It's hard to talk about 76 without mentioning its (rocky and meme-worthy) history - starting as a piece of ♥♥♥♥ game that was laughed at to exhaustion, I got it from a bargain bin back in December 2018 because I love Fallout.


And at the time I was torn: on one hand, I had a rehashed Fallout 4 gameplay experience on a painfully buggy, laggy, crashy, poorly performing mess. On the other, I had Appalachia, with the great environmental storytelling Bethesda always nails, with great environmental variety that the previous games missed quite a bit.

Imagine having a better world than Fallout 4 but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up pretty much everything else. But I stuck with it...

When Wild Appalachia (the first free DLC) dropped, new events, quests and mechanics were introduced and bugs were getting squashed left and right...

... to be fair, fixing 1000 bugs when your game has 3000 isn't as impressive as it should.

Man, I played the absolute ♥♥♥♥ out of Wild Appalachia version of 76, the game felt way more polished so the overall gameplay experience was finally truly enjoyable and not a crutch you had to handle everytime you booted the game to explore the wonderful world.

Nuclear Winter dropped around the summer with the super, awesome, innovative and amazi...

... it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Battle Royale.

And so I quit 76. The content addition was MOSTLY (Meat Week being the PvE centric update) PvP focused and Bethesda's engine is not that good for Battle Royale experience worthy of the top ranks.

I eventually tried when I got back in the steam release to get some rewards and stuff and I gotta say I was impressed with how much better it was - it's surprisingly fun, but has a bit of a hacker problem (no anti-cheat wtf) and there are better offers (FOR FREE) on the market.


And here we are in 2020 - I played since the update was released and it feels like an entirely fresh, new experience. It's more Fallout than Fallout 4 in some ways, go figure.
Wastelanders is the true definition of an expansion to a game:

- Adding NPC's (and even companions of sorts) you can interact with, improving the game's feel as an organic open world post-apocalyptic experience. The personality of the game and of yourself as a character also improved massively!

- The addition of new locations and changing existing ones to be populated with NPC's, adding countless amounts of new interactivity.

- New events, new side quests (plenty of them!) and guns to have fun with and adding needed variety for those in endgame with all the content done - a new legendary raid boss was added as well for those ultra powerful players to have fun with.

- A brand new full Main Questline, taking advantage of the new dialogue system introduced (that works very similarly to Fallout 3/New Vegas'), giving the player the sense of freedom when interacting and also being able to take stances and make choices that change how he's perceived by other characters and also how endgame will work. The main questline starts with you leaving Vault 76 (assuming you’re a new player) and encountering a couple of folks looking for a treasure and trying to get in 76. After learning about the treasure and that there is a new bar close by where new information can be obtained, your new quest for treasure begins!

NOTE: I may be making it seem like something super deep but there aren't that many "massive" choices that change the course of the world - it amounts to some reputation system that will give you rewards the more you build it (sort of like Fallout New Vegas) and a couple choices that basically summarize into which faction you prefer to join. It's still all an extremely COMPELLING experience that I very much enjoyed. It still feels like the old Fallout games interaction wise and that’s a MASSIVE plus for 76.

The only problems with the gameplay as a whole is the UI and the terrible performance, as well as the bugs you’ll encounter – while most functional bugs seem to have been fixed and they’re mostly visual now, there are still a few odd bugs you’ll find, some involving the challenges which can only be solved by re-doing them with a fresh character.


Technical aspects are a mixed bag - while the new radio songs are phenomenal , 76 has a lot of repeated songs from Fallout 3 and 4, disappointingly enough. The gun sounds are all from Fallout 4 with a few exceptions for the new guns. The voice acting is solid and makes the story and player interactions such as the dialogue, a lot more compelling and interesting - though, to be fair, the audio logs were already really well done on release.

What made the Fallout games truly impressive was always the attention to detail and the amount of interactivity with the environment and Fallout 76 is no exception. The game does seem a bit better than Fallout 4 – entering the Mire for the first time is astonishingly beautiful with a fantastic mix of vegetation, lighting and god rays. Some textures can look a bit weak and some map areas aren’t nearly as pretty as others, especially since the game abuses a bit of HDR and Bloom effects to hide some dull sections.

The part were it all falls a bit flat is the performance - while not abysmal like it once was, the game should not run as poorly as it does, averaging 40 FPS in places that are crowded... but not THAT crowded. The game isn't that fast paced to require phenomenal performance, but the lack of smoothness in massive events or endgame areas is quite annoying, especially if you play as someone that requires precise aiming, like sniper builds.

Now, a small talk of... Pay 2 Win.

In my honest opinion, 76 has really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ retarded business decisions but Pay to Win is not one of them


For the monthly price of 14,99€, you get infinite stash limit (which goes against their "we can't increase stash limit because technical reason"), private servers (which were something to be added after release supposedly for free...) and a few skins and premium currency (for cosmetics).

Seriously, what the ♥♥♥♥?

Firstly, add more ♥♥♥♥ - this is not worth 15€ at all, you can (and should) do better for the people willing to give you 100 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ euros yearly.

Secondly, tier this ♥♥♥♥. If I want private servers to have fun with my friends exclusively, I should not have to pay for a bunch other ♥♥♥♥ I don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about. Something like that - you're alienating players who want to support this insanely well done example of redemption of a game but a single 15€ tier per month is bonkers.


The part where Bethesda designed well is the Atomic Shop where the mandatory "give us more money for stuff" store exists in live service games. While 95% of items are cosmetic only - from power armor paintjobs to CAMP floor skins or tables or a trillion other things, there are a few items that have made people raise their eyebrows, understandably. They are expensive, sure, but they are all replaced by playing a smidge of the game.

Does it save a bit of your time?

Yeah sure...

... a whole minute at best (seriously).

So they're not worth it for the money you're giving, and if you buy them, there's no clear advantage over a standard, "free" PvE player - PvP has no benefits from any of this, neither does the Battle Royale mode.


With this continuous improvement of 76 since a year and a half ago, paired with an enjoyable (much improved since release) gameplay experience and endgame variety, Fallout 76 is absolutely worth the asking price - even more so on sale. It’s beyond me how much it has evolved over time, from a fun (in my opinion) yet rightfully bashed mediocre of an experience, to a pretty fun online game/experience.

It's hard to talk about 76 without mentioning its (rocky and meme-worthy) history - starting as a piece of shit game that was laughed at to exhaustion, I got it from a bargain bin back in December 2018 because I love Fallout. [h1] "Can't be that much a trainwreck, can it?" [/h1] And at the time I was torn: on one hand, I had a rehashed Fallout 4 gameplay experience on a painfully buggy, laggy, crashy, poorly performing mess. On the other, I had Appalachia, with the great environmental storytelling Bethesda always nails, with great environmental variety that the previous games missed quite a bit. Imagine having a better world than Fallout 4 but fucking up pretty much everything else. But I stuck with it... When Wild Appalachia (the first free DLC) dropped, new events, quests and mechanics were introduced and bugs were getting squashed left and right... ... to be fair, fixing 1000 bugs when your game has 3000 isn't as impressive as it should. Man, I played the absolute fuck out of Wild Appalachia version of 76, the game felt way more polished so the overall gameplay experience was finally truly enjoyable and not a crutch you had to handle everytime you booted the game to explore the wonderful world. Nuclear Winter dropped around the summer with the super, awesome, innovative and amazi... [b]... it's fucking Battle Royale.[/b] And so I quit 76. The content addition was MOSTLY (Meat Week being the PvE centric update) PvP focused and Bethesda's engine is not that good for Battle Royale experience worthy of the top ranks. I eventually tried when I got back in the steam release to get some rewards and stuff and I gotta say I was impressed with how much better it was - it's surprisingly fun, but has a bit of a hacker problem (no anti-cheat wtf) and there are better offers (FOR FREE) on the market. [h1]And now, Wastelanders, the big boi update.[/h1] And here we are in 2020 - I played since the update was released and it feels like an entirely fresh, new experience. It's more Fallout than Fallout 4 in some ways, go figure. Wastelanders is the true definition of an expansion to a game: - [b]Adding NPC's (and even companions of sorts) you can interact with, improving the game's feel as an organic open world post-apocalyptic experience.[/b] The personality of the game and of yourself as a character also improved massively! - [b]The addition of new locations and changing existing ones to be populated with NPC's, adding countless amounts of new interactivity.[/b] - [b]New events, new side quests (plenty of them!) and guns [/b] to have fun with and adding needed variety for those in endgame with all the content done - a [b]new legendary raid boss[/b] was added as well for those ultra powerful players to have fun with. - A brand new full Main Questline, taking advantage of the new dialogue system introduced (that works very similarly to Fallout 3/New Vegas'), giving the player the sense of freedom when interacting and also being able to take stances and make choices that change how he's perceived by other characters and also how endgame will work. The main questline starts with you leaving Vault 76 (assuming you’re a new player) and encountering a couple of folks looking for a treasure and trying to get in 76. After learning about the treasure and that there is a new bar close by where new information can be obtained, your new quest for treasure begins! [b]NOTE[/b]: I may be making it seem like something super deep but there aren't that many "massive" choices that change the course of the world - it amounts to some reputation system that will give you rewards the more you build it (sort of like Fallout New Vegas) and a couple choices that basically summarize into which faction you prefer to join. It's still all an extremely COMPELLING experience that I very much enjoyed. It still feels like the old Fallout games interaction wise and that’s a MASSIVE plus for 76. The only problems with the gameplay as a whole is the UI and the terrible performance, as well as the bugs you’ll encounter – [b]while most functional bugs seem to have been fixed and they’re mostly visual now[/b], there are still a few odd bugs you’ll find, some involving the challenges which can only be solved by re-doing them with a fresh character. [h1] TECHNICAL [/h1] Technical aspects are a mixed bag - while the new radio songs are [b] phenomenal [/b], 76 has a lot of repeated songs from Fallout 3 and 4, disappointingly enough. The gun sounds are all from Fallout 4 with a few exceptions for the new guns. The voice acting is solid and makes the story and player interactions such as the dialogue, a lot more compelling and interesting - though, to be fair, the audio logs were already really well done on release. [b]What made the Fallout games truly impressive was always the attention to detail and the amount of interactivity with the environment and Fallout 76 is no exception[/b]. The game does seem a bit better than Fallout 4 – entering the Mire for the first time is astonishingly beautiful with a fantastic mix of vegetation, lighting and god rays. Some textures can look a bit weak and some map areas aren’t nearly as pretty as others, especially since the game abuses a bit of HDR and Bloom effects to hide some dull sections. The part were it all falls a bit flat is the performance - while not abysmal like it once was, the game should not run as poorly as it does, averaging 40 FPS in places that are crowded... but not THAT crowded. The game isn't that fast paced to require phenomenal performance, but the lack of smoothness in massive events or endgame areas is quite annoying, especially if you play as someone that requires precise aiming, like sniper builds. Now, a small talk of... Pay 2 Win. [b] In my honest opinion, 76 has really fucking retarded business decisions but Pay to Win is not one of them [/b] [h1] Fallout 1st [/h1] [b]For the monthly price of 14,99€, you get infinite stash limit (which goes against their "we can't increase stash limit because technical reason"), private servers (which were something to be added after release supposedly for free...) and a few skins and premium currency (for cosmetics).[/b] Seriously, what the fuck? Firstly, add more shit - [b]this is not worth 15€ at all[/b], you can (and should) do better for the people willing to give you 100 fucking euros yearly. Secondly, [b]tier this shit[/b]. If I want private servers to have fun with my friends exclusively, I should not have to pay for a bunch other shit I don't give a shit about. Something like that - you're alienating players who want to support this insanely well done example of redemption of a game but a single 15€ tier per month is bonkers. [h1] Not Pay to Win [/h1] The part where Bethesda designed well is the Atomic Shop where the mandatory "give us more money for stuff" store exists in live service games. While 95% of items are cosmetic only - from power armor paintjobs to CAMP floor skins or tables or a trillion other things, there are a few items that have made people raise their eyebrows, understandably. They are expensive, sure, but they are all replaced by playing a smidge of the game. Does it save a bit of your time? Yeah sure... ... a whole minute at best (seriously). So they're not worth it for the money you're giving, and if you buy them, there's no clear advantage over a standard, "free" PvE player - PvP has no benefits from any of this, neither does the Battle Royale mode. [h1]OVERALL[/h1] With this continuous improvement of 76 since a year and a half ago, paired with an enjoyable (much improved since release) gameplay experience and endgame variety, Fallout 76 is absolutely worth the asking price - even more so on sale. It’s beyond me how much it has evolved over time, from a fun (in my opinion) yet rightfully bashed mediocre of an experience, to a pretty fun online game/experience.