Fallout 76 Five Years Later; Here's What Bethesda's Game Offers Now
We used the fifth anniversary of Fallout 76's release to analyze the long and difficult road Bethesda's game has traveled since its debut.
5 years - that's how long it's been since launch Fallout 76. However, it can't be said to have been a period of blissful calm for Bethesda. For those who have managed to forget, we remind that the MMORPG's debut was definitely not good at first.
Sins that the developers have committed during the development of their title were numerous - starting with underdeveloped mechanics through a ton of bugs and ending with poor content (including a total lack of NPCs). All this translated into an abysmal reception of the game, which, after all, with its online feature, was supposed to be a breath of fresh air to the long-standing series.
The road to redemption
Fortunately, the wave of criticism from industry journalists and gamers did not undermine the morale of the developers, who laboriously, update after update, began to improve the game's condition.
The real breakthrough is considered to be 2019, when Bethesda announced the arrival of Nuclear Winter, which is a new battle royale mode, and the rich Wastelanders expansion, finally introducing NPCs to the game, among other things.
Fallout 76 lived to see several more notable additions, including The Pitt expansion, released in 2022 as part of the Expeditions series, which took players on a tour of the ruined Pittsburgh, known from Fallout 3.
Of course, you can't ignore the daily and weekly Atom challenges present in the game, which over time evolved into free seasons, enabling you to earn all sorts of rewards, such as unique outfits, weapon skins, repair items or in-game currency..
All these changes would be for naught if the ever-present glitches were not dealt with. Therefore Bethesda, with the help of other development teams, has almost completely eliminated the problems encountered by players. In addition, Fallout 76 lived to see a number of gameplay improvements, such as the free camera present in the construction mode.
The effort paid off
All this added up together made it so that a long 60 months after release Fallout 76 no longer resembles the criticized game from 2018. Currently, the game is enjoying increasing favor with the community. At the time of writing this post, the title boasts 91,586 reviews on Steam, 72% of which are positive.
Hand in hand with better ratings comes popularity. According to data collected by SteamDB Fallout 76 is played by about 10,000 players every day at its peak, which - considering the game's history and age - is an impressive result.
And while one can already venture to say that the MMORPG has come out on top, Bethesda does not intend to rest on its laurels. The next few months promise to be just as exciting for Fallout 76 players, thanks in part to the Atlantic City expedition, the first part of which (there will be two in total) will be released on December 5.
Time to celebrate
To celebrate this titanic work, Bethesda has invited players to take part in challenges specially organized for the occasion, which will last until November 21 and will bring lucky winners plenty of prizes. That's not all, however, as on the game's official X/Twitter profile, fans of Fallout 76 can submit descriptions of their characters in the game. They have a chance to win small gifts for the most interesting messages.
