Highlights
- Fallout 76's free content updates and quality-of-life improvements have made it a fan favorite, but the game should consider making its major quests replayable to further enhance the player experience.
- The unique legendary gear obtained from Fallout 76's story quests is based on the player's level, which means it becomes ineffective in the endgame when enemies scale to the player's level.
- Making the story quests replayable would be a much-needed change, benefiting players who want to collect the gear and those who want to refresh their memory of the game's story.
It’s no secret that Fallout 76 initially launched in a state that left much to be desired, but since then the game has turned out to be a favorite for many fans of the franchise. The various free content updates for Fallout 76 in particular have been a huge reason for the game’s newfound success, alongside major quality-of-life improvements. Over time, Fallout 76 has received many expansions that have continued the main story of the game, and given the impact of these questlines, Fallout 76 should consider making its major quests replayable.
Fallout 76’s story quests often reward players with uniquely named legendary weapons and armor that can only be obtained once. These pieces of Legendary gear come with custom names and specific, unchangeable legendary effects. Despite some of this gear being underwhelming, most of this gear from Fallout 76’s main quests is arguably worth collecting.
Fallout 76’s Main Quests Have Amazing Rewards
The legendary gear that comes from the main quests is based on the player’s level at the time of completing each quest. This means that earning these rewards before reaching the max level in Fallout 76 generally makes these weapons and armor ineffective in the endgame where enemies scale to the player's level. Some of the curated legendary effects on these weapons and armor are only available on this gear, which makes it a shame that this gear often becomes useless when players inevitably increase their character’s level.
It’s common for players who want to collect the legendary gear from the main questlines to create additional characters and reach the maximum level before completing any of the quests with these characters. This method has its advantages and disadvantages, but for now, it’s the only option that players have to replay the game’s story quests.
The main benefit to doing this is that players can earn all the rewards again, including the ones that are locked behind specific story choices that weren’t chosen on previous playthroughs. The downside, though, is that players will have to start from scratch with their perks and potentially their builds in Fallout 76 given that some of the late-game gear can’t be transferred between characters.
The Case for a New Game Plus in Fallout 76
In hindsight, creating additional characters in Fallout 76 just to redo the story is a tedious process that is overdue for a change. Specifically, allowing players to restart parts or all of the main questlines in Fallout 76 could address this problem, and earning the rewards at the maximum level would be an added bonus.
While the named legendary gear in Fallout 76 is a major factor in why the game’s story should be made replayable, this feature would also be useful for players who wish to jog their memory on the game’s story. Given the game’s long lifetime, players are likely to have forgotten bits and pieces of Fallout 76’s major events after having completed some of the quests a long time ago. For these players, making the story missions replayable could be a perfect opportunity to refresh their memory without having to start an additional character each time. Unless the story is made replayable, this is a problem that will continue to last and worsen until Fallout 76’s servers shut down for good.
Instead of a typical New Game Plus feature, reintroducing the main quests as weekly featured activities could be a great way to promote cooperative multiplayer. Encouraging players to engage with a particular quest during each week might bring more players together than not, although for this to be worthwhile Fallout 76 would also need to allow quest progress to be shared among teammates. Playing with friends is normally the best way to play the game because it offers many passive benefits, but for this reason, players are better off completing the main quests in Fallout 76 as solo players for now.
Fallout 76 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
