As we all know, Fallout 76 had a very rocky start. It felt very empty and the story wasn’t as enthralling as in previous titles. Since its release, Bethesda has listened to the community and has been slowly bringing life back into Appalachia, initially with raiders and settlers, and then with the Brotherhood of Steel. Now, as the Responders start to rebuild, they’re turning their sights to the rest of America, and wouldn’t you know it, you’re a prime candidate to take those first steps.

As the first instance of the New Fallout 76 Expeditions, you’ll make your way to the Whitespring Resort, the newly renovated home of the Responders, where you’ll find a fully serviceable Vertibird ready to take you to the ruins of Pittsburgh, or more commonly known as the Pitt, but there’s a catch. It’s out of fuel. In order to acquire the required power source, you’ll first need to complete three of the four possible daily mini-missions within the Whitespring Resort. These are fairly simple and straightforward, requiring the player to complete some menial tasks, and once done, you’ll finally be ready to take to the skies.

With up to three friends, you can select one of two missions and make your way to the Pitt, and exciting as it sounds, it wasn’t what I expected. Given Fallout 76 is very heavily focused on grinding for your desired gear, as with most MMOs, Expeditions: The Pitt is very much the same. I was hopeful that it’d be similar to the likes of Far Harbour or Nuka World from Fallout 4. I was expecting to be able to go out and explore a new, or in this case, a returning location, with its own story and questline, and while it does have this to an incredibly small extent, it’s heavily focused on higher level characters and people wanting to grind gear.

Fallout 76 Expeditions doesn’t add much in the way of weapons and armour, with the primary focus being on the new Stamps; a currency similar to the gold bullion introduced in the Wastelanders update. In fact, the only weapon I was able to find looked like an oversized brushcutter. Dubbed the Auto Axe, it looks like a saw blade attached to the end of a chainsaw.

The Stamps are earned by completing the two new missions, earning more as you complete more of the optional objectives, but compared to the price of the available rewards, it feels really unbalanced and having to complete three more daily missions before you can make another trip will really deter all but the most hardcore farmers. The positive side of the Stamps is that players will be able to specifically choose the rewards they want, including, but not limited to weapons, armour, and new Pitt-related CAMP plans.

The two missions available focus heavily on beating back the Fanatics, yet another raider group. Union Dues will have you teaming up with the Union to take back the Foundry. From Ashes to Fire will have you teaming up with a former Fanatic, tasked with infiltrating the Sanctum to complete a rescue mission. Each mission will consist of 3 randomly selected objectives to complete, slightly helping reduce how repetitive they’ll feel, and a further 3 optional objectives to help increase the number of Stamps you earn, and give you better “end of dungeon” rewards, which include randomised Legendary Items and Legendary Modules.

If you’re able to get a group together to consistently complete these missions, you’ll find yourself earning more Stamps as you’ll be able to enter the Pitt more often. The player who uses their Ultracite Battery Cell will receive a slight boost to their rewards, given they spent the time getting the materials together and completing the daily missions. Otherwise, if you’re running alone, you’ll only have access to the Pitt once every 4 days.

On the outside, Fallout 76 Expeditions: The Pitt looks like it’s going to be a whole lot of fun, but once you’ve run the missions a few times, the majority of Fallout fans will be very disappointed. It sticks with the repetitiveness of Fallout 76 as a whole, and after a single playthrough, it doesn’t feel like it adds much to the game, as the new quests can be completed in less than an hour, assuming you have the right gear and are a high enough level.

If you’re the kind of player who enjoys the grind to obtain as many rewards as you can, then I am sure you’ll enjoy these shooting gallery missions, but if you were looking for more story and exploration, it’ll be a one-and-done situation.

Written by: Mathew Lindner