It isn’t a secret that Bethesda Softworks has struggled mightily for the better part of a year in 2019. There are few instances in video game history where a publishing studio has lost the love of so many fans so quickly. Chances are, if you have played a Bethesda game, you have enjoyed their work. Up until this console generation Bethesda has released some of the most beloved games ever made, so what changed? What has Bethesda fans worried about the company’s future? Well, it is largely due to 2018’s Fallout 76, but how can one game be the reason for so much animosity towards a company? The answer isn’t as simple as Fallout 76 being a bad game, there is much more to it, a lot of it is based heavily on principle, and for what Bethesda has stood for, for the better part of a decade. Let’s take a look at what Bethesda has done this generation and try and play devil’s advocate. After all, it can’t all be negative, can it?
What did Bethesda Excel at?
What many people have forgotten is that Bethesda has done quite a lot of good this generation, they did stumble a little out of the gate with Elder Scrolls Online, but we will talk about that later. Their first game launched on this generation was Wolfenstein: The New Order, and who could forget that game? That was a heck of a way to put the Wolfenstein series back into action. The Evil Within was next, and while it wasn’t a juggernaut like past games for Bethesda, it reviewed very favorably. So far so good for Bethesda at this point. Now I won’t bore you with every title published by Bethesda for this generation, I just wanted to throw out some of their earlier work to remind you of the good times, so to speak.
The big fish came in 2015, Fallout 4, the game that everyone was excited for since there hadn’t been a Bethesda developed Fallout game since 2008 (New Vegas being developed by Obsidian). Bethesda did everything right leading up to the release of Fallout 4; the announcement at E3 2015, followed by the subsequent release later that year, it’s what every gamer wants. Once released, Fallout 4 was met with above average review scores, and while it wasn’t the game of the generation that fans were hoping for, it was still extremely exciting to play an original Fallout game again. The few issues for the game were its outdated engine and some annoying bugs that come with most Bethesda games.
This was all happening within the first 2 years of the console generation. The next 2 years for Bethesda were marked with success as well, they saw Doom, The Evil Within 2 and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus all released with positive reception. Things were looking pretty good for Bethesda at this point. In May of 2018, Bethesda started teasing the idea of a new Fallout being worked on, and only a few months later Fallout 76 was fully announced at E3 that year. It was here where all the issues started, Todd Howard announced on stage that Fallout 76 would be an entirely multiplayer experience. Obviously fans were taken off guard at this announcement, with the game being entirely online that usually causes a lot of issues for a series that has been a completely single player experience. Turns out, as we all know, fans weren’t worried enough. The game was much worse than we had expected; it was riddled with bugs and glitches, most notably of which were random crashes for seemingly no reason. Another consistent bug was players stash having missing items that you could never get back, as of December 2019, this bug still affects players to this day.
Why Bethesda Failed
Aside from the technical issues, there were plenty of suspect design choices implemented in the game. For instance, the stash box was extremely limited in the amount of things you could put in it, and for a game with so much junk, you need as much inventory space as you can get. Bethesda also seemed to market the game as a Day Z or Rust type experience, where other players could be just as helpful as they could be dangerous. This turned out to be very misleading as you could only do damage to another player if they returned fire, taking out any element of surprise. Of course, the big issue was their decision to not add any NPC’s into the game. Bethesda’s excuse for this was that the stories would be told by other players when in reality you would be hard pressed to find any real player in the game that would actually talk to you. Maybe because people want to play Fallout alone?
Fallout 76 was riddled with issues at launch, and there is no denying that, but it’s not to say there hasn’t been any attempt to make things right. Bethesda has implemented numerous changes to Fallout 76, they have improved stash box space, cut down on random crashing and kept up on adding new content on a regular basis. They revealed their roadmap for 2019 and 2020 during E3 2019. They showed four main stages of their plan, all of which are free, one of these stages even included adding actual NPC’s! This seemed to of returned back on the good sides of most fans, and for about 6 months Fallout 76 was looking to be on the right track to becoming a quality game. The first hiccup in this plan was the Wastelanders DLC, which was sadly delayed into 2020. This isn’t the worst thing to happen to a game, of course sometimes delaying a project can do great things for it. Delaying DLC was the least of Bethesda’s issues, their problems really returned upon their announcement of Fallout 76’s paid subscription service. This allowed players their own private server, a monthly allowance of Atoms, unlimited storage in your scrap box, among some extra amenities for people willing to spend $100 a month for this service. It’s not completely uncommon for games of service to charge players for a private server, Minecraft does that exact thing for example. This issue is that Bethesda is putting a price tag on things that gamers feel should already be in the game. Things like unlimited storage, fast travel whenever you would like and the ability to play alone. The extremely high price tag that comes with the service really just adds salt to the wound. Painting Bethesda in a negative light, just when we thought that they were on the path to success.
Where is Bethesda Heading in the Future?
So this begs the question, can we trust Bethesda moving forward? I’m sure any true fan of their past work hopes so, but we won’t really know until we give them time. With the release of Wolfenstein: Youngblood not impressing many critics or fans, and their choice to delay Doom Eternal into 2020, Bethesda seems to be taking a cautious approach. I think that is a smart move, it’s clear that they need to get Doom Eternal right, as the fans of the series are highly protective over the legendary franchise. Bethesda needs to take Fallout 76 as a learning experience, there is no doubt that they have taken a huge hit because of the game. They will need to buckle down and make sure they get Doom Eternal right, while also continuing to fix the problems that persist in Fallout 76. I am confident that they will learn from these mistakes (seeing as they have to) and go into next gen with a humble attitude. We all know how catastrophic it would be for them to mess up Starfield or The Elder Scrolls VI. So let’s just hope they listen to the fans and go back to what made Bethesda such a beloved studio.
