Should you play Fallout 4 before Fallout 76? The complete guide

As both huge open world RPGs in the post-nuclear Fallout universe, Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 offer massive amounts of content and hundreds of hours of gameplay. But with different styles, stories, settings, and release dates, the question is – should you play Fallout 4 first, or just jump right into Fallout 76?

The definitive answer – play Fallout 4 first

While Fallout 76 can be played first or on its own, I highly recommend playing Fallout 4 first for a few key reasons:

• Fallout 4 provides crucial background – The story, factions, creatures, tech, and lore you learn in Fallout 4 will greatly enhance your understanding of the world in Fallout 76.

• Fallout 4 has better writing and quests – As an online multiplayer game, Fallout 76 simply can‘t match Fallout 4‘s brilliant environmental storytelling and well-crafted questlines.

• Fallout 4 is a modern masterpiece – With incredibly strong reviews at release, Fallout 4 is considered one of the best RPGs of the decade. The Witcher 3 level brilliant.

• Fallout 4 is insanely cheap now – Available for less than $10 on sale, Fallout 4 provides 100+ hours of incredible content for an unbeatable value.

• Fallout 4 has more complex RPG systems – With its stronger emphasis on roleplaying mechanics, you‘ll appreciate Fallout 76 more after mastering 4‘s deeper systems.

• You‘ll want something story-driven first – Fallout 76‘s focus on multiplayer survival means far less narrative. Fallout 4‘s epic story campaign makes the perfect introduction.

So while you can have an amazing time starting with Fallout 76, playing Fallout 4 first enriches the experience significantly. Let‘s compare these two juggernauts of gaming.

Fallout 4: A narrative masterpiece

As the follow-up to 2008‘s hugely popular Fallout 3, expectations were sky high for Fallout 4. But amazingly, the 2015 release still managed to impress critics and fans with its incredibly detailed world, emotionally resonant story, and seemingly endless quests.

Set in post-apocalyptic Boston nearly 200 years after a nuclear war, you play as the Sole Survivor emerging from cryogenic stasis in Vault 111 to search for your kidnapped son Shaun. This urgent quest leads you to explore the Commonwealth, becoming enmeshed in the warring factions trying to control the region.

• Compared to Fallout 3‘s Capital Wasteland, Fallout 4‘s Massachusetts setting allowed for more verticality and visual variety ranging from urban ruins to coastal towns. Critics praised the incredible environmental detail and storytelling.
• Choices matter throughout the campaign, with four optional factions to join that lead to completely different endings altering the fate of the Commonwealth. Unraveling the secrets behind organizations like the railroad and Brotherhood of Steel through these quests was hugely rewarding.
• Settlement building added the completely new ability to construct and manage your own network of communities in the wastelands. This innovative system provided almost infinite potential for creativity.
• With the Sole‘s Survivor‘s desperate search for their lost child driving the plot, Fallout 4 brought more emotion and humanity to the series than ever before.

|Fallout 4 Overview||
|-|-|
|Release Date|November 10, 2015|
|Setting|Boston, MA in 2287|
|Systems|PC, PS4, Xbox One|
|Metacritic Score|89 on PC|
|Main Story Length|27 hours|
|Completionist Length|159 hours|

In my hundreds of hours playing Fallout 4 over multiple playthroughs, I‘m still stunned by the ambition and attention to detail Bethesda packed into every location. The superb writing, environmental storytelling, and freedom to play how you want cement Fallout 4 as a modern RPG masterpiece.

Fallout 76: A fresh online survival experience

When Fallout 76 was announced in 2018, the concept of an online multiplayer Fallout was controversial. Could the formula translate successfully into a shared open world focused around surviving the wasteland together with fellow vault dwellers?

Well, Fallout 76‘s launch was notoriously rough. But over time, Bethesda expanded the content and ironed out the kinks to turn it into a rewarding online survival experience that now lives up to the series‘ legacy. Exploring its huge map together with friends is an adventure.

• Set just 25 years after the bombs fell in an alternative West Virginia, Fallout 76 sets a new mood and tone as you exit Vault 76. Seeing society just after the apocalypse was jarring and poignant.
• With no human NPCs, robots and environmental storytelling took center stage. Holotapes, terminals, and location design tell the history of what happened as the Scorched plague emerged.
• Crafting was far deeper, letting you build not just settlements but an entire mobile base in the form of your C.A.M.P. As an online game, trading, looting, and gathering with others was now essential.
• Mutation serums let you gain abilities at the cost of side effects, while the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system allowed respecing to try new character builds.
• Events like the seasonal Scorched Holiday brought the community together against challenging raids for high level loot.

|Fallout 76 Overview||
|-|-|
|Release Date|November 14, 2018|
|Setting|West Virginia in 2102|
|Systems|PC, PS4, Xbox One|
|Metacritic Score|53 on PC|
|Main Story Length|32.5 hours|
|Completionist Length|284 hours|

The shift to multiplayer survival make Fallout 76 feel fresh. Activities like managing your camp and combining powers with teams add new dimensions. That said, the lighter narrative and reliance on holotape storytelling is noticeable coming from Fallout 4. But overall, Fallout 76 has evolved into a worthy entry thanks to Bethesda.

Why Fallout 4‘s background improves Fallout 76

On their own, both games are phenomenal experiences that offer hundreds of hours of content. However, Fallout 4 provides crucial knowledge that enhances your enjoyment of Fallout 76‘s prequel story:

• Understanding returning factions – Major groups like the Brotherhood of Steel play key roles in Fallout 76. After learning their history and principles in Fallout 4, seeing them early on in Fallout 76 adds deeper context.

• Appreciating the technology – Much of the tech and weaponsry in Fallout 76 are prototypes of their more advanced versions 200 years later in Fallout 4. This progression stands out more if you‘ve seen the future versions first.

• Noticing the creature differences – Many Fallout staples like Super Mutants and Deathclaws appear earlier in 76‘s timeline. But without exposure to them in Fallout 4 first, their significance doesn‘t stand out.

• Greater emotional stakes – Events and locations hit harder in the prequel when you already know the eventual fate and future impact from Fallout 4‘s plotlines. The story has more weight.

So I highly recommend playing Fallout 4 first if possible, simply to get the most out of appreciating Fallout 76‘s ties to the broader universe.

Fallout 4 vs Fallout 76 gameplay comparison

Beyond connections to the lore, Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 provide distinct gameplay experiences:

Both have strong exploration, crafting, and character building. But Fallout 4 offers a deeper roleplaying experience while Fallout 76 focuses more on action-oriented survival gameplay. Which you prefer comes down to taste.

Is Fallout 76 worth playing in 2022?

Fallout 76 had my favorite map of any Fallout to explore, but issues at launch with stability, balance, and lack of content made it hard to stick with long term.

But now after years of patches and content updates, the current state of Fallout 76 is incredibly improved. The new quests, NPCs, gear, and quality of life improvements have brought it much closer to the quality people expect from a Bethesda RPG.

Exploring Appalachia with the unified community against challenges like the Scorchbeast Queen raid is now exciting end-game content. The cheaper cost and availability on Xbox Game Pass also lower the barrier to try it.

While the repetition and grinding won‘t be for everyone, I now comfortably recommend Fallout 76 as a fresh new way to enjoy the Fallout universe. The map truly captures the eerie feeling of recently emerging from the vault to see society newly destroyed.

Is Fallout 4 worth playing in 2022? Absolutely.

Fallout 4 still stands the test of time as one of the strongest RPGs of the last decade. Even 7 years after release, the fantastic writing, environmental details that tell a story, immense quest variety, and excellent faction reputation systems make Fallout 4 impossible to put down.

Being able to get the Game of the Year edition now for less than $20 including all DLC represents ridiculous value given the hundred+ hours of content. The ability to deeply customize your character build ensures high replayability as well.

Mod support also means Fallout 4 gets better over time as the community releases quests, gameplay overhauls, and features that fix any remaining shortcomings. This adds potentially unlimited content and longevity.

Conclusion

I hope this complete guide helps explain the key differences between Fallout 4 vs Fallout 76 and why playing Fallout 4 first results in the ideal experience.

Fallout 4 features stronger writing, roleplaying mechanics, world building, and quest design for a phenomenal singleplayer campaign. Then once you‘re hooked on the universe, Fallout 76 offers a refreshing multiplayer survival experience in the same wonderfully realized post-nuclear world.

So for the optimal introduction to Fallout, start with the modern masterpiece of Fallout 4. Its epic story and systems will get you invested in the world. Then graduate to Fallout 76 to explore the prequel era online with fellow vault dwellers.

That combination showcases the very best of what the iconic Fallout series has to offer across its 25 year history. It provides hundreds of hours of adventure across intricately crafted nuclear wastelands.

So gather your bottlecaps, power armor, and plasma rifle to journey through post-apocalyptic Boston and West Virginia. Just be sure to play Fallout 4 before Fallout 76 for the ideal experience. The retro-futuristic universe of Fallout has never been better.