Fallout season 2 revealed something missing from the games I never knew I needed

By the time Fallout season 2 ends, the audience has been introduced to a wide variety of different characters and creatures of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds. We’ve seen securitrons, deathclaws, and super mutants. But it’s the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) who stands head, shoulders, and Stetson above them all. So much so that I can’t help but crave a future where the next Fallout game allows us to play as a ghoul.

Now, before we get the pitchforks, let me be clear: being able to play as a ghoul in the Fallout games has been done before. Bethesda gave players the option to transform into a ghoul with its March 2025 update to Fallout 76, and you’re able to select a pre-made playable ghoul character in both the Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel video games.

However, all three of these examples come with a catch. Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel don’t let you mold these characters in the same way you would expect from a mainline Fallout game, meaning they aren’t really your own. Fallout 76, however, does let you customize and design your own ghoul player — at the cost of having to first complete the Leap of Faith quest, which requires you to be level 50 to unlock. The fact that Fallout 76 gives you an option at all is a step in the right direction, but ultimately, it isn’t what I’m looking for when I say that I’d like the next Fallout game to have a playable ghoul character.

What I want, and what I feel would be an interesting twist, would be for Bethesda to move away from having players start as a Vault Dweller entirely and instead let us start our journey in the Wasteland, either as a ghoul already, or someone already in the transformation process.

Starting as a ghoul would introduce players to the world of Fallout in a new way. Video game developer Obsidian did this in Fallout: New Vegas, where the player character, the Courier, is already enmeshed in the Mojave Wasteland. After being shot and left for dead, the Courier must relearn everything, which gives players freedom to flesh out their Courier’s own backstory through dialogue options and choices made throughout the game.

Playing as a ghoul, however, would be even more unique. Unlike the Courier, a human who can join most factions like the tech-focused Brotherhood of Steel and the murderous Caesar’s Legion, a ghoul would not be afforded the same leniency within the Wasteland. In Fallout 4, ghouls and other ‘undesirables’ live in the drifter settlement Goodneighbor, due to Diamond City having an anti-ghoul policy. We also saw in Prime Video’s Fallout that the Brotherhood of Steel considers ghouls to be abominations, with Xander Harkness (Kumail Nanjiani) quite happy with the idea of slaughtering a group of ghoul children. Fallout 76 also addresses this, with some NPCs refusing to engage with you or even doing their best to kill you unless you’re wearing a disguise that covers all of your skin.

Image: Prime Video

Yet playing as a ghoul (with no option to be a human) would force us to engage with the Wasteland in a way that’s never been done in a Fallout game before. While there are plenty of heroic ghouls out there, like John Hancock in Fallout 4, they are rarely given the chance to be portrayed as heroes of a story. Could they be considered heroes by the people of the Wasteland, and what would that mean for the future of ghouls? It would have to be handled with care and subtlety, of course — something Bethesda isn’t particularly well-known for, considering the Looney Tunes shenanigans of the Institute — but the potential is there.

Given the Ghoul’s popularity and Ron Perlman’s Super Mutant hint in Fallout season 2 — which suggests a possible ghoul and super mutant war — it’s time for Bethesda to move beyond human protagonists to something more radical and radioactive.

All episodes of Fallout season 2 are now streaming on Prime Video.