Wandering, joining up with other players (even if they’re all the way across the map) and beefing up your Perception are ways to get the most out of a flawed game.
My enthusiasm for Fallout 76 dried up faster than you could say “ always online multiplayer-only experience.” Trouble is, I love the franchise with the red, hot, plasma-like passion of a 30-megaton thermonuclear device.
When the game launched last week I looked the other way until the usual launch-day jitters worked themselves out. Now that things have stabilized somewhat and a few patches have been applied, I’ve spent these last few days getting properly stuck into West Virginia circa 2105.
If you’ve played every other game in the series, there’s no reason you should avoid this one simply because it’s trying to do something different. Here’s my advice for finding a way forward in a troubled game, one that’s unlike anything the franchise has ever seen before.
After the first few hours of the beta, I was thoroughly turned off by the game’s storyline. Good news is that it gets better over time. It’s not a linear experience by any stretch. There’s plenty of room to go off and wander by yourself. My recommendation, however, is that you stick with the main questline for the first few hours.
Bethesda has extended the game’s tutorial well outside of Vault 76. You’ll still be learning about new systems even after you’ve marched two towns over. Most importantly, following along with the Overseer’s questline is a good way to learn recipes, and the only way you’ll learn how to interact with the game’s elaborate crafting systems.
The bottom line is that if you don’t do the work early on, eventually you’ll be stranded far from Vault 76 with a handful of low-level weapons on the verge of breaking and no idea how to get them fixed. Even worse, you’ll miss out on ways to make carrying around lots of loot easier and more efficient.
My advice is to wait at least until after the Overseer’s questline tells you to head to a nearby airport before you decide to make a break for it and head off on your own. Even then, go to the airport anyway, since it’s a great place to set up your first base.
Once you do begin wandering off the beaten path, extracting the narrative of Fallout 76 can be a bit of a challenge. That’s because everyone in and around West Virginia, save for the other player characters wandering around alongside you, is dead. In fact, much of the game’s environmental storytelling requires that you become fluent in sorting through layers of different kinds of corpses.
The first set of bodies you’ll want to become familiar with are the so-called “petrified corpses.” These are the forms of civilians and other bystanders who were trapped outside of Vault 76 when the bombs fell on Oct. 23,2077. So far, I’ve not seen a lot of variety in them. They’re just sort of hanging around on street corners and rooftops, looking to the sky.
