Is Fallout 76 Worth Playing in 2024?

Oh boy, the yearly question of “Is Fallout 76 worth playing?” and now with a 2024 version. Whenever someone asks something like this, it is quite subjective, but that doesn’t mean we can’t nudge people in the right direction. Take me for example. I was one of the first Vault Dwellers, naive enough to pre-order the game. Yes, I’m like Aslan in Narnia, who goes, “Don’t cite the deep magic to me.” I know a lot about Fallout 76 and its shenanigans as a multiplayer game, and I can tell you a few things to help you decide if Appalachia should be your next gaming destination.

The State of Fallout 76 in 2024 – Is It Worth It?

I’ll do my best to help you make an informed choice in one of Bethesda’s largest multiplayer installments. With so many live service games out there, it is normal to wonder if this one is worth putting time into. Does Fallout 76 have cross-platform? Are Fallout 76‘s multiplayer features stable enough for me and my friends to play for many hours? Is it pay-to-win? I know, all these are usual burning questions. So, let’s jump into the answers faster than a highly radiated ghoul.

Story: Appalachian Lands Ripe for the Picking

I always try to break down the key aspects of any game, and I’ll do the same for Fallout 76, even if it’s a multiplayer experience, and I shall start with the story. In short, you’re a Vault Dweller. A person who most likely suffers from claustrophobia after being locked inside Vault 76 for years and has to reclaim Appalachia alone or with friends. During the game’s launch, you only had audio tapes, written notes, and environmental storytelling to carry the plot. Not anymore. Fallout 76 included NPCs in The Wastelanders update of 2020, providing players with that sweet narrative we love from Bethesda.

Furthermore, it made these NPCs inhabit the map, breathing life into a dying landscape. I don’t mean dying due to the radiation, but due to the drop in players back in those years. With factions like The Brotherhood of Steel, The Responders, and many more, you have small and intriguing narratives left and right that provide hours of fun to all gamers. Basically, you have a plot structure similar to other single-player Bethesda titles in a multiplayer environment, which is fantastic. You have quests for days, an engaging main story, and many small missions that help build the world even further.

Basically, if you wonder if Fallout 76 is worth playing in 2024 for the story only, my answer is yes, especially if you love Fallout as a series. It has everything: the humor, the shocking moments you get when discovering what happened to people outside the vaults, memorable characters, and more. Honestly, you could play this game solo from start to finish and not even worry about the multiplayer stuff of Fallout 76. It is an enjoyable adventure for you with some welcome added layers I’ll discuss below.

Gameplay: Good Ol’ Bethesda

As a company, Bethesda will always give us two things: NPCs with the worst facial expressions on the planet and addictive gameplay. I’ll focus more on the latter. If you’ve played Fallout 4 before, you can expect the same in Fallout 76, but with multiplayer. You have the same gunplay, the same clunky melee combat, the same base-building mechanics, albeit a bit smaller, and a plethora of bugs. This time, I am referring to actual gameplay bugs, not radroaches.

Even after six years, Fallout 76 still lacks many things like proper smooth combat, cross-platform mechanics, enemies that don’t fly across the map after smacking them with a pipe wrench, and more. In general, it is a bumpy game, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t engaging. If you have ever played Skyrim, you know how the loop goes. You leave your home, start walking, see something in the distance, enter a cave, dismantle a cult, save a two-headed cow, and return to the main story 20 hours later. That’s all here.

Clunky systems aside, the game has great exploration features with fantastic worldbuilding that overshadow the bugs, NPCs phasing through floors or dying from walking, and other glitches. Furthermore, the game isn’t pay-to-win. I’d describe it more as pay-for-convenience. There’s an optional subscription fee that gives you almost unlimited storage space, access to the season pass, and more. But you don’t need this to do any of the content. They are all commodities you can live without, and while there’s a store in the game, it isn’t too aggressive to annoy new or veteran players.

Live Service Content: Not Enough Toward the End

As a live service game, I find it funny how Fallout 76 doesn’t have a lot of endgame activities to make it worthy in 2024. Or at least not make this experience your main one. You see, the game gets you out of the vault as fast as possible. In the past, you started as a lowly level 1 player with nothing to their name. Now, you can even start at level 20 and tackle more difficult challenges. But it doesn’t matter because the only prominent content is the season pass with cosmetics, and that’s it. Expeditions, which are akin to raids, aren’t even that necessary or exciting to do, so there’s not much to see after finishing the story.

Besides that, content updates aren’t too frequent. As I mentioned before, many Fallout 76 players are still waiting for cross-platform features, which may or may not arrive. Just for endgame content alone, Fallout 76 isn’t worth playing in 2024. Of course, things may change in the future, but I’m just being hopeful. The endgame needs a huge rework to keep players around because right now, I’m already tired of redecorating my C.A.M.P for the tenth time.

Verdict: Worth a Shot

Overall, Fallout 76 is worth playing in 2024 for a few reasons. One, if you are into the universe, its lore, and want a high-quality story similar to other single-player Bethesda titles. Two, if you enjoy the gameplay loop of exploring, drowning yourself in side quests, and having a base to build from the ground up. However, I don’t recommend it as a full-time live-service game. It doesn’t have enough endgame content to keep us around, and after six years, I don’t think that’ll change. Still, you have more than 50 hours of fun if you see this as a normal Fallout entry, and that’s time well spent alone or with others.