I signed up and played 76 after the first release—you know, the one with only like 3 humans.
It was my favorite experience. Empty, beautiful, peaceful and very exciting. The ambient music is my favorite of the whole series and it really set the tone.
I liked the feeling that you and a few other people online were the only real human survivors and the bots and mutants were the only things left in the world.
That changed after people complained… I quit after some changes were made. I logged in recently and now it’s full of generic NPCs and bullet sponge enemies. Not for me anymore.
I guess I’ll never be able to go back to that feeling right after release. It really was something else.
Anybody else play the game right after it was released?
The world space, the environment, and the look of the whole map is, in my opinion, one of the best in the series. But everything else just feels pretty forgettable. One of my main gripes would probably be the whole, this a multiplayer game but it honestly does not feel like one. You could hop on for an afternoon and still miss others.
I played it for just a few hours. I recall that I stopped after killing a few roaches as part of a quest, but I stopped and thought to myself, “Wait… why am I doing this? What’s my goal?”. I was over an hour in and honestly couldn’t tell you, so I dropped it. Then later they made it free to play, so that was money well spent on my part.
Yes, the initial release of Fallout 76 was surprisingly competent in terms of storytelling and worldbuilding.
They did a lot with the premise of no living human beings. It forced them to be creative and resulted in one of the best worlds Bethesda has ever made.
Just like No Man’s Sky, the developers lost sight of the initial point of their project. The game is probably a lot better for some, but for me, all of the charm is gone. Fallout 76 wasn’t a very tolerable game to begin with, so now that it’s a generic GaaS grindy nightmare? No thanks.
Agreed. I also liked No Man’s Sky in the beginning, aside from the performance issues.
The atmosphere made you feel isolated in a universe to explore—just you and your ship.
Then they added base building so you could haul your hoarded shit back to your cubby hole.
Why tho, there was actually no content in the beginning, I feel yall are just being nostalgic
It aimed for a very specific feeling. There was a sense of discovery and a dreading sense of isolation. It made you sit alone with your thoughts in between bouts of awe and wonder. Death was cruel and could be frequent, and the universe had nebulous rules which were never made entirely clear to the player. And why would it? You’re in the mind of a dying machine.
Current NMS is an excellent space sandbox minecraft-lite, but the experience of meeting players ten minutes into a new game, and a focus on community events and progression strips away that feeling of isolation.
It’s mostly fine. The game has a much broader appeal to match its marketing budget. The game was just obviously aiming at a much more niche audience initially.
