First Fallout 76 Gameplay Impressions are not impressing Fans

Fallout 76 has still a little while until fans can get an early taste in the upcoming beta for customers who pre-ordered the game. Two weeks prior to that, Bethesda invited the gaming press and some YouTubers to an early-early play session. We are finally seeing some unedited, raw gameplay footage of the multiplayer Fallout spin-off. But it looks like fans aren’t seeing what they were hoping for.

This press event by Bethesda is aiming to get media outlets and popular YouTubers, so-called influencers, to help with getting the gaming audience’s attention at their upcoming game. Ideally for Bethesda, fans should be incentivized to outright pre-order Fallout 76 in order to participate in the beta starting October 23rd on the Xbox One and October 30th on the PC and PS4.

What should have been a joyous celebration for eager Fallout fans, is turning out to be a slight damper on the road to the game’s release. On the technical side of things, Fallout 76 is decidedly dated-looking, reminding many of 2015’s Fallout 4. That might not be surprising, seeing both games are coming out on the same consoles but even three years ago Fallout 4 wasn’t impressive for its visuals, and expectations of gamers have continuously risen over the years.

We have to keep in mind that Bethesda is still knee-deep in the development of Fallout 76 and traditionally a lot of polish is culminating shortly before completion. In that sense, there’s little doubt that the final product will run and look better than what is shown at the moment on YouTube. The Like-Dislike ratio of some videos are still going to lead some people over at Bethesda sleepless, that’s for sure.

Still, series “hallmarks” like bad animation, a plethora of bugs and inconsistent performance aren’t doing Fallout 76 any favor in instilling trust for the completed game. It’s hardly a proof for the visual representation of the final game but Digital Foundry wasn’t impressed how the early version was performing on even the most powerful console currently available either.

There’s some good news however as well, as most publications lauded the immensely large game world all the while offering varied locations. The new Perk System also is working out better than hoped and is complementing the co-op nature of Fallout 76 very well.

You can make up your own opinion on Fallout 76 very soon in the upcoming beta by pre-ordering the game on the platform of your choice here.