In an interview with Game Informer, Bethesda’s Todd Howard revealed some of the first substantial details about Fallout 76‘s campaign.
According to Howard, the game’s campaign will revolve around the disappearance of Vault 76’s Overseer. It seems that the Overseer left the vault before the scheduled release date for its inhabitants but left a message for the player which seems to contain some curious instructions. Howard indicated that these instructions send players on a kind of quest that will end with the discovery of the nuke codes.
While that statement could suggest that the game’s main quest is a fairly linear experience, Howard is quick to describe the game’s campaign as a “lengthy, multi-part story that takes players across West Virginia.” His statements suggest that the completion of the game’s campaign will somehow be tied to the player’s level progression, which means that you shouldn’t expect to just be able to blow through it in order to start nuking other players. It’s likely that certain key quests won’t be accessible until you’ve reached a certain character level or relevant milestone.
Howard also emphasised the role of side quests in Fallout 76. Simply put, it doesn’t sound like the team is planning on short-changing gamers by reducing the number of side quests in Fallout 76. There will be plenty of side activities left in the game, and Fallout 76 will clearly indicate when there is a quest available somewhere in the area. Fallout 76 project lead Jeff Gardiner says that there is a “scary amount of stuff” in the game.
All things considered, Bethesda’s Pete Hines believes that Fallout 76‘s single-player and story-based activities will offer those who are less interested in the game’s multiplayer aspects plenty to do.
“I know it was a concern in our community, and it was a concern for me because I play solo a lot [in games],” says Hines. “Given my schedule, it’s hard to find times to group up with folks With my current character, my plan was, ‘I’m walking out of the vault, and I’m going left. I haven’t been over there before and I don’t know what’s there. Let’s see what happens.’ I came across some super mutants and got in a big fight with them, completed a few quests, and found this one location outside of a pharmaceutical plant that seemed like an awesome place for a camp… I figured not a lot of people could see me up there. I’ve been using that base camp to go off and do quests.”