Bethesda’s Bill LaCoste answers the big search query.
When the Fallout TV show came out, one of the questions that began trending online was this particularly harsh-sounding query: “Is Fallout 76 good now?”
Long-term players will remember that back in 2018, when Fallout 76 first launched, it did not receive universal acclaim from fans and critics, with Bethesda’s online-multiplayer Fallout experience being somewhat divisive at the time.
2024’s renewed interest in Fallout, driven by the TV version, seemed to have people wondering whether Fallout 76 is worth checking out today. It is still the most recent of the Fallout games to launch, after all, and it has received countless updates since 2018.
RadioTimes.com recently had the opportunity to sit down with one of the Fallout 76 developers. We couldn’t resist the chance to ask him about that trending question – Is Fallout 76 good now? – and you can see his reaction in the video above.
Bill LaCoste, lead producer at Bethesda Game Studios on Fallout 76, said: “I think it’s a consistent question.”
Asked for a response to the question, he added, “I mean, first off, the answer is yes. It is good.”
He continued: “We never lost track of where this launch happened, and why it happened, but also the… I guess, the level of dissatisfaction that players had when it came out. So we never lose sight of that, but we’ve always been focused on the future too.
“Like, even from launch, there was still a roadmap and a plan to get to all of these updates and continue to update the game, continue to support it, continue to put out new content, make sure we’re fixing things along the way.
“And that’s happened. And a lot of the players stuck around. One, because it’s a Fallout game, and they like Bethesda Games Studios games anyway. But, they knew that we were on to something.
“And so, we get it. We understand, like, yes, some players left at launch. It wasn’t their cup of tea. I totally get that. But now we’re welcoming them back, going, ‘Hey, the game is much different now.’ And even some places have re-reviewed the game, which is great, because we never asked for that. We never even wanted to do that.
“We were just like, ‘No, it’s good to remember what was there, but we know where we’re at right now.’ And so we just tell people that this is the product of us consistently knowing where we were going all along, and continuing to update it, and just continuing to support the product.
“And so, at no point was there any, like, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s happening?’ It’s… we know this, we’re going to fix it. You all are going to hang around with us. You’re going to see the progression.
“And now that people are coming back in, yeah, it’s a resounding yes. Of course the game is good. And that’s not just me being a producer on the product, or the lead producer on the product.
“It’s more that I play this game in my own time. Not even for research purposes. I play it because I do enjoy it. I love the grinds that I go through, and the creating of new characters and jumping into the world.
[squirrel-affiliate-playlist squirrel_playlist_id=”653” /]
“It’s funny because I jump into the world all the time with a new character and I play, and all of a sudden there will be some high-level person comes up and they’re like, ‘Come here.’ They’ll emote, you know, to come here. And they’ll drop a whole bunch of stuff on the ground.
“You know, it’s like, ‘I don’t need it, but I’ll take it because I know that makes you feel really good, and you’re supporting the community of people who are coming in.’
“We have some really great streamers. We had one that put up a big camp right in front of the vault, like right down at the vault, [and] said, ‘Welcome, new players.’
“So, that’s how our community interacts with everyone else. And I think that’s just a really great thing to have. And we’ve always wanted to support the community like that.”
At the event, we also had the chance to try out Fallout 76’s latest new content, the Skyline Valley expansion, which opens up a new area of the map, as well as allowing players to fight a new enemy type (electrified ghouls called ‘The Lost’) and unravel the secrets of Vault 63.
We had a lot of fun exploring this new stuff, entering a giant storm cloud and meeting all sorts of odd new characters. The Lost provided some tricky combat challenges, and the story left us wanting more (as we didn’t have time to reach its conclusion during the allotted time).
We asked LaCoste what he’s particularly excited about in Skyline Valley. He said: “I think some of the combat rebalancing is really good. That’ll help a lot of the new players out, I think, as well.
“But, honestly, the story. The story behind The Lost and the new boss battle that happens in this region, and just the number of choices that you have to make across this quest line.
“I think people are going to be really excited about that, but that’s going to be for players who engage with the content in the quest system.
“For the people who build camps, there’s new vistas, there’s new areas. They’re going to be able to create some really amazing new camps in that area, and show off.
“It’s really UGC a lot of the times. Like, the players who build these camps, take pictures of them, they post them on socials, they post them to all the different places. And I’m really excited to see what they bring to this as well.”
To read more about Fallout 76’s new content, check out what Bill LaCoste told us about the game’s upcoming playable ghoul (coming 2025).
Fallout 76: Skyline Valley launches today (Wednesday 12th June) on all platforms.
See more:
- Over on YouTube: Which Fallout game should you play first? We asked Bethesda
- Over on Tiktok: Behind the scenes footage from the Fallout 76 office!
- Here on the website: Our pick of the best Fallout 76 mods
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