Fallout 76 is a multiplayer survival game, and it has a release date, a beta launch window—and it's not launching on Steam. This will be the largest 3D Fallout game ever, and among other things, it'll let you nuke other players with your pals.
Here's everything we know so far about Fallout 76 based on interviews, videos, and QuakeCon 2018's presentation.
What is Fallout 76's release date?
November 14, 2018. That's the date Bethesda announced for Fallout 76 at E3, and it will be preceded by a beta (or B.E.T.A) for Fallout 76, available to those who pre-order the game.
Pre-ordering the game at a 'participating retailer' will get you access to the Fallout 76 beta, which is coming in October, after the beta launches first on Xbox One. The game isn't launching on Steam. Instead, you'll have to use Bethesda's launcher. "The PC version of Fallout 76, for both the B.E.T.A. and the launch, will be available only via Bethesda.net, not on Steam," says Bethesda.
Progress from the beta should carry over to launch. "Our current plan for the B.E.T.A. is it will be the full game and all your progress is saved for launch. We hope you join us!"
As rumored, Fallout 76 is an online multiplayer survival game. That's quite a departure from Fallout's traditional singleplayer roots, though Bethesda confirmed that Fallout 76 will have a storyline and quests to complete as in its singleplayer RPGs.
And unlike some other online survival games, you'll be sharing the world with relatively few other players. There won't be hundreds of players per server, but dozens—about 24 to 32, apparently. On Fallout 76's sprawling map, it sounds like you won't be running into other players every time you turn around. When you die, you won't lose your progress, either. Just the junk in your inventory, which you can choose to go back and retrieve.
"This is not an MMO and this is not a battle royale," Bethesda's Pete Hines told Variety. "It’s supposed to feel like they just left the vault."
VATS, the Fallout series' method of precision aiming is returning in Fallout 76, but it's not quite the same as it used to be, given the change in style of game. You now use it in real time. "It doesn't slow time," says Bethesda's Todd Howard in an interview with Geoff Keighley. "But it lets you target and pick parts and all of that, but it's in real-time. It still works great. It's different, obviously, because it's real-time, but the basics of it, which are, 'I can't really—I'm not that good of a twitch shooter' … You can kind of picture how it works. Like, I'm not as good as lining up someone and getting a head shot, but I've made my character good at VATS, and now I can do that."
Fallout 76 will feature a base-building system that look similar to Fallout 4's settlement construction features and sentry defense systems. Those camps, as shown in gameplay footage, can be attacked and destroyed by enemies. According to Bethesda's Todd Howard, you'll be able to build your settlement anywhere on the map you desire, and you'll even be able to pack it up and move it elsewhere.
Your camps can be blown up by nukes, too, but a blueprint system in the game means that reconstructing them shouldn't be a huge deal.
When you log off, your base goes with you, so you don't have worry that it will be damaged when you're not playing. You can build collaboratively with friends, and even connect your base to theirs, though when your friends are offline, their bases will not appear in the world.
“We had one test, where a dozen people built their camps next to each other and created an enormous city,” development director Chris Mayer told Game Informer.
There will be timed events
While playing you may encounter different kinds of events. “When you get near one, it starts broadcasting for help,” Todd Howard told Game Informer. “It’s like a timed multiplayer quest.”
There aren't many details on the events themselves, but they are typically designed for teams of players and in some case may require more than a single team. Some events are random, some occur at a specific time and place. If an event appears on your map, you'll be able to fast-travel to it, and special event-themed perk cards and high quality loot may be given as rewards.