Fallout 76 hands-on: What’s gained and lost by going online

Fallout 76 must turn a series that’s been all about singe-player adventures in a post-nuclear apocalypse and creating something that’s fun in an online multiplayer scenario. Instead of aping mechanics from massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft or Destiny, Fallout 76 is taking a more sandbox approach. In a lot of ways, it feels like Fallout 4 … but with other people.

I played Fallout 76 (release date November 18 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One) for about three hours last week at a Bethesda Softworks event in West Virginia at a historic resort called The Greenbrier. I played in a group of four, which included two other journalists and a representative from Bethesda.