together, build settlements, and hunt down other players…but that’s about it.
It reminds us of the recent game Sea of Thieves, which isn’t really a compliment. The appeal of that game dropped dramatically once the novelty wore off and people realized there wasn’t much to actually do.
Fallout 76 looks like it features a little more content, but the game’s small player count and lack of group activities are worrisome.
4. It Looks Like a Technical Mess
Simply put, the initial footage of Fallout 76‘s gameplay is rough. Lots of slowdown, faded visuals, awkward animations, and more have fans concerned that Fallout 76 is going to be technically rough.
It certainly doesn’t help that Bethesda has a history of releasing technically rough games. It also doesn’t inspire us with confidence when we see that Bethesda actually published a letter warning fans that there are going to be a number of technical problems in this game when it’s first released.
That’s not unusual, but when a company warns you of problems in advance of problems, you should probably take that warning seriously.
5. Fallout 76’s Nuclear Missle System Sounds Like a Bad Idea
You can launch a nuclear missile in Fallout 76. Bethesda says that it will be a long time before you can do this and that it shouldn’t happen that often. However, history has proven that people will find a way to exploit this as soon as possible to ruin other people’s fun.
Fallout 76 is supposedly loaded with safeguards that prevent other players from just running all over you, but again, we’ve heard all of this before. Even if it’s more fun to run around with your friends in Fallout 76 than it appears to be, the title’s player vs. player elements look problematic.
