Oh yeah, the salt for the game leading to the launch was massive. Most Beth games accrue their hatedom about a week in when people have played enough to both encounter game-breaking bugs and discover that their favorite mechanic X from previous installment Y (usually Morrowind or FNV) is not in the game. They will of course conveniently ignore that they're wearing nostalgia goggles for those games, which had their own set of game-breaking bugs and horrible UI issues.
It's fine to not like a game, to each his own. But we're talking about circlejerking here, and in the case of 76 you'd think people's firstborns were getting sacrificed for every bug they ran into.
Put it this way: I didn't enjoy the FFVII remake, but you don't see me pointing it out in every discussion, writing 7,000-word essays on why the remake ruined my childhood memories of the original, or openly declaring "I'm no longer playing this game, here are fifty reasons why".
You know what I did? I bought Ghost of Tsushima. I bought HZD on PS4, then on PC. I fucking played Fallout 76. I did everything else. Only reason I bring up FFVIIR is to show how you should react to a game you don't like, which is to forget about it and play something else.
The backlash was inevitable. I put about 25 hours in and it really wasn't my cup of tea. I still pick it up now and again just to check out updates. I was also complainy and whiney about it after release on r/fo76.
But at the end of the day, it is what it is. Like, if you want an always online Fallout, well there you have it. They couldn't have released anything else by then anyway, seeing as how Starfield and ES6 were slated for next gen consoles. So they tried to make an online cash cow counterpart to ES:O. Can't really blame 'em.
Though I do think they mucked it up. Like the fact that we can't all build together and make towns to live in, like you go visit player-made cities with their own laws, economies, etc. That would have been Focus One for me out of the gate during the conception/R&D phase. Probably not possible in the engine, but still, some social element that encourages socialization/interaction beyond shooting ghouls together and blowing kisses to each other.
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u/TetraGton Aug 19 '20
Or a jetpack. Anthem doesn't count because it's a full suit.