The next Fallout 76 update, Burning Springs, is set to be the biggest content drop the game has seen in its almost seven years of expansive post-launch support. Releasing alongside the premiere of Amazon Prime Video’s highly anticipated Fallout season two in December, it’s shaping up to be the perfect accompaniment for fans of the TV show.
It represents the game’s second map expansion since the Skyline Valley update last year and fleshes out the Appalachia wasteland’s western region with a massive new area based on Ohio. That’s not everything, though, as this fresh environment is crammed with activities ranging from more story quests, two bombastic public events, and plenty of little secrets to discover.
Most exciting of all, however, is the addition of The Ghoul. Voiced by none other than Prime series actor Walton Goggins, he looks ripped straight from your TV screen and is an integral part of the update's biggest and most enjoyable new mechanic: bounty hunting.
Gun for hire
Picking up a bounty is as simple as heading to the newly added settlement of Highway Town, a strip-like city perched on top of a decimated overpass, and making a beeline for the shadiest bar you can find. The Ghoul stands menacingly in the corner in all his glory and, after a quick chat, offers you the chance to pick up some low-level contracts called Grunt Hunts.
While the final version of the update will feature plenty of Goggins' voice acting, it was unfortunately absent from the early build I played - and won’t be implemented when the update drops in the Public Test Server either. Still, all of the dialogue was still present in a generic text-to-speech voice, and it provided enough to get at least a decent flavor of how it all might sound.
Grunt Hunts are repeatable tasks that are designed to be replayed time and time again, providing you with a steady stream of experience, items, and a generous amount of Caps. Although they can be tackled solo, I soon found that they really shone with a friend. Walking to the location of each target gives you the perfect chance for a little chat and to explore all of the new terrain. I bumped into a few little collectibles and even found a handful of items connected to the latest story quests on my travels.
Of course, simply fast-travelling to somewhere close to the target is always an option, but I’d recommend taking the extra time to really soak this new area in - at least in the first few weeks while the update is still fresh. When you reach your destination, finding your target is pretty simple, and while they might have a few goons on hand as backup, they’re all relatively easy to dispatch.
Far more challenging are the Head Hunts - server-wide contracts that cost a few Caps to access. Anyone in the game can join these, and you’ll likely need the assistance as they’re meant to be seriously difficult. In my time with the build, I went head-to-head with everything from a Power Armor-wearing psychopath flanked by waves of heavily armed US flag-themed foot soldiers to some random rifle-wielding old lady called Granny Grail.
For the purposes of the preview event, every participant was given a ridiculously high-level character and an arsenal of seriously overpowered weapons, so Granny Grail and her entourage of fellow golden oldies, all amusingly called ‘Tough Granny’ in-game, were obliterated in a matter of seconds. Was it a little anticlimactic? Sure, but the absurdly gory sight of all her limbs exploding practically instantaneously as four level 300 players showered her with rifle bullets had me howling with laughter - so I can’t really complain.
She’ll presumably stand more of a chance against my regular account, so I look forward to receiving a significant beating in our next encounter once the update is live.
Interestingly, the developers told me that these encounters are not procedurally generated as you might expect, but rather drawn upon a large list of hand-crafted enemies that can show up in any one of twenty possible locations, and I can’t help but chuckle at the mental image of a developer crafting a deadly old woman for players to defeat.
Vegas vibes
Ohio is nowhere near Las Vegas geographically, but that doesn’t mean that the developers haven’t tried to imbue this setting with a distinctly desert vibe to help match the new setting of the show. It’s a very sandy, red wasteland that looks far more like the world of Fallout: New Vegas than anything that we’ve seen in 76 before.
Radscorpions, a constant pest in New Vegas, are absolutely everywhere and a key part of the new Sinkhole Solutions public event. It’s a neat little horde survival challenge that has you fending off increasingly deadly waves of Radscorpions as a team, occasionally taking out nests as you go, for high-level rewards. The other new public event, Gearing Up, is then all about collecting scrap and leading a friendly Deathclaw through waves of bandits. It seems less repeatable than Sinkhole Solutions, but it is still a decent change of pace.
Highway Town is an impressively unique destination, but there are still lots of other locations well worth a visit throughout the map. The real-life city of Athens is represented in the middle of a charming Halloween celebration, the streets littered with plastic skeletons and other seasonal decorations. Make sure to snag the novelty witch’s hat that’s perched on the mannequin in the middle of the town plaza when you visit for some serious style points.
As a free update that also drops alongside a new season pass filled with a fresh wave of unlockable goodies, the quality and quantity of content on offer here is undeniable. If you’ve been waiting for an excuse to dive into the world of Fallout 76, this is it.
The game is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, or PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S via backwards compatibility.
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