Fallout 76 released worldwide yesterday on all three platforms; PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 (although it actually released almost a day early on PC). Pre-release copies weren’t given to the press prior to launch, so don’t expect to see any day one reviews. It will likely be a short while before even the first official reviews emerge online. However, in a rather predictable move, disgruntled gamers have already begun review-bombing the game on Metacritic.
Disgruntled Gamers Are Already Review-Bombing Fallout 76 on Metacritic
Despite the fact that Fallout 76 currently has zero official reviews on the site, it currently has a User Score of 2.9/10. This figure comes from the average of almost 1,200 user ratings. The game has also received almost 400 user reviews, with nearly 250 negative. If you subject yourself to reading through any, you’ll likely see the same few talking points parroted by many of the responses. At this stage, nobody has had enough time to make conclusive judgements about Fallout 76; there have been two huge updates since the BETA, and even taking into account time spent during that event, the game has not been available long enough for people to get a representative impression.
As such, if you see any reviews online today, or even in the next couple of days, whether they are positive or negative; you should treat them with a healthy dose of scepticism. Fallout 76 is a huge game, like any Bethesda title; it’s not the sort of game which can be experienced in the course of a couple of afternoons. Eventually, official reviewers will start to release their ratings, and fans will have enough time to draw their own conclusions. However, those things won’t be coming today.
Unfortunately, review-bombing is all too common online, especially on sites which accept user reviews like Metacritic and Steam. It’s possible (even likely) that plenty of the reviews are being left by people who haven’t even played the game, or by bot accounts regurgitating the same negative talking points; you can see these same things in YouTube comments and Twitter feeds during many of these contrived online “controversies”. Play Fallout 76 and reach your own conclusion about whether you enjoy it or not; don’t listen to this vitriol.