There are games that do not make their debut on a very good footing , and if not that they tell Cyberpunk 2077 or No Man’s Sky. Yes, or also Fallout 76. It usually happens with overly ambitious productions, before which it is difficult to be prepared for possible mistakes with its launch on the market. Many variables to take into account, also coupled with “growing” games that do not get their full potential from the start .
Hello Games took two long years to find its redemption based on free content that expanded the experience; CD Projekt RED has just released patch 1.2 of “the biggest disappointment of 2020”; and Bethesda is still working on polishing and offering more incentives on its first online Fallout . And the truth is that he is on the right track, with a hopeful plan for 2021 of which we tested a preview.
CAMP and SPECIAL become more versatile
Among the many problems that I saw with Fallout 76 in its debut last November 2018, beyond experiencing an improvement in performance and suffering from all kinds of bugs , there was one that threw me back a lot and it was nothing other than the CAMP . This feature, already seen in Fallout 4 2015, was exploited in this online game, but it suffered from various inconveniences in its first months of life, such as the fact that our belongings could be stolen from the trunk.
This unconsciously caused me not to put too much effort into building my own settlement, until about a few days ago. The reason is not only how much the CAMP creation system has improved over the years, but also because of one of the updates that we will receive this spring: the CAMP spaces . And what exactly does it consist of? Well, neither more nor less than the possibility of saving more than one CAMP in the profile.
Fallout 76 had this limitation at launch, allowing us to build a single CAMP to place it in a predetermined place to our liking. If we moved it, everything was saved, but it disappeared from there, of course. This, logically, will not happen when this first big update of the new roadmap is active for 2021, allowing us to keep multiple locations for different CAMPs of our own creation and fast travel to all of them.
There will only be one slight drawback: only one CAMP can be active at a time . But this will not be a real problem, since from a new side menu of the map we can activate any with a simple click, with which we can travel for free and fast between those that we have placed in different points of Appalachia. And this gives it a lot of dynamism when traveling through this vast wasteland. If we place them in key points, we do not spend badges. And another important detail: each CAMP can be different and with a special theme , because not all places offer the same type of inspiration.
Another addition that will make the games in Fallout 76 more versatile has to do with the most characteristic acronym of the saga: SPECIAL . Because yes, now we can save different configurations, in case we want to create a character more focused on melee, another master of hacking or an all-rounder.
Each configuration can be saved from a special position that will arrive through this update. Bethesda has made it clear that this position that looks like a mini-kiosk will be found in multiple areas of Appalachia, such as train stations, and we can also create it from our own CAMP as soon as we reach level 25 to unlock its blueprint to be able to manufacture it .
Once we set ourselves up in front of that machine, we can reset the SPECIAL points and place the cards at will, according to the type of character we want. Now, the cards will be global in all configurations, so if we destroy one, it will affect the rest of the ones we have created.
It is nothing that has not been seen in other games focused on multiplayer that have been polished and expanded over the years, as happened with the first The Division, which took a while to offer these kinds of improvements, reaching its zenith with Stamina, but it’s certainly another very welcome point in Fallout 76 .
Fallout 76 will have many seasons in 2021
There are minor additions that the most die-hard fans will appreciate and that I have been able to experience within the access to the Fallout 76 PTS on PC, thanks to an invitation from Bethesda, such as having exhibitors for the CAMP from which to proudly display unique objects or special magazines , but it is clear that this step in spring is the beginning of something much bigger that will take shape throughout each season , passing through summer, autumn and winter.
The turning point, in any case, came with the Wastelanders expansion, almost a year ago, with the inclusion of NPCs in the traditional Fallout line . Recall that in its debut in 2018, there were many tapes and documents from which to follow the story, apart from typical robots of the saga. And it was not the same, of course. With Wastelanders people went back to West Virginia and the issue got hotter with Steel Dawn. And this story will continue its course this summer with season 5, ruthlessly deciding the fate of the Brotherhood of Steel.
In my case, I have to catch up, not having been a constant player in Fallout 76 since its launch, leaving it very aside after a few weeks, returning sporadically to Appalachia to see each of the changes or improvements that have gone. experimenting, but far above. In part, also because of how its performance on “old” consoles put me off .
Luckily, with the excuse of all this content that is to arrive in 2021, I resumed my Xbox One game … from Xbox Series X , taking advantage of the fact that a couple of weeks ago Microsoft announced the new batch of FPS Boost, among which you will find this Bethesda game to play at 60 fps. That for this title you have to reduce the resolution (with the rescaling it is not that I notice it much, really), is a lesser evil, especially thanks to another of the advantages of the new Xbox consoles, its SSD , compared to the old one HDD for PS4 and Xbox One.
Because now fast travel is fast , just a few seconds, which inevitably makes moving around Appalachia more pleasant if we have many active missions, as is my case. Now I will be able to advance more eagerly in the plot of the Brotherhood of Steel, trying to convince my colleagues to return to the game. Because playing alone is not the same, of course.
If Bethesda manages to regain the interest of the people (for my part, replaying it from Xbox Series X and knowing everything that is to come, has made me return to it with more enthusiasm), perhaps it will be able to reverse the situation and achieve something similar to Hello Games with its No Man’s Sky . Also, let’s not forget, they are now backed by Microsoft as part of Xbox Game Studios. And that helps a lot.
