Fallout 76 is about to change forever, as Bethesda prepares to unleash a long-requested feature its beloved survival RPGs have never offered before. The introduction of playable Fallout 76 ghouls will mark the first time you can become one of the radiation-afflicted, and it entirely transforms how you approach everything from NPC interactions to your build and teamwork. I had the chance to try the update early, and spoke with lead producer Bill LaCoste about how he sees the multiplayer game’s ghoul-filled future.
Hit level 50 in Fallout 76 after the update lands, and you’ll be given the ‘opportunity’ to turn into a ghoul through a story-driven questline that sees you meet up with a team of researchers and outcasts. Choose to do so and you’ll be completely changed, although you’ll have the ability to customize your new skin-light look right down to the fine details. It’s a decision that will transform everything about how you approach the survival game.
As a ghoul, radiation won’t harm you; instead, it will actively heal and buff you. Worries about hunger and thirst are gone, but instead you’ll have to maintain a Feral meter. As this depletes, you’ll lose more of your humanity, but gain strength and speed. If you like, you could even lean into becoming a full-feral berserker. It’s important to note that, in the spirit of fun, none of these transformations are truly permanent – you can even revert to being a human if you change your mind, although Bethesda notes that you will only be able to do so for free once.
Being a ghoul comes with a range of benefits and detriments. There are a wealth of new ghoul-specific perk cards that can be used alongside the regular human ones.You can even choose to become a Glowing One, allowing you to spread Glows – a radioactive resource that can be consumed for effects such as damage boosts – to other nearby ghoul players. The major downside is that many factions will treat you differently, with the Brotherhood of Steel an obvious and notable example. While you can apply an in-game disguise to hide your true nature, that’s only a temporary fix.
LaCoste says it was important that the transformation felt significant. “We aren’t going to give players just a stupid outfit that doesn’t have any effect on anything else – that’s a really easy way out.”
From my early impression, it certainly achieves that goal. Your core gameplay still feels similar, but the way you’re treated in the world and even how you think about the environment is completely different. As a ghoul, I’m no longer wary of high-rad zones; I’m actively seeking them out. I sped straight to the middle of a fissure site to take advantage of its natural healing potential as I took on a Scorchbeast.
With many players clocking in thousands of hours, however, a fully permanent transition was off the cards. “We’re not restricting people,” LaCoste explains, “but we’re also not doing things like forking your character, where the human one gets left behind. So we said, ‘Let’s just make a really good lore-friendly way for players to be able to go back and forth.’”
Given that there are several perks designed to benefit groups of ghouls, does LaCoste foresee a future where it becomes the standard? “There’s going to be a lot of peer pressure for people to be a ghoul. Which is great, I think that’s awesome. People communicate, they’ll probably try to find parties that are full of ghouls so they can actually take advantage of some of those perks.” If you’re tackling the challenging new Fallout 76 Gleaming Depths raid you’ll want every edge you can get, so I can certainly imagine that being the case.
From a gameplay standpoint, Fallout 76 is a world that has been designed for humans and the inherent drawbacks they possess. Becoming a ghoul turns much of that on its head – you can still use power armor, if you want, but it’s largely unnecessary in ghoul form. “That does open the opportunity for maybe power armors in the future that do take advantage of the ghoul perks,” LaCoste muses, although he’s quick to note that there’s not currently anything to this effect in the works.
The Feral meter is another aspect LaCoste is proud of, and he describes it as the ghoul’s version of Bloodied (a popular build that requires players to stay at low health, typically by staying at a high rad level). “They do become a glass cannon – health is less, accuracy with weapons is less, but they get this huge boost to melee. I’m kind of curious to see how that works out.”
All of this poses one final question: is Fallout 76 facing an all-ghoul future, and does LaCoste think the team will have to find ways to entice players to stay human? “I think there will be a mix across the board, but the ghoul is an interesting mechanic now, and people are going to try it, they’re going to get in and create new loadouts.” I’d predict a dramatic reduction in average player flesh quality when the update arrives in early 2025.
There’s currently no fixed date for the launch of playable ghouls, but the latest Fallout 76 roadmap for the ongoing Season 19, The Scientific Forge, suggests that we can expect it some time around March 2025.
I can’t help but wonder whether Bethesda will be watching the response to this update as it makes decisions about the next game in the series. The Fallout 5 release date isn’t anywhere to be seen for now, however, but you can always try another of the best games like Fallout to fill the gap.
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