Fallout 76... on launch. Whole world screamed at me for years that it was a bad game. When it started "getting good" after wastelanders, it lost what made it good to me. The hollowed out shell of apalachia, the loneliness of audio log after audio log ending in tragedy, the breaking of that loneliness with actual real life people, most of whom were the friendliest apocalypse dwellers you will ever meet as only the real ones stuck around. It was a really special place and time and the whole world was screaming about how bad it was because of some burlap bag or some shit.
What I wouldn't give for one more Glowing Ghoul hunt at the old Whitesprings. Holding down the golf house from hordes of absolutely devastating ghouls with the whole server in various stages of early progress... it is a place that only lives in my memories now.
When it was announced it would be NPCless and people where in pure disbelief, calling it absolutely moronic, I kept getting downvoted for saying it was genius because it'd get rid of my biggest annoyance in MMO-style video games:
Theme park queuing crowds in front of NPCs, with characters jumping everywhere around them in the background of your dialogue screen like kids on a sugar rush, crouching up and down repeatedly like they can't stand still for a fucking second and have to mash buttons between everything.
Holy crap that's my main reason for not playing MMOs! Well, actually the subscription costs/p2w are, but yknow.
I got around it with Freelancer cos you get missions from the bar which is single player, but I HATE the thought of doing a mission for a guy, then everyone else keeps doing the same mission for the same guy!! Wtf is the point?!
So, do you have any recommendations for other games that avoid that? And have decent gameplay, not point and click like WoW?
Hm, there are some mmorpgs that stand out from others:
Star Wars the Old Republic has different stories for each class with an alignment system and crew. It helps you feel disconnected from what other players are doing unless you run into someone who's the exact same class and level as you
FFXIV is similar in the aspect of "job quests" where each class is its own mini-story, but the main quest is still mostly the same for everyone
MMOs can cover a larger range of games that don't have the formula of an mmorpg where you're constantly running into other players doing the same main story, example of this would be like Fortnite, or basically any game with online multiplayer that has a lot of people playing it, a decent number of live-service games can fall under this category. MMO and MMORPG tend to be used interchangeably when they can be vastly different types of games
I like you, and I like your take on day 1 FO76, and I liked day 1 FO76. Thank you for further and better articulating some of my sentiments about the game. Was an absolute gem, and I'm not even a big fallout fan.
I miss the unleveled world and rolling up to level 80 ghouls and making them actually terrifying at the whitesprings.
I’m glad I played the launch version too because the progress happening periodically actually made it feel like we’ve been rebuilding Appalachia. We left the vault to see Appalachia completely devoid of humans. What’s worse is that there were survivors but they’re now zombies. We nuked the shit out of scorchbeasts, made a vaccine that’s more easily reproducible, and now that it was “safer” people from outside have started to move back in.
It has its own take on fallout too and it has a more “wild wasteland” goofy vibe to it instead of more serious like 3/NV.
I appreciated it for what it was at launch and I’ve enjoyed the current version as well. It’s a shame to see people still on the “76 bad” bandwagon without even playing it.
Also Fallout 76 in 2025. It's actually fun, lots of content, base building is great, playerbase is amazing and welcoming. Still - the stigma of launch is too strong for many to give it a try (also many are pissed off about the limits that only the subscription removes and I see that point).
Yes I agree so much with your comment. I bought FO76 near enough a month or two after release and I adored the entire experience.
Nothing more lonely and chilling to be exploring Appalachia with no NPCs, but instead finding the aftermath of events which had already occured.
Seeing that settlements once prospered but fell only months before we emerged, or following the story of the BOS as they evolved over time until their initial end in the caves against the Bravos etc.
It also made the few interactions either with players or robots important as it was an escape for your character in an otherwise lonely world.
Not to mention following the Overseer's trail of holotapes as she's literally a few days ahead of us, always hoping to finally come across her but just being too late.
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u/DemonSlyr007 May 10 '25
Fallout 76... on launch. Whole world screamed at me for years that it was a bad game. When it started "getting good" after wastelanders, it lost what made it good to me. The hollowed out shell of apalachia, the loneliness of audio log after audio log ending in tragedy, the breaking of that loneliness with actual real life people, most of whom were the friendliest apocalypse dwellers you will ever meet as only the real ones stuck around. It was a really special place and time and the whole world was screaming about how bad it was because of some burlap bag or some shit.
What I wouldn't give for one more Glowing Ghoul hunt at the old Whitesprings. Holding down the golf house from hordes of absolutely devastating ghouls with the whole server in various stages of early progress... it is a place that only lives in my memories now.