With the new Wastelanders update, human NPCs are returning to Fallout 76. But they are not just decorative characters; they actually react to you. MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus played it and finds: It feels almost like karma.
Wastelanders will launch on April 14, 2020, after a delay and finally brings back the NPCs that many players have been waiting for. They will settle back in Appalachia, ensuring there is something to do.
I was invited by Bethesda to the Wastelanders test server and was able to get a glimpse of it beforehand. I have already played for about 15 hours and have interacted a lot with the NPCs.
To test things a little more, I behaved differently towards the people in Appalachia with various characters – with an interesting result.
NPCs react to the player
Already after the first steps out of the Vault, you will encounter two women as a new player who will talk to you. I spoke with these women in different ways:
- friendly
- neutral
- with a lie
With the friendly and neutral options, not much changed. They still talked to me, answered more questions, and gave me some useful tips that may not have been particularly helpful but were definitely interesting.
However, things got exciting with the lie. It was not only immediately uncovered but also penalized: They refused to continue speaking with me. This was something I did not expect and reminded me of the karma system from earlier Fallout titles. And this theme persisted throughout all the quests I completed.
Examples of how detailed the dialogues are and how costly that was for Bethesda can be seen here:
Behavior influences quests
Depending on how you interact with NPCs, you can alter the course of quests. This opens up various solutions to reach your goals in different ways.
Especially important are the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes, which can fundamentally determine your behavior. Strength options are often brutal and harsh, while charisma options are friendly or diplomatic.
With such options, you can make quests easier or harder. If you squeeze all the information and maybe even the last caps out of an NPC through your strength, you will progress faster but won’t receive any extra info.
If you take a friendly approach, they might talk more with you, and you could even find additional rewards or alternative solutions. However, this may take longer overall.
Depending on how selfish or altruistic you are and regardless of your stats, you might also be able to exploit the emergency situations of some NPCs to increase your reward – or you may refrain to improve your “karma”.
No consequences for quest NPCs – so far
The only area where I have not yet noticed a difference is in the outcomes of conversations with important quest NPCs for main quests. These seem to ultimately always lead to the same ending.
However, I have only been able to play through the initial quests so far. Therefore, I cannot say for certain whether the decisions might have an impact later in the game.
But since I accidentally killed an NPC previously and received quite a bit of trouble from bystanders, I can well imagine that early decisions could still influence the course later on.
What is karma in Fallout?
Karma is roughly the principle of cause and effect and is represented in the Fallout titles (between Fallout 2 and New Vegas) in the form of points and specific titles. It serves as a type of “general reputation,” as it was referred to in Fallout 1. However, in Fallout 76, it works a bit differently.
Overview: Karma in earlier Fallout titles
Karma is used to categorize the player as “good” and “evil”. It is determined by actions that generally fall into these categories.
For example, destroying an entire town is considered entirely evil and thus “rewarded” with negative points. Donating water or caps, on the other hand, is seen as good and increases karma.
Depending on the disposition, this can have certain effects on your game. Some companions will only join you at a certain karma value. Certain NPCs and groups will attack the player if they are too good or too evil.
Some particularly positive or negative actions may even be mentioned on the radio. This encouraged players to replay the Fallout titles to explore different paths.
Karma in Fallout 76: There is no karma system in Fallout 76, at least not as a numeric value or in the form of titles. Instead, NPCs actually react to you depending on how you deal with them.
If you are unfriendly to them, they will not want to have much to do with you. If you meet them kindly, however, you may be able to extract additional information from them.
The included system is somewhat similar to Fallout 4, where karma was replaced by affection with companions. Wastelanders also offers companions with whom you can interact and even fall in love – but I haven’t reached that point yet.
Can I be “good” or “evil”?
In principle, yes – it depends on you how you behave. However, it is not clearly defined, at least not as far as I have seen so far. Yet, this “karma” feature offers a great option for role-playing.
In Fallout 76, many players have decided to take on specific roles. For instance, there are already:
- a police station with helpful players
- crime gangs
- a doctor who even gives out quests
- the most annoying NPC in the Fallout series
Those who, like these people, play Fallout 76 as a role-playing game can enjoy the “good” and “evil” decisions to shape their own character. There is also a certain influence on gameplay.
Starting April 14, you can see for yourself what Wastelanders is all about. Then the new update will be available for free on all platforms, and Fallout 76 will finally also be available on Steam. More about Wastelanders and why Wastelanders is what Fallout 76 should have been, can be found in my detailed preview.
Those who, like these people, play Fallout 76 as a role-playing game can enjoy the “good” and “evil” decisions to shape their own character. There is also a certain influence on gameplay.
Starting April 14, you can see for yourself what Wastelanders is all about. Then the new update will be available for free on all platforms, and Fallout 76 will finally also be available on Steam. More about Wastelanders and why Wastelanders is what Fallout 76 should have been, can be found in my detailed preview.
