PS4, Xbox One, PC / stuff.tv/Fallout76
The latest entry in Bethesda’s open-world RPG still sports a bit of a dated, detail-starved visual presentation – especially compared to polygon-pushing pioneers like God of War and Red Dead Redemption 2. But the pretty paint-job does a decent job of overshadowing this game’s graphical shortcomings.
While the West Virginian scenery might put you in the mood to pick apples, that perky sentiment will be severely crushed the first time you come across a group of folks who apparently woke up on the wrong side of the apocalypse. A backstory-centric narrative approach, combined with the fact that your character is part of a group of recently emerged vault-dwellers tasked with reclaiming the post-war world, really sells the story.
Sadly though, this approach also inherently means the game’s massive map is devoid of human life – aside from other online players – to interact with. There’s certainly no shortage of quests to tackle, but they’re typically tied to deceased humans or robots, and are generally found in terminals, notes, holotapes, letters and other objects you can’t have a conversation with.
Many of these quests are also of the ‘fetch’ variety. There are some absorbing missions to take on and, more so, engaging stories to uncover about the world that once was; but much of it feels like the sort of lore-expanding side content that would support a meatier main plot.