Fallout 4: New Survival Mode

Recently, Bethesda Softworks released a patch for Fallout 4 that introduced the new, revamped Survival Mode. Previously, those of us who have been playing for a while have been playing on the old Survival difficulty setting and thinking "huh, this isn't a whole lot different from the 'very hard' setting." And it really wasn't. The enemies didn't seem much stronger. The only noticeable difference was an increased encounter rate for legendary enemies and a slower rate of healing. The only thing resembling difficulty that it adds is in the slower healing. If you find yourself swarmed with high level Super Mutants or Brotherhood of Steel Knights in Power Armor and gatling lasers, you might be in a tight spot. But those situations are rare unless you're seeking them out.

I should specify that when I started playing this game back in November, I started on the "Normal" difficulty setting. I found the game to be pretty hard at that point. It was my first Fallout game and I had no idea what I was doing. I usually play Final Fantasy-type games, so something like this that shares more with a first-person shooter than a turn-based RPG was very much out of my comfort zone. The Deathclaw that you have to fight in Concord in the beginning of the game really threw me for a loop, and I died to it at least a dozen times before finally getting past it. By the time I got to the Lexington segment of the game and the Corvega Assembly Plant, I had tuned the difficulty down to Easy. I couldn't handle it. But after more levels, more gear, more time playing the game, I moved up to hard, then very hard, and eventually Survival.

I was excited to try the new Survival mode. I wanted to try it on my level 85 character, and I also created a new character to try the mode from the beginning of the game.

Changes to the mode include (but are no limited to):

• No Fast Travel (you have to walk or find other means to travel to your destination)
• Reduced carry weight
• Ammo and Stimpaks have weight
• Save only when you sleep in a bed or sleeping bag (all saves are now autosaves)
• You now get tired, hungry, and thirsty
• You can get sick or fatigued from eating uncooked meat, sleeping in an unclean bed, going too long without eating/drinking/sleeping, or being poisoned by an animal or other wasteland hazard
• The adrenaline perk has been added, allowing you to deal increased damage for a short period as you defeat more enemies

On paper, it's a very intriguing mode. I liked the changes. As far as the lore of the game goes, they all make sense (except for maybe save on sleep, since that one really has nothing to do with lore). I started out with my level 85 character. In preparation for the mode, I stocked up on food and purified water in containers in my home settlement and dumped as much unnecessary ammunition as I thought I needed. Since I didn't know how much the ammunition was going to weigh, I had no idea how much I was going to have to get rid of.

I severely underestimated how much I had to dump.

Before the mode change, my character, Adeline, could carry 325 pounds with her. Ammunition had no weight at all, so I always picked up everything I saw. I had thousands of rounds of every type of ammunition, including hundreds of Fusion Cores for Power Armor. I had missiles for missile launchers and mini nukes for Fat Man launchers that I never used. Those Fusion Cores weigh 4 pounds each in the new Survival Mode. The missiles weigh 12 pounds. I didn't even look to see what the mini nukes weigh. So I spent the first hour of the new Survival mode just making my inventory bearable.

I do have the 4th level of the strength perk "Strong Back" that increases carry weight and allows you to fast travel when overencumbered, but that obviously doesn't help in this new mode. And you get fatigued in this mode now, which can make you sick. So being over your carry weight is very dangerous, because being sick is difficult when antibiotics are hard to come by and a doctor isn't close by.

Finally, I was able to start adventuring. I had a quest to turn in to Preston, so I set a personal goal of walking from Sanctuary Hills to the Castle. It took me hours. In in-game time, it probably took me days.

I've decided that this high level character isn't worth playing Survival mode with anymore. I'll be moving her down to Very Hard for Far Harbor later this week.

But I do have a new character. Maybe from a new game this Survival Mode is more fun.

Trying new #SurvivalMode w new char to get a real feel for it. Welcome to the Commonwealth, Courtney Love. #Fallout4 pic.twitter.com/7aqsN93w4q

— Original Fat Chocobo (@Nalia_FFXIV) May 8, 2016

And it was fun! At first. I even managed to get past that Deathclaw in Concord on the first try without dying to it.

And then I played the same 45-minute stretch of game 3 times in a row, dying to things that I just couldn't avoid that were random chance. Just because there wasn't a bed to sleep in and save my game during that stretch. The last one happened when I was about to enter a building where I know there was a bed. So that I could save my game.

That part is not fun. There's a lot about the mode that is really just starting to feel tedious. I don't like playing the same thing over and over again because I'm exploring and I'm only level 6, but I don't want to miss anything that I've picked up on the previous runs.

I don't know. I think I just need to wait for Far Harbor's release. Take a break from the game until then. Maybe I'll have some new thoughts then.