A Fallout 76 video shows that the new Steel Reign update isn't without its fair share of game-breaking glitches. While it can be fun to lightly exploit games beyond their developer's intentions, it looks like some cheaters are taking things too far, with weapon effects that are causing significant game slowdowns for other players. The scope of these issues has not yet prompted any comment from publisher Bethesda.
This certainly isn't the first time that exploits in Fallout 76 have been exposed. The game has had a rocky history since its 2018 launch. Its prerelease beta was riddled with bugs, its initial review cycle was unfavorable, updates to the game introduced more issues than they fixed, and cheats have continued to be widespread the whole time. One of the first examples was a secret dev room that players were able to find their way into, full of weapons and gear they could freely steal. Just earlier this month, Bethesda announced that players afflicted with a challenge auto-complete bug would be compensated for their frustration.
So it should come as no surprise that the video posted by InnovSurvivalist contains yet another case of unbridled hacker shenanigans. The video shows explosives being spammed to the effect of filling the entire screen with light effects, making it nearly impossible to see and slowing down performance dramatically. The player recording the video dies multiple times just trying to catch what's going on. As InnovSurvivalist's post explains, cheaters have been lagging and crashing servers with exploits, and even griefing other players since the Steel Reign update's launch on July 7th.
Gaming groups like InnovSurvivalist have been working hard to keep the Fallout 76 community alive. It's not easy, especially considering Fallout 76's consistently unpolished presentation, and hackers only make that pursuit of enjoyment more difficult. Those hackers should curtail their exploitation, seeing how it's practically destroying server stability for everyone else.
More directly, though, Bethesda should be proactive about fixing issues in Fallout 76 before they come up. The update cycle they've recently announced for Fallout 76 does look appealing, but it would pale by comparison to more waves of bans and patches to sort out its routine unplayability. Bethesda has made commitments to issuing bans in the past. But the more those actions are retroactive, the more their related issues will pop up and dampen player's enjoyment for weeks before the publisher steps in. On its current course, Bethesda will probably only face more difficulty in fulfilling its promise of keeping Fallout 76 online forever.
Fallout 76 is currently available on PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: InnovSurvivalist/Twitter