April 14 was a big day for Fallout fans: First, Fallout 76 finally celebrated its release on Steam this Tuesday, and secondly, Bethesda released the big Wastelanders update, which finally brings NPCs into the role-playing game.
We looked at how Fallout 76 is now getting through to Steam users and came across a small review bombing, some criticism, but also tons of praise for the post-apocalyptic RPG.
3,800 Steam reviews are »mostly positive«
Almost 24 hours after the Steam release, 3,800 players have already given a user review of Fallout 76. Approximately 74 percent of the ratings are currently positive (this corresponds to almost 2,800 pieces) and so Bethesda's role-playing game currently achieves an overall rating of »largely positive«.
Steam does not rate all votes: Even though almost 4,000 customers have already submitted a review, Steam only shows 603 of them on the Fallout 76 product page above and they are only "balanced". How does that come about?
The reason for this is simple: Steam only counts the reviews of all users who bought Fallout 76 through Valve's platform. However, the developer gave every player who already has Fallout 76 in Bethesda launcher a Steam version.
Since these users received their key on Valves platform free of charge, their opinions are not officially included in the statistics. They can still be found in the review area at the bottom of the product page.
Where does mini review bombing come from?
Especially in the first hours after the Steam release, there was a lot of negative reviews for Fallout 76. As our colleagues from Mein-MMO have already explained, this was mainly due to very short-term reviews.
So much of the first Reviews after 0.1 or 0.2 hours of play written. That is hardly enough to be able to make a comprehensive criticism of the Steam version.
The corresponding users in such reviews only write extremely brief statements such as: "The same game as before, just a different launcher" or "just no !!!". Through such reviews, the average fell shortly after the release to "mostly negative" with just 34 percent positive votes.
Much praise for the now improved Fallout 76
Since then, however, the statistics have improved significantly. Among the currently 74 percent positive user reviews can be found much praise for the innovations of the wastelanders update.
Steam user Chester writes in his review, which he wrote after four hours of play, that Fallout 76 is now running much better than the original release in November 2018:
"I can't understand how people complain about performance or graphics. This was significantly increased with the big update and looks fantastic in my opinion (on UWQHD Ultra).
The NPCs are finally bringing something to life. It can be improved a lot, but it has made a huge leap compared to the release version. "
You can also take a look at the innovations in the Wastelanders update:
1:51
Fallout 76 – finally NPCs! Trailer introduces the changes to the Wastelanders update
The user ChrisDaBest also made a recommendation after just one and a half hours of play, even if his criticism sounds comparatively cautiously positive and calls Fallout "finally normal game":
"Had the game on Bethesda.net before and had a good 240 hours there! I have to say with the NPCs and the new quests it feels like a normal game now! As many players as I have since the Steam release never seen it before! I would say now you can finally recommend it! get it! "
However, we have to note that it not just gave negative review bomberswho wrote a review after a very short time. On the positive side, too, there are numerous reviews that were written after less than an hour of play and clearly say that they want to counteract the negatively written negative reviews.
A very clear and unambiguous conclusion to Fallout 76 can hardly be drawn with the Steam reviews. But don't worry, there is our GameStar test for the Wastelanders update:
more on the subject
Fallout 76 in the post-test: revaluation thanks to wastelanders?
Fallout 76 is still having problems
We also want to mention that almost all Steam reviews still find numerous problems with Fallout 76 – both with the negative and the positive. Even players who are generally satisfied with the further development of Bethesda's role-playing game continue to criticize some aspects of the game.
Most users who have written their criticism in more detail still complain about technical problems such as Bugs, low frame rates or bad graphics, animations and poor AI.
We have prepared a clear FAQ for you about the innovations of the Wastelanders update and all important information about the Steam release of Fallout 76.
Table of Contents