Fallout 76

Do you remember that car you had back in high school? The one you had to jiggle the handle just right to get the door to open. It backfired every time it shifted to 2nd gear. The back seat smelled like spilled Maddog 20/20. And the mice living in the trunk had names. You loved that car. Every rust spot and missing bolt. Fallout 76 it’s a video game version of that car. It’s set in a post apocalyptic world where you go around killing stuff and picking up garbage. So exactly like all the other Fallouts but one where you can show off the garbage you have accumulated to other players in real time. It’s similar to the Sims 3 but super mutants attack your house. or like Animal Crossing after Nuclear Winter. Honestly, my wife calls it a violent Animal Crossing. You build, craft, forage, dress up, take pics, manage resources, celebrate festive occassions, log in daily to check the shop. Only difference is you kill molerats in one but not the other! My wife’s boyfriend calls it a post apocalyptic Barbie dreamhouse simulator! With guns and Lasers! And hookers and blackjack! I have a gun it goes CHOO CHOO and then crickets kill me. FO76 is basically FO4.5. Pretty much the same gameplay just in a shared world with 24 people. The world is much bigger, so you may not even see the other people if you don't go looking for them or participate in the public events (but you should, they're fun). You can play 90% of the game solo though and ignore the multiplayer part. It’s the spiritual sandbox continuation of Fo4 without insane bullet sponges, but also without real companions. Now, what is Fo4? Its a single player first/third person shooter adventure with a fairly good narrative. So it follows that, Fo76 is a single player first/third person shooter adventure sandbox with less of a narrative, but fewer late game breaking levelling issues. A game that has infinite potential, but is squandered by it's anti-social community with a persecution complex and the never-ending greed that drives most of our content being cosmetics instead of improved or new ways to play the game. But hey, we got NPCs back. So we're good… right? Seriously though, it’s a fun and compelling game. One you make what you want out of. Your level of enjoyment will be determined by your approach and roleplay ability. If coming from the singleplayer FO's I always recommend you exit the vault role playing as an independent of sorts. A true "Lone Wanderer,' a gun for hire. Appalachia is HUGE and full of creatures, oddities, strangeness. It can pull you in several directions, you can become distracted and think "What is this? Why is that? What and why am I doing this?" And in some cases "What does THIS have to do with ANYTHING!?" So again... you are a Lone Wanderer, fish out of water. And Appalachia has it's own thing going on. It has A LOT of content and doesn't restrict you, really. The confusion for some is because they become overwhelmed or distracted, lose focus. Three games are present, really. Singleplayer, Multiplayer, and the "endgame." End game can be long haul. The game does not end until you end it. There is a distinctive singleplayer campaign. I suggest organizing it, prioritizing it, and executing it tightly from your Pip Boy. Main Quests, Side Quests. You'll be following the Overseers Journey, dealing with a deadly plague, working toward securing nuke silos, following rumors of hidden gold and dealing with those who want it. You'll be working with and for a few factions along the way, and some independents. All have their own ideas and motives for being in Appalachia. You do as well. All the while the online FO is present along with all that goes with. It's not intrusive, not bossy. You can partake, dip into it should you choose. Short Public Events, longer Expeditions, individual Daily and Weekly Challenges, and Daily OP's are all available. Map is something like 4 times the size of Fallout 4 and events with other players are fun. Mission wise, probably not far off 4 in amount of time taken, but events, daily and weekly "quests", events, daily operations, expeditions and random people you meet make it surprisingly fresh each day even after you've exhausted the mission lines. If it gets a bit "same day..." I just do some CAMP building or deliberately wander off to somewhere I haven't taken a good look at for a while. I came to it from FO4 and have enjoyed it a lot. I didn't think that would be the case when I first gave it a go. Rather than a dog-eat-dog MMO (which wasn't what I was after), a heap of players are pretty chill and it ends up playing more as a multiplayer co-op in a recognizably Fallout style where you don't have to dread the end of the game as you approach the end of the mission lines. It really does a good job of creating an alternate reality online… like a living breathing community…. Build, trade, missions, visit camps. Going to others camps like it’s Halloween. You never know what you are going to see or get. It's a world that many people have unexpectedly found themselves very comfortable in. Or one in which you might find that the bugs, crashes, balance etc are too much and think the game is trash. The game might be trash but as the old idiom goes 'One man's trash is another man's Fallout 76'. What the hell are you waiting for? 8/10