Fallout 76

In 2024, Fallout 76 finally captures a lot of the post-nuclear experience I love. It trades roleplaying decision-making for multiplayer shooter antics, but it still needs more endgame content and a fair inventory solution.

Fallout's mutation into an online multiplayer hybrid leaves it weak and soulless.

Bethesda's attempt at Fallout multiplayer is, like so many of the series' vaults, a failed experiment.

A beautifully crafted but ultimately repetitive world, and a disappointment when it comes to options on PC.

Fallout 76 has glimmers of the trademark series' sci-fi splendour, but they're few and far between.

When Fallout 76 is working as intended, it's an easy game to lose yourself in, as meaningful discoveries are everywhere. But those moments are often destroyed by glitches, crashes, and technical issues

Half-baked conflict ideas and witless quests to unearth the dead – this soulless sequel is perfect if you enjoy picking up rubbish in a wasteland

Fallout 76 feels like an atavistic reprisal of a late-2000s MMO.

There's no sugarcoating it: Fallout 76 comes up short at nearly everything it aims to be. It's not a good role-playing game and it's not a good multiplayer experience. It never really feeds into the gradual RPG power fantasy but it's also inadequate as a survival simulator. In wanting to be so much, Fallout 76 doesn't amount to much at all.

Fallout 76 is a seriously shoddy attempt at trying to cash in on the multiplayer survival market. Fallout with friends is an intriguing concept on paper, but we can't think of many more ways that Bethesda could have screwed it up.