Any excuse I can get to return to the whimsical post-apocalyptic world of Fallout is one I jump at with reckless abandon. So, when I heard my Fallout dreams of hitting the radioactive slots again would be granted, but this time on the East Coast Boardwalk of Fallout 76: Atlantic City (as opposed to New Vegas), I said ‘I’m all in.’
Bethesda Studios did include a caveat for their latest expansion, though: two expeditions would be released to play for free (for fans with access to Fallout 76) before the whole Fallout 76: Atlantic City area opens. This allows fans to dip their big toe in the Geiger-filled Atlantic City Bay before the whole area opens for exploration in March. Like the nostalgic ballad of Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons” echoing out of my Pip-Boy 2000, the expedition area’s new atmosphere feels fresh and familiar, and most importantly, it feels like more Fallout.
Vertibird is the Word
As with the previous Fallout 76: Pitt update, the two free expeditions in Fallout 76: Atlantic City can be accessed through the Vertibird feature in the Map Menu. If fans don’t already have access to the Expeditions menu, they will need to complete a small questline for the Responders faction in their home base at the Whitespring Resort. Upon completion, fans can simply press the button on the map menu to transfer them into the Vertibird for the flight to New Jersey, but like previous expeditions, fans should be at least level 50. Fallout 76: Atlantic City‘s new cryptids take no prisoners.
Fallout 76 has also introduced some quality-of-life changes to Appalachia that only make sense with Season 15: The Big Score, along with the new Atlantic City Expeditions. There is a new daily quest, new faction outposts, and the former Gilman Lumber Mill is now a Responder outpost. Fallout 76 also allows Vault Dwellers to speed-run the game’s opening section, allowing fans to start new characters at level 20 without the tutorial.
Tax Evasion
First up is the Tax Evasion Expedition. Upon arrival at The Neapolitan Casino, your contact is Billy Beltbuckles, a legitimate walking stereotype for a basic gang character, complete with a funny alliterative name. Billy is in a precarious position that has him kneeling while staring down the wrong end of a gun wielded by a mobster. Billy owes the newly introduced faction — The Showmen — caps, and the one holding the gun is doing a whole lot of threatening.
After this brief and funny introduction, fans will be met with three phases of the Expedition that can change at random, and like The Pitt, Wastelanders capable of finishing the mission within 15 minutes can net extra rewards. My first phase required me to hunt down groups of Fallout 76: Atlantic City Auditors while being chased by the new cryptid type, the Overgrown.
This is a crucible. The mixture of gang members with guns and hulking creatures charging you that resemble Swamp Thing will feel immediately disadvantageous. But with a special bow that shoots explosive arrows and sneaks, I was able to make short work of my adversaries. It’s worth mentioning that the Overgrown has a new enemy healer type called Pollinators that recovers their health. Although it took me far longer than I’d care to admit, figuring out you should kill these first felt awesome, and the new enemy game mechanic adds an extra layer of depth to combat.
The second part of Tax Evasion takes place inside the Neapolitan Casino and features numerous other objectives to accomplish for The Showmen to get Billy Beltbuckles off the coroner’s list. The casino is well-designed, with numerous secrets that can’t be accessed until Atlantic City opens. Also, NPCs were given extra care, meeting with Sal ‘Sticky Fingers’ inside the Casino can net the player extra rewards for bonus objectives, but more importantly, hilarious juxtaposition on the lore of the area.
The final fight in the area had me test my mettle against a huge Power Armor suit named Buttercup. This was not a joke, and the enemy’s name could have been better off as ‘death-shark’ or ‘instant-kill’, false advertising at its finest. After finishing up the quest, everything wraps up neatly (like the other Expeditions), and resident Vertibird pilot Lennox takes you back to Appalachia, heavy with new rewards.
The Most Sensational Game
This other Expedition gives players a new inside look at how The Showmen faction runs things and ultimately has you meet their upper brass. It’s made apparent that Fallout 76: Atlantic City Expeditions have three phases, but they couldn’t be more different, and they take place on different sides of the biome. This time, your contact is Veracio Cruz, a higher-up Showman who recruits you for The Most Sensational game gauntlet. The gauntlet is headed by the Batsuuri Twins (Julian and Juchi), who are self-proclaimed champions of the game (until you come to town, of course).
It’s worth mentioning all three characters have real personalities, and they all add necessary lore to the backstory of Fallout 76: Atlantic City. The leader of The Showmen operation is Mother Charlotte, and Veracio promises a meeting with her if they succeed. While the rest of the Expedition plays out as expected — do an escort quest, kill creatures, confront a mighty adversary — there is a boatload of extra content that fleshes out the new Fallout 76: Atlantic City area.
First off, the setting is designed impeccably. The boardwalk is almost recognizable, except it has been stricken by the, well, Fallout state of the world. Veracio (if you want) tells the player juicy lore bits on the state of Atlantic City and informs the player of the exact nature of The Most Sensational Game, which felt like a gameshow — albeit Fallout 76 flavoured —reminiscent of SmashTV, with extra steps.
The Expedition is outlined by trekking through the Boardwalk, slaying Overgrown on Showman’s Pier, and ultimately having a showdown with the Batsuuri Twins in an underwater Aquarium known as Aquarium of the Atlantic. Out of everything I’ve seen during my travels through the Atlantic City biomes introduced in Fallout 76: Atlantic City, the Aquarium of the Atlantic is the most impressively designed area. It serves Bioshock’s Rapture but with Fallout’s iconic flair.
This cavernous spectacle is where you meet the head honcho herself, Mother Charlotte. Bethesda elected to correct the problems fans have had with Fallout 76 since its incredibly rocky launch, and slowly, NPCs filled with lore dumps have begun to populate the Appalachian wasteland. But here, it was already built in to correct the issues of the past. Mother Charlotte is an encyclopedia of information about everything Fallout 76: Atlantic City, and she goes over how The Showmen started (if you ask) and other interesting details about the surrounding areas. Honestly, completing The Most Sensational Game to be given more Fallout and Bethesda world-building, was a reward well worth the Expedition.
The Fallout 76: Atlantic City Expeditions is a huge tease for what’s to come in March. While exploring the Atlantic City biomes, I hit roadblocks — such as a number pad that refuses to open the secret door it’s attached to — which only made it that much harder to wait for the next update that will let me scrape the surfaces of each area.
The added care and attention to detail with the lore and world-building of this area shows that Bethesda is listening to fans and is giving all of us what we want most, more excellent and truer to form Fallout content. Fallout 76: Atlantic City opening up for the season can’t happen soon enough, and we here at CGMagazine will update readers with our full report on Casino life when it fully opens for business in March 2024
