Fallout 76

Fallout 76 is a 2018 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is an installment in the Fallout series and a prequel to previous entries. Initially set in the year 2102, players control a resident of Vault 76 who must venture out into the dilapidated open world set in Appalachia in order to re-colonize the region and uncover a mysterious plague that has killed off its inhabitants.

Fallout 76 is Bethesda Game Studios' first multiplayer game. Development began in 2013, and involved a collaboration with developer BattleCry Studios. The game uses a modified version of Bethesda's Creation Engine, which allowed the accommodation of multiplayer gameplay and a more detailed game world than in previous games. Fallout 76 was reportedly subject to a troubled development, which included a restrictive crunch schedule. It saw a high turnover of staff, attributed to both a lack of leadership and clarity about the game's design, while numerous glitches were ignored by quality assurance.

Fallout 76 was initially released to generally mixed reviews, with criticism for the game's technical issues, overall design, lack of gameplay purpose, and initial absence of human non-playable characters. A number of Bethesda's responses and attempts to provide ongoing support for Fallout 76 in the months following its launch were met with criticism. In October 2019, a premium subscription service called Fallout 1st was added to the game. The first major update, Wastelanders, which introduced human non-playable characters, was released in April 2020, to more favorable reception. The game was the subject of several controversies, chiefly with regard to the quality of physical content, and is notable for its negative reception. The game sold 1.4 million copies by the end of 2018. Fallout 76 saw an increase in player count over time, peaking in 2024 with the release of Amazon Prime's television series Fallout.

Fallout 76 is an action role-playing game that can be played from either a first-person or third-person perspective.^: 10 Set in the Appalachian region of West Virginia, the player controls a character who leaves a fallout shelter 25 years after a nuclear war left much of the United States decimated. The game is entirely online, and utilizes dedicated servers. While players are able to play the game solo, they are encouraged to complete quests with other players on the server. Additionally, players can trade with each other, and engage in combat. Private servers are only available through the use of the monthly membership Fallout 1st.

Fallout 76 features an open world map that the player can freely explore. The map replicates many real locations from West Virginia, such as the cities of Charleston and Morgantown, as well as landmarks like The Greenbrier resort and New River Gorge Bridge. The game features numerous enemies, including raiders, mutated animals, and ghouls. Some enemies come from West Virginia folklore, such as the Mothman and the Flatwoods monster. The player is equipped with a wearable computer called the Pip-Boy. The device serves as a menu, and allows the player to access items they have acquired, view detailed character statistics and active quests, and look at the map.^: 8 The player can use the Pip-Boy to fast travel to previously discovered locations, and as a radio to listen to makeshift broadcasts.^: 8 There are a variety of weapons in the game, including standard guns, energy-based guns, melee weapons, and explosives.^: 131 While in combat, the player can utilize a gameplay mechanic known as V.A.T.S., which automatically targets an enemy and displays a percentage chance of hitting the enemy with an attack. Unlike in previous Fallout games, V.A.T.S. does not pause or slow down time, and instead displays information in real time.

The player accrues experience points by completing quests, killing enemies, and crafting items. Once the player earns a certain amount of experience points, they can level up.^: 36 Each level up allows the player to increase one of seven attributes: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck.^: 36 These attributes, known as S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, govern certain aspects of the player character; for example, the strength stat determines how many items the player can carry, as well as the damage of melee attacks.^: 36 Additionally, the number of points the player has for a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat directly correlates to the number of perk cards they can use, which act as permanent beneficial upgrades.^: 37 For example, the endurance perk card Rifleman increases the damage of non-automatic rifles.^: 50 Perk cards can be reassigned or removed at any point in the game.^: 37

An important mechanic in Fallout 76 is the ability to build and defend bases. At the start of the game, the player is given an item called the Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform (C.A.M.P.), which allows the player to convert raw materials into base structures. C.A.M.P. bases can be placed anywhere on the map, and can be moved at anytime. At a C.A.M.P. base, the player can craft weapons, armor, and modifications. Enemies can attack bases, and the player can mitigate their attack by equipping the base with turrets and traps. If the player joins a server that already features another base where their existing base should be, the player's base will be removed, and can be replaced in a different location.

Fallout 76 features an in-game currency called atoms, which can be used to purchase items from a marketplace called the Atomic Shop. Atoms can either be purchased with real-world money through microtransactions or by completing in-game challenges, such as crafting a piece of armor or leveling up. The Atomic Shop sells cosmetic items, such as outfits and short character gestures called emotes.

Fallout 76 is a narrative prequel to previous Fallout games. It is set in an alternate history, and takes place in 2102, twenty-five years after a nuclear war that devastated the Earth. The player character is a resident of Vault 76, a fallout shelter that was built in West Virginia to house America's best and brightest minds. The player character exits the Vault on "Reclamation Day" as part of a plan to re-colonize the Wasteland.

Twenty-five years after the Great War, Vault 76 is opened up and its residents given the task of repopulating the Wasteland. Shortly after they emerge from the Vault, the player character is contacted by the Vault Overseer. She reveals that Vault 76 was given a secret mandate to secure an arsenal of nuclear weapons deployed throughout Appalachia in three still-functioning nuclear missile silos: Site Alpha, Site Bravo, and Site Charlie. The player character is directed to contact the Responders, a faction of emergency services personnel who tried to aid the residents of Appalachia during the war; however, they discover that the Responders evacuated after they came under attack from the Scorched. Further investigation reveals that the Scorched are human beings infected by the "Scorched Plague", and are led by the Scorchbeasts; massive mutated bats that came into contact with an Enclave bioweapon kept in an old mining facility, causing exponential growth and a symbiotic control over the plague that created them. This relationship with the plague elevates a single Scorchbeast to the role of Queen, making it far larger and more dangerous, and allowing it to lead the legions of humans and animals in Appalachia through the use of a hivemind.

As the Scorched represent a threat to the Wasteland beyond Appalachia, the player character decides to secure a nuclear weapon and use it to destroy a Scorchbeast nest. In order to achieve this, they start searching the bunkers of survivalists calling themselves the Free States who were working on the means to detect the Scorched until the Scorched overran them. The player character is able to build a radar system that detects the viral signature of the Scorched, but its limited range makes it ineffective. The player attempts to boost the signal first by gaining the friendship of Rose, a Miss Nanny robot trying to rebuild the local Raider gangs that lived in Appalachia before being scared off by the Scorched; and by investigating research done by the local Brotherhood of Steel into the Scorchbeast as they had tried to stop it spreading from its main lair. The player hacks into a government network and draws the attention of the Enclave, the remnants of the United States government. The Enclave are led by MODUS, a centralized artificial intelligence system located in a secure nuclear fallout bunker beneath the Whitespring Resort. MODUS asks the player character to help connect them to a series of isolated computer networks across Appalachia through the Sugar Grove SIGINT base and reestablish contact with the Kovac-Muldoon orbital platform, and in return offers to connect to the radar system to detect Scorched across the region.

Once connected to MODUS, the player gains the ability to locate the Scorchbeast nest, known as Fissure Site Prime. This nest is situated near the site where the Brotherhood of Steel had previously attempted to combat the Scorchbeast menace, ultimately meeting with failure. Guided by MODUS, the player is directed to one of three nuclear silos and launches a missile at the nest. Upon entering the irradiated area, the player discovers a laboratory at the heart of the nest, which had also been discovered by the Brotherhood of Steel. This suggests that the Scorchbeasts might have been artificially created. The missile detonation awakens a formidable Scorchbeast Queen, forcing the player to engage in combat with her. Upon vanquishing the Queen, the collective consciousness of the Scorchbeasts is shattered, and the danger they posed to the wider wasteland is neutralized. Having successfully defeated the Scorchbeasts, the player rejoins the other residents of Vault 76 in their collective efforts to rebuild the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

In 2103, a year following the opening of Vault 76, individuals start to make their way back to Appalachia. Drawn by rumors of safety and hidden treasures within the mountains, these newcomers seek refuge in the region. The Vault 76 Overseer becomes increasingly concerned for their well-being due to the persisting threat of the Scorched and Scorchbeasts in Appalachia. To address this, she directs the surviving Vault 76 residents to establish connections with the new arrivals, all the while working to uncover the origin of these rumors.

Two major factions emerge among the new arrivals: the Settlers, led by Paige; and the returning Raiders, led by Meg. After the player reunites with the Overseer, they then assist the Overseer in mass-producing a vaccine at the defunct Nuka-Cola plant, which is then distributed to the population in the form of Nuka-Cola soft drinks, albeit after having to convince the faction leaders of the severity of the threat. With the Settlers and Raiders protected, the Overseer and Vault 76 resident then turn their attention to the rumors of treasure. According to the Overseer, Vault-Tec University housed a secret area where top executives would meet to discuss Top Secret corporate information. She and the resident travel to Vault-Tec University in Morgantown to learn more. They discover that Vault 79 holds the entirety of the United States' gold reserve, transferred there from Fort Knox for safe-keeping in the event of nuclear war, and is well-protected by a series of security defenses.

The resident must choose between an alliance with the Settlers or the Raiders when venturing into Vault 79 to acquire the gold. After a series of quests related to "assembling a crew", the time comes to raid the vault, wherein it is discovered that remnants of the Secret Service garrison is trapped. After deliberation with the agent in charge, the resident and their crew can agree to save the remaining agents in exchange for 1000 gold bars worth of bullion, inaccessible to the agents, and stuck in the processing room. After acquiring the bars, and lifting the accidental lockdown, the resident can divide the gold however they see fit, either keeping every bar, keeping half and giving the other half to the faction they raided with, or keeping half and giving both factions a quarter. This bullion is to be used to re-establish a gold backed currency all across America, though depending on the player's choices and greed, it could spell immense recession and strife across the region, pitting the Settlers and Raiders against each other in a battle for total conquest, and returning Appalachia to the turmoil it just broke free from.

Several months after people began returning to Appalachia, Elder Maxson has sent The Brotherhood's First Expeditionary Force from New California to Appalachia to not only find out what happened to Paladin Taggerdy's Brotherhood, but to reestablish the Brotherhood of Steel's presence in the region as well. However, despite losing most of the initial group to Raider attacks on the way across the devastated United States, Paladin Rahmani, Scribe Valdez, and Knight Shin make it to Appalachia, and using the fortified ATLAS Observatory as their new base of operations, renaming it Fort Atlas, they begin to rebuild the Brotherhood's presence in the region, all while dealing with gaining the alliance and friendship of the Settlers of Foundation, and the hostility of the Raiders at the Crater, with being supported by the residents of Vault 76 with securing munitions and other resources to help protect everyone in the region from the continued threat of the Scorched and Scorchbeasts.

By the year 2104, things have been going well in the Appalachian Wasteland thanks to the residents of Vault 76 and their continued support of both the Settlers in Foundation, and the Raiders in Crater, but the Brotherhood of Steel First Expeditionary Force that arrived some time ago is still splintered because of hostilities between Paladin Rahmani and Knight Shin over their primary objective, not helped by the continued attacks by Super Mutants and other threats that were released by the Enclave before they were wiped out in the years before Vault 76 opened. The residents have to make a tough choice with deciding what the primary objective for Rahmani's Brotherhood will be from this point onward: Support and protect the people of the Appalachian Wasteland, or continue the Brotherhood's duty of securing all manner of weapons from the pre-War world to ensure they don't fall into the wrong hands. Without contact with Maxson and Lost Hills anymore, the Brotherhood's future may depend on the residents of Vault 76.

After being wiped out by the Scorchbeasts prior to the opening of Vault 76, the Responders have returned to Appalachia and set up their new home base at the Whitespring Resort, also having gained access to a still-working Vertibird to travel beyond Appalachia to help others in need of assistance, such as those people surviving in the ruins of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, now known as "The Pitt" following the Great War. With the help of the residents of Vault 76, the Responders are able to aid the Pittsburgh Union, a group of survivors under attack from a raider group known as the Fanatics, and continue to aid them thanks to the Vault 76 residents to further help rebuild the United States from the ashes of nuclear annihilation.

Come the year 2105, the Responders and residents of Vault 76 are soon called away from Appalachia to a new location that required their assistance like with The Pitt. This time, the location was Atlantic City, New Jersey, where three factions had emerged in the war-torn famous seaside resort city home to many casinos and hotels: The Showmen, the Atlantic City Municipal Government, and the Lombardi Family. Back home in Appalachia, the Russo Family had moved into the old Ingram Mansion that once belonged to the Cult of the Mothman, renovating it to a nightclub.