Why Fallout Fans Live for Side Content
In Fallout, it is completely normal to lose hours helping a ghoul run a radio station, arbitrating a town feud, or accidentally joining a cult while the apocalypse waits politely in the background. That pull toward strange, morally messy detours is exactly what defines the best RPG side quests: they feel as carefully written and reactive as the main plot, but looser, weirder, and more personal. Players who hoard quests want dark humor, unexpected locations, and choices that actually echo through the world, not just extra experience points. Even developers feel that draw: Palworld’s John “Bucky” Buckley praised Crimson Desert for recapturing the same sense of wonder and adventure he once felt roaming The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, where every side trip could become the real story. If you love Fallout-style quests, the games below deliver that same temptation to ignore the main quest marker entirely. Start them expecting to finish the campaign; stay because the side content quietly takes over your playthrough.
The Witcher 3: Turning Monster Contracts into Moral Nightmares
Among story rich RPGs, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is legendary not just for its main narrative, but for side quests that could pass as full-blown short stories. On Xbox Game Pass, it is one of the standout RPGs thanks to its massive open world and choice-driven storytelling. A perfect example for Fallout fans is the way a simple witcher contract can spiral. You take a job expecting to slay a monster, then uncover a nest of ugly secrets: abusive villagers, cursed lovers, or creatures more victim than villain. Decisions rarely boil down to good versus evil, and outcomes can subtly reshape later conversations or even entire areas. That same moral ambiguity and dark, sometimes bitter humor feels very Fallout. If you are here for side content, head straight for notice boards in every village, follow any named contract you see, and chase down character-driven questlines like those involving sorceresses or old friends, letting the main story sit on the back burner.
Cyberpunk 2077: Night City’s Strangest Jobs Steal the Spotlight
Cyberpunk 2077, now in refined shape on Xbox Game Pass, is another RPG where the best memories often come from gigs and side jobs rather than the central conspiracy. Night City is dense with open world side content that scratches the same itch as Fallout’s urban sandboxes: you might start a quick cyberpsycho hunt and end up unraveling a tragedy about body modification and corporate abuse, or stumble into a braindance-obsessed fan whose requests go from funny to unsettling. Many quests are laced with sardonic, dark humor, and the results of your choices can echo in later phone calls, news reports, or endings. If you are laser-focused on side quests, ignore the main objective for a while and work through fixer-specific gig batches, especially in Watson and Westbrook. Treat every blue and yellow marker as potential narrative gold, and prioritize multi-part character arcs; they quietly become the real story of your V, just as random wasteland jobs define your wanderer in Fallout.
Disco Elysium: The Entire Game Is One Giant “Side Quest”
Disco Elysium, another 10/10 RPG highlighted on Game Pass, almost feels custom-built for players who love meandering through dialogue-heavy Fallout quests. There is technically a central murder case, but the magic lies in how easy it is to get gloriously sidetracked. You might spend in-game days debating political theory with drunks, investigating a doomed business complex, or helping a cryptozoologist search for a possibly imaginary creature. Every task is drenched in moral ambiguity: your choices shape your broken detective’s ideology, relationships, and mental state more than any binary good/evil meter. The humor is pitch black and frequently absurd, echoing Fallout’s strangest encounters but with a heavier focus on introspection. If you are playing primarily for side content, lean into every Thought Cabinet opportunity, accept every odd job NPCs offer, and freely pursue low-priority tasks like karaoke, board game history, or union gossip. Let the murder wait; the true narrative is built from all the detours you take.
Crimson Desert & Classic Sandboxes: Chasing That Morrowind Sense of Wonder
Palworld’s communications lead John “Bucky” Buckley recently described spending 189 hours in Crimson Desert, praising how its open world side content rekindled the same sense of wonder and adventure he once found in Morrowind. For Fallout fans, that comparison is telling: both Morrowind and Fallout are famous for worlds where wandering off the path is the whole point. In Crimson Desert, the abundance of side missions and surprises turns simple exploration into a chain reaction of distractions. You set out toward one objective, see something intriguing on the horizon, and three quests later you have forgotten why you left town. That constant pull of curiosity mirrors stumbling across an unmarked vault or bizarre settlement in Fallout. If you approach it as a side-quest-first RPG, treat the main quest as just one more marker. Roam toward points of interest, talk to every stranger with a quest icon, and let emergent adventures, not the story funnel, dictate your play sessions.
