I am trudging through a dense shrubbery of this contaminated world. Everything around me is gray, brown and red, everything looks withered, bony and above all lifeless. The world becomes livelier when Miss Nanny buzzes towards me, a pre-Atomic apocalypse home robot. I'm listening as she tells me a bizarre story of "Goldilocks" being eaten by the three bears. The chance encounter becomes such a small, charming moment in "Fallout 76", a brief flicker of a narrative that gives meaning to this world.
Unfortunately, there are not many such moments. The new "Fallout 76" is not a straightforward sequel to the popular role-playing series known for its open-ended post-apocalypse gaming world and the stories it tells. "Fallout" paints a picture of America after a nuclear war, of the survivors who are just getting by. It's about new social structures, associations, enmities, rusty settlements that are now home to the few.
"Fallout 76" still has this scenario, but the game largely abandons history. The new part is a survival game that is played online, designed for multiplayer experiences.
It's about survival
The structure of the game is determined by human needs. Based on other survival games, it is important to pay attention to hunger, thirst and stamina. Accordingly, a large part of gambling consists of finding food or drinks that are not contaminated as much as possible.
The player can boil and filter water at certain stations, he can prepare food, assemble his own armor or weapons from parts he has found in the game world. And he spends as much time as with such activities, to think about what he actually does here.
As I moved through the wasteland, I also asked a few other players what they experienced in "Fallout 76". Here is a selection of her and my experiences:
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Online role-playing game: Players report on "Fallout 76"They wave and pull their way
Hardly any of the players are completely satisfied with the game. "At the announcement, it was promised that single players will get their money," says Sabrina, for example. The 27-year-old plays "Fallout 76" alone so far. "I do not like to play with strangers and my friends do not all play," she says.
She's been wandering around the game world for a few hours now, Sabrina says - it's her attempt to follow a story that exists only in fragments. "After a short time, I'm pretty bored," she says. For single players, in their opinion, not enough is offered.
A second player, who is called Matthias like me, is zwiegespalten. He has been playing the game for about 25 hours - he is not convinced by the single-player experience. This is also because there are no supporting characters in this game that would make the world more interesting, figures that have something to tell. The 31-year-old has a lot of fun with the multiplayer aspect of the game: "So far I've only noticed two aggressive players," he says. "One demolished camps, the other chased other players in the starting area." Otherwise in "Fallout 76" all human players were cooperative and friendly.
BackgroundProduct tests in the network world department
An enthusiastic player has found "Fallout 76" after all in Sophia. "The huge world as one of the first people to recapture again, the idea I like," says the 26-year-old. She had "a lot of fun" and so far had hardly any problems with other players, on the contrary: "In a fight against a much too strong monster, a player with a higher level came to my aid and together we killed the beast," says Sophia ,
Like an old, rusty factory
I have imagined my time in the post-apocalyptic world more exciting. I really want to like this game - but it makes it very hard for me. For a while, "Fallout 76" feels like an old factory where wood is being processed. The machines moan, chips fall, rust in many places. Somehow it smells good and the environment seems familiar to me - but now this factory is supposed to produce microchips. That does not work.
The game is technically flawed, thanks to the poorly managed engine, which did not quite like Fallout 4 anymore. Especially in fighting, there are stuttering, repeatedly populate textures or objects suddenly into the picture. Crashes occur, servers are no longer accessible. In short, with this ambitious project, the foundations already seem decrepit.
And yet there are these charming moments. Little stories that I find in abandoned mansions or factory premises. Audio tapes, writings or quacking robots who want to tell something about this irradiated world. And of course, there are other players who will help me explore at best. They solve missions with me, save my skin. Or shoot at me. But are not these players in so many other games?
When "No Man's Sky" appeared over two years ago, many players were appalled. Hardly any promise that was made in advance was kept. Empty worlds, hardly any tasks - the fewest buyers found meaning in the game. But then the developers started with the correction. Again and again there were updates that brought new features, possibilities, content. The world was not empty anymore, it had meaning - and finally there was a reason to spend time there. "Fallout 76" still has this path to go - and maybe it's just starting: with a 48 GB update that was released on Monday.
"Fallout 76" by Bethesda, for PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One, from 18 years, about 60 Euro