It’s this lack of direction that really gives you room to appreciate the world, though it helps that Fallout 76’s Appalachia is so much prettier than Fallout’s previous locales. However, if you go into the settings menu and drag the heads-up display or HUD’s opacity slider all the way to the left, your HUD disappears, leaving you unguided the moment you leave the vault. Try leaving Vault 76 without your Pip-Boy and the game smacks you on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper, insulted that you dare proceed without its guidance. True, you can’t add mods to Fallout 76, and I was disappointed to discover there’s no way to just switch the compass off. Fallout 76, on the other hand, a game I’d barely scraped the surface of, has proven to be a revelation. Playing Fallout 4, I’d used a mod to disable the Pip-Boy’s compass, but the fact that I’d plunged 100+ hours into it and knew where most of the locations were meant the benefit was minimal. That’s why, when I dived back into Fallout 76, I chose to make my own way. Even if you’re not actively pursuing a quest, the smaller location arrows can be just as distracting. It’s all too easy to miss the little things when you’re gawping at that green arrow.

Out of all the points he made, the one that stuck was about how Fallout 3’s compass, a feature absent from the original Fallout, draws your attention away from what’s in front of you. But something was missing, and it wasn’t until I stumbled across hbomberguy’s video, “ Fallout 3 Is Garbage, And Here’s Why,” that the penny dropped. When Fallout: New Vegas came along, I was on board immediately, and while I still resent Fallout 4 for telling me my digital baby matters, it fed my hunger for more Fallout. I’ve always had an interest in the dystopian and post-apocalyptic, but roaming a nuclear wasteland in first-person really was something else, from strolling around ruined buildings to becoming the savior of the wastes. I dipped into Fallout, but Fallout 3 was when the series really took hold of me. Because the simple truth is Fallout 76 is more fun when you’ve not got your wrist-mounted companion relentlessly pointing the way. But in the case of Fallout 76, it’s about time this long-running post-apocalyptic franchise switched things up and let you make your own way through the wilderness unaided. War never changes,” goes Fallout’s oft-repeated catchphrase.

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