This week at Quakecon, our friends at Bethesda Softworks provided a lot more information about Fallout 76 in addition to revealing more of Doom: Eternal, the sequel to 2016’s hit shooter Doom. Here’s some of what we learned about Fallout, and feel free to watch the below video to see the panel for yourself.
Getting Stronger
-Leveling up allows you to invest one point in one of your main stats, as well as giving you access to a Perk card. If this game doesn’t have a system like Gwent in The Witcher: Wild Hunt, you have my full permission to riot.
-Perk cards give specific benefits and can be interchanged on the fly. For example, the Night Person card increases your intelligence when the sun is down but unfortunately does not make you an actual vampire.
-Every few levels you get a Perk Card Pack, which will give you four random perks, some of which can be higher level than you can currently equip. Like digital card games such as Hearthstone, some of these cards can be golden and animated. Unlike Hearthstone, you won’t open 60 packs and only get a Hemet Nesingwary. Yeah, that’s right, deep cuts.
-There is no level cap, but you’ll stop gaining stat points at level 50, only gaining cards after that. So you won’t get stronger anymore, but you’ll get more versatile. This helps close the gap between low and high level players. Speaking of…
Playing with Others
-There are no NPCs in Fallout 76. Instead, all interactions are with enemies or other players. A first for a series so steeped in lore and and conversation. That leaves only one way to communicate with people. Yep, you guessed it. The Nintendo Switch voice chat app.
-The Charisma stat has been altered, since there are no NPCs to charm. Instead, high Charisma allows you to share perks with friends, as well as providing a few strong perks itself. Like getting a date to the prom.
-PVP is completely optional. A player must accept your challenge before you can fight each other.
-It is possible to kill other players without challenging them, but it is difficult and makes you a WantedMurderer. In what is perhaps the best anti-griefing measure I’ve seen in a game, this places a bounty on your head, makes you visible on every player’s map, and doles out the bounty reward from your own pocket. You can be a troll, but at least you’ll be a broke troll.
-If a player kills you, you are given the option to block them, seek revenge for double reward, or simply keep playing.
Play Your Way
-After the character creation screen, you can change how your character looks at any time, even down to the character’s gender. Now you won’t get stuck with that horrible monster you made just because you could.
-The map is big enough that it can be difficult to find other players unless you’re looking, meaning you could potentially play 76 like a traditional Fallout game, but the game is really built around multiplayer.
-Base building is back, this time with more variety. You can also create blueprints of things you’ve created and build them again elsewehere. This is important, as chances are your settlement is going to get nuked at some point.
-NUKES.
-Nukes radiate the map around the blast, creating stronger enemies and generating better loot. So if you want a challenge, go ahead and nuke an area then see if you can fight your way through it.
-V.A.T.S. is back, but now in real time. Now it just helps you aim at specific body parts and generally makes you a better shot. This might be a bummer for some longtime fans, as V.A.T.S. made the mechanics unique from every other shooter. Hopefully Bethesda has found a way to make it feel just as good to use.
-More info on Fallout 76 will come out in the upcoming months leading to the game’s release, so let us know what you think in the comments and be sure to stay tuned to Nerdist for all your Fallout 76 needs.
Images: Bethesda Softworks