Fallout 76 is a mess. The game feels like a cheap trick, a bait-and-switch played by a roguish magician who absconds with your cash behind the curtain. Bethesda's poor decisions with this game seem innumerable, and it genuinely feels like a cash grab that launched unfinished (with microtransactions no less), one that not only waters down the Fallout series but also widens the rift between the publisher and its fanbase.

The online-only game sounded interesting in theory: everyone always wondered what Fallout would be like with friends. But this isn't Fallout. It may look like Fallout, play like Fallout, and seem like Fallout, but it's just an impostor wearing a mask and only by trying it yourself can you really know the strange level of deception that occurs here.