Retired Techie
Getting older, not necessarily wiser!
Gaming – Fallout 4 Survival Mode
Published on October 3, 2021 at 7:53 am by LEWIntroduction
I started a new Fallout 4 play through, in Survival Mode a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to see what all the hype was about, and experience the hardest Fallout 4 game play mode for myself. Yes, I know, Fallout 4 has been out for around six years now. But what can I say, old guy – old game.
Waiting to Play
I find waiting six months or more before jumping into a game has several benefits.
- The game is much cheaper, $15 US vs $60 US at launch (understanding both development and marketing costs, most video games are definitely overpriced a launch).
- Any DLC (Down Loadable Content) should already be released by the time I start (hate going through a play through, then waiting for additional material to be released).
- Many of the game bugs will have been identified and work a-rounds found, or the publisher will have fixed them.
- Depending on popularity and the publishers inclination, third party mods are already available.
Previous Play-through
I did play though the game initially on easy mode, and then increased difficulty on each additional play through. Also in early games I mainly followed the story line, not branching out into other aspects of the game until later play thoughts. I found that on the initial play, sticking to the main plot lines, I could finish the game in about 25 hours of play time. At harder levels and doing all side quests, I found the game took approximately 150 hours to complete.
If engaging in settlement building/management the play though time increases astronomically (there are thirty settlements in the base game, with seven more added with the DLC). You can easily spend hours in each settlement designing, building, managing, setting up supply lines, and engaging in commerce.
What is Survival Mode
Basically this mode is playing on a hard level with quite a few additional restrictions in place. The theme is making a more realistic in game experience (I find that to be somewhat of an oxymoron for a game set in the post apocalyptic future of an alternate timeline). Some of them are not obvious or not generally talked about when discussing Survival Mode. I think I have most of the additional restrictions listed here.
- No console. I do not normally use it, but there are several buggy quests to stay away from without it, as there is no way to finish them. Emogene Takes a Lover, for example, does not work correctly almost 50% of the time, and it requires the console to fix/finish it.
- No mods, this will be a straight vanilla/DLC play through. For example you cannot use the Unofficial Fallout 4 patch that fixes some of the game idiosyncrasies.
- Carry weights are reduced and items that had no weight now have weight. This really limits how much you can carry. Two prime examples are stimpaks for healing, and ammo for your gun. Both now have weight, limiting how much you can carry.
- Manual saves are disabled. The game only saves when you rest or after specific events. So no saving the game just before a particularly hard encounter or speech check.
- Fast travel is disabled. You have to walk everywhere. In non survival mode, once you have visited a marked location, you can simply click on it on your map to go there. In survival mode you have to actually walk you character there.
- You get thirsty and hungry in this mode. If you do not consume food and water periodically, your Action Points are reduced. The less you eat and drink the more they are reduced. So you need to spend some time at a Cooking Station every day, and you need to keep up on acquiring Purified Water.
- You need to sleep. If you do not get enough sleep every day, your Action Points are reduced.
- Healing takes much longer. Non sleep related healing now takes much longer. Nor do you get as much benefit for healing. This is particularity fatal during combat.
- You are Weaker, enemies are stronger. This is like the harder game modes.
My Opinion of Survival Mode
Playing survival mode is interesting, at first. Your initial scramble for resources is quite a bit more hectic, as once you leave vault 111 you will start getting the nag messages for rest, food, and drink.
Once you leave Sanctuary, you will have to start planning your encounters somewhat more carefully. Things like direction of approach, cover, and a retreat route become much more important. My experience at lower levels, I retreated much more often from combat encounters.
To do well in the early survival mode game, I suggest you need to have had at least one play through, so you know where certain resources can be located. You also need to know where some fixed encounters are so you can avoid them (I found some of the flying insect encounters particularly tough in the early game).
I also found I needed to level my weapon abilities (like Gun Nut and Gunslinger for example) early on, so I could do more than just killing Rad Roaches.
Once I got up to mid game, My character was tough enough and had enough Perks that I was no longer in danger of being killed by some random Raider encounter. It is here that I started to have a problem with Survival mode. This was the shear repetition of the eating/drinking/sleeping that occurs at regular intervals.
There is a lot of repetition in most of of these styles of games. However Survival Mode took it to an entire new level. I understand the intent, and it does really make you think a lot more about what you are carrying around. It also makes having settlements close by almost a necessity. However it is going to take a certain mindset to get through the game in this mode.
Conclusion
I did survival mode once, and realized quickly I needed to do a straight fast as possible play through. And I will not be doing survival mode again. While presenting some unique challenges to overcome, survival mode quickly becomes mind numbingly boring with all the repetitive tasks.
If you have Fallout 4, I would recommend trying survival mode at least once. However be forewarned, it is going to take some mental resolve to stay at it for a really long play through.
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