Two factions are fighting for dominance, small NPC camps house traders as well as quest givers, and companions for your own C.A.M.P.S can also be found.
Myself and many others have been waiting for the NPCs. But how good is it really? After a year-long break from Fallout 76, I teamed up with a friend and spent the first hours with the new quest line.
The first hours in Wastelanders
This is how it starts: Whether I create a new character or continue playing my old one, the entry into the new quest line is simple.
Near Vault 76, two NPC women are waiting, telling me about a treasure that is supposed to be in the vault. Of course, you can’t get back in, but I still want that treasure.
So, I talk to them and try to squeeze more information from them, which unfortunately doesn’t work because they didn’t like my sarcastic responses. If you act like a jerk in Fallout 76, the NPCs think you are a jerk too. They are stubborn and send me on my way.
After arriving at a bar and a small altercation later, I still don’t get any concrete information about the treasure, but at least I receive the first tasks that are supposed to lead me to it.
This is how it works in multiplayer: Here I’ve learned how conversations with NPCs play out in a group. Most story-relevant locations where you have important conversations with NPCs are instanced.
When the group leader enters this area, he alone decides what is said to the NPCs. The other group members can watch. However, they can also enter their own instance. I find this very well solved, as every player can decide how they want to behave towards the NPCs.
This is how conversations unfold: While talking to the NPCs, I get various response options to choose from. Just as one is used to from a Fallout game. Some responses are sarcastic and emphasize the grand humor of the series. For other responses, I need certain status values like charisma or strength and can thus persuade NPCs to surrender without a fight. You can tell that Bethesda put in a lot of effort here.
The selection is final and can influence the further quest progression. The first quest line led me to the raiders and ultimately to the supposed treasure in Vault 76. It was a cool, multi-hour journey, during which I found my way back into the game.
What comes next? After the first quest line, it is difficult, especially for newcomers. Because as our colleagues at GameStar have found out, the story of Wastelanders does not continue until character level 20. New players have to proceed with the old content first to reach the required level.
But even though my character is far beyond level 20, I did not get any further tasks at the end of the first quest line. I wandered the world, discovered the NPC city of the settlers, and did not receive any Wastelanders quests. I currently do not know where to find the next quest line.
Only a few companions I can get for my C.A.M.P needed my help. So, I have to keep my eyes open and keep wandering through the wasteland.
The good and bad sides of Wastelanders
I haven’t touched Fallout for a year, and Wastelanders welcomes me with open arms. Nevertheless, Bethesda has a lot to do to optimize Fallout 76 Wastelanders.
What I really liked
The first quest line perfectly introduced me to the life in the wasteland. I learned how the C.A.M.P works and the story is interestingly written. Not a masterpiece, but the typical Fallout humor made me laugh several times.
The NPCs finally bring life to Appalachia, and the dialogues are wonderfully crazy. During a quest, I pretended to be a ghost to get to a robot body. The dialogue options require replay value with new characters.
It didn’t take long before I was once again in the exploration and loot frenzy wanting to discover the many new spots on the map.
What still needs to improve
The NPCs are well written but are occasionally buggy. I had to wait several minutes for the bar owner to retrieve an item from a crate. During the dialogue, she constantly turned to the crate and back to me until she finally walked to the crate.
Also, the German text output when showing the dialogues with subtitles occasionally appears in English. I have only noticed this once so far.
After the first quest line, it is not clear what to do next, and a feeling of helplessness sets in. Running around in the wasteland, looking for new tasks, is not for everyone.
My conclusion: In the first hours, I definitely had a lot of fun and will continue to make the wasteland unsafe to find every NPC. Wastelanders feels livelier than ever before, and the tremendous humor was truly missed. Even the annoying raiders are a welcome change from all the monsters in Appalachia.
The only disturbances are the bugs that occasionally cause hiccups with the NPCs. Also, being left alone after the first Wastelanders quest line is quite irritating.
If you love the old Fallout games, you will probably be happy with 76 as well. Because now Fallout 76 has quite a bit in common with parts 3 and 4.
Fallout 76 has finally added human NPCs with Wastelanders. But how does the expansion play out if you haven’t gamed for a year? Our author Sascha Asendorf has found out and describes his experience in a preview test.
I like the Fallout series. Especially New Vegas and Fallout 4 entertained me for a long time. Like most fans, I eagerly awaited a fifth installment and had to make do with Fallout 76 for the time being.
This is how I started: I began in the beta, then invested several hours at the release in 2018 and had fun back then. The exploration of the world, the music, and the looting kept me entertained for a long time. But something was missing: the human NPCs!
Getting quests in Fallout 76 only from logs, terminals, or robots became boring in the long run. Thus, I ended up putting FO76 aside. It sat unplayed for a year until now.
Wastelanders breathes new life into Fallout 76 – literally!
This is what happened: With the Wastelanders expansion, human NPCs have appeared in Appalachia and populate the area.
Two factions are fighting for dominance, small NPC camps house traders as well as quest givers, and companions for your own C.A.M.P.S can also be found.
Myself and many others have been waiting for the NPCs. But how good is it really? After a year-long break from Fallout 76, I teamed up with a friend and spent the first hours with the new quest line.
The first hours in Wastelanders
This is how it starts: Whether I create a new character or continue playing my old one, the entry into the new quest line is simple.
Near Vault 76, two NPC women are waiting, telling me about a treasure that is supposed to be in the vault. Of course, you can’t get back in, but I still want that treasure.
So, I talk to them and try to squeeze more information from them, which unfortunately doesn’t work because they didn’t like my sarcastic responses. If you act like a jerk in Fallout 76, the NPCs think you are a jerk too. They are stubborn and send me on my way.
After arriving at a bar and a small altercation later, I still don’t get any concrete information about the treasure, but at least I receive the first tasks that are supposed to lead me to it.
This is how it works in multiplayer: Here I’ve learned how conversations with NPCs play out in a group. Most story-relevant locations where you have important conversations with NPCs are instanced.
When the group leader enters this area, he alone decides what is said to the NPCs. The other group members can watch. However, they can also enter their own instance. I find this very well solved, as every player can decide how they want to behave towards the NPCs.
This is how conversations unfold: While talking to the NPCs, I get various response options to choose from. Just as one is used to from a Fallout game. Some responses are sarcastic and emphasize the grand humor of the series. For other responses, I need certain status values like charisma or strength and can thus persuade NPCs to surrender without a fight. You can tell that Bethesda put in a lot of effort here.
The selection is final and can influence the further quest progression. The first quest line led me to the raiders and ultimately to the supposed treasure in Vault 76. It was a cool, multi-hour journey, during which I found my way back into the game.
What comes next? After the first quest line, it is difficult, especially for newcomers. Because as our colleagues at GameStar have found out, the story of Wastelanders does not continue until character level 20. New players have to proceed with the old content first to reach the required level.
But even though my character is far beyond level 20, I did not get any further tasks at the end of the first quest line. I wandered the world, discovered the NPC city of the settlers, and did not receive any Wastelanders quests. I currently do not know where to find the next quest line.
Only a few companions I can get for my C.A.M.P needed my help. So, I have to keep my eyes open and keep wandering through the wasteland.
The good and bad sides of Wastelanders
I haven’t touched Fallout for a year, and Wastelanders welcomes me with open arms. Nevertheless, Bethesda has a lot to do to optimize Fallout 76 Wastelanders.
What I really liked
The first quest line perfectly introduced me to the life in the wasteland. I learned how the C.A.M.P works and the story is interestingly written. Not a masterpiece, but the typical Fallout humor made me laugh several times.
The NPCs finally bring life to Appalachia, and the dialogues are wonderfully crazy. During a quest, I pretended to be a ghost to get to a robot body. The dialogue options require replay value with new characters.
It didn’t take long before I was once again in the exploration and loot frenzy wanting to discover the many new spots on the map.
What still needs to improve
The NPCs are well written but are occasionally buggy. I had to wait several minutes for the bar owner to retrieve an item from a crate. During the dialogue, she constantly turned to the crate and back to me until she finally walked to the crate.
Also, the German text output when showing the dialogues with subtitles occasionally appears in English. I have only noticed this once so far.
After the first quest line, it is not clear what to do next, and a feeling of helplessness sets in. Running around in the wasteland, looking for new tasks, is not for everyone.
My conclusion: In the first hours, I definitely had a lot of fun and will continue to make the wasteland unsafe to find every NPC. Wastelanders feels livelier than ever before, and the tremendous humor was truly missed. Even the annoying raiders are a welcome change from all the monsters in Appalachia.
The only disturbances are the bugs that occasionally cause hiccups with the NPCs. Also, being left alone after the first Wastelanders quest line is quite irritating.
If you love the old Fallout games, you will probably be happy with 76 as well. Because now Fallout 76 has quite a bit in common with parts 3 and 4.
