The Strong Silent Type, Hmm?
To be fair, ‘reportedly light’ in this case means no dialogue. A recent article from Game Informer goes into great detail about a whole lot of Fallout 76 goodness. One of the more polarizing hints dropped is about NPC interaction. According to the article, “you don’t have dialogue choices to steer the conversation or mission in a different way.” That’s a pretty big departure from the usual Fallout formula.
The rest of the GI article is summed up in this Resetera post. It seems like Fallout 76 is going to both lose and gain a whole lot of followers for the franchise. Beyond the lack of branching dialogue, there’s also going to be level-scaling, proximity quests and world events.
On the microtransaction end of things, there won’t be any. Which is great news, though it’s still distressing how much every developer has to emphasize that up front. There will be skills to collect and unlock, but only through gameplay. The more I hear about this game, the less it seems like a Fallout title. Todd and his crew are adamant that this is still Fallout through and through, but Fallout 4 is a clear indication that Bethesda and the fans sometimes want different things.