Fallout 76 Review Roundup

Fallout 76 takes the classic post-apocalyptic series in a wildly new direction. While the series has long been known for its lengthy and detailed single-player campaigns, this one trades all that for an online connected experience. As one of the first to emerge from a Control Vault, your job is to help rebuild society. But can this single-player RPG series make a clean transition to a connected survival game?

Reviews are starting to populate the earth, and so far they're fairly negative. While plenty of them mention a wide variety of technical issues and bugs, the consensus appears to agree that there are more fundamental problems at play. Its gameplay systems are often called half-baked or deserving of an early access title. While Bethesda has stated its intention to treat this as a live game and continue to build on it forever, right now the first explorers are dealing with a rough wasteland. This cold reception appears to have led to quicker-than-usual discount prices.

Read on for more reviews from around the industry, or check GameSpot sister site Metacritic for more reviews. And if you do venture out into the wastes, check out how to get some Power Armor.

• Game: Fallout 76
• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
• Developer / publisher: Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks
• Release date: Out now
• Price: US $60 / £50 / AU $93

GameSpot -- 4/10

"Bethesda has stated it intends to continue supporting the game for a long time, but at launch, Fallout 76 is a poor experience. There are echoes of the series' admirable qualities, but look past that facade, past the cute Vault Boy animations, past the familiar radio tracks, and you'll find no heart--just an inconsequential wasteland doomed to be nuked over and over again." -- Edmond Tran [Full review]

Hooked Gamers -- 7.6/10

"Fallout 76 is Fallout, and it isn't Fallout at the same time. And for all the hype around the multiplayer, both friend and foe, it seems inconsequential most of the time. Just passer-bys on the street more often than not, it's there but it doesn't matter. It's a fun game, but I don't think it's going to be a timeless classic I return to time and time again years from now once I feel I've had enough." -- Johnathan Irwin [Full review]

PC Gamer -- 6/10

"Despite the considerable issues with the PC version, I've still had long stretches of fun with Fallout 76. I really wish PvP had more at stake than lost junk (or at least more willing participants) but the world retains a lot of what I love about Bethesda's previous RPGs with finely crafted environments, enjoyable weapons and crafting, and surprising little scraps of story to uncover and investigate. Like Valley Galleria, though, it doesn't take long to for the shine to fade, the once-fascinating areas to lose their wonder among the mobs of identical enemies I've killed there time and time again." -- Christopher Livingston [Full review]

Games Radar -- 2.5/5

"Remember: as it's an MMO, there's the real possibility that just like Elder Scrolls Online the Fallout 76 of today is going to be very different to the Fallout 76 of next year, so while it's not worth jumping into Appalachia right now, spend some time in your own personal Vault and emerge again when the radioactive dust has settled." -- Zoe Delahunty-Light [Full review]

VideoGamer -- 4/10

"The measures Bethesda has taken to get it online come with their own weight. Out with the NPCs but in comes a server full of people. Out with V.A.T.S. but in with survival elements. Out with the bugs – no, wait, they can stay. The rest has been jumbled around or replaced with something heavier. How funny that in a game built on cuts and compromise, you wind up wishing for even more to be scrapped. Life was lighter down in the vault." -- Josh Wise [Full review]

The Guardian -- 2/5

"Previous Fallout games always had something to say about the post-apocalypse and the human factors that led to it; here, it’s reduced to shooting mutants and picking up rubbish. Even if, in the future, it mutates into something more stable, it will still feel eerily soulless." -- Holly Nielsen [Full review]

USGamer -- 2/5

"Fallout 76 isn't particularly indicative of the best of the modern Fallout games, nor is it an amazing survival game given its competition. It's not the worst game in the world or anything, but it very much just exists. It merely says, "I'm here too," instead of standing out. Fallout 76 in its current state is the game version of the Amphicar Model 770: it sometimes works, but it's still the worst of both worlds." -- Mike Williams [Full review]