“Fallout 4” started out a bit roughly and fans were initially surprised by some of the creative decisions that had gone into the game. Changing the gameplay to a more shooter-like experience in favor of certain RPG elements raised a few eyebrows, and the voiced protagonist was a highly polarizing element for the community. But with a few patches and some new content additions, Bethesda have been polishing up the product and they’ve addressed many issues that were initially brought up by fans.
Their efforts did not go unnoticed either, as the game was just recently awarded the “Best Game” award at the BAFTA Games Awards. There was some serious competition from many sides, including titles like “Metal Gear Solid V” and “Life Is Strange” – and even the iconic RPG “The Witcher 3”. It says a lot that “Fallout 4” managed to come out on top when faced with such challengers, and the game’s community has been enjoying the results quite a bit.
Hopefully this won’t make Bethesda overly confident about the current state of the game though, as they still have some work left to do on it. The studio is currently implementing a new Survival mode, which significantly raises the game’s difficulty, implementing features similar to the Hardcore mode found in previous “Fallout” games.
The lack of any real challenge after a certain point has been at the heart of many gamers’ complaints about the gameplay, and so far the new Survival mode has been addressing that issue very effectively. Playing the game in this way imposes various restrictions on the player – for example, it’s required to regularly sleep, eat and drink in order to survive, and there is a much more restrictive limit on how much junk one can carry around.
Combined with the fact that fast travel is no longer an option – the player has to walk everywhere – this has made “Fallout 4” the true survival game that many wanted it to be in the first place. The “Fallout” franchise has always had a strong element of surviving against all odds, and this style is finally coming back for good.
Work on the new Survival mode coincides with the releases of several DLC packs that added various interesting elements to the gameplay as well, including customizable robot companions that the player can upgrade. Many players saw that as a nice addition to compensate for the added difficulty that the new Survival mode brings, and we’ve seen lots of positive responses to the “Automatron” DLC so far.
On the other hand, the extra goodies in “Wasteland Workshop” should make it easier to defend settlements and keep the player character safe at their own bases, so it definitely makes sense to build up some good defenses right now and to fortify every corner of the room. All it takes is enough scrap metal, and there’s always plenty of that to go all over the Wasteland.
The current state of the game’s Survival mode is still not perfect, according to some players, but Bethesda are working hard on improving the situation and bringing the balance to a good state. We’ve recently seen changes to the sleep patterns that the player is required to follow, as well as the requirements for eating and drinking, and those should make the mode a little more accessible and less frustrating. Some have been complaining that making Survival too difficult results in a “grindy” experience for the game as a whole, something that doesn’t actually make it more interesting.