Much has been said about Fallout 76’s online-centric nature, but Bethesda has also iterated on multiple occasions that though this is a game with multiplayer focused title, you can still enjoy the experience while playing completely by yourself. While speaking with Engadget, Fallout 76 design director Emil Pagliarulo recently gave a bit more info on how those two aspects of the game will work with each other.
The phrase he used to describe the experience was “solo, but together”, talking about how the stories and scripted quests in the game, including the main quest involving the Overseer, are all “individual” to each player.
“The stories and quests are individual to each person playing the game, and that includes the main quest – following the Overseer’s journey as she ventures out into Appalachia to secure the missile silos,” said Pagliarulo. “So when you’re in a team, the goal is to help each other in any way you can. ‘Solo but together’ might be a good way to look at. If you play the game with the same group from the beginning, you’ll be experiencing these stories at relatively the same time. Events are an exception -they can be solo’d, but are intended to be done as a group – and that includes your own team.”
However, Pagliarulo also mentioned that in spite of this, the game is definitely harder if you play it solo, citing some end game activities specifically being more suited to co-op play.
“That said, certain things are easier if you work in a group,” Pagliarulo said. “Definitely. Especially the end-game content, where you’re trying to collect and decipher nuclear codes. So we encourage joining up, but we don’t require it. What I’ve generally found is that even if you’re solo’ing the game, the fact that there are other players in the world with you means you always have help within arm’s reach if you need it. For example, recently I was solo’ing a pretty early event that has you killing waves of Scorched. It was difficult, but I was doing it. But I was expending a lot of ammo and Stimpaks in the process. Out of nowhere, another designer who was playing wandered into the event and started helping me out. It was a huge relief. So those moments are common, a little assist when you need it the most.”
Fallout 76 launches on November 14 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with its beta kicking off later this month. Recently, we got to see a solid 2 hours of gameplay from the game. You can take a look through here.
