Fallout 76: 9 Past Franchise Problems It Can Finally Fix

7. The Protagonist Problem

Fallout 3: You're someone brand new to the wasteland... but you desperately need to find your father, and then save the water supply for everyone. No room for exploration without breaking the established motivation.

New Vegas: You're a courier who survives being executed... only to find themselves in the centre of a time-sensitive factional warfare dispute. Less imperative up front, but you're still confined to a revenge tale and pacy story until after the credits.

Fallout 4: Your infant son has been kidnapped and is now missing somewhere out in the wasteland. Anything other than finding them immediately is just plain weird. No room for exploration unless you actively discard the motivations set up across the first half hour.

Fallout 76: At time of writing all we know is the player is one of many dwellers from Vault 76: The first of all Vault-Tech's chambers to open into the newly irradiated wasteland.

There's no motivation or prerogative other than "Explore, discover, survive. Find who you can, see what's still standing, build a life and restore humanity across the land".

Perfect.