Fallout 76 is gearing up for its big expansion to the map with Skyline Valley, which launches on June 12th, but another feature just might have players looking ahead to next year: playable Ghouls.
It's no secret Ghouls are kind of cool right now, thanks to The Ghoul character becoming a fan favorite from Amazon's Fallout TV Show. Well, it seems Bethesda Game Studios wants players to be able to inhabit the radioactive skin of a Ghoul for themselves in Fallout 76 next year, when it brings playable Ghouls to end-game players.
Starting at level 50, players can turn themselves into a Ghoul and give themselves a whole new way to play Fallout 76. In doing so, players gain some pretty nifty benefits, such as immunity to radiation which could mean no more lugging that power armor around, according to creative director John Rush.
"I benefit from not wearing that Power Armor because I want to take that radiation in, not deflect it," Rush told me during a group Q&A at a Fallout 76 event in London in May. "That frees up a whole number of perk points I can use somewhere else. That's a whole new playstyle."
Rush also explained that players who choose to take on the guise of a Ghoul will have access to Ghoul-specific perk cards as well, which could mean a ton of interesting new ways to play the survival sandbox. However, there are drawbacks to playing Ghoul. but Rush hopes that players will give it a try.
"There's going to be drawbacks to being the Ghoul, of course, I think most people will try it - I hope everybody tries it. [There are] going to be drawbacks, and some people might not like them. Maybe it doesn't fit their play style, just like [there are] drawbacks to being a human. There's going to be balancing, but what we're hoping to do is just offer alternate ways for players to express that in-game power, that continued growth of the in-game power as we go through our subsequent updates."
Thankfully, if you don't like the Ghoul after becoming one, Rush confirmed you'll be able to go back to being a regular human - which makes me wonder about its implications on the broader canon of Fallout as a result. How that happens wasn't revealed, but it's certainly going to be an interesting time once player Ghouls arrives sometime in 2025.
