Fallout 76 is neither properly developed nor a true Fallout game

Fallout 76 turned out not as good as we expected for an astoundingly large number of reasons. Let’s try to break them down in a couple of categories.

Bugs

Console players are complaining about regular frame drops and freezes, and the picture is even grimmer for PC users. When I started the game on PC, I thought my rig just couldn’t handle the highest graphics preset, so I lowered it, but it didn’t help. Was quite a relief to find out that it was the game that was the problem and exculpate my machine of the blame.

Freezes and frame drops are especially infuriating during battles. Try to deal with a monster when even the game itself is working against you.

Server disconnects often destroy the last minutes of progress, forcing you to kill monsters, pick up items and move the same distances all over again.

The game has no purpose

Bethesda went to great pains to create an open world, but it did almost nothing to give you a purpose in it. You run around, finishing mostly pointless quests, fill up the thirst and hunger meters and listening to the audio stories that happened without you and that don’t really matter to you, because everyone involved is already dead. You are just a glorified janitor, cleaning the mess left by a bunch of dead people.

From time to time you meet other players, but there’s no point of interacting with them, unless you want to talk to someone out of boredom.

The "lack of NPCs" complain can be added to this category as well.

The game lacks everything a Fallout title should have

Here are the things that players were right to be expecting:

 • Reputation system. It was a huge success in Las Vegas and is an iconic Fallout feature
•  Proper lore. It’s such a shame to lose the connection to the creative well Bethesda created with the previous installations of the game.
•  A good engine. The current engine is 7 years old, is there nothing better to use for a triple-A game?
•  Asymmetrical storylines. Why can’t we impact the story decisions?
•  A proper battle system. V.A.T.S in Fallout 76 is a bad joke.

And many other things

For example, since Fallout 76 is an online-only game, it would be nice to get better multiplayer options. A dedicated PvP-only server would be a huge help.