With interest in Fallout rekindled in 2024 due to the TV adaptation, some may be wondering if Fallout 76 is worth playing now. After all, it is the newest entry in the Fallout series, and has had countless updates since 2018.
RadioTimes.com recently had the chance to speak with one of the developers of Fallout 76, and we couldn’t resist asking him about the trending question, “Is Fallout 76 any good now?” You can watch his response in the video above.
“I think it’s a consistent question,” said Bill Lacoste, lead producer at Bethesda Game Studios on Fallout 76.
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When asked to respond to this question, he added, “First of all, the answer is yes. It’s a good thing.”
He continued, “We’ve never forgotten where this launch came from or why it happened, and we’ve never forgotten the level of frustration that players had when this game launched. So we’ve never forgotten that, but we’ve also always been focused on the future.”
“From launch onwards, we’ve had a roadmap and a plan to implement all the updates, to continually update the game, to continue to support it, to continue to release new content and fix any issues along the way.”
“And so it happened. And a lot of players stayed. Firstly, because it’s a Fallout game and they love Bethesda Games Studios games anyway. But they knew we were on to something.”
“And we understand. Yes, we had some players who left at launch. It wasn’t to their liking. We understand that. But now we’re welcoming them back and saying, ‘The game is so much different than it was before.’ We’ve had places re-review the game, which is great, because we never asked for that, and we never wanted to do that.”
“We were just like, ‘No, it’s good to remember what was there, but we know where we are now.’ So we tell people that this is the product of us staying on top of where we were going all this time and continuing to update it and support the product.”
“So at no point was it like, ‘Oh my goodness, what’s going on?’ We know this, we’re going to figure it out. You’re going to be with us. You’re going to see progress.”
“And now people are coming back, so yeah, it’s a resounding yes. Of course the games are good. And it’s not just that I’m the producer of the product, or the lead producer of the product.”
“I mostly play this game on my own time. It’s not even for research purposes. I play it for fun. I love playing it with difficulty and creating new characters and diving into the world.”
“What’s funny is, I’ll always jump into a world with a new character and play, and all of a sudden, some high-level person will show up and say, ‘Come here.’ They’ll emote to you to come over, and they’ll drop a bunch of stuff on the ground.”
“So it’s like, ‘I don’t need it, but I’ll take it because it will make me feel really good and I know I’m supporting the community of people who are coming.'”
“We have some really great streamers, some people who had a big camp right in front of the vault, right under the vault. [and] “Welcome, new players,” I said.
“That’s how our community interacts with everyone else. And I think that’s really great. And we’ve always wanted to support a community like that.”
At the event, players also had the chance to try out Fallout 76’s newest content, the Skyline Valley expansion, which opens up new areas of the map and allows players to battle a new type of enemy (charged ghouls called “The Lost”) and unlock the secrets of Vault 63.
We had a lot of fun exploring this new thing, entering giant storm clouds, and meeting all sorts of strange new characters. The Lost provided some tough combat challenges, and the story left us wanting to see more (even though we didn’t have time to reach the conclusion in the allotted time).
We asked LaCoste what he’s especially excited about in Skyline Valley, to which he replied, “I think the combat balancing is really good, and I think it’s going to help a lot of new players.”
“But honestly, it’s the story – the story behind The Lost, the new boss fight that takes place in the region, and the number of choices you have to make in this quest line.
“I think people will be really excited about that, but it’s going to be for players who are going to be working through the content in the quest system.
“It creates a new outlook, a new area for the people who are building the camps. They’ll be able to build a really great new camp in the area and show it off.”
“In a lot of cases, this is really user-generated content. For example, players building a camp will take photos, post them to social media, post them in different locations. I’m really excited to see what they bring to this as well.”
For more details on new content for Fallout 76, check out Bill LaCoste’s talk about the game’s upcoming playable ghouls (coming in 2025).
Fallout 76: Skyline Valley launches today (Wednesday, June 12th) across all platforms.
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