Summary

• Skyline Valley is Fallout 76's biggest update yet, adding a vast new area with more missions and ways to customize gameplay.
• The Creative Director, Jonathan Rush, teases future gameplay as Ghouls, with unique perks and benefits in radiation.
• Fallout 76's narrative has evolved since launch, with Skyline Valley being the next chapter in the expanding story.

Fallout 76 recently dropped its most extensive expansion yet with the Skyline Valley update that breathes new life into Appalachia's multiplayer-centric wasteland. Creative Director Jonathan Rush sat down with Screen Rant for an interview about his favorite parts of the latest update, tips for beginnings, and what it will be like to play as a Ghoul in the near future.

After the massive success of Amazon's Fallout live-action series, more people are excited to explore the franchise's dark humor and radiation-filled lands than ever before. Fallout 76 is the latest game in the franchise that has added significant content since the MMO was first released. The game's map has grown over the years, adding a lot of new missions, characters, and ways to customize gameplay for all players who've ventured out of Vault 76.

Jonathan Rush is the Creative Director for Fallout 76, but it's far from the first notable game he's helped bring to life. His past credits include 2016's Doom and Arkane Studio's beloved Prey (2017). Rush recently spoke with Screen Rant, revealing that he and the team have much more in store for the game and its fans.

Fallout 76's Creative Director Talks About The Game's Ghoulish Future

Ghouls Will Become Playable In Fallout 76 Sometime In 2025

Screen Rant: What exactly does a Creative Director do for an online game based on such a well-established world like Fallout's, and is it a job you'd always strived to attain?

Jonathan Rush: Responsibility-wise, it's stuff that I've always tried to accomplish or keep in mind as I make decisions. Whether it was as a Character Artist or an Art Director, but now, after officially being in the role, I get to have a much stronger impact to orchestrate the roap. Laying out the plan, getting with the teams, and making sure everybody's expectations are in alignment.

From there, it's about greasing the wheels, so to say, to keep everybody moving in the right direction and help with any decisions that might be stopping progress. It's really about being the person who gets to give developers the info they need.

Our preview with the new Fallout 76 Skyline Valley content showed a lot of new stuff, and you've teased that more is on the way, especially with the playable Ghouls in 2025. How far off do you have content planned for Fallout 76?

Jonathan Rush: We've got stuff planned for a long way out. I'll say this about the team: There is no shortage of good ideas. The tricky part of being the Creative Director is having to go through all of those good ideas and only being able to pick some because we can only do so many. But yes, we've got enough to keep Fallout 76 going for quite a while.

The preview teased the chance to finally play as a Ghoul in Fallout 76. You mentioned that Ghouls will have specific cosmetics to unlock but will they have specific gameplay features? Will players need to consistently inject themselves with medicine like Walter Goggin's Ghoul character in the Fallout show?

Jonathan Rush: Playing as a Ghoul is a completely different experience. Without disclosing too many details, playing as a Ghoul, you're gonna be good with radiation. Radiation is beneficial; if I take damage as a Ghoul and I'm around radiation, it will heal me. It can do more than that and can be augmented or exaggerated through Ghoul-specific character cards. There will be dozens of Ghoul-specific perk cards that can be laid over the already existing human perk cards.

Since this is a relatively late game endeavor (the Ghoul class will be unlockable after reaching character level 50) these perks are very much skewed towards late gameplay styles and things that people want in the late game. They can make your Ghoul very powerful, but of course, the more powerful your Ghoul gets, the more side effects and drawbacks they'll have, so players will need to find a balance.

Going back to the radiation, a lot of people wear Power Armor so that they don't take radiation damage. If you're a Ghoul, you don't have to worry about radiation. You probably wouldn't want to wear it because the Power Armor is going to block the beneficial radiation. That opens up a whole new play style on its own because you've just freed up a whole bunch of perk points that you can use in a lot of other places.

So you take that fact, layered with all the perk cards over the top of it, you've got a lot of viable ways to play, not only for Ghouls. Those new pathways opening up for Ghouls are going to get people who want to play as humans thinking about different ways to play so that they can complement their Ghoul teammates. It will be even better when they run into harder instances or harder enemies, which they will run into, and there is new challenging stuff coming.

The Game's Launch Was Only The First Chapter, and Fallout 76's Story Keeps Growing

The Skyline Valley Expansion Went Live June 12

Fallout 76 arguably had a rough launch in 2018. What do you think are some of the biggest misconceptions that fans had about the game when it launched, and where do you think it's improved the most?

Jonathan Rush: The way I look at it, Fallout 76 is approaching its sixth year, and I look at the timeline as one story that's been continuously unfolding. The launch was the first chapter where people are coming out of the Vault, seeing the empty wasteland, and learning about the characters. There weren't a lot of characters represented in human form, but learning about characters through notes, holotapes, anecdotes from robots, props, and environmental storytelling.

As far as the whole story goes, that launch was just the first chapter. As that story went on, folks from outside West Virginia started getting interested and coming to the region to look for treasure. Even groups like the Brotherhood of Steel came in to carve out their space, and then players started to notice a bit more activity from all the new humans coming in.

So, I'm not sure about calling it a rough launch. It'd be like reading a book and stopping at the first chapter. You stick to the story, and that's what we're doing. Skyline Valley is the next chapter for Fallout 76, and there are many more to come.

That can definitely be felt in the content that we previewed today and I think a lot of people are going to like where it's heading. In the six years since Fallout 76's launch, what designs or features are you most proud of helping make a reality?

Jonathan Rush: The cool thing about working at Bethesda Game Studios is that the games you work on become such an organic process. Everybody on these teams really gets a hand in helping out or providing input in some way or another. Along the whole timeline, features I'm most proud to be a part of were where we expand our story out, like with the Brotherhood of Steel, Steel Dawn, and Steel Rain-type content beats. As well as some of the public events I think I'd be the most proud of.

Well that covers the past, but what is something that you'd love to be able to add in Fallout 76's future?

Jonathan Rush: I would love to be able to ride a Brahmin [Fallout's lovable double-headed cattle] or a nuclear bomb, but riding the brahmin might be a little less dangerous!

Are there any plans to increase mod for Fallout 76?

Jonathan Rush: We currently have light mod . People currently have mods that help affect the UI, and we're aware and fine with those. There are times when we release updates that break them, but it's not done on purpose. Sometimes, that just happens.

The live-action Fallout series has helped create a lot of new fans who are hungry to explore more of the franchise's universe. Do you have tips for new fans who might be hesitant to jump into Fallout 76's online world? What quests or activities do you believe new players should do first that may hook them immediately in what the game has to offer?

Jonathan Rush: There's never been a better time to be in The Wasteland. New players can come into this game, and when they leave the vault, they're going see a rich world full of things to see and do. The tricky part is to try not to wander off too far and run into a Deathclaw. So my first tip is if you see a little island off on the west side of the map that has a sign on it that says "Deathclaw Island," it's not just a catchy name. I would probably stay away from there until you're a bit higher level.

However, new players jumping into the game and starting new characters can be brave and start as a fresh dweller, or they could level up immediately to level 20 and choose from five different loadouts, which is what I would recommend. You can come out of the vault with a shotgun and start blowing off Ghoul's heads immediately, but I would recommend that new players talk to the two NPCs just down the hill a bit so they can get started on the wayward quests.

What were your thoughts on seeing a successful live-action adaptation of a world that you've spent so many years helping build up, and what are some things that you'd love to see added in future seasons of Amazon's Fallout show?

Jonathan Rush: I was blown away to see all the attention to detail that that team has. It's pretty amazing all the way from the set dressing to the Power Armors. It was great, and I was definitely impressed, but I would like to see more Brahmin in some season down the road.

Is there a point where the current technology prevents Fallout 76 from evolving? Are there ideas that you want to add to the game but can't without creating a sequel to Fallout 76?

Jonathan Rush: Like I said before, we've got no shortage of fun ideas. We could tow this along forever. There are always great stories to tell and areas we haven't explored yet in The Wasteland. As far as a sequel, I don't think anybody would ever shirk at the thought of a sequel, but there are no specific talks about one. We're very much focused on expanding the story for Fallout 76 and giving players the opportunity to expand and tell their own stories as well.

Can new players venture down to Fallout 76's new Skyline Valley area and not feel overwhelmed? Should they be a little more leveled up before going into the expansions content?

Jonathan Rush: I believe the new quests unlock when players reach Level 25. New characters are free to go there; there's no gating off the new Fallout 76 region. They might run into slightly tougher enemies than what they should be encountering at that level.

But when players first leave Vault 76, they are not going to see the storm hovering over Skyline Valley in the distance. That's done purposely so new players are not tempted to wander too far from where they should be leveling up and exploring around the Vault. But once they venture south, a little way into the Ash Heap, you'll start to see the storm and wonder what's going on down there. It's something new players can absolutely explore if they choose to.

Are there new Fallout 76's Skyline Valley expansion that you are most excited to give players?

Jonathan Rush: I really like the new Electrified Sword. I think that's really cool, and it goes with the theming of the region, too. But you'll have to jump into the game to see why!