Fallout 76’s Skyline Valley update certainly has no shortage of sights and sounds to entice you from the comfort of the six-year-old Appalachia map. The newly added Shenandoah region, bolted to the southern reaches of the Savage Divide that runs through the center of the map, has a gigantic, ominous vortex swirling into the sky for starters, and as it approaches, the sky itself begins a distinct shade of very changeable. evil red. Lightning is constantly streaking through the clouds, and as you descend into the valley proper, the earth is rent and torn by ferocious-looking earthquakes. It’s your classic ‘end of days hell’, if I’m being honest, but after bombing through the new story quest for two hours last week, it’s not what sticks in my memory the most.
Rather, it is a small bunker belonging to a timid man named Kevin. You meet Kevin at the Shenandoah Visitor’s Center, where the poor loser has not only locked himself out of his makeshift underground home, but has also managed to let in some Mothman cult members at the same time. Oh, Kevin. However, if you interact with said cult members and return Kevin’s lost key, he will lead you to his humble abode, where you will request a replacement part for a weather machine you are trying to repair. That conspicuous vortex of doom I mentioned earlier is caused by an errant weather station that has gone haywire, you see, and is teaming up with the (equally eyebrow-raising) residents of Vault 63 (more on that in a moment) to get it Getting back under control is an important part of this update’s main storyline.
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But back to Kevin. When you arrive at Kevin’s bunker, you’re greeted with a charmingly sad scene. Unlike you and other Vault Dwellers, it’s clear that Kevin was on his own during this ugly apocalypse, and the lack of human interaction he’s had is immediately apparent. On the wall he has created his own ‘Galerie de Kevin’ from framed painted animal portraits that he has made. On the table next to it, a skinned-to-dead squirrel lies rotting, bloodstains splattered everywhere while a small group of flies hover over a bucket of innards and innards. To your right is a stuffed bear head, whose jaw holds an unopened whiskey bottle, clearly at hand for a timely sip during Kevin’s nauseating food-prep sessions.
Elsewhere on the wall he has filled it with motivational slogan posters, which one can only assume he has to repeat to himself every night while holding his teddy bear on his tiny bed. A netless basketball hoop and a dartboard show what Kevin must try to do for fun when the TV in the middle of the room isn’t showing a steady stream of snow static. I can just see him now, curled up on the couch with another bottle of beer in his hand, which he will inevitably throw on the floor, along with the other dozens of empty bottles in sight, and that all while talking to the two clothing models set up. on either side of his eye line. Their brightly colored sunglasses and party hat accessories give his two friends a real fun vibe, and you know Kevin is waiting for the right opportunity to pull out that big hunk of meat he’s got chilling in the freezer.
It’s almost an absurd level of detail for a place where most people will probably spend the entire 60 seconds grabbing their device and leaving. But it was that beautifully sad poster scribble from the Gallery that made me stop and argue with old Kevin, because his bunker as a place was in almost perfect contrast to the situation that occurred at Vault 63, which will almost become a second home. to you during the campaign.
Vault 63 is clearly a much larger facility than the eponymous 76 you rolled out of at the start of the game, but you soon discover that its construction left a lot to be desired. In classic Vault-Tec fashion, this was another shelter that didn’t get close as planned, and the unfortunate Vault inhabitants ended up being exposed to all the radiation outside, turning them all into Ghouls. A teaser perhaps for the playable Ghoul you shall could change early next year, but not everyone from Vault 63 was so lucky. They may have called themselves ‘The Lost’, but you’ll encounter dozens more of them wandering the surface and having truly abandoned their former humanity, frothing and fizzing at the mouth like electrified cousins of the Scorched enemies on the main map.
The Overseer of Vault 63 looks like he’s about to lose himself too. Framed by glowing purple veins and scars, Hugo Stolz’s bright white, blind eyes certainly make for a striking first impression, and as you run various errands for him (and his grumpy head of security James Oberlin), it’s clear that he’s completely transfixed is. about the idea of selfhood and change. For example, at one point he brings up the Ship of Theseus paradox, which asks whether an object can ever really be called the same object if every single part of it has been replaced by something else. His train of thought often wanders off into other philosophical avenues as well, and it was refreshing to see such a nuanced and considered discussion of these themes in a game where you can exterminate comically overgrown rats and cockroaches with a big honking laser gun. (I’m not kidding, the main gun I had as part of my preview build was called, and I quote, the ‘Bloodied Rip Daring Multi-Shot Slow-Burning Cremator’, and it did exactly what it said on the tin) .
I’d also like to learn more about Hugo’s relationship with his daughter Audrey, who is desperately working to fix the weather machine – a place whose interior corridors, laser security grilles, constantly flashing red siren lights and strange buckets of rotting flesh have certainly done just that. ‘mad lab’ has ‘mad lab’ written all over it. She is a grumpy and conniving addition to Skyline Valley’s generous ensemble, and mutters that having another “helpful minion” might be useful to her. She clearly has a connection with the leader of the aforementioned Mothman Cult, who also terrorized poor Kevin, adding even more stress to her already fractured relationship with her Overseer father.
Alas, my demo time came to an end before I could find out more about it, but as an opening salvo to properly and truly immerse yourself in this new heartland of Appalachia, I have to admit it well and truly captivated me – and a lot more effective, I might add, than the deluge of story missions you now see at the start of Fallout 76. Yes, the meat and potatoes of what you do is still very much in that “get to this goal” marker, talk to this character, go back to another objective marker mold that Bethesda’s Fallout games made their name on. But the set and the characters surrounding it are a lot more interesting and enticing to me than anything else I’ve played in 76 so far. I am definitely not a six year old life worker. Rather, I’m one of the many millions slowly working my way through 76 after the Fallout TV show aired earlier this year, so I’m still relatively early in my Appalachia adventures. But after seeing a glimpse of Skyline Valley, I’m eager to rush there to see how the rest of the story plays out.
Admittedly, I can’t say I’m all that excited about the other new additions coming with Skyline Valley. The new horde wave group event Dangerous Pastimes is fun enough if you have a colossal, awesome Bloodied Rip Daring Multi-Shot Slow-Burning Cremator to reduce any lost rushing towards the electrical relay you’re defending into a smoldering pile of ash with a single shot , but the event I attended didn’t have much lasting appeal for me. The same goes for the upcoming Mile Post Zero update coming later this year, which will add bovine escort missions for the Brahmin caravan traders in the new Shenandoah region. Avid base builders may long for the special Brahmin goodies you receive for completing them (including your very own two-headed cow, no less), but that’s another side of Fallout 76 that, at least so far, has kind of left me cold.
Yet I discover that this is the fun of Fallout 76, because even for fair weather players like me (and especially those who just want to play alone, as this was one big sequel to Fallout 4), there is something to do . enjoy and hang in there. It’s come a long way since its somewhat disastrous launch, and in 2024 it has that everyday quality that appeals to whatever kind of Fallout player you are – and Skyline Valley in particular looks like it’s really doubling down on that story-driven tent poles. that’s what made me want to lift the curtain on this online Fallout game in the first place. I can’t say for sure yet whether Hugo, Audrey, or even Kevin can rival the likes of Fallout 4’s Nick Valentine for best Fallout gaming companion at this point, but I have a sneaking suspicion that at least one of them might get in the door. away from him. And with Skyline Valley becoming available for free in Fallout 76 later today, I’ll steam through it to find out.