Fallout 76 Is Not a Survival Game: Bethesda

After revealing post-apocalyptic online role-playing game Fallout 76 at E3 2018, parallels were drawn to survival games like Rust and DayZ. It's something Fallout 76 Game Director Todd Howard believes is an unfair comparison simply because it's not designed to have its players be killed and robbed of their loot, leaving you right where you started. Player progression, according to the team at Bethesda, Howard states, is more inclined to keep the in a similar mould of the survival mode of Fallout 4 rather than the likes of Rust and DayZ.

"We avoid the word 'survival', because people’s minds immediately go to DayZ and Rust and certain other games, and those comparisons are not really accurate for what we’re doing," Howard said in conversation with The Guardian. "If you think about the survival modes we’ve made in Fallout 4, it has that vibe … Fallout 76, although it’s an online game, when I play it, I mostly still play it solo. We like those experiences as much as our fans do."

As for game progression, Howard opines that the game loop of most survival titles isn't what Bethesda is gunning for. Usually survival games have players being killed by others and their items being stolen, leaving them back at square one.

"No, that’s not fun," says Todd. "Well, it’s fun for whoever killed you, but not for you … Death is already bad enough in a game, because you’re losing time, that we didn’t feel we needed to add any further penalty. We wanted to make sure you don’t lose your progression."

The mantra of ensuring players don't lose progression seems to be a common theme across Fallout 76's many features and perhaps the reason for their inclusion such as fast travel and PvP protection.

In a recent interview with Multiplayer.it (via PC Gamer), Fallout 76 director Todd Howard said that players under level 5 in Fallout 76 can't be killed by others in the game's PvP (player versus player) mode. He also stated that this feature may change before Fallout 76's release. Furthermore, he also confirmed that there is a fast travel option in the game much like past entries. Considering this is Bethesda's biggest game yet, not everyone would want to spend time travelling from one area to another. This could make it accessible to less hardcore players.

The presence of fast travel and PvP protection are welcome. Throw in the fact that PvP is optional in Fallout 76 makes it even better for those who simply want to team up with their friends and take on the game's varied enemies. With a Fallout 76 beta on the way (first on Xbox One and other platforms later), it will be interesting to see what our first look of West Virginia in Fallout 76 brings.

If you're a fan of video games, check out Transition, Gadgets 360's gaming podcast. You can listen to it via Apple Podcasts or RSS, or just listen to this week's episode by hitting the play button below.