As the vault door rolls open to reveal another golden Appalachian sunset, I pause for a moment, and wonder what the West Virginian wasteland could possibly have in store for me this time. When I was last here, a little over four years ago, the answer was: not much. At launch, Fallout 76 cast players into a lifeless world, and tasked them with making their own fun. It was a place populated by ghosts and audio tapes. Like many at the time, I gave it a fair go for several weeks, yet found nothing that could compel me to stick around. I shelved my level 23 character, and left it at that.
But this time, as I descend the Vault-Tec steps, I immediately spot evidence of some rather dramatic changes. Two human NPCs are here, and they have a quest for me. Perhaps, I think, this is going to be a very different experience after all.
Fallout 76, of course, had a famously messy launch. Alongside some pretty damning review scores, there were problems with canvas/nylon bags, and the game's development process was reportedly blighted by poor management and mandatory crunch. In the years since then, however, there have been concerted efforts to fix the game's problems. Bethesda has released a slew of updates in an attempt to breathe new life into the game, and the introduction of human NPCs has been just one entry in a long line of improvements. Thanks in part to these additions (and the game's release on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus Extra), Fallout 76 is currently experiencing something of a revival, with 13.5m players dipping into the game in 2022. For this reason, now seems as good a time as any to check on its progress. That, and I keep seeing posts about how the game 'is good now'. Time to test the theory.