Now that the irradiated air has settled on the this year’s perplexing E3 reveal, and wondering how a persistently online, NPC-less Fallout game might function.

The breadth of Fallout 76’s map is impressive, though the elasticity with which players can hop to and fro between events and teammates seems to blur the geography somewhat. In the original FPS Fallout games, there was a sense of accomplishment to breaching the distance between a cleared-out settlement and a distant point of interest on the other side of the map, something that is essentially absent in this newest incarnation.

Related: Fallout 76 Beta Includes Full Game and Progression Carries Over

All that being said, those Fallout games were rather comparable, adding minor gameplay tweaks to a well-established (and beloved) Bethesda formula, and Fallout 76 is bucking standards left and right. Does a world absent of human NPCs mar the experience? Is there a sufficient amount of gameplay to be had in a populated instanced server? Diseased radroaches notwithstanding, what are the bugs like in the beta build?

Let’s take a closer look at Fallout 76’s minute-to-minute gameplay: what works, what doesn’t, and what’s just plain weird.

Yes, there really aren’t any NPCs in Fallout 76

Those early concerns were correct: Fallout 76 is unusually lonely. Of course, that criticism is implying that the series revolved around some bustling community of NPCs, which isn’t quite right; NPCs were usually most present in specific shelters and outposts, though companions (like Dogmeat) helped stave off that nagging loneliness during long silent treks across irradiated terrain.

Bethesda’s earliest statement about the lack of human NPCs made mention of other entities, and there are countless friendly robots in seemingly every corner of Appalachia. Unlike previous Fallout games, though, those robots don’t engage the player in any dialogue trees, and usually just parrot a few commands or hints about a related quest or, in the case of faction-specific protectrons, buy and sell items. Beyond that, Fallout 76’s narrative is relegated to countless holotapes, notes, and terminal-told stories, the latter of which is an extremely familiar narrative method to the franchise and holds up here.

Unfortunately, the game manages to be facetious about this standard, with many quests insinuating that players will need to find and speak to a specific individual. Spoiler warning: those quest targets are always dead, a robot, or (somehow) both. The first few times this occurs it’s predictable but disappointing, and it quickly stops being cute two hours in.

The Bug Population in Appalachia

This might seem like a case of damning with faint praise, but Fallout 76’s pre-release code is surprisingly low on game-breaking bugs. Open-world Bethesda RPGs are notorious havens for bugs, crashes, and unexpected behaviors, and while the game’s parameters will certainly be pressured further by its most boundary-pushing players, the experience is considerably clean and stable in most respects.

It really needs to be called out as an accomplishment, because the persistent instanced multiplayer on display is wildly elaborate. Every single player on a server can create and move their camp (a.k.a. C.A.M.P., the Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform, a portable storage and creation hub), build multi-level bases, toss around hundreds of different items, kite and fire at enemies and other players, and active events around the map, with all of these varied activities melding together and rarely prompting crashes or stalls.

No, it’s not perfect, and specific bugs that popped up in my time with it included: some enemies freezing in place, two super mutants spawning completely naked and in a frozen state (kind of disturbing, actually), and an odd audio issue that required a full restart to correct. All of this is to be expected with an online game in its early days, but considering the complexity of Fallout 76’s interactive player-generated game actions, the relative stability at this stage is impressive.

V.A.T.S. Falls Flat in Fallout 76

A new Fallout game means the return of many properties and mechanics that players have grown to love over the years, and one of Fallout 76’s most contentious mechanical changes has to be the new V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System).

Interestingly, V.A.T.S. hasn’t changed a whole lot from the very first Fallout game forward. A kind of remnant mechanic from its turn-based origins, V.A.T.S. has historically allowed players to slow down the action and target specific body parts for focused damage. Naturally, pausing a multiplayer game with dozens of players on a server isn’t really viable, so V.A.T.S. has turned into a kind of on-the-fly, automatic critical-hit targeting method. Or, in simpler : it’s an aim-bot that uses Action Points (AP), a stamina reserve which drains during melee attacks, running, and jumping.

Bethesda has taken one of the franchise’s smartest inclusions and mutated it to fit the intentions of a multiplayer action game. Additionally, V.A.T.S. has always doubled as a streamlined enemy detector, allowing players to check if any hostiles are in their surroundings by quickly flipping it on and off, something that is roundly interrupted with its high AP consumption in Fallout 76.

Of all of the experimental ideas in this newest game, it’s hard to imagine that any players are going to appreciate the new V.A.T.S., and it feels like a huge step backward for the franchise. Slowing down time might not be an option, but V.A.T.S. has gone from a series hallmark to a completely unsatisfying, possibly disposable feature.

But all hope isn’t lost, and one last potentially surprising thing about V.A.T.S. is worth mentioning: a recent datamining leak (which we’ll avoid linking for spoiler reasons) has revealed a Perk Card for the Mysterious Stranger, linked to the Luck stat. For new players, the Mysterious Stranger has been around the Fallout games from the start, and his related perk would include a chance for him to suddenly appear during V.A.T.S. activation and help out during combat. While any footage of this has yet to be discovered and shared by a Fallout 76 beta player, here’s hoping that this perk actually makes V.A.T.S. worthwhile.

Page 2 of 2: Fallout 76's Multiplayer & Inventory Problems

Inventory Woes Are A Problem in Fallout 76

The Fallout games have always centered on scavenging, with players amassing countless pounds of weapons, tools, strange display items, and scrap materials. It’s very possible that Fallout 76 pushes this process to its apex, making the game feels like an endless and somewhat clumsy rummage-a-thon.

Sure, it can be enjoyable to finally find the last few bits of junk required to upgrade a weapon or build a base turret, but that means contending with inventory menus and carry-weight at every stage of the process, and Fallout 76’s clunky UI does it no favors. Expect to constantly flip through Pip-Boy screens when deciding on the right item to drop in order to pick up that new sniper rifle, with each of the main headers opening up into a dizzying web of sub-menus.

The inventory system in Fallout games have always been a little fiddly, but the Pip-Boy 2000 also doubled as a pause screen, granting players safety and relieving the pressure. There are no pause screens in Fallout 76, so players need to find a safe zone before engaging in intense item management, which can be stressful and strange; it’s not uncommon to see damage indicators pop up while weighing the worth of two equally terrible pipe guns, forcing you to jump out of the menu and deal with the threat before returning to the greater danger of an over-encumbered pack.

It’s a little too late for a menu system overhaul, so it looks like players are stuck with the item management of the Fallout 76 beta as it is. Minor adjustments and tweaks might help in the long term (maybe separate food items from chems, for a start?), but a game reliant on weight limits and scrounging trash should have a better method for sorting everything out.

No-Longer-Sole Survivors

Multiplayer for any game of this type is going to be a case-by-case matter. Maybe the server a player s is full of bloodthirsty hunters hiding in their handcrafted fortresses, or a new-wave cult of peaceniks dropping toxic soot flowers behind them on their pilgrimage to a decrepit water park. It’ll probably contain good and evil and everything in-between, so long as it’s within the maximum team size limit of four players.

With 24 players per server, survivors can reload their particular multiplayer instance as much as they want if the current world-feel is not to their liking. On the one hand, this means that griefing can be kept to a relative minimum, and with punishment for death on the lean side, there’s rarely a true sense of danger felt from other players. Once you’ve upgraded your gear to a comfortable degree, there are opt-in PVP events to and experiment with, so the direct multiplayer action is instanced, event-based, and down to personal preference; Fallout 76 isn’t The Division’s Dark Zone.

The persistent audio chat in the game functions in a similar way to games like DayZ or PUBG, with settings that can be switched to area, all, and team chat. None of it feels exactly right, though, and players should be aware that the game lacks any push-to-talk or text chat functionality, an absence that feels completely wrong with this type of game. Also, if players haven’t adjusted their audio settings after launch, just be aware that your mic is live and activated by default.

The benefits to forming a team include experience and item-sharing, so there’s barely a reason to avoid friendly human , even with a muted mic. Friends ing servers together are going to have the best time, though, especially when building bases together, protecting workshops from enemies, and figuring out the mechanics and secrets that yet stir in the vast expanse of Appalachia.

More: Fallout 76 Live-Action Trailer Is Weirdly Cheerful

Fallout 76 players should look out for Screen Rant’s full review on release, and note that new B.E.T.A. sessions have been added by Bethesdsa: Tuesday November 6 from 1pm to 3pm, and Thursday November 8 from 2pm to 8pm (all times Eastern Standard). Additionally, a special stream will follow Tuesday's session at 6pm on Bethesda channels, featuring Ninja, Logic, and Rick and Morty.