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Into the wasteland
Jan. 7th, 2019 12:16 pmThere are two games between which I divide my time and energy these days. Fallout 76 in one corner, and Monster Hunter World in the other. Once you're past the main storyline's assigned quests, the latter's goals are entirely up to the player: you pick a quest for a monster to slay or hunt or capture, or you go on a search to set up camp/craft potions. The latter gets you out of the kill/capture drag, while the former usually is tied to the need to make a certain weapon or piece of armour. Co-operating with friends (or having strangers help you out during a quest) only makes it more fun and addictive.
Fallout 76, for all its flaws and bad reviews, is a similarly addictive game. Unlike Monster Hunter World, there are a few additional goals to keep in mind: a place to call home (one's C.A.M.P) and the constant urge to eat and drink. Fallout 76's main quests are not fully linear (though there may be parts of the story that can't be done out of order). The events repeat themselves, which means there is an opportunity to farm XP - especially one of the lower level events. XP means leveling, leveling means perks that can be added to buff out your character in a variety of ways. Weapons can be found or crafted - usually you'll be finding basic versions and upgrading them by scrapping similar weapons. Repairing or modifying will cost certain types of scrap, and scrap requires one to get junk. Junk can be lost when you die, so you'll have to retrieve it - before a random player grabs your hard earned junk. Missions and enemies can be bugged. EVERYTHING can be bugged in Fallout 76. Blue screens/game crashes/server not responding? Oh yes. Be prepared for these things. And that's not even mentioning griefing because this is PVP only. Pacifist mode may prevent you from unintentionally engaging other players, it sure does not stop them from killing you - and when they do, you will lose a percentage of your caps. Which is far worse than losing junk, to be honest.
So what's the catch 22 then? The game is beautiful - post apocalyptic Appalachia really looks like a place John Denver would proudly call home - and it is a blast when you're in a team of four, doing quests and helping each other, or even doing solo stuff while your mates are in the same sessions, splitting up the quests or events between each other. But it is damn boring when you're on your own. Or frustrating, when you have zero back up while being swarmed by enemies.
I have a feeling that engagement will be pretty high and steady until me and my friends have all reached the endgame where we can launch nukes and just have sides and daily quests left to do. At that point, the wasteland might become a drag to explore, and we'll find refuge in other games. Or at least, I will. That's how I usually treat my gaming obsessions. It'll be up to Bethesda to keep the high level seen-it-all-done-it-all gamers happy. I for one am curious to find out just how they'll do that...
Fallout 76, for all its flaws and bad reviews, is a similarly addictive game. Unlike Monster Hunter World, there are a few additional goals to keep in mind: a place to call home (one's C.A.M.P) and the constant urge to eat and drink. Fallout 76's main quests are not fully linear (though there may be parts of the story that can't be done out of order). The events repeat themselves, which means there is an opportunity to farm XP - especially one of the lower level events. XP means leveling, leveling means perks that can be added to buff out your character in a variety of ways. Weapons can be found or crafted - usually you'll be finding basic versions and upgrading them by scrapping similar weapons. Repairing or modifying will cost certain types of scrap, and scrap requires one to get junk. Junk can be lost when you die, so you'll have to retrieve it - before a random player grabs your hard earned junk. Missions and enemies can be bugged. EVERYTHING can be bugged in Fallout 76. Blue screens/game crashes/server not responding? Oh yes. Be prepared for these things. And that's not even mentioning griefing because this is PVP only. Pacifist mode may prevent you from unintentionally engaging other players, it sure does not stop them from killing you - and when they do, you will lose a percentage of your caps. Which is far worse than losing junk, to be honest.
So what's the catch 22 then? The game is beautiful - post apocalyptic Appalachia really looks like a place John Denver would proudly call home - and it is a blast when you're in a team of four, doing quests and helping each other, or even doing solo stuff while your mates are in the same sessions, splitting up the quests or events between each other. But it is damn boring when you're on your own. Or frustrating, when you have zero back up while being swarmed by enemies.
I have a feeling that engagement will be pretty high and steady until me and my friends have all reached the endgame where we can launch nukes and just have sides and daily quests left to do. At that point, the wasteland might become a drag to explore, and we'll find refuge in other games. Or at least, I will. That's how I usually treat my gaming obsessions. It'll be up to Bethesda to keep the high level seen-it-all-done-it-all gamers happy. I for one am curious to find out just how they'll do that...
