Bethesda is adding the first Fallout 76 raid to the online shooter this August. This raid joins the Fallout 76 battle royale mode, called Nuclear Winter, and the upcoming Fallout 76 Wastelanders expansion, which adds NPCs to the game, in fleshing out Bethesda’s lackluster foray into live-service gaming.
Bethesda initially revealed Fallout 76 in May 2o18, and the game has been surrounded by skepticism and controversy since then. Players and critics alike were concerned about Fallout 76 even before launch, and players review-bombed Fallout 76 when the game’s servers went online. The game had a rough launch, as it was filled with bugs and glitches and felt generally empty without Fallout series RPG staples like NPCs and dialogue trees. That led to the game being Bethesda’s worst-reviewed in 12 years, and many called it the most disappointing game of 2018. Bethesda sought to turn the game around with the announcement of Wastelanders at E3 2019, and raids are also a part of the game’s roadmap of coming content.
Bethesda detailed Fallout 76’s first raid, which takes place in Vault 94, in a discussion panel at QuakeCon. According to Bethesda, the Vault 94 raid is puzzle-based, and all Fallout 76 raids will have three difficulty levels. The first level will still be difficult, Bethesda said, but is a good way to get a hang of the vault’s challenges. The second difficulty level adds a timer to the entire raid, on top of the timers already active on each section of the raid. Each vault will be designed for four players, but players have the option of attempting to take on the raids solo or with teams of less than four. Bethesda noted that the raid will be a good location to obtain legendary gear and said players who do not complete the entire raid will still be rewarded. Bethesda showed two raid-exclusive armor sets: a suit of power armor and another set of armor, both rusty and covered in ferns. According to the panelists, equipping the power armor set will give players a special set bonus.
The Vault 94 raid will come to the game on August 20, but Bethesda also announced another raid coming to the game. The panelists didn’t give many details on the raid beyond the announcement of its existence, but said they want to wait long enough after the launch of Vault 94 to be able to implement player feedback for the new raid.
Bethesda also gave players some extra details about Fallout 76 Wastelanders and announced a new map coming to the Nuclear Winter battle royale mode. The new Nuclear Winter map will take players to the urban setting of Morgantown - which will bring new monsters, mutations and locations to the mode - and will come to Fallout 76 in September. According to Bethesda, the dialogue system added to the game in Wastelanders will be more like Fallout 3 than Fallout 4, meaning players will have a list of options to chose from rather than a four-choice dialogue wheel. Wastelanders will bring a reputation system to the game, and characters’ reputation and SPECIAL attributes will give them different dialogue options. Bethesda said Wastelanders is being targeted for a November 2019 launch.
Raids, NPCs and new modes could do a lot to improve the Fallout 76 experience - though it still remains to be seen if Wastelanders and the Vault 94 raid will be of the quality players are hoping for. Many players would argue that these features should have been in the game since launch, but their inclusion may be appreciated by Fallout 76 players, nonetheless.
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Source: Bethesda
