Is the Fallout 76 Nuclear Winter mode any fun? Let’s find out!

After announcing a lot of changes coming to the wasteland of “Fallout 76,” I gave the game and Nuclear Winter a try to see how it plays.

It was recently announced by Bethesda that a lot of changes were headed to Fallout 76. Not only were human NPCs headed to the Appalachian Wasteland, but new questlines and a new mode called Nuclear Winter, which is just post-apocalyptic Battle Royale.

With the announcement came a week long free trial of Nuclear Winter for all Fallout 76 players. I tried the mode (and the game for that matter) to see how it matched up to adventure mode and if it was even fun.

I played the Fallout 76 beta last year before launch and had really mixed feelings. I think I was just pissed because all I wanted to do was go into the Mothman Museum in Pointe Pleasant and I couldn’t get in there. From then on I have been quite the grump with the game.

At least I was able to collect some Mothman eggs, but still. You can even visit Flatwoods, aka The Flatwoods Monster. I didn’t get the game at launch and it was good that I didn’t. Fallout 76 was released VERY broken. So broken that it is still recovering from it.

More from 1428 Elm

• Shudder Original Terrified: Poltergeist or Dimensional Beings?
• Godzilla Minus One makes the King of the Monsters terrifying again
• A Creature Was Stirring scares up yuletide frights
• Unwrapping the Unhappy Holidays collection on Shudder
• Holiday Horror viewing guide: 20+ movies to stream this Christmas

There were bugs, server issues, environmental issues, saving issues and the world just seemed empty, although not nearly as empty as Rage 2 surprisingly. Sometimes  you run into another person on your server, but everyone has been pretty nice and most of the time it just feels like you’re playing a more colorful version of Fallout 4. Human NPCs should definitely improve quality of gameplay as long as the servers stop their shenanigans.

I am terrible at battle royale games. It’s not that I don’t try, I try really hard, but most often I am killed within the first five minutes of the game and Nuclear Winter is no exception. To be fair, this is the most fun battle royale game I have played so far. You have a team that you can spawn with or go loner.

There are boxes of weapons and ammo sprinkled all over and anytime you pick up ammo, the weapon comes along with it. Everything from a sub-machine gun to a crossbow, grenade launcher and even nuclear codes.

The game starts with 52-players and like Highlander says, there can only be one. After you, or me rather, inevitably dies, you can cycle through the team that killed you to watch how they kill everyone else.

The more games you play,the more rewards are waiting for you when you get back to adventure mode and the higher your Overseer’s level goes. Loading times aren’t awful, I have definitely seen worse finding servers on Battlefield and the games only last 20 minutes at the most.

As the game progresses in Nuclear Winter, like other battle royale games, a ring of fire gets smaller and smaller and the map after the fire passes looks really neat as the environment chars. Fallout 76 is still far from perfect. It has a long road ahead of it to fix all of its issues that plague so many Bethesda games.

It has improved since launch and hopefully it will continue to add and improve on the world. I think if you already own the game, Nuclear Winter is going to be a fun addition. Keep in mind, if you claimed a workshop when you were logged in, by switching modes, you will lose that workshop. I learned that the hard way.

Image courtesy of Bethesda

The Nuclear Winter trial ends on June 17th, so play the mode while you can and give it a try. If you don’t have Fallout 76, it can be pretty fun and as long Bethesda continues to try and improve on the world, then it is redeemable.

The game still has a lot of hidden lore and stories throughout the map and it is fun to seek those out, especially the creepy and spooky ones like The Mothman. And you can even encounter Mothmen and The Flatwoods Monster in the game. The official Nuclear Winter launches this Fall, so get in the playing while you can.

Have you played Nuclear Winter yet? What do you think of the upcoming mode? Let us know!