A few days ago Bethesda revealed its new post-apocalyptic game: let's talk about Fallout 76, a chapter that seems to be a spin-off (a bit like it was New Vegas) of the series. We have no certain information about this new title, other than the number indicated, 76. As you well know, the number printed on the uniforms represents the number of the Vault in which the character (often the protagonist) is located. So we took all the information scattered in the old games about Vault 76, to try to reconstruct as many details as possible.
Most of the information can be found in the logs of Fallout 3 and in the DLC Mothership Zeta, although a reporter also mentions it in Fallout 4. From the details scattered throughout the game, Vault number 76 was built in 4 years, concluded in October 2069, supervised by Giles Wolstencroft (assistant CEO of Vault-Tec) and has space for 500 inhabitants. With a closure period of 20 years, the Vault was used in 2076, and was supposed to reopen in 2097, just 20 years after the Great War. Finally, it looks like it's located in Washington DC, and if the Fallout 3 info is any good clue, John Denver's music from the trailer, citing West Virginia, seems to confirm this.
The history of Fallout has taught us that most vaults have always conducted experiments, illegal or otherwise, on their inhabitants. The Vault 76 it was part of the 17 control vaults, that is, those example vaults created to compare the results with the others. We talked about the opening date, but the Pip-Boy in the trailer reveals a different date, postponed by 5 years (therefore 25 years after the Great War). This places us in the “youngest” Fallout setting of all, almost 60 years earlier (the first Fallout was set in 2161).
Fallout environments
- Fallout: 2161
- Fallout 2: 2241
- Fallout 3: 2277
- Fallout New Vegas: 2281
- Fallout 4: 2287
What is clear from the teaser released is that the goal of the Vault 76 is as close as possible to the original creation of the Vaults: to repopulate the world after the nuclear catastrophe. Unfortunately, however, the temporal setting cuts out most of the things that made Fallout unique and particular: no super mutants, therefore, too early to find them around in the game (the first enemy and mutant of Fallout is infected in 2102, and it will be him to create the super mutants a little further on, but in Los Angeles). It remains to be hoped instead for the super mutants born from Vault 87: those, who escaped in 2077 after a bomb opened the vault, may appear in the game.
We guessed the setting, but what awaits us in the game instead? Even if it seems to revise the events of Fallout New Vegas, with the idea of a spin-off of the saga, it is not excluded that the terms of the game may change. The lack of the online subtitle rules out the much-talked-about arrival of an online survival RPG, but given the results of The Elder Scrolls Online, it's not impossible as an idea. On the other hand, Kotaku wrote on its pages some reports which, quoting them, state:
Originally prototyped as the multiplayer version of Fallout 4, with the aim of understanding what it would be like to have an online game of the saga, Fallout 76 has evolved a lot in recent years.
Therefore, if the heart of the game is online, perhaps the title could exchange some of its peculiar characteristics for a lighter title, perhaps with a strong management component (tracing a little Fallout Shelter). Or the Washington DC area could be exploited to the maximum, opening up to a world with a strong persistent online component, perhaps preponderant but not invasive (following titles like Dark Souls or Destiny).
We just have to wait for these last 10 days, before Monday at 03.30 Bethesda reveals, during its E3 Live Conference, Fallout 76, showing us all the information we look forward to. Follow E3 with us, from 9 to 12 June, with our E3 Live Show.
