Much like they did with Fallout 4, Bethesda treated us to a teaser trailer in advance of their E3 full presentation that will be taking place on the 10th of June.
So until that day, when we’ll most likely get to see a bunch of gameplay footage and a more detailed presentation of the game, let’s see what we can find out from the trailer.
Analysis
The first thing that catches the eye - besides the two vacuum tubes lighting up, in a reference to the Fallout 3 trailer - is the date on the rather interesting-looking PipBoy. I’ll get to the PipBoy in a bit but the date tells us it’s the 27th of October 2102. For reference, the bombs dropped on the 23rd of October 2077.
This means that Fallout 76 takes place a mere 25 years after the nuclear holocaust that destroyed the entire planet. This sets Fallout 76 as the first game, chronologically speaking, since the first Fallout took place in 2161.
This is the reason why the PipBoy looks so bulky and rectangular, since it obviously has to take some cues from the first PipBoy that we were introduced to back in Fallout 1, the PipBoy 2000. This won’t be the same thing, seeing as how it’s wrist-mounted but it’s nice to see that they’re keeping an aesthetic consistency in terms of the timeline.
Now this shot gives us a wealth of information without it seeming to do so initially. First of all, this is a color TV. Color TVs have never been seen at anytime during the Fallout games, so that’s definitely weird and interesting. Then there’s the miniatures representing an Eye Bot, a Mister Hand and a Vault Boy, obviously referencing the past games but there’s also some Nuka Cola miniatures as well not to mention a model of the alien ship you find crashed in Fallout 4. Very interesting, indeed.
What we see is obviously the aftermath of a monster party, to celebrate Reclamation day. Basically the day in which the Vault dwellers could go out and start to rebuild society. The video on the TV and the narration as well, most likely being pre-recorded messages meant to be played during this time.
This shot might not seem important at first, but pay close attention to the fact that while we don’t see the character’s face and more important we don’t hear his voice. This leads me into the speculation area of the article.
Speculation time
There are more details throughout the teaser, but I’ll let you guys find those out on your own, I only mentioned the things that I thought were most relevant. Now, onto the speculation.
Starting with that last thing I mentioned, we don’t hear the character’s voice. This is a spot where Fallout 4 diverged massively from prior titles, by having the protagonist be a voiced character. This sparked mixed feelings at first and then it kinda went away, so this makes me think that they maybe went back to the idea of not having a voiced character.
Vault 76
What we do know about Vault 76 comes mostly from Fallout 3 and the main characteristic is that it was one of the seventeen control Vaults. Meaning that it wasn’t going to run any sort of insane and inhuman experiment on its inhabitants, instead it was programmed to open 20 years after it closed. As we’ve seen in the trailer, the Vault actually opens 25 years after it closed, so there is definitely something that happened to postpone the opening. What exactly, is hard to tell.
Similarly, we know that the Vault housed 500 occupants and it is also mentioned in one of the alien captive recorded logs you find in the add-on Mothership Zeta, which might be why there’s an alien ship miniature in the trailer as well, as a bit of a reference.
No guns?
Also, something weird, if you look all throughout the video, there are no firearms or other sort of combat-related objects appearing. This might mean that the inhabitants went up to the surface being totally unprepared for what was waiting for them.
It would seem quite weird that VaultTec wouldn’t outfit a control Vault with at least a minimum of self-defence capabilities, but maybe that’s just because all the weapons were taken by the dwellers when they left.
Rumors
Now here’s the most interesting, important and credible rumors that have popped up right after the teaser was released. As reported by Kotaku, it is possible that Fallout 76 is quite a different sort of experience than the other entries in the franchise, because if these rumors are to be believed, this will be an online survival RPG, in the vein of titles such as Rust.
There are a couple of reasons why these rumors might actually turn out to be true.
One of them being that Bethesda had incorporated, back in March, a developer that was working on an online hero combat game, back in 2015. This means that they’ve been working on the online portion for, at the very least, around 3 years, because we have to assume this developer had been working on their game for some time until Bethesda came into the picture.
Then there’s a combination of things: the title of the game, when it’s set and the various other things that can be noticed throughout the video.
All throughout the video we see a lot of instances where there are objects meant for two. There are two chairs side by side, two places at the table, a room in which there seems to be living both an adult and a child. This might be a hit as to the co-op or multiplayer aspect of the game.
Then there’s the title - Fallout 76 - which doesn’t maintain the normal numbering method, as this should have been Fallout 5, if everything were the same. But maybe this is a not-so-subtle way of telling us that this title isn’t really a single-player focused experience and as such, shouldn’t be numbered as all the other titles in the franchise that are single-player games.
And finally there’s when the game is taking place.
This will be 25 years after the bombs fell. Only 25 years after the bombs fell. This was most likely the time when non-mutated survivors and other Vault dwellers were barely starting to set up some form of civilization again.
The environment out there is harsh to say the least, I mean there’s still high-radiation spots on the globe 200 years after the bombs fell, you can bet that radiation will be that much more of a problem a mere 25 years after.
So this setup is perfect for a game focused on scrounging for resources, settlement building and careful exploration of one’s environment.
No single player?
Is Bethesda crazy enough to release an online-only game, considering the fact that they don’t really have a lot of experience in that area? Hell no, I say.
Is Bethesda crazy enough to release an online-only game founded on a franchise that was built around the single player experience? Hell no again, I say.
So I think there will be a single player component to the game, some sort of story mode or similar, but it might not be as expansive as it was in Fallout 4. Or maybe it will be, and while a part of the company was working on the online aspect, another was working on the single player. We can be pretty sure that they’ve been working on it ever since Fallout 4 released and Fallout 76 obviously uses the same engine, so for the past 3 years they’ve been mostly just developing the game itself - mechanics, assets, locations, map etc - not the engine. For a huge company such as Bethesda it is quite possible that they made both a single-player experience as well as what is expected to be the main meat of the game, the online survival RPG aspect.
But what do you guys think? Are there any Rust players amongst my readers who can share their input? Do you think I’m right in assuming that the game will also have a single-player aspect to it? What other detail did you notice in the video that I didn't mention?
Let me know in the comments!
Don’t forget to upvote, resteem, comment and follow!
…
You can find me in these places as well:
YouTube: youtube.com/user/CNonsense/featured
dTube: d.tube/#!/c/stefanonsense
Twitter: twitter.com/StefaNonsense
Facebook: facebook.com/CNonsense
Instagram: instagram.com/stefanonsense
Join me on my friends' GaminGHD Discord Server discord.gg/CZSXJwy
Gaming-Related Friends you should follow: 
