STACK #169 Nov 2018

GAMES FEATURE

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Fallout is back, but probably not as you know it. Prepare to enter theWasteland not-quite-solo in Fallout 76 , the new multiplayer survival RPG from Bethesda Game Studios . Words Alesha Kolbe

T he many iterations of Fallout have mostly subscribed to a similar formula (with the exception of the base-building game Fallout Shelter ): RPGs

Reclamation Day – it’s party time! As a member of Vault 76, players must seek out the Overseer, the vault’s original leader, who has already left to explore West Virginia. Normally a quest like this would be given to you by an NPC, but Fallout 76 has none. Instead, it’s necessary to gather information from robots, terminals, and the environment around you in order to piece together a story, and find your next main objective or side quest. Incredibly, Fallout 76 ’s map is a whopping four times the size of Fallout 4 ’s, so there won’t be any shortage of adventures to be experienced. And that’s without even mentioning the other people in the game. Fallout 76 is an online game. There are between 24 and 32 people on your server at any given time, any of which can interact with you in any number of ways – or simply choose to leave you alone. You can crusade around with a squad of up to four people, taking down the wasteland as you please, and your squadmates can also revive you for a short period of time if you’re killed.

that incorporate crafting, talking to NPCs, questing, building a base, killing

mutants, and getting killed by Deathclaws. The most recent entry in the main series (released three years ago) was Fallout 4 , but with this year’s instalment, Fallout 76 , Bethesda is shaking things right up. In Fallout 76 , you will emerge (no guesses here) from Vault 76, a full 25 years after a devastating nuclear war. Players are members of the country’s best and brightest who have been sheltered away, tasked with one day replenishing the Earth – once it is fit to do so: “When the fighting has stopped, and the fallout has settled, you must rebuild.” The mission is to venture out and re-colonise the planet on

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