Fallout 76will finally let players become ghouls in 2025. The game has been experiencing a sort of mini-renaissance after the debut of the Amazon show (which coincidentally features Walton Goggins as a fan favorite ghoul character), and this type of update is exactly what the title needs to keep this resurgence rolling. However, this new feature feels like it could only be thestart of something big for theFalloutseries.
Playable ghouls could just be the first step toward where theFalloutfranchise should be headed. Bethesda’s wastelands are filled with so many different factions, creatures, and mutants that limiting players to just controlling normal, everyday humans can seem vanilla, especially when looking at the studio’s other major IP,The Elder Scrolls. WhileFallout 76is on the right path with its ghoul update, it should keep the ball rolling and fully embrace theElder Scrolls' approach to playable races.
Fallout 76 Should Bring in More Playable Races
Fallout 76, or maybe evenFallout 5, should embrace the idea of playable non-human races. There’s plenty of choices in thewasteland when it comes toFallout’s humanoid characters: ghouls, synths, cyborgs, and even first generation super mutants. Letting players decide for themselves which of these races they’d like to take control of would give more variety to available builds and gameplay styles, while also affecting and modifying the role-playing elementsFalloutis perhaps most beloved for.
Possible Playable Races for Fallout 76 and Future Fallout Games
How Playable Races Could Expand Build Variety and Immersion
Fallout 76is letting players choose to become a ghoul in the middle of a playthrough.InFalloutlore, a human can turn into a ghoulover time, meaning that players choosing to embrace their ghoul era is completely in sync with the canon of the game. The same is true of cyborgs, wendigos, and super mutants, but letting players start a save file as one of them from the jump could also be an option. Playable synths would be a little more restrictive, and would require a dedicated start of game character selection.
InThe Elder Scrollsgames, the playable races each come with their own pros, cons, and unique abilities. Nords, for example, are generally much better warriors at baseline and have more resistance to frost-based damage, owing totheir homelands in the frigid tundras of Skyrim. Playable races inFalloutshould function largely the same way; getting buffs and debuffs that make sense with the lore of the particular race.
Ghouls can be more resistant to radiation, but run the risk of becoming feral and suffer charisma penalties due to their appearances. Synths can have high baseline intelligence and strength, but suffer from low luck and NPC mistrust should their robotic nature be made public.Wendigos, though mostly found inFallout 76’s Appalachia, could give the player massive boosts to strength, stamina, and agility, at the cost of crippling charisma debuffs as well as a constant addiction effect that can only be sated by cannibalism. The possibilities are endless and can add limitless replay value to see what kinds of builds work best with different races.
Playable Races Can Impact Future Fallout Narratives
Obviously, Bethesda would have to craft its narrative around the possibility of differing races.Fallout 4’s Sole Survivor, for example, could not possibly be anything but a human right off the jump in a new save, as the wasteland mutations/technology didn’t exist Pre-War. The writers would have to get a little creative as to their presentation, as well as the flow of the narrative. If aplayer chooses to be a super mutant, they cannot be locked out of a pivotal story moment due to any theoretical intelligence/charisma debuffs. Clever storytelling or branching paths would be necessary to make sure players are not punished too harshly for choosing to live as one of the wasteland’s more radioactive denizens.
Fallout 76
WHERE TO PLAY
Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of Skyrim and Fallout 4, welcome you to Fallout 76. Twenty-five years after the bombs fell, you and your fellow Vault Dwellers—chosen from the nation’s best and brightest – emerge into post-nuclear America on Reclamation Day, 2102. Play solo or join together as you explore, quest, build, and triumph against the wasteland’s greatest threats. Explore a vast wasteland, devastated by nuclear war, in this open-world multiplayer addition to the Fallout story. Experience the largest, most dynamic world ever created in the legendary Fallout universe. Expand southward to Skyline Valley – a brand-new region of Appalachia. Investigate the cause of the electric storm circling overhead and unveil the mystery around Vault 63 and its dwellers, including a shocking new Ghoul type – The Lost.
