Fallout 76, the new title in the Fallout series, will be released for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on this upcoming November 14th. Fallout 76 isn’t like the regular numbered installments in the series but is more of a side story. It is an online survival game like DayZ and Rust. The devs originally began its development as a multiplayer version of Fallout 4, which they aimed to craft into an ‘online Fallout’. Bethesda Game Studios has introduced Fallout 76 as a ‘new, experimental title of the post-apocalypse series.’ Fallout 76 will not be released on Steam and will instead only be available for purchase through Bethesda.net.

West Virginia & Vault 76
Fallout 76 takes place in West Virginia; the map is 4 times bigger than the previous title

Fallout 76, just as the title implies, is about Vault 76, 25 years after the nuclear war. Vault 76, which was designed for the reconstruction of civilization, is one of the groups that didn’t go through any kinds of experiments; the vault was set to be opened 20 years later. The story of Fallout 76 will take place before any of the other games, and starts with one of the vault citizens, the protagonist, leaving the vault in 2102. Though the vault was supposed to be opened 20 years later in 2097, the protagonist leaves 5 years after that. Players can see that there is no one else but the protagonist in the vault.

Since Fallout 76 was designed as a multiplayer game, it features very broad maps. The map will be 4 times bigger than the previous one and takes place in West Virginia, USA. Players will be able to explore the great mountains and vast fields of West Virginia. There are a total of 6 areas, and each comes with its own characteristic scenery, threats, and rewards.

The reason Bethesda Game Studios chose West Virginia as the backdrop of the title is because they thought it would be the place least affected by the nuclear war; if a nuclear war starts, Washington DC would be the first place to be hit, but West Virginia wouldn’t be affected as much and would still have some scenery intact.

Also, West Virginia is a place where many forms of superstition survive, which will go along well with the Fallout world; actually, the West Virginian superstitions are considered the eeriest out of all North American superstitions and portray various monsters that steal human souls. The creatures that will appear in Fallout 76 are based on these West Virginian superstitions.

Furthermore, players will be able to see different monsters from the previous titles. Gigantic insects, double-headed pouched mice, huge sloths, intellectual plants, etc. have been newly designed; creatures in the area most affected by the radiation will be the most powerful and aggressive.

Likewise, players will also be able to meet intellectual ghouls - the Scorched ghouls - in game. Since Vault 76 was made so that the survivors could live until humankind could rebuild civilization, it wasn’t occupied by any political factions; Bethesda couldn’t add Raiders to the game due to this, so intellectual ghouls will be taking their place as combat enemies. Scorched ghouls are ghouls that did not fully lose their rationality and can arm themselves with weapons.

No NPCs in the Multiplayer Version of Fallout 4?
What will Fallout 76, an online multiplayer RPG, be like?

“We had to change our way of thinking first; we have been making single player quests for a long time now. What did it mean to make a game for more than one player? There were many things we needed for this. And they were things we didn’t think about even once before.” - Design Director, Emil Pagliarulo.

Bethesda Game Studio focused on ‘how they can deliver the multiplayer experience to players’ as they designed the online multiplayer game. The problem was that, although they had immense confidence and experience when developing single player games, they were not as well-versed in making multiplayer games.

And then, ZeniMax, the parent company of Bethesda, established a new game studio in Austin -- BattleCry Studios. Veteran developers that have taken part in developing online game technology like Chris Mayer from Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, Dough Mellencamp from Ultima Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic joined. They are taking part in various aspects of the development, such as stabilizing quest data, servers, etc. in order to deliver a great multiplayer experience in Fallout 76.

Fallout 76 is an online multiplayer game and cannot be played offline. Players can obviously do quests alone if they wish but they may come across other players at any time. Director Todd Howard introduced the survival factor of Fallout 76 as ‘softcore’; dying in the game won’t affect the player’s progress that much.

What Bethesda focused on while developing the multiplayer experience for Fallout 76 was that idea that an ‘encounter with someone else should be a special experience’. This meant players shouldn’t be uncertain whether a character they come across is a player or an NPC.

In the end, Bethesda decided to remove all human-like NPCs in Fallout 76; this means that all human-like characters players come across in-game are actually other players. In order to proceed with the game story, they will be replaced by various things like robot NPCs, terminals, holotape, etc. and the game will revolve around quests like Fallout 4.

However, this doesn’t mean that the game is not just about PvP; players will take reduced damage if they don’t accept a PvP request, and the player killer won’t get anything but a bounty placed upon them. Thus, PvP taking place without consent has no big merit; if a player loses during PvP, they can always get revenge for rewards.

Also, they won’t be supporting private servers for the released version but will be adding them through updates so that players will be able to invite their friends to play. It won’t be an MMORPG where a huge number of players fight in a vast map; it will only be 24 players for each server. Players can choose to be friends and build a community or make enemies or simply play alone in the game.

Different mods can be added after the game’s release, but it seems that fans will have to wait for a bit. According to an interview by GameSpot, the SVP of Bethesda’s Global Marketing Pete Hines said that “If you want to run mods, they'll have to be done on a private server,” but it will be a lot of work before those features can be made available. However, Hines also asserted that “mods and private servers are definitely coming.”

Constructing a Settlement and Sending Nuclear Missiles
An upgraded building system and the ability to send nuclear missiles

Players can again experience the building system from Fallout 4 in Fallout 76 and construct their own settlement. They can use the new Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform, C.A.M.P, to set buildings they’d like in any part of the map; they can also move to any place they want to construct.

After players have built a community with other players, they can proceed with the construction and work together to defend the settlement from the surrounding danger. Along with the construction, players can work together to find Nuke codes, so teaming up with others can provide everyone with an advantage.

Players have to collect Nuke codes to launch nuclear missiles, which they can use to attack their enemies or get rewards by launching in any areas of the map they like (that place will obviously be devastated). The game is designed so that such actions will influence their gameplay in several ways. For example, they can make a bigger enemy with their nukes.

Some changes include the aiming system and the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system using perk cards, along with a new photo mode. Although the changes aren’t drastically different from previous titles, this game was fundamentally designed to be the multiplayer version of Fallout 4, the fans can look forward to a different experience through more enhanced building system, online multiplayer, and various changes from using nukes.

Fallout 76 Release
While waiting for Fallout 76

Fallout 76 will be officially released on this upcoming November 14th and will be holding a BETA test prior to its release for pre-orders. The release date for Xbox One is October 23rd and October 30th for other platforms.

Some fans have expressed their concern about Fallout 76 as it doesn’t support offline play, doesn’t have human NPCs, and has players exposed to PvP; we will have to wait and see what kind of new experience Fallout 76 has to offer from the BETA test. At the same time, it will be exciting to see the plains and Appalachian mountains of West Virginia as the graphics will be upgraded as well -- fans will be able to experience the Fallout world with graphics 16 times more detailed through the new rendering and lighting. How Fallout 76 will present the online version of the Fallout world with its emphasis on multiplayer, survival, and teamwork is something everyone is looking forward to.