After a couple of teases and some inside information, we just got our first real look at Fallout 76, an upcoming survival RPG from Bethesda.
As we told you last month, this isn’t a traditional Fallout adventure. While in the most immediate sense it looks like one, with its iconic visual style and first-person perspective, Fallout 76 isn’t a singleplayer RPG played offline.
It’s an online multiplayer experience, pitched as what Todd Howard calls a “softcore survival” game, where death never means a loss of progression or character.
You’ll play on servers, with each only holding a few dozen players at a time. You can join your friends at any time, and all your current progression is taken with you when you do.
A video played by Bethesda showed four friends playing together. Howard stresses that you can still play these quests solo, but playing together and teaming up is definitely encouraged.
Building plays a big part in Fallout 76. You can not only build homes like you could in Fallout 4, but also work together and share them to...well, hang out like pictured above.
With dozens of players on each map, there’s scope for alliances and rivalries to emerge, and to keep that interesting there are nuclear missile silos scattered around the countryside. These can be found, infiltrated then employed to raze sections of the world, from nests of monsters to other people’s camps and constructions.
Fallout 76 will be out November 14.