Fallout 76 According to Steam Users: Things Got Better
Two days after the debut of Fallout 76 on Steam, a lot of reviews of the game have already appeared. The infamous installment of the Fallout made a bit better impression on Steam users, mainly due to the Wastelanders update, which added NPCs and improved many elements of the game.
- Fallout 76 is getting good reviews after its debut on Steam (67% of the reviews are positive);
- Players praise the changes made with the Wastelanders update, including addition of actual NPCs, technical fixes and much new content;
- Nevertheless, some Steam users still do not recommend Fallout 76: in their opinion, the game should look like this at launch, and the title still has a lot of shortcomings, which does not justify the relatively high price.
On Tuesday, Fallout 76 went to Steam, along with the free Wastelanders update. But did it make sense to wait for the Steam release of the game, which the developers themselves described as "not too good"? Oddly enough, yes. At least that's the opinion of players who got to know the game after April 14 and have a lot to say about it.
At first glance, it would seem that the new Fallout was not received enthusiastically on Steam. Less than 900 reviews were given at the time of writing this news, out of which only 67% were positive. However, there are two points to note. First of all, even this modest result is a success for a production whose average rating on Metacritic barely exceeds 50/100, and even that not on all platforms. Secondly, on day one the situation looked much worse for Bethesda Games. On April 14, the game's reviews were so poor that the product card on Steam had an average of "very negative", which means that less than 20% of the users gave the game a positive score. In this situation, 67% of positive opinions after two days is a huge improvement.
Reviews aside, what exactly do players say about Fallout 76 after its release on Steam? Positive feedback on the platform and Reddit praises mainly the addition of real-life NPCs (including an important character we've heard only on audio tapes so far). There's also a lot of other content (including new quests), thanks to which the game is much more interesting even when playing solo. Many people were also happy to get various dialogue options and noticed the improved technical layer. Graphics have been slightly improved, and the game is better optimized. What's more (and expected), a lot of bugs were fixed.
One thing needs to be said, though: although Wastelanders is a big step forward, it is still not a triumphant comeback in the vein of No Man's Sky. Even some of the positive reviews are not too enthusiastic, and in a few cases users describe Fallout 76 as just a slightly expanded Fallout 4 with expanded online options or just a "decent production". Besides, there is definitely no shortage of negative opinions. Although some of them end with one sentence (often very short) or seem to be written by people who clearly didn't get acquainted with the game after its release on Steam.
However, there are also constructive (or at least longer) reviews. These most often include accusations of forceful microtransactions or the still high price of the 2018 title, which - let's be honest - was anything but a hit even right after launch. Not everyone is overly enthusiastic about the novelties. Yes, they clearly increase the pleasure of the game, but many think that the title should appear in this form on the day of its debut, and not after more than a year and at a slightly reduced price compared to releases of many large productions (those who already own F76 received their copy on Steam for free, but this does not matter much to those just considering buying it now). Besides, the title is still not without bugs, and although most people praise the optimization, not all of them have noticed an improvement compared to the earlier version of the game.
To sum up: Fallout 76 with the new update is much better than before and can provide a lot of fun. But in the end it's still Fallout 76, with all its pros and (mostly) cons. Perhaps this is the beginning of a major change and Bethesda will take the example from the Hello Games, leading the online Fallout to regaining the trust of players just like No Man's Sky did.
