Fallout 76 “survival” is not the word that Todd Howard would use, apparently. The new Fallout game has got to be one of the most anticipated titles coming out this year, though possibly for all the wrong reasons. Ever since it was announced that Bethesda’s apocalyptic franchise would be trying out something new with an MMO, fans have been feeling more than a little wary at the future of the series. Even with Todd Howard, executive producer and director of Bethesda, stating that online multiplayer games are not the future for Bethesda, some still feel unconvinced.
Nevertheless, Bethesda has promised that the online components won’t be what people are expecting. The word “survival game” has been on everyone’s lips, after all, especially as that is a huge theme in previous Fallout games. Yet this time the studio isn’t too keen on the word, because they feel as though using it to talk about Fallout 76 inaccurately represents what the game is about.
Sitting down with The Guardian, Todd Howard spoke about what genre Fallout 76 will fall into. He said, “We avoid the word ‘survival’, because people’s minds immediately go to DayZ and Rust and certain other games, and those comparisons are not really accurate for what we’re doing.” He continued, “If you think about the survival modes we’ve made in Fallout 4, it has that vibe… Fallout 76, although it’s an online game, when I play it, I mostly still play it solo. We like those experiences as much as our fans do.”
That’ll no doubt assure some folks out there, but it does lead us to wonder about some things. For one, though playing solo is an option, how much will that experience be valuable if there are no significant NPCs to talk to?
But we digress. Until Fallout 76’s beta is launched, solid answers about what to expect from the game will be hard to come by. But what we do know is this: expectations are high and we hope Bethesda are able to deliver on them.
