- Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
- Release Date: Apr 16, 2020
- Also On: PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Jul 30, 2020The Fallout 76 Wastelanders update might be the salvation of the game. The free expansion finally adds NPCs to the world and adds a lot of new content. Bethesda also improved the graphics, in particular the lighting system. It's still not technically perfect however and the new additions come with their own problems. Still, the Wastelanders update is a giant leap for Fallout 76.
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Apr 29, 2020In many ways, it's Fallout 76's initial foundation that so severely holds it back from its most engaging content to date. Wastelanders is a clear return to more traditional and captivating Fallout stories, with characters and quests that give you room to role-play in a way the original quests lacked. But they still require you to dedicate a lot of time to survival mechanics that don't reward your effort, and its frequent combat remains monotonous and uninteresting. Wastelanders introduces some of the best Fallout sequences in recent years, but you'll have to dig through a lot of Fallout 76's enduring issues to experience them.
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Apr 26, 2020Fallout 76: Wastelanders is all Fallout fans wanted for this game. NPCs, dialogues and factions. What else do you want more?
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May 18, 2020So, the issues I had were just minor nuisances really. But the landscape is gorgeous despite the horrors that can be found within, the soundtrack is amazing, and the stories of those inhabitants that have survived, gives the wasteland and sense of hope. The main story quests are generally enjoyable and there was the feeling that they all had a purpose. There is still a grinding element to the side quests though, as you try and level up, but the goal of finding that treasure pushes you towards the end zone.
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Apr 26, 2020Even if the outdated substructure has its limits, it must still be possible to make the game less cumbersome, imprecise and uneven.
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Apr 26, 2020I’m having a surprising amount of fun with Wastelanders. This is precisely the pivot I hoped Bethesda would make—and one I feared they couldn’t (or wouldn’t).
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Apr 26, 2020On it's own Fallout 76: Wastelanders is an excellent expansion, but it doesn't completely amend the problems that plague Fallout 76, or subvert the controversy that surrounds it. What it does do is provide a path forward that may eventually lead to Fallout 76 becoming a genuinely good game.
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Apr 26, 2020Wastelanders won't convince anyone who thought Fallout 76 was irredeemable to begin to believe otherwise, it's simply not enough of a marked improvement to wholesale change many people's minds. For those that left a sliver of a chance for redemption, however, it's one small, wobbly step in the right direction.
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May 7, 2020Fallout 76: Wastelanders is a clear improvement on Fallout 76, with NPC's actually making West Virginia feel like it's worth exploring and doing things in for the first time since the game was released. The new quests are entertaining and engaging, featuring characters that are genuinely enjoyable to interact with and will put a smile on your face. Sadly, these are still too far apart and the core problems that held Fallout 76 back remain, particularly as a new character has to play the interminably dull and lifeless original content just to experience what was brought in with Wastelanders. It also doesn't help that this is riddled with bugs and the game has a number of issues with the mechanics that are only fixed by microtransactions and a subscription service.
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May 1, 2020Despite the addition of NPCs and a load of new content, Fallout 76: Wastelanders is still just a painfully average Fallout game. That's not to say that things aren't better for the update, because the game at least feels like it's moving in the right direction, but it's building on top of the still rickety foundations of the original release. Ironically, things might be simpler if they simply nuked the game and started again, but you've got to respect the hussle.
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| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
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Apr 26, 2020Fallout 76 is still far from perfect but the main thing about the Wastelanders DLC isn’t that it makes things more fun or more interesting, and it certainly doesn’t fix much in terms of mechanics, it’s that it shows Bethesda is really trying. Wastelanders is the absolute antithesis of what launched which should underline how much work has gone into designing, making and implementing an entirely new game. I don’t know if we’ll ever reach a ‘remember when Fallout 76 wasn’t good’ point, but it’s clearly climbing in the right direction.
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Apr 26, 2020I don’t know if droves follow it to Appalachia. But for hardy and forgiving treasure seekers, while there might not be much gold in them thar hills, there’s at least company now.
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Apr 26, 2020Perhaps the most notable thing about the expansion is that it’s completely free. It might not be worth jumping in for newcomers, but if you’ve already played Fallout 76, Wastelanders is a good excuse to return. Maybe it’s the many weeks stuck indoors talking, but I’ve found it soothing to wander around the wasteland, going for walks alongside ruined highways or alongside toxic rivers while listening to The Beach Boys and Billie Holiday. I’ve even stopped using fast travel so I can make those walks last a bit longer. Many of Fallout 76’s big problems still persist after this update — but at least now it’s a little less lonely.
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Apr 30, 2020Prior to Wastelanders, Fallout 76 didn't have anything to say about that vision. If anything it fetishized it, just as it fetishized the worst fears of the Cold War world by having players play nuclear tag. Wastelanders brings the classic Fallout lesson to the hills and hollows of Appalachia: Global nuclear war didn’t end civilization and it didn’t stop the old fights. It only stripped away the pretense.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 53 out of 110
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Mixed: 20 out of 110
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Negative: 37 out of 110
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Jun 1, 2020
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Apr 27, 2020want to know the difference between a trash can and this game?
the difference is that you can still recycle what's inside...this game don't -
Jun 27, 2020