The Fallout Instagram page has been recently been posting explanations as to why many of the factions exist in Fallout 76. The latest one which covers the Enclave says that:

"Just before the bombs fell, US leadership relocated to a remote Oil Rig off the coast of San Francisco. The Enclave’s mission – to re-establish governmental control of America from key locations, like a secret bunker hidden somewhere deep in Appalachia..."

Based on this knowledge it can be assumed that this secret bunker in Appalachia is actually the Government Bunker located under the Greenbrier Resort in Fallout 76. Entrance to the Bunker requires a keycard to pass a laser grid similar to the one seen in the Jamaica Plains Vault. But the inside layout is unknown. Though it is likely this is where you will find the Enclave gear set.

But lore-wise this like some of the other factions can have complications with the lore and based on the statement and previous ones allows both the Brotherhood of Steel and Enclave to show up at any time in any Fallout game. If something like this was taken advantage of by Bethesda we could see a new level of lazy storytelling with the same stuff making a reappearance time and time again.

But, do any of you actually agree with this addition to the lore? let me know.

The post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpM6S72ByrL/?hl=en&taken-by=fallout

At this point, my care level is so low. I'll treat it like the Last Jedi, I'm not bothering to look at the lore nor treat it like an actual Fallout game. I'll buy it on sale at best and run around treating it like a glorified MP experience with a Fallout skin. If Bethesda wants to scrap good writing for a dumb cop out cash grab game, then go right ahead. Here's hoping they see reason with their new Elder Scrolls or what ever Starfield is they're developing.

@MWguitarist It looks like Fallout may be leaning towards that way. I do think that from a gameplay point of view Fo76 will be fun to play. But for long-term fans who have invested a lot of time into Fallout changes like this can be like a major slap to the face.

Recipe for disaster: Bethesda, lore, multiplayer and a prequel to the original Fallout.

I just don't understand. Why change pre-established lore to fit a game that has NO SIGNIFICANCE to Fallout whatsoever?

76 is better off non-canon. It serves no purpose and is just an online sandbox FPS with a Fallout skin.

That's not me hating on it btw. It can exist for shits and giggles with friends but why does it have to be canon/mess with lore?

@Corvo I think its likely Bethesda realized Fallout 76 lacked any real in-depth story expected from a Bethesda game as with no dialogue its hard to do so. In an attempt to counter this they looked at everything Fallout and picked out whatever they felt was cool. To make it work they pulled some bullshit story to loosely tie it all together.

I'm pumped for the game and so are my friends but apart of me is pretty upset about these random uncalled retcons.

@MWguitarist I feel this exact way, it does look like a fun and interesting game. and as fallout game I will get it (probably when Christmas sales comes around)
but yea just like fallout 4, they just changed any pre established lore from past games to fit they're own thing instead of trying to change fallout 4 lore to fit the other games.
Bethesda is not known for good story we can say that if want to. and I feel 76 will be the same but it'll be something to play with friends or make new friends to pass the time.

and if not... then there's always world of warcraft again,

@TheCrimsonBuckr Yeah, there's just no heart in making a good story driven RPG anymore with some of my favorite game settings. But hey there's at least other titles like you said so there's hope! Maybe Bethesda will just somehow open their eyes one day. But with Tod Howard at the helm, it's more dollars than passion. As disheartening it is to admit.

right?
but can say that for anything and everything these days, its all about the $$$ and who cares about the lower people?
but yea.. I more love the community like the WIP mods fallout Miami or FNV: new frontier and new California! its people like those groups in this community (and ofcourse gunetwork too <3) that gives me hope and stay playing XD

I just feel that Bethesda doesn't know what they could do with the Fallout series at the moment. Think about it. They keep changing the already established lore just so the Brotherhood of Steel, the Super Mutants, and Enclave would fit into their games.Sure they added the Scorched, but that's more like the Marked Men in Lonesome Road.


I hope Bethesda would just stop for now with the fallout series. Just take a break first, you know? The series needs fresh ideas. I honestly do not want to keep playing the fallout games with the brotherhood, super mutants, and enclave appearing again and again. Iconic characters, yes, but not central. These guys aren't the only ones living and thriving in the wasteland that has a story to tell.

Lore-wise it makes sense since the Enclave is a shadow government. I would not be surprised if some units of the US army is under their control and got activated after the president was sent to the Oil Rig.

The game however is just a giant playground for players because nothing important will happen there which makes sense if they plan on continuing making sequels to this franchise. I see this as an experiment to see if the mmo format will work for Fallout and to see if it could become a cash cow since Fallout Shelter was a success(because creation club and stuff that they could put in Fallout 76).

At its current state I cannot say that I will enjoy it since PVP was down scaled(which is the only real source of happiness for me in mmo type games). I am uncertain if they will have interesting in-game events so yeah I am not going to buy this on launch but I will keep an eye on it.

God, does anyone know what year Todd Howard and Bethesda's company went crazy?

@Enclave11

Probably when people kept buying Skyrim ports

Eh, if it fits stick it in. That's Beth's MO at this point. That and, if it doesn't fit just jam the fucker in there anyway and hope it sticks.

It's not a good way to work a franchise, but people like Pete Hines, Todd Howard and Emil Pagliarulo are so stagnant creatively that I can completely see this being the future of the franchise. Rely on old tropes until the franchise dies. Issue is, casual fans like tropes, and most aren't bothered about an over arching narrative, particularly in games that have such a long development cycle. Games like Fallout 1 and 2, which follow directly off of one another aren't necessary. Games like 3 and 4, which are effectively self contained stories with minor narrative flow from one to the other are, in their minds, the best of both world.

So they don't need a consistent story, just certain catch alls, like the "BoS beat the Enclave. Liberty Prime." Doesn't need to make sense, like seeing how your actions in the first game have you build a new nation, or become venerated as a beloved hero.

The future of the Fallout series is painfully obvious. You just have to look at the Elder Scrolls. Various seperate stories told in the same world, with very little continuity in terms of narrative. It sucks, but I'm afraid that's where Fallout is going. And I hate people saying that people who say people who claim Fallout New Vegas is better than 3 or 4 or just sucking Obsidian's dick. It is. It follows the narrative trend established by the first two games. It builds up a consistent world space.

Now we're moving West Virginia and for what? To squeeze already overstretched factions (btw, some of the smallest and yet somehow most widely spread groups in the series) into a game that has no real narrative value. Fallout 76 offers nothing to the zeitgeist of the series other than "hey look, a new wacky location with new wacky stuff." It's painfully clear that Bethesda have no wider or larger vision for the series than just making catch all games to appeal to the lowest common denominator of player.

I'm not an idiot, and I'm not going to pretend that this ins't an industry that's about making money. But you can still be a much beloved, critically acclaimed, and financial success. Witcher 3 proved that. It's just about putting in the effort, being creative and doind new things with the established franchise. And Bethesda have proved, time and time again, that they don't have any intention of building that kind of game.

TLDR; Enclave being in the game just shows that Bethesda are only interested in creating catch all, cliche titles to appeal to morons.

@njmanga097 It's obvious that Bethesda needs to hire new or at the least more writers. Just look at the new game sized mods coming out for FNV and FO4 and all the content they deliver. Now when compared to Fallout 76, it becomes obvious that instead of looking around for new idea's they looked towards their past in an attempt to play it safe and get the game out fast.

@IRORIEH Its has always been about money. It's just the bigger your company gets, the more shareholders, fans, and people you have to impress. I get that the game is a test or a sort of experiment but that excuse doesn't really cut it when you consider the game apart of the lore.

Really what they've done is allowed for the BoS or the Enclave to appear at any time in any Fallout game. it shows the path they've chosen and it's scary to think their taking Fallout down that path with them. Hell, next they'll tell us that the Institute is making a special Week 1 only guest appearance.

I'd rather have a new "good" fallout game release 15 years from now, then a crappy one release next week too!

its funny and sad that to think the fans can make/write better non-cannon fallout stories that fits into the lore better then the actual cannon stuff Bethesda comes up with.

Don't have a problem with the Enclave showing up in this case, its roots go back far before the Great War itself and they are a direct descendant of the pre-war shadow government. It makes sense to me that they'd be spread all over the US and active during and directly after the war. Their seemingly cell-like structure in how they're organized means that even when one branch is taken down (Richardson, Eden) another can resurface somewhere else with, I'd assume, whoever the top brass was of that branch as the new President.

Not gonna say its not lazy to use em again if they turn out to be the main bad guys in 76 or future games but from a lore perspective it at least makes sense to me. Plus personally I happen to really like the Enclave as a faction and enemy. Ghosts of the old world trying to regain control of the empire they led to doom is a cool concept for a villain, in my opinion.

@TheCrimsonBuckr I'm right there with you. Hopefully, the next Elder Scrolls or even that new starfield game will have an original and unique story behind it.

@hitman47101 Those are some fair points and it does make sense, just as Bethesda's reasoning as to why the BoS appears in Fo76. That does not mean it's not a lazy explanation though. Even then it's not really the small appearance of the Enclave that concerns me, its the return of the same stuff over and over to the point where established lore is being rewritten to an increasingly significant degree.

It scares me that Bethesda instead of introducing more new stuff, fall back and bring in the same used content. The BoS has appeared in (I believe) every single Fallout game and looking at Fallout 76 it alarms me that they may continue this trend more and more, and not just with the BoS.

But all and all, I do believe Fallout 76 will be enjoyable. You get to experience a Fallout game with your friends, its just for long-time fans random changes can be startling and hard to accept.

MrEggs0925 wrote:

It scares me that Bethesda instead of introducing more new stuff, fall back and bring in the same used content. The BoS has appeared in (I believe) every single Fallout game and looking at Fallout 76 it alarms me that they may continue this trend more and more, and not just with the BoS.

Yeah I got no defence for the BOS being in there, that's just Beth retconning or just ignoring established lore and the timeline in order to be able put them in every game, and that's just dumb. Probably because some folks who have only known Bethesda-led Fallout would complain, or more likely because Power Armor (that was magically invented and widely distributed across the US just seconds before the Great War, apparently) looks good on the box cover and the BOS are heavily associated with that. Just saying as far as I know the Enclave being around doesn't directly contradict existing lore.

As for them not adding anything new and relying on tropes, umm... we've got the Scorched, that's new I think, right? totally not just feral ghouls that sometimes spawn with guns. Also that first responder faction that are all dead in convenient locations, definitely not the Minutemen in anyway... ok nah you got me here as well, they're adding very little new stuff that means anything from what we've seen so far, just new Fallout-y window dressing like guns, robots and outfits.

What F76 is a cash grab, MMO FPS with a neat Fallout skin, It'll be fun with friends but otherwise not really worth thinking about when talking about the Fallout series. What it adds to the table in terms of lore can be ignored, like with Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel (the ps2 game). We'll see what direction Beth go with in the future with a real Fallout game but that's so many years away I don't think its worth worrying about just yet.

(Unrelated, but I'm still really more annoyed about Beth making Jet a pre-war chem then I am about them breaking the timeline of an entire faction... weird.)

@Fury
yea, actually watched some of the people who played it during their event, and the Greenbrier that's in game is modeled almost exactly how the real world Greenbrier is. bit scared the players were saying cause they where standing in the same spot in game as they where in real life lol

though to get into the bunker, it looks like an "end game" area, you wont be able to get inside until awhile of gameplay.

@hitman47101 Haha I'm still not over that Jet thing as well.

I guess at the end of the day it's a spinoff Fallout game. I've said it before and I'll say it again Bethesda would be doing themselves a favor if they go ahead and consider this game non-cannon.

What's unfortunate though is they have gone through the trouble to bring all these factions on, yet you can't even talk to them. Everyone from these factions is dead or its just some robot you cant talk to. No dialogue, No human NPC's, not even normal ghouls. But I guess once the game is released, we will see if that policy holds up.