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Fallout 76 Wastelanders Expansion Adds Human NPCs & Battle Royale
After acknowledging that Fallout 76 has seen its share of issues, Bethesda Softworks is attempting to make good with players of the game by adding a new expansion pack with human NPCs, as well as a battle royale mode. Since its release in 2018, Fallout 76 has been plagued with a series of problems, including a series of bugs and an in-game economy that angered its players. The title never seemed to live up to the promise that Bethesda made when they initially announced that Fallout 76 would be an online survival RPG.
One of the key features of previous Fallout games was human NPCs, AI-controlled characters that players can interact with. Dialogue choices determined how NPCs interacted with players, from being openly hostile to opening up the possibility of romantic entanglements. Perhaps that's why it was so surprising that Bethesda initially announced that Fallout 76 wouldn't feature NPCs, but instead would allow players to interact with each other and robots. Of all the features that Fallout 76 players have requested since the game's launch, NPCs were at the top of the list.
It seems that Bethesda was paying attention. At its 2019 E3 presentation, the company acknowledged that Fallout 76 has its problems and offered up several ways it would try to earn back players' trust. This includes a new expansion called "Wastelanders" that will finally add human NPCs into the game, along with a new main quest.
Bethesda also announced another new feature for Fallout 76: a 52-person brutal battle royale mode in which players will have to fight other players to take over the position of Overseer of Vault 51.
Most importantly, Bethesda mentioned that this new content will be free for existing Fallout 76 players. Players can take this as an apology from Bethesda for the game's rocky start, but some might still be disappointed that Bethesda still hasn't considered making the title free, although the company has previously made a statement that it doesn't intend to make Fallout 76 free to play. However, Bethesda is offering a free trial of Fallout 76 from June 10-17, perhaps in hopes of winning over Fallout fans who never showed interest in the game.
Bethesda does seem to want to make good with players, and this is a great first step in doing just that.
