Giving Credit to Bethesda for Fallout 76 Support

The launch of Fallout 76 was a disaster, no matter how you choose to look at it. Even those who have spent dozens, if not hundreds, of hours exploring the games vast open world even agree: the launch of this game was as bad as it has ever been for Bethesda. And media outlets around the globe let the company have it when writing their reviews. Here are just a few excerpts:

IGN’s Fallout 76 Review

In an effort to do everything, Fallout 76 fails to do any of it well enough to form an identity. Its multiplayer mindset robs its quests of all the moral decisionmaking that makes the series great, and all that’s left is a buggy mess of systemic designs that never seems to work together and regularly contradicts itself. It all culminates in an aggravating endgame that’s more busywork than satisfying heroics. Bethesda missed the mark with Fallout 76, in part because it seems like it could never decide what it was aiming for.

Gamespot Fallout 76 Review

Bethesda has stated it intends to continue supporting the game for a long time, but at launch, Fallout 76 is a poor experience. There are echoes of the series’ admirable qualities, but look past that facade, past the cute Vault Boy animations, past the familiar radio tracks, and you’ll find no heart–just an inconsequential wasteland doomed to be nuked over and over again.

So why do I believe Bethesda deserves credit? Despite all the issues, despite all the negative press, hateful comments online, and probably much worse, the company continues to stick with those that made the plunge, and are sending out updates to the game as fast as they can. And from personal experience, the game is improving.

#Fallout76 continues to evolve, and with that, so does our Inside the Vault series. Newest entry is live and we're already excited about next week's post. https://t.co/5kT9MGEXKr pic.twitter.com/0lRKd0sjMq

— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) January 17, 2019

Bethesda seems to be ready to support this game for the long haul, as evidence via the Inside the Vault series which you can read over on their website. Here are the first two paragraphs of this weeks publication:

So far this week we’ve closed out over 150 bugs and we’ve got more fixes on the way. Thank you so much for your vigilant reporting of issues, providing feedback and giving us your suggestions.

We want to have conversations with you – whether that’s about patches, new content or things you want to know about. We’re working on sharing as many details with you as possible, and we’re excited to share new details and clues on updates and additions to the game in the coming weeks.

Bethesda made a big misstep releasing Fallout 76 when they did, and we can all agree that the game could have used a few more months of polishing. But that is all behind us now, and we can choose to look forward to what Fallout 76 can become, or backwards at the various missteps they made early on.

I’m looking forward, and I hope you will too!