I am finding myself in a familiar place where I am sort of flailing about between multiple games right now. I am logging into Elder Scrolls Online each night to play a least a tiny bit, even if it simply means getting my daily reward, sorting out mail and auctions, and then logging right back out. I am also playing a bit of Outriders each day, but I have finished the story on my second character and don’t really relish the process of grinding up world rank yet again. Finally there is Mass Effect Andromeda and I am not really sure I have it in me to replay that game right now either. I ultimately started again because Tam has been playing through it and I more or less wanted a refresher for the story. I feel like I have played enough to jog my memory for conversations, but also not really feeling the drive to push further especially knowing that I am going to want to replay Mass Effect when the Legendary edition comes out.
Last night I was struck with the unexplained desire to play some Fallout 76. I did not make it terribly far in the game and my highest character was only level 11 from the launch. In the time I have been away they have made some fairly sweeping changes to the way the game plays and the content contained within. The biggest of these is the inclusion of NPCs scattered throughout the area, which is sort of huge given that not having them made the game feel weird at launch. All of these combined with my relatively low level has given me the desire for some time to start from scratch. Last night that desire finally turned into action as I rolled out of the vault as Belgrave my second character in the wasteland.
I’ve not made it terribly far yet, mostly just down the hill from the vault to the first settlement area. Having NPCs makes a MASSIVE difference for me personally in how this game feels. At launch it felt like we were wandering around this dead husk of a world and now it feels like everything is alive. I set up my first C.A.M.P. just down the road from the Wayward. Down the road a bit further is a little camp of Brotherhood of Steel folks, and immediately this feels way more like Fallout than the 76 I remembered. I think the biggest part of this change in feel… is there is now an Appalachia radio station playing some very familiar Fallout tunes along with some new ones added to the mix.
I’ve created only the most basic of shacks on the road. I spent some of the Atoms I had on a scraptron but I am uncertain of how well it is actually working. In theory it is supposed to collect scrap for you and deposit it in the box. At least for now I am playing on a private world while I get my bearings in the game, which means I did have to pony up for Fallout First which has apparently had a number of the bugs ironed out. It is my understanding that a private instance exists for five minutes after you log out of the game, allowing you to pretty easily swap items in the world between your characters. Also it allows you to pop over to a public game for a few minutes, wait the timer out… and then spawn into a fresh copy of the world with fresh resources. That intrigued me so I went ahead and picked up a subscription, that along with the unlimited scrap box because I am addicted to the unlimited crafting bag in ESO.
I had an awful lot of fun last night just sorta doing my own thing. I don’t have a large social group in Fallout 76, mostly just the handful of AggroChat folks that I played with when the game initially launched. I am enjoying not having to see other players, because the few minutes I played on a public server already annoyed me enough to abandon ship. I was trying to solve a hacking puzzle and this dude kept jumping up and down on top of me making an awful racket. So I guess I am paying for the First subscription in part for the peace and solitude of never having to see another human being while playing. That does not mean I won’t pop over to public servers occasionally, but I am likely going to hide in my own little private box.