Bethesda Softworks' latest foray into the online multiplayer genre since "The Elder Scrolls Online" may have shown some unexpected behavior from its players, but it seems that "Fallout 76" is not as satisfying of an experience for some veteran "Fallout" gamers. The fact that its an online experience seems to be at the bottom of the issue.
Forbes' Paul Tassi recently went back to "Fallout 76" to review his post-launch experience and what the reviewer found was not impressive. According to Tassi, a significant amount of changes to the "Fallout" experience made by "Fallout 76" being online spoils a consistent experience for the trade-off of being able to interact with other players. Such a significant exchange of functionality is not to Tassi's taste.
But Paul Tassi's review is probably more forgiving than some of "Fallout 76's" more recent user reviews on Metacritic. According to ComicBook, "Fallout 76" has garnered a significant amount of negative backlash from players on the popular review aggregator website.
According to the publication, "Fallout 76" has recently had user reviews rating the game at zero with only it's PlayStation 4 version garnering a score above that with an unimpressive 2.8 average. Most of the negative reviews point towards how the online component of "Fallout 76" exacerbates the clunky experience of the "Fallout" game systems.
A number of reviewers also point out that "Fallout 76" seems to focus on simply giving Bethesda Softworks a chance to test their microtransaction ideas rather than being a wholly different "Fallout" experience. ComicBook notes that a lot of the user review complaints are themes of negative arguments already pointed out prior to the game's launch.
Considering the negative experience backlash from what appears to be a significant number of players, as well as lukewarm reception from some reviewers, fans of "Fallout 76" are probably hoping that the game gets a promised improvement. But the fact that "Fallout 76" is already announced to be part of the upcoming Black Friday sales does not seem to bode well for the game's future.
While Bethesda Softworks has yet to release an official statement regarding "Fallout 76" and its commercial performance, fans can only hope that the initial negative reviews will tide over to give the studio a chance to deliver the multiplayer "Fallout" experience they envisioned. Multiplayer may be a new thing for the "Fallout" franchise, but gamers should remember that when "Fallout 3" came out, it also received some particularly negative backlash for breaking from the franchise's original isometric turn-based formula.
