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Games Reviews

Review: IXION

I’ve been really excited about IXION since I heard about it a few months back. A survival city builder where you build up a space station and jump from system to system collecting the resources you need to survive? Sign me up! Unfortunately, IXION feels like an Early Access release, and with the number of bugs and balance issues, the asking price is far too high. Recently, I was unable to load several recent saves; I had to go back a few hours to find a save that would load. That sort of lost progress is unacceptable in a full release.

Travelling through subspace. Or hyperspace. Or whatever it’s called in IXION.

IXION is in the vein of Frostpunk, Surviving Mars, and other survival city builders and gets compared to those a lot. It’s extremely difficult early on and forces you to make some hard choices at times, but the difficulty feels artificially inflated by seemingly arbitrary penalties. The go-to example is in the first chapter of the game: you get a permanent -1 stability penalty due to story events, and if you linger in the starting system too long, you get another -1 stability penalty for remaining there. Once you leave, the penalty for staying is removed, but it’s replaced with a new permanent -1 stability for leaving that system behind. I understand that the penalty for lingering is to encourage the player to keep progressing instead of depleting a system and being over-prepared, but it seems arbitrary when you’re just guaranteed a different penalty for progressing. That said, starting in chapter 2 you’re able to counter the stability penalty with a number of stability-enhancing buildings, at which point you can linger as long as you like.

However, there are some penalties that just don’t make sense. There’s a -1 stability penalty for having a lot of colonists in cryo-pods, which encourages the player to simply leave people behind instead of rescuing them. In this case, the penalty is again to prevent the player from being over-prepared by having people available to replace any lost by random accidents, but just as before, seems backwards when applied to the game. (And an objective in the first system requires you to recover 500 pods.) Once you’ve unlocked waste recycling (which seems to come later in the tech tree than it should for an advanced mobile space station), there’s a penalty for storing waste rather than purging it into space. Here, the penalty seems to balance the power of recycling, since it essentially makes you self-sufficient.

Aside from the arbitrary penalties, this space station capable of travelling through space and time seems to be held together with duct tape and chewing gum. In Frostpunk, you have to keep a stockpile of coal to keep the generator burning. In IXION, your space station is constantly deteriorating and requires constant repair; and those repairs require the same resource used to build structures; sometimes you get to choose between housing your population or repairing the station. (Though if you have to make that choice, you’re already losing.) The speed of the deterioration increases as you progress (with each jump both lowering your maximum hull integrity and permanently increasing the deterioration rate), and each sector you open permanently increases the deterioration rate. I think a better (and more logical) choice would be to have jumps damage your hull (requiring repairs at the start of each system) without causing constant deterioration. Opening new sectors should have no effect on deterioration (I just don’t get that at all). Moving your station should and does deteriorate your hull, as positioning is a powerful mechanic and makes a good trade-off.

Making things worse is the number of non-workers you end up with. These are essentially worthless population. You can train them as colonists, but you don’t really need that many of them. As you thaw people, you’ll end up with more and more people that require housing and food but provide no benefit. I think the non-workers are meant to represent those that stay at home while others in the family work (like children), but there should be some way to train non-workers into workers. There’s an option later in the game so you only thaw workers, but it comes with a hefty -3 penalty. (With a special tech later to reduce it to -1.)

Certain actions like moving your station or activating the jump drive drain all power from your station, requiring it to run on batteries. To prevent batteries from draining quickly, you typically need to disable a bunch of buildings, which is annoying micromanagement – it’d be nice to simply have an option on each building to toggle whether it runs on battery power or not (with certain buildings like housing lacking that option). Alternatively, the station could just use the batteries themselves to power the jump – if you’re not generating enough power, you won’t be able to move or jump, or will have to wait a long time to charge the batteries.

On a positive note, I really enjoy the fleet management and sending ships around the system. Sending probes to discover new resources or points of interest is a resource sink but works really well; cargo and mining ships are automated and tend to do what I want; and sending science ships around to investigate anomalies is fun. Ships gain experience as they do their thing, making them more capable over time. I’ve read about bugs with the ships but I’ve been fortunate enough not to run into any. To balance this, however, there are space hazards that all your ships will happily fly straight through instead of navigating around. There should be some option to simply say “avoid hazards” with the penalty of having those ships take longer to make their trips.

Construction and building design is good, with lots of different shapes and sizes requiring some sector-planning Tetris to get everything to fit. Sectors are isolated and can specialize, which is nice, but the amount of space you have to sacrifice to things like stability-improving buildings (which are large) makes it difficult to truly specialize sectors. Workers can’t travel from one sector to another, so you can’t, say, have a food-and-housing sector and an industrial sector – the housing, food, and medical facilities have to be present in every sector. (Though food production can be located in a different sector and exported where needed.)

My favorite choice in the entire game.

The research you can do at planets along the way is also a lot of fun. You send a science ship out to a planet to investigate and respond to the events in a choose-your-own-adventure style branching dialog tree. Not every event has a positive outcome – sometimes it’s better to just leave things alone. However, it’s typically worthwhile to explore every planet, if just for the science income.

Later in the game, after you’ve unlocked enough technology, you’ll be swimming in resources and have a new problem: not enough storage space. It’s a weird predicament to be in, where you can’t even deconstruct a building because you have no place to put the resources. I don’t need to use my mining or cargo ships anymore (unless I want to), because I can use recycling to get any resource I need. I have an entire sector dedicated to housing most of my 4000-strong population (and all those non-workers), which generates enough waste to keep all my recyclers running non-stop. (Though I had to turn them off because I had too many resources.)

I’m far enough into the story now that I can say I actually like it. It’s not designed to be entirely clear – there’s a lot of mystery around what’s been going on in your absence. But each new system introduces a new obstacle to deal with: chapter 2 introduces space hazards, chapter 3 has a moving hazard, and chapter 4 introduces an enemy that pursues and attacks you.

All that said, the game is gorgeous. The space maps, the external station views, the interiors; everything looks great.

For a game I was extremely excited about, this has been pretty disappointing (being unable to load a save was particularly defeating). I’m sure all these problems will be fixed through patches, but skipping an Early Access release was a poor choice – I’d reserve my judgement if this was an early release. However, for a full release at this price, there are simply too many issues to recommend IXION at this point. I definitely enjoy the game, however, so maybe in a few months I can enthusiastically recommend the game.

Also, random side note: the main menu gives me some extreme motion sickness. The background video is views of the station spinning through space, and when you pop up a static settings menu over that with a not-quite-opaque background, it’s vomit time.

IXION main menu, with settings menu open; Tiqqun space station rotating in background.
Luckily the space station can’t rotate in a screenshot.
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Games Reviews

Review: Against the Storm (Early Access)

The Blightstorm raging around the Smoldering City

I play a lot of survival city builders, but there’s always a certain point where you’ve solved all the puzzles, balanced your resources and population, and the “survival” part fades away as you just keep building.

Against the Storm solves that issue by making each city short-lived. You’re constantly starting from scratch and working to balance your population and resources, with the added difficulty of the forest getting angrier the longer you’re around. Each level also has a loose time limit represented by the “Queen’s Impatience”, and if you haven’t achieved your goals quickly enough, you lose. (Which really just means you don’t get as many resources for the meta-progression.)

The city building is kept fresh by randomization of the buildings you can choose from; you can’t follow the same pattern every time because you may not have the same buildings available. In addition, each city has random modifiers that provide bonuses and penalties, and often affect how you approach your expansion.

The meta-progression between cities adds new starting bonuses, new buildings and features, ways to mitigate the randomness (by providing re-rolls or expanding the number of choices you have), and other smaller bonuses (like slowing the queen’s impatience or increasing production speed). Like most roguelite systems, it simply makes the game a little easier the longer you play.

Aside from the gameplay itself, Against the Storm is extremely well-polished for an Early Access game – the visuals are great, everything feels “complete”, and I have yet to run into any bugs. The team updates the game every two weeks, and recent updates have added a lot of new content and adjusted several aspects of the game.

Against the Storm has quickly become one of my newest addictions, being pretty easy to play but also having a lot of depth and difficulty (if you want to push into higher difficulty levels). I’ll definitely be playing it for a long time to come.

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Games Reviews

Review: Sable

Sable was a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass back in September 2021, but I was late to the game and only started a few months ago. When I saw it’d be leaving on 10/16, I decided to get back into it and finish it up. Luckily, Sable isn’t a very long game, so I was able to complete it in a few days once I got back into it; and I’m very glad I did.

The Gliding

Sable is about a young girls’ “Gliding”, where she leaves her clan to explore the world and choose a mask. (It’s basically her rumspringa.) Your journey ends when you choose a mask, and most of the game is spent exploring the world and earning badges to claim each of the various masks. There’s no “right” choice in the end – you’re free to choose whatever you like and there’s no consequence for the choice.

Sable is a game that’s about the journey rather than the destination. You can trigger the ending pretty quickly (within a few hours), but even the message in the game that starts the final quest tells you there’s no rush. If you’re a completionist (like me), it’ll take a little longer – earning all the achievements took me around 11 hours (mostly because I only found out about fast traveling very late in the game). It’s relatively easy to earn all the achievements as well – they’re mostly focused around earning the different masks in the game and collecting a variety of clothes and bike parts. The only things I needed to “grind” for were finding enough of the chum eggs to finish the “Building a Queendom” quest for the chum queen. The achievements are really the only “push” toward completing everything.

The Masks

The mask crafter is a little creepy.

Masks in Sable indicate a person’s profession or focus. You start with the child mask and earn the Ibexii mask as you leave your clan. The other masks are all earned by completing quests or performing actions specific to the profession; each requires you to earn three badges. If you want the merchant mask, you can simply buy three badges from merchants and trade them in for the mask. You’ll have to perform favors for guards, mechanists, innkeepers, or entertainers to earn their badges. The climbing and cartographer masks both require some climbing. You earn scrapper badges by exploring wrecks and selling salvage. The remaining few masks are earned from special quests. Whenever you’ve earned a set of badges, you can visit a “Mask Crafter” to earn the specific mask.

Getting Around

Most of Sable’s exploration involves climbing, and the climbing mechanic is very similar to Shadow of the Colossus – your stamina depletes as you climb, and you drop if you run out. You can earn additional stamina through a special side quest which makes the climbing a lot easier. Generally, however, you don’t need the extra stamina to find everything you need.

You also have “The Perpetual” a magic stone that puts you in a bubble to slow your descent. You can cross large areas with it without losing too much altitude, and it also saves you if you fall from heights.

Before you leave your tribe, you spend some time collecting parts to build your hoverbike, which is the only companion you’ll have for most of the game. You can even call for it and it’ll find its way to you, like a faithful steed. As you play, you can unlock new parts for your bike to enhance its capabilities, along with new paints to change its look. Once I bought the speeder bike parts, I was cruising around the map with ease.

The hoverbike was also one of the buggiest parts of the game for me. It eventually stopped coming to me when I called, and when riding, it’d occasionally spaz out, flip, and start spinning on its nose. It was only a minor distraction, though; I loved my bike the whole game.

The background

Sable’s art style stands out, and I personally think it looks amazing. Each area in the game has a slightly different atmosphere and features to distinguish it from others. There are a few times when the art style hides some geometry that makes traversal a little more annoying (the vertebrae on the giant skeletons in a few areas will blend together and look like a flat surface), but in general the art style is really attractive.

Sable also has a great backstory that you learn by solving special puzzles in shipwrecks. It doesn’t have much bearing on the gameplay itself, but I’d love to see more games in the same world that Sable builds.

The End

Each player’s journey through Sable will be slightly different, and the choice each player makes in the end is personal, and I love that aspect of the game. It’s a great game to play when you just need some time to relax and explore, and I’m glad I took the time to see it through to the end.

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Games

Steam Survival Fest Demos

I enjoy the Steam “fests” mostly because they’ve brought playable demos back. I like being able to try out a game with zero commitment. So each time one comes up, I give a handful of games a spin to see if there’s anything coming up that I’m interested in. Here are a few I’ve played over the past week.

Stardeus

Essentially Rimworld in space. You play as a ship’s AI that has been awoken due to a catastrophic accident on your ship, which is carrying a population of humans in stasis to another world. The game starts with your ship in pieces, and you have to start rebuilding and reconnecting the parts of your ship to ensure the survival of the humans on board.

I didn’t play out the entire demo, but long enough to get a feel for the game. It’s definitely one I’m going to keep an eye on.

Exogate Initiative

I’m a fan of Stargate, and Exogate Initiative lets me play out my fantasy of running Stargate Command. The base building draws a lot of inspiration from Dungeon Keeper and Evil Genius (other games I love), and when you send teams to explore other planets, a kind of “choose-your-own-adventure” style dialog plays out. You attempt to gather samples of plants and animals from alien worlds, research them, and use what you discover to earn income for the Initiative via patents.

Pretty easy to play, though they purposely left out a tutorial (there’s a message when you start saying they think players are smart enough to figure things out on their own); I think a short tutorial would have been handy to instruct me to set up certain things before I started hiring scientists, since one quit before I could get a mess hall and barracks built.

Regardless, this was probably my favorite demo from the event. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while already, and it’s likely going to be an Early Access purchase when it’s available.

Adapt

It’s the creature phase of Spore, but an entire game. The creature creation is great and provides a lot of ways to customize things. I had a little dragon-like creature with a shell and clubbed tail. He was adorable.

Patron

A Banished-like game. I played for a bit just to get a feel for it. I was frustrated by the building footprints, which appear to have a “road” space in front of them, but don’t when built, so I had houses basically had connecting front doors with no space for a road between them. It annoyed me, but it’s not bad. I’d probably just play Banished, though.

XO

Start with a ship and slowly acquire/recruit a fleet to flee or fight the “Harvesters”. It’s got an interesting wireframe aesthetic. I was having a good time until I got to a point where my ships stopped responding to my orders and just sat around doing nothing…

Songs of Syx

A bit like Dwarf Fortress, I think. Huge maps, complex structures (you can design your own building layouts and place items inside), low-detail graphics. The tutorial in the demo is pretty straight-forward, but it’s difficult to know how large I should build something (what’s a good-sized warehouse?).

[I] doesn’t exist – a modern text adventure

An easy-to-play text adventure game with an interesting twist at the end. The puzzles were never too obscure – I always knew what I needed to do, though not always exactly how I was going to do it. I enjoyed it and might pick it up cheap at some point.

Cosmoteer

Interesting ship-building that can get decently complex. Combat was a little slow at the start (though that’s probably a good thing).

Just a Flu

Kind of an educational game about how viruses work. Pretty simple (too much for my tastes), but if COVID has taught us anything, it’s that people just don’t understand public health.

Mr. Prepper

I enjoy the anthill-style building (like XCOM), but some of the adventure-gamey portions are a little boring. I wish I could queue up actions instead of having to walk my character everywhere and do so much clicking.

ILL Space

I want to love this game, but the demo is confusing and nigh-unplayable. After several restarts, I figured out some basics, but never survived more than about 10-15 minutes before the enemies were blasting me while I was practically defenseless. Desperately needs a tutorial or something. Gorgeous, though.

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Games

No Man’s Sky: My favorite space game

I love space games. I’ll play any type, really: strategy games, flight games, survival games, shooters. I’ve always had a fondness of spaceflight games since playing Wing Commander in the 90s. These days, there’s Star Citizen (which really only partially exists; and the Squadron 42 part of the game is still in development) and Elite Dangerous. I love Elite, but I don’t like playing because I can’t just have fun and try things – if I die, I lose my ship and a decent amount of cash, which can be a grind to earn. What I really want is a game that I can just play without having to worry about things too much, and that’s where No Man’s Sky comes in.

The Past

No Man’s Sky had a rocky start. A lot of players didn’t like it, claiming it didn’t live up to the hype. That’s at least partially true (there were things that Sean Murray said but was never in gameplay or concept clips; though things were definitely more sparse and typically less interesting than the original trailer would lead you to believe), but I was hooked by the idea of simply exploring a procedural galaxy by my lonesome. I loved No Man’s Sky from the start. It was a chill single-player exploration game. Something you could sit down with and just lose yourself in for a few hours. It was peaceful in a lot of ways, even if you were getting chased by sentinels or hungry predators.

But since then, Hello Games has really turned it into the game that everyone wanted and then some. You can still explore, but now you can play missions with other players, build bases, mine resources, battle sentinels, command freighters, send frigates on expeditions, manage a settlement, tame and ride creatures, cook weird alien food, and more. They’re still adding to the game with new additions like the recent Sentinels update that added more sentinel varieties with specialized roles. A visual improvement a few updates back has made things look fantastic, and you can easily play with friends now.

The Present

I’ve been playing No Man’s Sky pretty heavily over the past few months, slowly building a resource extraction empire so I’ll have an unlimited supply of all the basic resources and plenty of units to buy ships or resources I need. I’ve mostly accomplished that – I have a mining outpost dedicated to every basic resource, a few Activated Indium mines (a high-value resource that can be sold for units), several Runaway Mould farms (which can be processed into nanites, one of the currencies), an A-Tier Freighter (still looking for an S-Tier), and I’ve even been to the center of the Euclid Galaxy (the starting galaxy) by using a portal to teleport a few jumps from the center. I play every expedition (the NMS equivalent of seasonal content in other games) to earn some unique new decorations or gear. I have over a billion units (basic currency), so I can buy whatever I need. I have a small settlement that produces dirt (still need to upgrade it some more). I have a farm that produces all the growable plants and harvests milk and fruit from local fauna. And there’s still more I want to do before I’m “done”, and even then, there’s plenty of cosmetic content that requires a special “Quicksilver” currency to purchase, which can only be acquired from special missions.

Of course, this is all after a relatively long break from No Man’s Sky. When I came back, I had to relearn a lot of different things. Luckily I came back with the second expedition, and the expeditions were designed to help players relearn the game, so it taught me a lot about how to play again. One expedition had a section dedicated to cooking, and I had to learn the cooking systems in the game to get through that (it’s a little boring). The expeditions require a new character and start players from the same place. You’ll see a lot of other players, and if you start a few days after the launch of an expedition, you can probably find a player base filled with resources you can use to get a head start. (In the last expedition, I found an Activated Indium mining base and took about 30k to sell and refine into Chromatic Metal. I was never in need of money or Chromatic Metal through the rest of the expedition.)

That’s not to say everything is perfect. There are still plenty of bugs. I have a base with no Base Computer because it disappeared while I was trying to move it (so I can’t rename or destroy the base now). Some bugs can be game-breaking, but I’ve been fortunate enough not to run into any of those.

Some things could be improved. I wish base building was a little smoother and had more snapping options (there are small floor panels that I have an incredibly hard time getting placed properly). I wish you could make base blueprints to instantly build small outposts. I wish I could customize the visuals of my ship.

You can get around most of problems with save editors since No Man’s Sky is still essentially a single-player game. I haven’t gone that far yet since I haven’t run into any major issues.

The Future

Hello Games continues to make updates that grow the game and add new ways to explore or stake your claim in the universe. Their pace has been pretty consistent and they claim to have plenty of ideas for things to add to the game. I’m still hopeful they add some of the customization options I’d like.

There’s some competition coming with games like Starfield from Bethesda (I’m interested, but not getting my hopes up), but No Man’s Sky has a big head start and some things I just don’t see getting added to other games (space whales seem out-of-place for games like Starfield or Elite).

And luckily, even with all those changes, No Man’s Sky still retains that chill exploration experience. It’s more hectic if you’re in an outlaw system or hazardous planet, but you can still just land on a paradise planet and enjoy the view.

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Games Reviews

Vampire Survivors

I found Vampire Survivors while looking through my Steam discovery queue. With 99% positive reviews and priced at $3, I figured I’d give it a try.

I’m not typically into rogue-lites or bullet hell shooters, but a while back I picked up Nova Drift and had a great time with it – runs may only last a few minutes, but you always get to try something new. Vampire Survivors is similar, but you don’t control when you fire (your abilities just constantly fire without input), so you’re only focused on dodging enemies and picking up experience and various power-ups. Your abilities don’t combine quite like Nova Drift, but there are a few weapon and passive combinations that allow you to “evolve” the weapon into a significantly more powerful version.

You earn coins during each run that you can use to buy permanent buffs and unlock new characters. Each character starts with a different weapon and has a custom buff that improves as they level. My favorite is Mortaccio, who has a custom bone weapon they toss out that bounces around between enemies. (And his buff is a max +3 projectiles, which is really powerful.)

If you last 30 minutes, all the enemies disappear and Death appears, darts to your location, and instantly kills you, ending your run and granting you bonus coins. Along the way, swarms of enemies fill the screen and you mow them down.

Overall a lot of fun for a small price. It’s still in early access, so I’m hoping they continue to add new characters, levels, and abilities to keep mixing things up. It’s a lot of fun, though definitely an easier and “lighter” game than Nova Drift. (Which I recommend if you like Vampire Survivors.)

I feel like it could use a better title, though…

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Games

Games of 2021

Legend
🌟 A personal favorite. (Not necessarily for everyone.)
✔️ Beat the game.
👍 Recommended if you haven’t played it.
👎 Avoid it. It’s terrible.

PC

Since 2021 saw me shift to permanently working from home, I did little console gaming, but there’s a lot of PC games I played this year. This list is by no means complete, and may see a few updates.

Satisfactory 🌟
Update 5 released this year, which brought a lot of quality-of-life improvements. Building practically anything is easier than ever, and vehicles are a reliable way to transport products now.

Star Trek Online
Toward the end of 2020, I started finding a new love for Star Trek Online. A lot has been added, and while I still don’t really like how it’s monetized, the space combat is as fun as ever.

Destiny 2 🌟
I was on the verge of leaving Destiny 2 behind this year, but Bungie’s refocus on story, PvE, and solo content pulled me back in. Enjoying the game more now than ever before. My only complaint is the gear that’s only available in certain high-end, group-focused content (raids, Trials of Osiris) – as a solo player, that stuff is pretty much impossible to attain, and it tends to be the best gear in the game. Luckily, the addition of cross-play has meant that I don’t have to deal with those high-level weapons nuking me in PvP constantly like I did before.
Season of the Chosen had some great new content and started a theme of turning enemies into allies.
Season of the Splicer was outstanding, telling a great (if somewhat predictable) story and showing the other side of some allies and enemies. (It was my favorite season of the year)
Season of the Lost acted as a great buildup to The Witch Queen.
The 30th Anniversary event has been outstanding, introducing possibly the greatest 6-player PvE event in the game’s history with a great tongue-in-cheek tone.

Fallout 76
Played a bit into 2021, then uninstalled it and never turned back. If the seasons were better structured, I think I could stand it, but it’s more a chore than fun.

Cyberpunk 2077
Played for a few months into the year. I didn’t run into as many issues as some others, but stopped just before finishing the story (because I’m a completionist but got distracted).

Mindustry 🌟
I love Mindustry, and the 6.0 update introduced a world map with many more maps than prior versions, adding a lot of replayability.

Spacebase Startopia
Played the beta and release. Feels like a good modern update to the original Startopia. A few of the campaign levels are a bit difficult.

Per Aspera

Surviving Mars
Finished terraforming Mars. I liked it better red.

Everspace 2 🌟
Even in early access, this game is fantastic. It’s gorgeous, the gameplay is still incredibly solid, and all the new ships and abilities are great.

Dyson Sphere Program
Command a mecha, build production lines spanning planets and star systems. Sure, it’s another factory game, but it’s fun and looks fantastic.

Evil Genius 2
Enjoyed this even more than the original.

Genesis Noir ✔️
This “game” was weird and I still don’t get it.

Cyber Hook
Fun speed runner with a neon retro art style.

Before We Leave ✔️
A fun, easy-going city builder.

Slipways
Great 4X puzzle game.

Timberborn 🌟👍
A survival city builder with adorable little beavers? What’s not to love?

The Ascent ✔️👍
A great cyberpunk action shooter. I played the Game Pass version, which had a really rocky launch and was buggy through my entire playthrough. My biggest complaint, however, was the lack of a manual save. There were many times I needed to quit but had to keep checking the menu to find out if there was a recent save.

Starmancer
Played at early access launch on Game Pass. Super buggy to the point where it was unplayable.

Hades
Gorgeous action rogue-like.

StarCraft II
Played a little of this earlier in the year, but uninstalled it in “protest” of Activision Blizzard’s sexual harassment and discrimination.

Mini Motorways 👍
A great sequel to Mini Metro.

Shortest Trip To Earth
A lot like FTL. I enjoyed it.

Atomicrops
Fun and unique, but didn’t really hook me like I had hoped.

Grim Dawn ✔️🌟👍
Started playing with my wife as a replacement for Diablo. It’s way better than Diablo in basically every way – it’s darker, it has more variety and replayability, and the endgame is great. And it turns out I actually backed it on Kickstarter ages ago and forgot about it completely.

The Riftbreaker 🌟👍
Action RPG base-building. A lot of fun.

No Man’s Sky
The new Expeditions this year were a great way to reintroduce players to the game and provide some seasonal rewards. Still a lot of fun.

Chorus 👎
Played the demo. I had high hopes for this game, but the designers don’t seem to understand how space works. (No strafing? Seriously?) Everspace is far superior.

Maneater
Got this through Humble Bundle and thought it looked interesting. A bit like GTA, except you’re a shark. So much fun to leap out of the water, snatch a hunter off a boat, and dive back underwater while thrashing him to death.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker
A few updates this year, and I can now play it the way I like – with no time limitations. I can play spaceship surgeon as long as I want.

The Pedestrian
A great puzzle game.

Loop Hero
A unique take on the RPG rogue-like.

Final Theory

Endzone – A World Apart
A fun little post-apocalyptic city-builder.

Potion Craft

Space Crew
Fun. A lot like Bomber Crew.

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
Since I’m not interested in MechWarrior Online, this is basically all I’ve got. I don’t like some of the grind, but the expansions definitely improved it.

House Flipper ✔️
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. Great casual game.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
The Mythic Paths in WOTR fix a lot of the annoyances of Pathfinder itself and can make the game a lot more interesting. (I love how the Trickster path breaks the game.)

Portal Reloaded
It’s more Portal, and the new mechanics are a great new twist.

Valheim
I stopped playing with the update that made enemies more aggressive toward player structures. Definitely didn’t want to spend all my time repairing my house(s).

VR

Toward the end of the year, I upgraded to a Valve Index VR headset, and started playing VR games a bit more. I found a few new ones I really enjoy.

I Expect You To Die 2 👍
A great puzzle game like the first, though a bit more difficult.

Until You Fall 👍
Surprise hit for me. From the same people that do I Expect You To Die. Some of the best swordplay in any VR game I’ve played.

Boneworks
Refunded. Sudden and extreme motion sickness whenever I played.

Raw Data
Doesn’t work well with the Index controllers.

The Room VR
I’ve always loved the Room series, and the VR version doesn’t disappoint. Another solid VR puzzle game.

Battlegroup VR
Bought this during the holiday sale and wasn’t sure what to expect. Turns out it’s a great tactical space RTS in VR. A little buggy, though.

PS4

God of War ✔️🌟👍
Finally finished this one. Loved it. Got bored with the endgame pretty quickly, though.

Board Games

7th Continent
I’ve owned this game for a while but never got around to playing it. My wife and I started a game this year but quit after about 6 hours of play. I love the choose-your-own-adventure style mechanics, but a lot of the gameplay is tedious. After introducing some house-rules, it got better, but we haven’t been back to it to finish our first curse.

Unsettled 👍
Unsettled was the board game sleeper hit for me in 2021. We played 7th Continent earlier in the year, and while I liked the mechanics, I found the gameplay tedious. Unsettled is a similar game (co-op vs. the environment), but has better theming, better gameplay, and the best storage system I’ve ever seen in a board game. My wife and I just barely beat the first mission (got lucky with special equipment for our robot), and are looking forward to playing more.

Arcane Academy
A simple engine-builder. I like the artwork and components, but I have better games, so unfortunately this one is going in the donate pile.

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition 👍
A great deck-building version of Terraforming Mars. Plays quicker and easier than the full game, but it’s still Terraforming Mars at its core.

Dinosaur World
Build your own Jurassic Park and populate it with cute dinosaur meeples.

Dice Throne 👍
Easy to play, lots of fun. The character variety is great.

Canvas 👍
A beautiful game about creating unique works of art.

Pandemic: Fall of Rome 👍
Loved it. Better and deeper than the original.

Trogdor!! The Board Game
Fun game with a Strong Bad theme. Brought back memories of watching those videos in college.

The Butterfly Garden
Simple game about gathering butterflies.

Mining Colony

Agropolis

7 Wonders: Duel 👍
A fantastic version of 7 Wonders for two players.

Plague, Inc: The Board Game
Appropriate for our current times. Feels a lot like the digital game.

Chimera Station
A worker-placement game with a gene-splicing mechanic.

Cavemen: The Quest for Fire

Caper
A fun two-player game with classic spy movie styling.

Forbidden Sky
It’s fun to make the rocket launch at the end.

Small Star Empires
Like chess, but with spaceships and colonies.

Core Worlds

Lanterns: The Harvest Festival

Patchwork: Halloween Edition
We already own Patchwork, but the Halloween Edition uses eyeballs instead of buttons and cute Halloween-themed fabrics.

Space Cadets: Away Missions
Like a mini tabletop RPG. Pretty easy to play.

Categories
Games

Games of 2020

Keeping up the tradition, here are the games I played in 2020.

Legend
🌟 A personal favorite. (Not necessarily for everyone.)
👍 Recommended if you haven’t played it.
👎 Avoid it. It’s terrible.

Xbox One

Darksiders Genesis
Played a bit of this with my wife for some couch co-op fun.

Switch

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order
A fun beat-em-up in the Ultimate Alliance franchise. Got boring fairly fast, though.

Animal Crossing
I still have a love-hate relationship with Animal Crossing. Building stuff is fun, but it feels like too much of a chore. I stopped playing after a few months.

PC

Destiny 2 🌟👍
I still love Destiny. Beyond Light introduced a bunch of changes that I really appreciate, though it’s starting to get a little boring.

My festive FICSMAS factory

Satisfactory 🌟👍
My newest gaming addiction. Played this hard for a while, building up a factory, oil refinery, and a skybridge that circled the map. Stopped playing for a while once I had unlocked everything, then came back for the extremely well-designed FICSMAS event.

Kerbal Space Program 🌟👍
Started playing this again to see where it’s come in the time since I’ve been away. It got a lot more fun once I started using MechJeb extensively to handle launch and rendezvous so I could just focus on designing rockets and missions.

X4: Foundations 🌟👍
Played a lot of this. I’ve always enjoyed the X series, but X4 is one of the easiest to play. I barely even touched the story missions until I already owned about half the galaxy and had several shipyards. (I also did a lot of idling, letting my fortune grow while working.)

Hardspace: Shipbreaker
A puzzle game where you’re slicing open ships to salvage them, using the money you make (after fees from your employer) to upgrade your equipment. A time limit on each shift is your biggest obstacle, forcing you to cut corners to save time. If you’re not careful, you can cause an explosive decompression, slice a fuel tank, or cause a reactor explosion. And any accidents cut into your income.
There’s also a hyper-capitalist dystopian backstory here. You’re an “independent contractor” and you’re charged rental fees for your equipment and housing, so that $1M in salvage may only net you about $200K. Eventually you’ll save up enough to buy your equipment outright and avoid the fees, but it’s a long road to get there.

Diablo 3
Season 20: Barbarian. Season 21: Demon Hunter. Season 22: Skipped.

Trailmakers
Got this in one of the Humble Monthly bundles. It’s a fun little vehicle-building game using Lego-like components. I had a hard time designing anything I really wanted, so I ended up pulling things from the Steam Workshop to finish out the campaign.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Loved this. It’s a great CRPG with the depth of Pathfinder underneath, though you can’t always pull off some of the builds you can with the pen-and-paper version.

Jurassic World: Evolution
Kept playing this in 2020. Still love it.

Warframe
I don’t play a lot of Warframe, but I still enjoy it. Came back this year for some 7th Anniversary events.

Command and Conquered: Remastered Collection
I love classic C&C, and this brought back some memories.

Spacebase Startopia
One of my favorite games from the 90s. Played the beta. Still a little rough, but all the basics are already there and it definitely feels like the original. Planning to have a lot of fun with this after release.

Observation 👍
Great sci-fi story. Basically a story-driven puzzle game. It’s pretty easy and relatively short, but worth playing.

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
Starts off slow, but once you get a few pilots to fill out your lance (after the third or fourth mission), it gets better. It’s a bit of a grind to earn reputation and c-bills, and it’s difficult to find good mechs and pilots until later in the game. Overall, it’s good, but not great.

Spiritfarer 👍
A fun game about ferrying spirits to the afterlife. You have to keep them happy and solve their problems so they can rest.

Not For Broadcast
I don’t think I’ve played a game like this before. It’s difficult and has a very odd story. If you like British humor, definitely give it a try.

Supraland
A fun little first-person Metroidvania. Good humor and some great Easter eggs.

Gris 👍
Deserves all those awards.

Phoenix Point
Fun. Similar to XCOM.

Everspace 🌟👍
I’m typically not a fan of rogue-likes, but something about Everspace clicked with me and I loved it.

Nova Drift 🌟👍
Surprise hit for me. It’s a rogue-like shooter with some incredible ability combinations. Every run is fun even if it’s short-lived.

Genesis Alpha One
Another rogue-like where you build up your ship and crew until you can start a “Genesis” colony on an alien world. Fun and super creepy at times.

Little Big Workshop
Build a factory, hire workers, build stuff. Cute, but gets tedious.

The Universim
I’ve been playing this through several betas (even before it was on Steam). A civilization builder that’s had a lot of content added.

Railway Empire
Got through Humble Monthly, played because I was bored. If you like trains, it’s good. I found some of the rail laying annoying, but overall a solid tycoon game.

Inch By Inch
Bought and played this after seeing it on YouTube. It’s a short, simple puzzle game with an interesting mechanic. Won’t take long to beat it for the first time, but you can adjust the settings to customize your challenge.

No Man’s Sky
Decided to play some more of this after the Origins update to see where it’s come. It’s still a great solo exploration game, but they’ve added a lot of extra content to really expand on the original formula. I’ve always been a fan.

Fallout 76
Played this because it was part of Xbox Game Pass. When I started, my one-sentence review was: “It has the Fallout setting, but not the soul.” After playing further, I’ve started to see that Fallout is here, setting and soul, but I’m convinced Bethesda just doesn’t know how to build a multiplayer game like this. That said, they’re slowly getting better. The One Wasteland For All patch fixed a lot of issues with exploration and quest progression (for example: low-level quests with steps in high level areas, lack of content for mid-level players). Plans to build equipment and structures are difficult to find.
In my opinion, the worst part of the game continues to be the “Fallout 1st” subscription; it seems like you’re actively punished for not paying. Weight is constantly an issue, but Fallout 1st members get containers with unlimited capacity (scrapbox to store as many crafting components as they want).
I desperately want to like this game, but there’s so much that’s annoying by design. There’s content to enjoy here, but unless you have people to play with regularly – or are a huge Fallout fan – probably avoid it.

Marvel’s Avengers 👎
Super buggy. The single player storyline can’t figure out what type of game it wants to be (beat-em-up? stealth-action? adventure?) and does a poor job being anything.

Star Trek Online
I haven’t played this in several years, but I wanted to fly around in a spaceship and shoot things, so I started playing again. I’m not a fan of the daily grinding for things, and the inflation of the real-money store is crazy ($30 for a single ship). There’s a lot of pay-to-win stuff going on here (and I don’t like the gambling in lock boxes), but through lots of gameplay, you could actually convert earned resources into premium currency and buy things (which partially contributes to the inflation). As long as you’re not playing PvP (which I’m not), there’s still a lot of fun content here. Can be played solo, but a lot of content is behind fleets (several ship upgrades, officers, some items).

Tropico 6
Good old Tropico. Hasn’t changed much, but that’s not a bad thing when the game was already great.

Everspace 2
After playing Everspace, I got really excited about Everspace 2. Played the prototype during a Steam event and I love where it’s going. Unfortunately, the Cyberpunk juggernaut pushed the release into 2021.

Per Aspera
Mars resource management strategy with an interesting story. Played during one of those Steam demo events and ended up buying it when it released.

Mars Horizon
Played the demo. A simplified version of the history of spaceflight. (Maybe a little too simplified.)

Fights in Tight Spaces
Played the demo. Loved the concept and execution of this one.

5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel
And here I thought I was pretty good at chess. I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around this one.

MarZ: Tactical Base Defense
A really good tower defense game about zombies on Mars.

Siege of Centauri
Another sci-fi tower defense game. Not quite as refined as MarZ, but still fun to play.

Mindustry
The 6.0 update made some major changes to how the game is played and vastly expanded how much game is here.

Wash your face.

Cyberpunk 2077 🌟👍
I played this on PC, so I didn’t really run into many of the problems I saw making the rounds online. Still working through the story after 70 hours, and still enjoying every minute with my quickhack-focused build. This is probably my GOTY for 2020.

Camus is a good boy. And temporarily trapped in a car body.

Cloudpunk
It’s like a chill version of Cyberpunk.

Iron Harvest
Haven’t managed to put a lot of time into this yet, but first few levels make this look like a highly tactical RTS. (Positioning and cover are extremely important.)

Tabletop

Wingspan 🌟👍
Wingspan continues to be one of the best board games I own.

Azul: Summer Pavilion

Queendomino

Fences

Darkrock Ventures

Chai

Kodama

Tiny Epic Dinosaurs
I love the “Tiny Epic” series of games. The label fits: they’re small-box games with big gameplay. In this one, you’re managing a tiny dinosaur park; buying and selling dinosaurs for points. There’s some puzzle-style gameplay and a ton of cute, tiny dinosaur meeples.

Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries
I don’t think this is as good as the original. It’s a tighter map, but my wife and I both had a hard time getting the colors we needed to complete things. Locomotives are still wilds in this version, but can only be used on ferries and tunnels.

Horizon: Zero Dawn The Board Game 🌟👍
Captures the fun of hunting robot dinosaurs across several short encounters.

Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time 🌟👍
Tower defense in board game form. My wife and I loved this one. It’s like playing a series of tiny Tetris games. Narrowly beats Horizon as my 2020 Board-GOTY.

Seven Wonders
Owned this for a while but only just got around to playing it for the first time this year. Fun, but a little awkward with two players. (Probably should play Duel for two players.)

Elder Sign
Despite winning, I didn’t really enjoy this game. Felt too random.

Categories
Games

Fallout 76 – Addendum

After my Fallout 76 Review, I had some additional thoughts about the game regarding some of my frustrations. There was also a “Bombs Drop Event” this past week – celebrating the day everything went to hell in the Fallout universe – which provided one-week access to Fallout 1st perks, so I now have some firsthand opinions about those perks.

Build Frustrations

I touched on this in my review, but I wanted to elaborate on some of the frustrations I have about build balance. I understand a game with as much variation as Fallout is difficult to balance for multiplayer (which is another reason it probably shouldn’t exist as a multiplayer game), but the amount of imbalance continuously annoys me. I’ve built my Fallout 76 character as a stealth sniper – a style I’ve always enjoyed because it deals high damage without the use of heavy weapons. When I’m free exploring, this build works great, as I can typically handle anything I find in my travels without much difficulty. Unfortunately, this build is at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to most high-level content. Most of the Fallout 76 endgame is structured around public events and the new “Daily Ops” introduced in the One Wasteland for All patch. These events all work in a way that makes the rifleman build weaker than the alternatives.

In “Daily Ops”, enemies have two mutations that make them more difficult than usual. One of these mutations is permanent and provides them with heightened perception that makes stealth useless. These events also require you to defend points in the area, which means all the enemies know where you are and you can’t hide from them. You can manage through with a rifle, but stealth just won’t work, so all the perks I have to boost my stealth and my sneak attack damage are worthless. I also don’t have any perks in the same stats to replace them, so I just have several wasted points when I’m playing these events.

In most other endgame events, you’re either fighting a boss or defending against waves of enemies. The rifleman build works for a few of these where the enemies are relatively few and weak (the lower-level events), but in most cases high-powered single-shot rifles put you at a disadvantage; mostly just because of the way experience works in the game. Players will gain experience for any kill on an enemy they’ve damaged, regardless of who gets the kill. As a result, players who carry heavy, rapid-fire weapons like gatling lasers or miniguns tend to gain experience the fastest, as they can simply spray an area and hit nearly everything. In most high-level content, I find myself fighting alongside players in power armor toting gatling lasers, gatling plasma, or miniguns (usually explosive miniguns). The only way I’ve found to keep up is by using a tesla rifle, which shoots lightning that will arc to multiple targets (or off the environment), allowing me to hit multiple targets at once; though it will also arc to players, so if there are several hulking power armors between me and an enemy, I’m still not likely to get a hit. Even the players who aren’t carrying heavy weapons are typically using automatic rifles, which works the same way.

Rifles also end up being extremely weak against bosses. Because of their low rate-of-fire, rifles perform very poorly when fighting a boss with high resistances. Even with all my bonuses and using my highest-powered rifles, I can’t cause much damage to high-level bosses, while players with heavy and automatic weapons will regularly chew through bosses much faster. Semi-automatic rifles have a damage boost over automatic weapons, but it’s not enough to make up for the difference in fire rate. With the disadvantages rifles have in most of the multiplayer content, it seems they should be much stronger to compensate (likely to the point that a rifle-focused build should one-shot most enemies), or automatic weapons weakened to bring them in line. (I doubt either will ever happen.)

The only “disadvantage” to automatic rifles and heavy weapons is the amount of ammunition you need to carry (and its weight). There are perks to reduce the weight of the ammunition (to the point where it’s practically weightless), so that’s already balanced out. You need the crafting materials to craft ammunition as well; but lead, steel, and gunpowder are easy to find and there are perks to increase the amount of ammunition you craft. Maybe you could point to the amount of scrap you need to keep on hand as a potential disadvantage, but it turns out there’s a way around that, too; it just costs real-money dollars.

Fallout 1st

After a one-week trial of Fallout 1st, I can say this much with certainty now: it’s not worth the asking price and the scrapbox should be given to all players.

The scrapbox is a storage item you can place in your camp that stores an unlimited amount of scrap. When I started the trial week, I immediately crafted it and moved all my scrap over. Half of my 800-pound stash was scrap material. Over the week, I grabbed everything that wasn’t nailed down so I could scrap it and put it in this magical box of scrap-holding; just so I would have a stockpile once I could no longer add to it. (When your Fallout 1st subscription lapses, you can still remove items from the scrapbox; you just can’t add to it.) And while I certainly won’t hoard as much junk now that I can’t put it all in this container, I did notice a change for the week I had it: I was less stressed. Constantly having to worry about your storage space is annoying. You can’t just sell all the scrap, since vendors will only buy so much per day. I can sell to other players, but until someone buys it, the scrap continues to take up space. So ultimately, I’m left carrying a significant amount of my junk on my person, with the Pack Rat perk reducing the weights to make it manageable. This one item actually made the game more fun, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to lock items that make the game fun or less stressful behind a subscription fee.

The Fallout 1st trial also game with use of the survival tent, which is a freely-movable fast travel point with some storage and crafting items. This was convenient to use, but this is one of those items I’m OK having behind the subscription. I’d love if everyone had access to it, but it’s not as game-changing as the scrapbox. While the fast travel tax is annoying, it’s not as stressful as the inventory management needed to handle all that scrap.

Finally, the trial gave players a few free items – a wallpaper and a flooring. Woo. Sure, give these to subscribers for free; doesn’t bother me at all.

The trial didn’t provide the stipend subscribers get (understandable; it’s approximately $16.50 worth of premium currency), but I think the stipend is just thrown in there to make it seem “worth” the asking price. Personally, I don’t think giving away $13 (or $8.25/month at the $99/year) of my real-world dollars is worth it for $17 of Fallout fun-bucks. Just give me a $5/month or $50/year option just to get a few free items and the tent. That seems worth it and much more fair to players.

Seasons

The past week also provided players with double experience and double score for the season. I was able to progress very rapidly (both because of the bonuses and because of the scrapbox; less time managing my inventory means more time actually playing), and managed to get to rank 80. I still think I’m going to have to play daily to just barely finish the season, but at least it feels more attainable. I think this serves as a sign that the amount you have to put into the season needs to be reduced, as the current model adds to the stress. I feel like I should be able to finish the season in about a month if I play daily. If Bethesda wants to keep players engaged for a longer time, they need to provide content, not yet another thing to grind through.

Fallout can be better

I think Bethesda could learn a lot from Bungie and Destiny here. I can complete a Destiny season in about a month of regular play. The “subscription” is a $60-70 expansion pass each year, and that pass comes with a lot of new content – strikes, patrol zones, Crucible and Gambit maps, gameplay modes, events. While paying for the expansions and seasons will give you several items up front, everything is attainable by free-to-play players (aside from some cosmetics). Even the cosmetics in the Eververse store can be had with enough gameplay – you can finish quests for Bright Dust and buy items from Eververse in the weekly rotations. Sure, Destiny is a grind, but I never feel particularly disadvantaged.

The only experiences in Destiny that I don’t get to experience are the raids and challenging quests. These events are interesting and provide some great gear, but typically require a well-coordinated team and a large time investment. While I’d love to have that gear, I’m just fine without it, and the only time it actually affects me is during PvP, which I don’t really like anyway. There’s also enough alternative options to reduce the sting of getting taken out by a weapon I’ll never be able to have. This is the one area where I feel Fallout does better, multiplayer-wise: I can play end-game events because they don’t require a well-coordinated team; just players who can fight back enemies. Daily Ops are like Destiny strikes, and the world events are like Destiny’s public events. They’re not always quite as interesting in Fallout, but they’re accessible, and that’s what I like most about them. Bethesda just needs to work on making everything in Fallout 76 that accessible.

Categories
Games

Review: Fallout 76

A battered Nuka Cola sign

Back in July, Fallout 76 came to Xbox Game Pass and I decided to give it a try. I had avoided the game since its launch because everything I heard about it sounded distinctly non-Fallout: PvP focus, no NPCs, etc. Even since I started playing, there have been updates that have improved the game, so Bethesda is definitely doing a good job making the game better. I’ve played frequently since I started, and since I’ve reached level 100, I feel like this is a good time to put my thoughts about the game down. As with all games, there are good and bad elements, but ultimately, however, I don’t think Fallout works as a multiplayer game.

The Good

A player camp from Fallout 76 with a lovely diner design.
A player camp from Fallout 76 with a lovely diner design.

Just recently, the One Wasteland for All update has been a great update and actually solved a lot of problems I had with the game before. The update causes enemies to scale to your level, so you’re free to explore the wasteland without encountering the random high-level creature. Before, there were several low-level quests that would lead a player into high-level territory, preventing progress until the player is higher level. Since the update, I’ve been able to freely explore places I was less comfortable exploring before, and I can join any event I like. I’ve seen players just freshly out of Vault 76 (in the level 1-10 range) joining endgame events and contribute just as well as the level 400+ players. Everyone is fighting the same enemies, but always at their level.

Me and a few others playing instruments during an event.
Me (left) and a few others playing instruments during an event.

My favorite parts of the Fallout experience have always been exploring the wasteland and learning about what happened before the bombs fell. When I started, the Wastelanders expansion was already out, which introduced NPCs and new quests, so I can’t compare to how the game felt before that point, but the Appalachian wasteland feels like classic Fallout now. I learn about characters and their stories without ever meeting them; I learn about what happened both before and after the Great War; I get to learn about the real-world West Virginia in it’s fictionalized version. The classic Fallout experience is all here.

A picture of my CAMP in Fallout 76
A picture of my CAMP in Fallout 76.

In Fallout 4, one of my favorite features was building up the various settlements, but the build limits always felt restrictive – I remember my settlement in Sanctuary had a wall around the island, a single building, and a bunch of shops on a concrete foundation. In 76, you get your own “C.A.M.P.” to place and build up wherever you like. While the amount of space you get to build within and the budget for building still feel restrictive, I’ve loved building up my wasteland home. It’s my own personal workshop, shelter, and farm. I’ve spent hours building and decorating. I get excited when I find new plans for something else I can build in my camp. The building elements from Fallout 4 have been expanded and improved in Fallout 76.

A player CAMP from Fallout 76 designed to look like a Brotherhood of Steel checkpoint.
A player CAMP from Fallout 76 designed to look like a Brotherhood of Steel checkpoint.

Finally, there are certain multiplayer elements of the game that I really enjoy. I enjoy seeing other players visit my camp and make use of my workstations or buy from my vending machines. I love seeing how other players have built their camps. I enjoy the world events that groups of players can join and face waves of enemies. Bethesda has made it really easy to join up with other players in many different ways. I generally play solo, and you can play the majority of the content completely alone. Most endgame content has to be played with other players, but you don’t have to team up with other players during events. I like being able to play the game alone with other players wandering around, occasionally encountering another player in the wasteland or at my camp, then continue on my way. And generally, other players are very friendly and well-meaning, which improves the overall experience of the game.

The Bad

While there’s a lot to the game that I enjoy, there are some constant annoyances that I encounter that continually detract from the game. Most of these issues are ultimately caused by the multiplayer aspect of the game, unfortunately making what could be a truly fantastic game disappointing.

I don’t enjoy PvP in the slightest. There are plenty of games that I completely avoid because they’re primarily competitive (e.g., the entire “battle royale” category). In Fallout 76, you can turn on a “pacifist” flag that will prevent you from hurting other players and other players hurting you. While I’ve never killed another player (and never intend to), I’ve been killed by other players twice. The first time was after I picked a lock in a workshop claimed by another player. Typically locks have red text when unlocking them is bad (I assume); this one wasn’t, but still put a ten cap bounty on me. Later, I was turning in a quest when I was one-shotted by a high-level player. The second time, I was preparing to defend a workshop I had claimed from a wave of enemies, when I was one-shotted by a player, losing 50 caps. Both of these experiences soured me on Fallout for a short time, so I can’t imagine how bad things were when the game first came out. The experiences will also shape how I plan to play from now on – I never intend to stay at a workshop for very long, for instance, to avoid opening myself up for PvP. (I don’t understand why you’re forced into PvP for owning a workshop anyway.)

My teddy bear collection in Fallout 76
My teddy bear collection.

You do a lot of building things in Fallout 76. This requires a lot of scrap that you need to keep around to build things. Unfortunately, the stash at your camp only holds 800 pounds of stuff, including guns (which can be very heavy), armor, chems (also oddly heavy), miscellaneous items, and junk – including your scrap. Apparently early players could only keep 400 pounds in their stash and I have no idea how they managed, as I’m constantly fighting my 800-pound limit. It’s difficult to actually keep the items you’d like to keep because of the stash capacity. Making matters worse, vendors and the legendary exchange machine (used to scrap legendaries) have a limit to how much you can get from them per day, meaning I’ve sometimes had to quit the game to come back the next day and get rid of unwanted gear. In general, weight management is a giant pain, even with perks and equipment to reduce weights or increase carry capacity. I’ve gotten better at managing my own inventory since I managed to complete the quest line to craft a backpack (a quest that takes far too long to complete), but I still occasionally face problems with the weight of items.

Most games like this contain a lot of grinding, but Fallout 76 takes it to a new level. Nearly everything you do in the game is another grind: gaining experience beyond level 50; earning gold bullion; earning reputation with the raiders and settlers; finding good legendary equipment and scrapping the bad for legendary scrip; gaining perk coins to level up legendary perks; seasonal score; daily quests. At a certain point, the grind just gets boring. One thing I’ve used to break up the grinding are some of the quests in the game – what I mentioned above as one of my favorite parts of Fallout. Unfortunately, 76 almost seems to discourage completing quests – the rewards for an hour-plus quest line are worse than a fifteen-minute event. It seems like spending time with the lore of the game should be rewarded better than a short event; especially considering those quests can only be completed once anyway.

There are also numerous, lingering bugs in the game – things typical to the Fallout series, but aren’t a major issue in single-player games. Controls have stopped working while at a terminal or picking a lock; equipment has spontaneously duplicated itself; I’ve been unable to use a workbench because it’s “in use” by no one. The worst issue I’ve encountered is in combat: I’ll have to “kill” an enemy multiple times, when my headshot doesn’t register properly (their health bar is reduced to zero) and they heal back to full health after a second or two. Some of these are likely things I’ve seen in past Fallout games, but they’re made worse simply by being in a multiplayer game.

The Ugly

This happens relatively often.

There are some parts of the game that aren’t necessarily bad, they’re just implemented in a way that doesn’t work well.

There are a few “cap taxes” in the game that aren’t necessarily bad (they’re meant to pull caps out of the economy), but they’re annoying. I don’t have any problem with the vendor-based tax (10% of what a player pays doesn’t go to the seller), but the fast travel tax is simply annoying. It can cost more than 30 caps just to travel across the map. Bethesda recently made the two faction bases – Crater and Foundation – free to fast-travel to (and you visit them frequently as part of their quest lines and daily quests), so you can use them as a free fast-travel before paying to get to wherever you’re headed. However, making any location free for fast travel only makes it obvious how silly it is to charge caps for fast travel in the first place. If they need to take caps out of the economy, just put something worthwhile, expensive, and repeatable into the game. You can buy mutation serum recipes for around 20000 caps, and they’re worth buying; the game just needs more things like that.

A picture of the interior of my CAMP in Fallout 76.
A picture of the interior of my CAMP in Fallout 76.

In the latest patch, they’ve introduced a new event called “Daily Ops”. These are meant to be short, objective-based missions within an instanced area. Unfortunately, these events aren’t balanced very well. The enemies will have a random mutation, and some are incredibly annoying. One that was common for several days was “resilient”, where enemies can only be killed with a melee attack – not even a nuke would kill them. In addition, the enemies always have a “perceptive” mutation which allows them to see any player, even my high-stealth invisible character. Since I play a stealth build with relatively low resistances, I’m at a severe disadvantage playing the daily ops.

The seasonal system is a huge grind and requires you to do things you may not enjoy. Daily goals may include claiming workshops, playing the new “Daily Ops” event, or killing a particular type of enemy. Most of the time, these goals are pretty easy to accomplish, but the limited nature prevents much progress on the seasonal scoreboard. Destiny handles this much better, where you gain progress for earning experience, so you can simply do whatever you want and be rewarded with seasonal progress. I’ve been playing nearly every day since the latest season began (about a month now), and I’m only just getting to the halfway point. Even if I continue to play every day through the rest of the season (until November 24th), I’ll probably only barely reach the end. Games that demand my attention daily generally turn me off these days, and the least Bethesda could do is make the seasons last longer or provide ways to complete the season faster.

Finally, there’s the “Fallout 1st” subscription. I’m not opposed to a subscription for the game, but the asking price here – $13/month or $99/year – is far too high. I have no interest in private servers, and I don’t care about the premium-currency stipend (if I’m desperate to buy things, I can just buy the currency separately), but there are a few quality-of-life items locked behind the subscription. Fallout 1st players get a “scrapbox” to hold all their scrap with unlimited storage, and a “survival tent” they can place as a mini-camp to act as a free fast-travel point. If the price were much lower – maybe $5/month or $50/year – I’d consider joining for the QOL items, but at it’s current price, it’s just not worth it, and this leaves a lot of the non-paying players feeling like second-class citizens.

Summary

A player camp in Fallout 76.
A player camp in Fallout 76. I like the “kill laugh love” neon sign above the door.

I’m disappointed and frustrated by Fallout 76. I can tell there’s a good game in there, but it’s buried under annoying systems and tons of grinding. It’s at least at a point where I can recommend it to fans of the Fallout series (barely) – but I definitely wouldn’t suggest it to anyone else. I want desperately to love this game, but I keep finding things that annoy me and make me want to stop playing. I’ll likely try to finish this season, but I may not play any more after that (especially considering there are a lot of games coming at the end of November that I’m going to want to put time into).