When it was announced that Fallout 76 would feature no human NPCs, many fans were understandably shocked. For a series like Fallout to turn so radically away from their formula seemed nonsensical. However, those initial comments have since been clarified; Fallout 76 will feature no human NPCs whatsoever. The only humans in the game will be real players. However, recent comments made by Pete Hines suggest that the game will also lack NPC factions of any kind.
Fallout 76 Factions
When Todd Howard and Pete Hines made comments previously about human NPCs in Fallout 76, they were somewhat vague; certainly, they left plenty of unanswered questions. For example, while we know that there will be no human NPCs; are ghouls considered human? Feral ghouls certainly appear in the trailer, so it seemed possible that there might be sane ghouls residing in the West Virginian wastelands, albeit in small numbers. That is looking increasingly unlikely. However, it was known that robots will feature in the game and can be spoken to and interacted with as NPCs.
While few details had been given, there was some speculation among fans that factions could still feature; albeit entirely through robot NPCs. Those hopes appear to have now been dashed. Speaking in a recent interview, Pete Hines stated; “If you want to have the Minutemen, then be a Minuteman and recruit other people to be Minutemen who go around the world helping folks and finding settlements that need help and going and do that. If you want to be a trader, if you want to travel around the map or you want to build an outpost where people come and buy and sell stuff, you should do that. You don’t need us to craft those systems. The game will just allow you to do that. You go be who you want in this world.”
While his comments may inspire plenty of players to do as he recommends, it may also frustrate fans who were hoping for a more traditional Bethesda experience from Fallout 76. It’s still unclear exactly how frequently players can expect to come across other players in the world. No doubt plenty of these questions won’t be answered until the game’s public beta later this year.