With the first day of the Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. behind us, fans seem both tenacious and trepid as they wait to see how Bethesda will keep them playing past the 40-hour main storyline. In a recent letter to the community, Bethesda Game Studios acknowledged tentative fans and acknowledged that Fallout 76 is a game that will need attentive support for years to come.
You can find the link to the letter here, or read it below.
As someone who’s played the game before, I realize that fans of the series, and even newcomers to Fallout, will devour this campaign and may quickly find themselves hungry for content a month or two after the November 14 release date.
Bethesda has realized that too claiming that players define what this game will be. They pose the hypothetical question “what, exactly, is [Fallout 76]?” Their response: “that’s up to you.”
There seem to be a lot of systems in the game designed to keep you playing long after you’ve completed the Overseer’s campaign. There are collectible costumes to unlock at Camden Park, rare pieces of armor and weapon blueprints to earn through vendors, and of course, C.A.M.P.S.
As of right now, it seems like a lot of the post-story content will revolve around players roleplaying as innkeepers, weapons dealers, or just living out their dream of being a tuba player in a four-piece band. Fallout fans might have trouble with the fact that this game has no “end.” In previous games, you could realize the consequences of your decisions throughout the story and your ending would reflect them. Then you could start another character and do it completely differently. In Fallout 76 though, there doesn’t seem to be an end wherein players can say “I feel like I’ve completed the game.”
Though that’s what games are becoming these days.
Bethesda, still unsure of what players will make of their game, admit they will be continuing to support the game long after launch. They contrast Fallout 76 with other titles in their repertoire which are complete after they get published.
“We all know with the scale of our games, and the systems we let you use, that unforeseen bugs and issues always come up. Given what we’re doing with 76, we know we’re opening everyone up to all new spectacular issues none of us have encountered. Some we’re aware of, such as areas where performance needs to improve with lots of players. Others, we surely don’t.”
You can read our preview of Fallout 76 here ahead of the November 14 release date.