Fallout 76 is a 2018 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is part of the Fallout series and a prequel to earlier games in the series. Set in the year 2102, players control a person living in Vault 76 who must leave the vault and explore the broken and ruined open world of Appalachia. The player's goal is to help rebuild the region and discover the cause of a mysterious plague that killed its people.
Fallout 76 is the first multiplayer game created by Bethesda Game Studios. Development began in 2013 and included work with BattleCry Studios. The game uses a version of Bethesda's Creation Engine, which was adapted to support multiplayer gameplay and create a more detailed world than in earlier games. The development process was difficult, with a tight work schedule and many staff members leaving the project. Some problems in the game were not fixed during testing.
Fallout 76 was released in 2018 and received mixed reviews. Critics pointed out technical problems, unclear design, and a lack of human characters that players could interact with. Bethesda made updates and changes after release, but these were also criticized. In October 2019, a premium subscription service called Fallout 1st was added to the game. A major update called Wastelanders, which introduced human characters, was released in April 2020 and received better reviews. The game faced controversy over the quality of its physical copies and was noted for its poor initial reception. By the end of 2018, the game sold 1.4 million copies. Player numbers grew over time, reaching a peak in 2024 after the release of Amazon Prime's television series Fallout. During the Burning Springs update, Cooper Howard, known as The Ghoul from the TV show, was added to the game to give players new tasks as a bounty hunter.
Gameplay
Fallout 76 is an action role-playing game that players can experience from a first-person or third-person view. Set in the Appalachian region of West Virginia, the game follows a character who leaves a fallout shelter 25 years after a nuclear war destroyed much of the United States. The game is played online and uses special servers. Players can play alone, but they are encouraged to work with others to complete quests. Players can also trade items and fight enemies. Private servers are only available with a monthly membership called Fallout 1st.
The game has an open world map that players can explore freely. The map includes real locations from West Virginia, such as the cities of Charleston and Morgantown, as well as landmarks like The Greenbrier resort and New River Gorge Bridge. Enemies in the game include raiders, mutated animals, and ghouls. Some enemies are based on West Virginia folklore, like the Mothman and the Flatwoods monster. Players use a device called the Pip-Boy, which acts as a menu to check items, character stats, quests, and the map. The Pip-Boy also allows players to fast travel to places they have already discovered and listen to radio broadcasts. The game includes many weapons, such as guns, energy weapons, melee weapons, and explosives. During combat, players can use a feature called V.A.T.S., which shows the chance of hitting an enemy. Unlike older games, V.A.T.S. does not pause the game but shows information in real time.
Players earn experience points by completing quests, defeating enemies, and crafting items. When players earn enough experience, they level up. Each level allows players to improve one of seven attributes: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. These attributes, called S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, affect how the character performs in the game. For example, strength determines how many items the character can carry and the power of melee attacks. Players can use perk cards, which are permanent upgrades, based on their S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats. Perk cards can be changed at any time.
A key part of the game is building and defending bases. At the start, players receive a tool called the Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform (C.A.M.P.), which turns raw materials into base structures. C.A.M.P. bases can be placed anywhere on the map and moved at any time. At a base, players can craft weapons, armor, and upgrades. Enemies can attack bases, but players can protect them with turrets and traps. If a player joins a server that already has a base in their chosen location, their base will be removed and replaced in a new spot.
Fallout 76 uses a currency called atoms, which players can use to buy items in the Atomic Shop. Atoms can be earned by completing in-game challenges, such as crafting armor or leveling up, or by spending real money. The Atomic Shop sells cosmetic items like outfits and short character gestures called emotes.
Premise
Fallout 76 is a story that happens before other Fallout games. It is set in a different version of history and takes place in the year 2102, 25 years after a nuclear war that destroyed Earth. The player character lives in Vault 76, a shelter built in West Virginia to protect some of America’s smartest people. On "Reclamation Day," the player leaves the Vault as part of a plan to help rebuild the Wasteland.
25 years after the Great War, Vault 76 opens, and its residents are asked to help repopulate the Wasteland. Soon after leaving the Vault, the player is contacted by the Vault Overseer. She explains that Vault 76 was given a secret mission: to secure nuclear weapons stored in three missile silos in Appalachia—Site Alpha, Site Bravo, and Site Charlie. The player is told to contact the Responders, a group of emergency workers who tried to help people in Appalachia during the war. However, the Responders left the area after being attacked by the Scorched.
Further investigation shows that the Scorched are humans infected by the "Scorched Plague," which is controlled by Scorchbeasts—large, mutated bats that came into contact with a bioweapon from the Enclave. This connection allows one Scorchbeast to become a Queen, growing much larger and leading the infected humans and animals through a shared mind.
To stop the threat, the player decides to find a nuclear weapon and destroy a Scorchbeast nest. They search for clues in bunkers built by survivalists called the Free States. The player builds a radar system to detect the Scorched but finds it has a limited range. To improve the signal, the player works with Rose, a robot trying to help local Raider gangs, and studies research from the Brotherhood of Steel about the Scorchbeast. The player also hacks into a government network, drawing the attention of the Enclave, a group of former government leaders led by MODUS, an artificial intelligence in a secure bunker. MODUS asks the player to help connect computer networks across Appalachia in exchange for help detecting the Scorched.
After connecting with MODUS, the player locates the Scorchbeast nest, called Fissure Site Prime, near where the Brotherhood of Steel had previously failed to stop the Scorchbeast. With MODUS’s guidance, the player launches a missile at the nest. Inside the nest, they find a laboratory, suggesting the Scorchbeasts may have been created artificially. The missile awakens the Scorchbeast Queen, forcing the player to fight her. After defeating the Queen, the Scorchbeasts lose their shared mind, and the threat to the Wasteland is removed. The player then joins others from Vault 76 to rebuild the area.
In 2103, one year after Vault 76 opened, people begin returning to Appalachia, drawn by rumors of safety and hidden treasures. The Vault Overseer worries about the ongoing threat of the Scorched and Scorchbeasts and asks Vault 76 residents to help new arrivals. Two groups form among the newcomers: the Settlers, led by Paige, and the returning Raiders, led by Meg. The Overseer and the player work to create a vaccine at a Nuka-Cola plant and distribute it as soft drinks to protect both groups. They then investigate rumors of treasure at Vault-Tec University, where they learn that Vault 79 holds the United States’ gold reserve, protected by strong defenses.
The player must choose to ally with the Settlers or Raiders to enter Vault 79. After completing quests to gather a team, the player finds trapped Secret Service agents and agrees to save them in exchange for gold bars. The player can keep all the gold, split it between the chosen faction, or share it with both. This gold will be used to restart a gold-backed currency in America, but the player’s choices may cause conflict between the Settlers and Raiders.
By 2104, life in Appalachia has improved due to the efforts of Vault 76 residents. However, challenges remain as the Brotherhood of Steel, led by Elder Maxson, sends a group from New California to investigate the region and rebuild their presence. They face Raider attacks but eventually establish a base at Fort Atlas. With help from Vault 76 residents, they work to protect the area from the Scorched and Scorchbeasts.
Development
The origins of Fallout 76 began in 2013. While working on Fallout 4, Bethesda Game Studios started planning what a multiplayer game might look like. These ideas were too large, so they were put aside to focus on the single-player story. Around this time, Jason Hasenbuhler from BattleCry Studios in Austin, Texas, met with Todd Howard, an executive producer at Bethesda. Hasenbuhler mentioned that some BattleCry developers had experience making large multiplayer games, like Star Wars Galaxies, and asked Howard if they could work on a Fallout multiplayer game using the ideas. After Fallout 4 was released in November 2015, Bethesda approved the project. They were already working on downloadable content for Fallout 4 and early plans for Starfield, and they believed a Fallout multiplayer game would help fill time between major projects. BattleCry had paused their free-to-play game, BattleCry, and agreed to work on Fallout 76.
Bethesda gave BattleCry access to the Creation Engine, a game engine used only in single-player games. This engine was difficult to use because it still used old code from a 2002 game, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Parts of the map not currently being played would not load. BattleCry believed the best way to fix this was to use multiplayer code from older Quake games. Meanwhile, a small team at Bethesda’s Rockville, Maryland, studio brainstormed the game’s setting. They decided the map needed to be larger to support multiple players and chose the Appalachian region of West Virginia. Previous Fallout games were set in East Coast cities, so the team wanted to explore a rural area that might have survived nuclear war. This meant forests and mutated plants and animals would be part of the game.
Fallout 76 takes place 25 years after the Great War. This time frame influenced the game’s design, including the decision not to include human NPCs (non-player characters). A behind-the-scenes documentary explained two reasons: from a story perspective, Bethesda believed it would take longer than 25 years for hostile groups to form, and from a gameplay perspective, they wanted players to know other humans were real players, not NPCs. To replace human enemies, they created a new type of ghoul enemy that could use weapons. In a 2022 article, anonymous developers said most BattleCry employees disliked the decision to exclude NPCs, but Todd Howard insisted on it until after the game launched. Bethesda believed updating the engine for multiplayer would take too long, so they used text-based storage devices and environmental storytelling to share the story.
Developers interviewed in the article described Fallout 76’s development as troubled. One said, “No one wanted to be on that project because it ate people. It destroyed people… The amount of people who left the project was very high.” To address high turnover, some developers from Starfield and Redfall were moved to Fallout 76. One reason for the problems was unclear leadership. Some BattleCry employees thought Todd Howard was in charge, but he was actually working on Starfield. Howard occasionally visited BattleCry, but his involvement was seen as insufficient. One developer said Howard rejected new ideas, while another claimed he focused too much on making the game bigger without considering how it would work.
Bethesda did not provide enough information about key details, such as the maximum number of players per server or how to handle griefing (intentional harm to other players). Developers also mentioned resentment from Bethesda’s Rockville studio toward BattleCry, especially because Fallout 76 was designed as a live service game (a game that continues to update and generate revenue after release). Fallout Shelter, a free-to-play game, had earned over $100 million, so Bethesda prioritized games that could keep making money. A designer named Emil Pagliarulo from Rockville avoided working on Fallout 76 and refused to engage with BattleCry. Some Rockville employees were upset about working on a multiplayer game after joining a studio known for single-player games. A developer said, “Bethesda showed a lack of respect for people working on things they considered theirs.”
Game testers also shared difficult experiences. They faced long work hours, called “crunch,” which affected their mental health. Testers were often forced to work weekends, and those who complained were more likely to be hired full-time instead of working as contractors. When these issues were reported to ZeniMax Media, the parent company, they were ignored or denied. Testers said their breaks were timed, and some were followed by “chronic snitches” (employees who reported others).
Nearly every version of Fallout 76 during development had glitches, many caused by the Creation Engine. One developer joked, “The whole game had glitches.” The engine was not well optimized, and updating it could break the game. Testers were not allowed to report problems directly to developers but had to go through the quality assurance team, which delayed fixing major issues for months. Developers expected delays, but Bethesda and BattleCry stuck to strict schedules and did not change deadlines.
Release
Fallout 76 was announced on May 30, 2018. Before the announcement, a 24-hour live stream on Twitch showed a Vault Boy bobblehead toy next to a monitor with a "Please Stand By" test pattern screen, a well-known image from the series. The stream was viewed by over two million people, with more than 100,000 watching at the same time.
Details about the game were shared by Bethesda's Executive Producer, Todd Howard, during a press conference at E3 2018 on June 10, 2018. He said the game would release on November 14, 2018. Since this was Bethesda Game Studios' first fully online game, Howard confirmed an open beta phase would begin on October 23, 2018, for Xbox One, and October 30, 2018, for PlayStation 4 and PC.
After the announcement that Fallout 76 would only include multiplayer, fans created a petition asking for a single-player mode. The petition received thousands of signatures within one day. Following the game's release, interest in visiting West Virginia increased. The website "West Virginia Explorer" reported a 15-fold increase in visitors to the site after the announcement. Camden Park amusement park also noted more people were interested in buying merchandise.
A teaser trailer shown at E3 2018 included a cover of John Denver's song "Take Me Home, Country Roads." Fans expressed interest in the song, leading Bethesda to plan its release on digital music services. All proceeds from the song would be donated to Habitat for Humanity, guaranteeing at least $100,000. In Australia, a free Fallout 76 vinyl with the song was included in the December 2018 issue of Stack magazine, available at JB Hi-Fi.
After Fallout 76 launched, Bethesda continued to support the game by improving its design, fixing technical issues, and banning players who cheated. However, some of the publisher's decisions to make these changes caused frustration and criticism from players and gaming outlets.
In December 2018, players criticized the prices of in-game cosmetics, especially holiday-themed items. Eurogamer noted that a Santa Claus outfit and a large sign cost 20 and 14 Atoms (in-game currency), respectively. Players argued that these prices could buy Fallout 4's season pass with all add-ons. In 2019, the game introduced items to manage inventory and improve weapons, which could be bought with Atoms. This change drew criticism, as players felt it favored those who spent real money on Atoms instead of earning them through gameplay. Additional items that provided gameplay advantages and were sold with Atoms also faced similar complaints. Polygon noted that the in-game store had "slowly warped over time," as it initially only sold cosmetic items.
Soon after the game's release, Bethesda banned many players for using mods and exploiting technical issues. Examples included duplicating in-game items and accessing a restricted area for testing. Some players were banned without warning and asked to write essays explaining why cheating and using mods harmed online games. Many users criticized Bethesda for targeting players who used mods to fix technical problems rather than for cheating.
In-game currency became affected by hackers who duplicated items and sold them outside the game. Some players tried to stop this by attacking suspected cheaters, even though some were innocent. Other hacking incidents included adding NPCs and objects from Fallout 4 into the game and stealing items from other players' inventories. While Bethesda took action, many users called for stronger anti-cheat measures and stricter bans for hackers.
On October 23, 2019, Bethesda announced a premium subscription service for Fallout 76 called Fallout 1st, priced at $12.99 per month or $99.99 per year. Subscribers could play the game on a private server and receive new content, such as unlimited storage, a fast travel system, and exclusive items. The decision to introduce a subscription model faced criticism, as players had previously requested features like private worlds but now had to pay for them. Kotaku noted that the base game still had issues despite improvements and was sold at a discounted price by retailers.
Reception
According to Metacritic, the PC and PlayStation 4 versions of Fallout 76 received "mixed or average" reviews, while the Xbox One version received "generally unfavorable" reviews.
The Guardian described the game as "a pointless walk in the post-apocalypse" with "half-baked conflict and witless quests to unearth the dead." Eurogamer called it a "bizarre, boring, broken mess" and said it should be considered a "failed experiment" shortly after its launch. Business Insider referred to Fallout 76 as "a jumble of disparate video game elements set loose in an online world, held together by a string of pointless fetch quests and experience points." Newsweek noted that moments of enjoyment during their review were "outweighed by the near-constant performance issues and poorly executed game systems," and they expressed disappointment despite being fans of the series.
PCWorld ended their review early due to frustration with the game's technical performance, stating it still would not be a great game even if it "functioned properly." GameSpot said the game "can look and feel like its illustrious predecessors at times, but it's a soulless husk of an experience." IGN described the game's "rich wasteland map" as "wasted on a mess of bugs, conflicting ideas, and monotony." Giant Bomb stated they would not publish a full review because staff lacked interest in playing the game enough to reach a final verdict. Editor Jeff Gerstmann said on a podcast, "No one on staff wants to play any more of this video game."
The game was criticized for initially lacking interactive human NPCs. GameSpot wrote that without these characters, "the world is limited to being little more than just an environmental exhibit with things to kill," and that "there are no strong emotional anchors to help you become truly invested." They also noted that quests often involved "long monologues and one-way directives from a person who no longer exists," and that "your actions ultimately won't affect anyone, or the rest of the world for that matter." PCWorld added that "robots aren't really NPCs as much as quest dispensers … they don't talk with you, they talk at you." They also disliked readable terminals and holotapes, saying "none of it feels important or even particularly interesting."
Many reviewers noted numerous bugs and glitches in Fallout 76, affecting stability, performance, and graphics. Bethesda released several patches, with the first being 50 GB, nearly as large as the game itself. However, many fixes caused further issues, such as removing features players thought were intentional or creating new bugs. Fans later asked Bethesda to use public test servers for patches before releasing them. The game's subscription service also faced criticism after its launch in October 2019. Players reported issues such as recycled private servers with dead NPCs, the inability to restrict server access, and a crafting material box that sometimes lost stored items.
On December 22, 2018, Bethesda apologized for the criticism by giving all Fallout 76 players a free copy of the Fallout Classic Collection, which includes Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel. In an interview with IGN in June 2019, Todd Howard said the negative reactions were expected, as the game included many new systems that caused technical problems. He admitted the game was not as polished as previous Fallout titles but believed ongoing support would improve its reception over time.
With the release of the Wastelanders expansion, critics gave Fallout 76 more positive reviews. On Metacritic, the expansion received a score of 68/100 for Windows and 63/100 for PlayStation 4. IGN gave it a 6/10 but said it "desperately needed" the update, which introduced human NPCs, new quests, and changes to existing areas. PCWorld noted that the expansion "injects some much-needed personality" into the game, while GameSpot said it "introduces some of the best Fallout sequences in recent years" but warned players would still need to work through existing issues.
When Fallout 76, with the Wastelanders expansion, was released on Steam in April 2020, it was initially "review bombed" by users upset about its original state. However, other users and community members argued that updates, especially the Wastelanders expansion, had significantly improved the game. They compared it to games like Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and No Man's Sky, which also improved over time.
Upon its launch, Fallout 76 ranked third in the UK's all-format sales charts, behind Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Red Dead Redemption 2, and fifth in Switzerland's charts. According to the NPD Group, its launch sales were lower than those of Fallout 4 or Fallout: New Vegas. In its first month, physical sales were less than one-fifth of Fallout 4's sales. In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version sold 73,489 copies in its debut week.
Controversies
Fallout 76's Power Armor special edition caused controversy when it was released. Bethesda advertised that the edition would include a canvas duffel bag, but a nylon bag was sent instead. After customers complained, Bethesda said the change was needed because canvas materials were unavailable. They first said they would not take action, but later faced criticism for not explaining the change earlier. Eurogamer noted that the bag's description on Bethesda's website only changed to "nylon" after complaints were made. Bethesda later gave affected customers 500 atoms of in-game currency as compensation, which was worth about $5.00 at the time (equivalent to $6.41 in 2025). Critics said this amount was not enough to buy the in-game postman uniform (700 atoms), which includes a canvas bag. It was also found that Bethesda had made a different canvas bag and gave it for free to online influencers, which upset fans. On December 3, 2018, Bethesda announced they would send canvas bags to all owners of the Power Armor special edition. These bags were delivered to customers in June 2019.
On December 5, 2018, a glitch in Bethesda's support system exposed personal information of about 65 Fallout 76 customers who had submitted support tickets to request the canvas bag. Users could access and view details from other customers' tickets, including names, addresses, emails, and partial credit card information. In a statement to Ars Technica, Bethesda said the breach happened due to an error on their customer support website and that they were investigating the issue. They clarified that only information the support site would normally request was leaked, not credit card numbers or passwords, and that they would notify affected customers.
In 2018, Bethesda partnered with Silver Screen Bottling Company to create "Nuka Dark Rum," an alcoholic drink inspired by the in-game "Nuka-Cola Dark" from Fallout 4: Nuka-World. The rum was available for pre-order in August 2018 for $80 (equivalent to $102.57 in 2025). Its release was expected to match Fallout 76's launch, but it was delayed and sent in late December 2018. Fans criticized the bottle's design, as it was a standard glass bottle covered in plastic, unlike the missile-like shape shown in marketing. The $80 price was also criticized because the product's materials were not clearly described in promotional materials.
In September 2019, collectible "Nuka Cola"-themed Fallout helmets made by Chronicle Collectibles were recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Only 32 of the 20,000 helmets produced were sold, and they were recalled because they contained high levels of mold, which posed a health risk. No injuries were reported. GameStop, which sold the helmets, informed all buyers and offered full refunds.