Bethesda: ‘Fallout 76’ Isn’t the Game Some Think It Is

Variety:

“Fallout 76” is a Fallout game you can play with others. Or at least that’s how Pete Hines, senior vice president of Bethesda’s global marketing, describes the game when I ask him for a one-line breakdown.

[ziggurcat]

it is impossible to avoid people griefing unless they allow users to truly play the game solo.

[porkChop]

A passive mode similar to GTA would work.

[Elwenil]

I believe Pete Hines has said that it will be a challenge sort of thing and you can opt out of a battle if you want. Todd Howard has said similar, but seems to be leaning toward more freedom to shoot at players, at least once, to add tension and drama. I believe both have said or eluded to a mechanic that does not allow people to repeatedly attack you so they cannot troll you repeatedly.

[BiggerBoss]

A GTA-esque passive mode seems like the obvious solution, but I wonder how it would work in this particular game.

[dumahim]

Player X wants to nuke your settlement. Allow/Opt Out
"OPT OUT! OPT OUT!"

[Yui_Suzumiya]

This is what I'm hoping for.. invisible or passive mode.. come on, Bethesda!

[darthv72]

76 is to Fallout series what ESO is to Elder Scrolls series.

Just as there will be another traditional ES game then so shall be another traditional FO game soon enough.

[FPS_D3TH]

It’s challenge based. You can opt out. There’s rewards/bounties for taking out griefers too. Think dark zone division that you don’t have to engage in. I think people are over reacting

[Jaypi03]

People always overreact when it comes to the unknown honestly.

[Xb1ps4]

Very true.. but why not just have a clear message of what it is?

[ziggurcat]

"It’s challenge based. You can opt out."

I doubt that. It certainly did not look to be the case when they demoed the game. It looked like you could get a bunch of people together and raid other people.

It's always online, and there are always people in your game. There's no way to play truly on your own.

[fiveby9]

I don't understand why so many people are seemingly reluctant or afraid of playing against other real people. Griefing can be minimized. Game AI is only so good. The real thing is far more challenging. I think it's interesting that BGS is trying something different. FO76 does not mean there won't be a FO5 traditional SP game in the future. I am cautiously optimistic.

[FPS_D3TH]

I totally agree fiveby9. It’s disappointing to see this community so reluctant about trying anything new. The amount of complaints for this game or say the first person perspective in Cyberpunk, a game they haven’t even seen beyond a reveal trailer, is a bit sad. Everyone complains about how call of duty never changes, but reading comments on recent articles makes me think they were making the safest choice.

[ziggurcat]

@five:

it's not about being afraid. I just can't stand MP in just about every game, and I have never thought this game needed MP of any kind to make it more fun/interesting. The real thing isn't more challenging, it's flat-out annoying. I would like the option to play the game 100% singleplayer. Griefiing won't be minimized, people will find ways to grief people regardless of whatever system they think they have in place to prevent that from happening.

Also, the map is just going to get nuked to death because that's what people are going to go for right away. And the goddamned base building... they took the worst part of the last game, and made it a focal point. I don't play FO to micromanage bases, I play it to go through the missions, and story.... alone.

[-Foxtrot]

They say it’s not the game people think it is but Todd slyly made out on stage you can play it single player, which people cheered at but if you watch his interviews off stage he states that it’s not offline and there will always be people in your game...it’s online but you can play it solo if you want

Maybe that’s why people are getting wrong impression because they are lying trying to scam old fans to buy it

[Elwenil]

Todd said you can play "SOLO", he never said "single player".

[-Foxtrot]

Elwenil

Oh please he knew the impression he was going for, he even said after how they love those things and wouldn’t have it any other way....sweeting people up

Even his post E3 interviews dance around the subject

[Elwenil]

You are seeing what you want to see, just like you always do. Just pass on the game if it triggers you that bad.

[Muzikguy]

I don't understand why people aren't upfront and truthful about their games. People would like to know these things. When I first heard of this game I wanted it. Now that it's always online I don't.

Also, "single player" and "solo" aren't the same thing? That would be exactly what I'm talking about

[moomoo319]

This is simply not true and kind of silly. Multiplayer = Griefing so there should be no game? What is the logic here lol

[seanpitt23]

Well there is no NPCs in this world so if you want to play on your own it will be boring as shit. This game is meant to be played with other people and thats probably why it didn't take as long to make because they havnt had to make 100s of NPC

[ziggurcat]

there would have to be NPCs if there are story missions. also, merchants, etc...

[seanpitt23]

The Dev said they only people you see are real life players apart from enemies and he confirmed no NPCs will be in the game. Merchants are probably there but I wouldnt call them a npc.

[gangsta_red]

If you're afraid of playing with other people or worried about other people possibly greifing you then maybe a MMO , shared world, online game isn't for you.

[smolinsk]

I really also hope for a passive mode, hate absolutely hate pvp in games that are not battlefield like.

[neutralgamer1992]

not buying thank you. FO4 made a billion dollars at launch yet that wasn't good enough for bethesda so they are chasing GAAS the exact opposite of their save teh single player

[Jaypi03]

I can respect that, the best thing about gaming is being able to pick and choose what you play, good on you for exercising your right as a consumer. Personally, i'm interested since it reminds me of Borderlands, i'm curious how perks and such will come into play with the game being multiplayer and such.

[-Foxtrot]

Even more silly 6 months after their “saveplayer1” campaign they revealed in December

*6 months later*

Here’s Fallout...online

[Profchaos]

The save player one campaign was so good full of promise but they took one look at the figures from gta and Chased the money

[BiggerBoss]

Honestly, I agree 100% foxtrot.

"We LOVE Singleplayer, (but here's a solely multiplayer game)"

[aconnellan]

While I agree that it’s a strange departure for Bethesda and the Fallout series, just because it’s online doesn’t mean it’s GaaS, which is a buzzword that I see thrown around all the time to mean more and more different things

[gangsta_red]

So Bethesda shouldn't try other things? They have made a ton of SP games and I'm sure they willake more but they try an online game and suddenly they're not the heroes of SP games anymore?

[neutralgamer1992]

Bro more power to them for making it. I simply stated the fact I have no interest in it and the way they revealed the game was very misleading

FO4 made them billions so us the SP fans who helped them make billions have been waiting for next FO game

[gangsta_red]

I personally always wanted a Fallout game where I could play co-op or similar so I'm actually glad they made a Fallout game like this.

I don't think them doing this will mean the end of SP Fallout. Positive they'll continue to work on that for the future. It's just now Bethesda wants to try something else and we shouldn't start throwing them off the ledge because of it, especially after they have provided a lot more SP games during our years of gaming.

[Nacho_Z]

I don't think PVP is inappropriate for this game if you think about what it'd be like if it was real life, but it's good that they're aware that a lot of players would rather have their fingernails pulled off than directly fight another player and are tailoring the game for them.

[Jaypi03]

I agree, choice is one of the best things about gaming.

[ziggurcat]

If that were the case, they'd allow you to play in a 100% singleplayer mode, and not be forced to be online.

[aconnellan]

Or maybe this is their vision for the game so we should wait and see how it turns out before saying what it should and shouldn’t be?

[gangsta_red]

But that's not what this game is intended to be Ziggurcat. Play Fallout 4 if you want 100% single player mode. They built that from the ground up to be the case.

[PiNkFaIrYbOi]

Maybe they should make different servers for the game, have some for pvp and some for pve.

[poppatron]

I think when considering the potential griefing aspect it’s important to consider the implications of a) the size of the map and b) the fact the other players won’t be tracked on the map. Those two points alone are huge.

[KillZallthebeast]

Lol honestly didn't mind the random players until they said nukes were a thing. They've stated you can make private games though so everyone freaking out is just either misinformed or stupid.

[Elwenil]

The "private server" bit won't be in the game at launch, it is supposed to come later.

The nukes are the key to the higher end content as it levels up all the monsters in it and has rare resources. It's not just an offensive weapon, though it will obviously be used as such. But honestly, your settlement disappears when you log out, and you never know what server or instance you are going to load into and with only a few dozen players on the map, it's not like there is a lot of time to search out a settlement, then go and target it with a nuke. So the map is constantly changing and rearranging as far as what settlements are on the map and it will take time to gather the launch codes and find a missile silo. So the chances of someone actually targeting your specific settlement with a nuke are going to be sort of slim. More than likely, it's going to be a game of chance to see if you can actually hit someone's settlement with the target you have chosen. Now if there are "really good spots to build" (and there usually are in games) then you can probably figure there will be a pretty good chance someone's settlement may be there, but my plan is to get off the beaten path and just plop down a small settlement out in the middle of nowhere.

But I agree that there are a lot of misinformed people either twisting what was said, or only hearing what they want to hear and drawing a lot of baseless conclusions.

[MasterCornholio]

Griefing is a big concern for me.

[Platformgamer]

you're saying that todd... lied?

[Profchaos]

If it was a challenge system similar to friendly wow Challenges its better than just being attacked but im still not convinced.

I think this game is not for me I'm a huge franchise fan but I hate mp games like destiny and rust

[PhantomS42]

Oh, we heard loud and clear the trash fire this game is going to be. Online only, $60 price, and microtransactions. Where is the lynch mob that went after SW Battlefront 2 and Shadow of War for being full priced and having microtransactions?

[titans9999]

7 Days To Die allows for single player offline, I don’t understand why Bethesda can’t do the same for Fallout 76...damn shame...

[doggo84]

That's right, imagine the worst possible fallout game - fallout 76 is even worse than that :D

[Cobra951]

Since I never imagined they would stoop to forcing players online in a Fallout game, you're right.

[r3f1cul]

they seem awfully lackadaisical about player interaction and whatnot considering almost all online MP games pretty much live and die the first month or so of release ... pretty worrisome if you ask me ... especially from a studio that seems to have a naive outlook on how players actually play pvp survival games, im yet to come across one that doesnt devolve into kill on sight garbage but they just keep on acting like we live in a different gaming world than we do ... all these devs are so optimistic with how people will use gameplay mechanics and what not but they either wont use them or they will use them in the worst possible way because thats what people do ...

[RadicalCannibal]

Just buy the game and enjoy it

[kikicub]

No single player means no buy from me, sadly since I have played Fallout since the very fist one. If they really wanted to copy GTA they could have done both the expected single player kick-ass campaign and the online component. To me they are changing what Fallout is a bit too much.

[Cobra951]

If it's online-only, it's exactly the kind of game I think it is--one I don't want.

[Gwiz]

" It just works " ISP down.. " Well it would from our side "

[Kosic]

It looks more of the same but now with multiplayer. Unsure if I'm wanting this one or not.