Should my first playthrough be Survival Mode?

[Chopstickdaddy]

I have played Fallout 3, Oblivion, Skyrim, The Witcher 2/3 and have enjoyed these RPGs very much. However, my biggest gripe was being just too OP by late-game that it killed my immersion and role playing experience.

I plan on getting Fallout 4 soon and was wondering if I should experience it first hand on Survival mode or the original game settings?

Is survival mode best experienced for the second playthrough? Or does it add a more exciting layer to the base game. I want the extra layer of difficulty but I do not want it to ruin the integrity of the original experience.

[ARmodder]

Original settings, then once you complete a playthrough then start a new character and play on survival. Then again how difficult the game is is all dependent on your playstyle, what perks you choose and how many levels of each perk you use. Most people level Health, DT, Weapons Damage, and other combat attributes to the point that they can take out most high level enemies in one or two/three shots and legendaries with only a few extra, all the while they take minimal damage themselves.

Survival adds needs, food, water, rest ect, you can become exhausted, dehydrated ect, and you can only save in beds (from what I've heard) so it does add more. Though I've heard of people having issues with survival mode, disabled CC, not being able to change back to regular difficulties ect. a lot of people use CC (Console Command) for getting around in game bugs such as clipping, a quest that fails to complete despite having completed all objectives ect.

[Chopstickdaddy]

Does it add a better RP experience in your opinion?

[Vinnie Mack]

i can't imagine someone starting FAllout 4 on survival. There are game mechanics to learn. If you have played those other games, you should be ok starting on the hardest non survival mode. Get a good 20 or so hours into the game. Figure out how things work. And then try survival. Unless you love being frustrated. You will be plenty frustrated in survival for the first dozen hours even if you have played vanilla Fallout 4.

[wellser06]

Lord no play it on normal or hard learn your way around... then try survival and never play it any other way lol

[Vinnie Mack]

Originally posted by Towelie:

Does it add a better RP experience in your opinion?

it is immersive. It is like living in an alternate world. Some of the useless perks suddenly become valuable (leadbelly and wasteland wanderer). It is very challenging at first. The combat seems more realistic. You die instantly if hit in the head. So does the other guy. In my opinion, this is the way Fallout 4 is meant to be played. Any other mode is going to give you a lesser experience.

[Vinnie Mack]

Originally posted by wellser06:

Lord no play it on normal or hard learn your way around... then try survival and never play it any other way lol

[ARmodder]

Originally posted by Towelie:

Does it add a better RP experience in your opinion?

Haven't played it on Survival yet though it is similar to Realistic Needs mod from Skyrim which I've used before and found it to be fun yet challenging, it also forces you to travel on foot everywhere! so yes good for RP. Carryweight becomes very important as ammo now has weight values, forcing you to be very careful in weapon selection (more pistols/melee, less heavy weapons.

[Chopstickdaddy]

In terms of challenge, is the base game more difficult than FO3 or NV?

I love doing everything in the game, but I hate becoming so OP that I steamroll through the content.

[Chopstickdaddy]

Originally posted by ARmodder:

Originally posted by Towelie:

Does it add a better RP experience in your opinion?

Haven't played it on Survival yet though it is similar to Realistic Needs mod from Skyrim which I've used before and found it to be fun yet challenging, it also forces you to travel on foot everywhere! so yes good for RP. Carryweight becomes very important as ammo now has weight values, forcing you to be very careful in weapon selection (more pistols/melee, less heavy weapons.

The Realistic Needs mod for me was the best way I experienced Skyrim

[Vinnie Mack]

Originally posted by Towelie:

In terms of challenge, is the base game more difficult than FO3 or NV?

I love doing everything in the game, but I hate becoming so OP that I steamroll through the content.

my understanding is that you will become OP at some point. I am at level 21 operating around Hangman, and i am finding it easy to kill the raiders in the area. But i have to do it intelligently. i have to take cover, run away and stim up if i take too much damage, find a bed to sleep in if i don't want to lose an hour when a raider throws a molotov on my head. It gets easier until you start playing stupid. You have to stay on your toes.

[Tavman (4)]

Originally posted by Vinnie Mack:

Originally posted by Towelie:

Does it add a better RP experience in your opinion?

it is immersive. It is like living in an alternate world. Some of the useless perks suddenly become valuable (leadbelly and wasteland wanderer). It is very challenging at first. The combat seems more realistic. You die instantly if hit in the head. So does the other guy. In my opinion, this is the way Fallout 4 is meant to be played. Any other mode is going to give you a lesser experience.

Lead Belly is still useless since you can find the resources to easily utilise the Chemist perk and Solar Powered will remove the rads anyway.

[Vinnie Mack]

Originally posted by Tavman (4):

Originally posted by Vinnie Mack:

it is immersive. It is like living in an alternate world. Some of the useless perks suddenly become valuable (leadbelly and wasteland wanderer). It is very challenging at first. The combat seems more realistic. You die instantly if hit in the head. So does the other guy. In my opinion, this is the way Fallout 4 is meant to be played. Any other mode is going to give you a lesser experience.

Lead Belly is still useless since you can find the resources to easily utilise the Chemist perk and Solar Powered will remove the rads anyway.

solar powered is a higher level perk, right? And it is easier to just bend ones head down and drink from all the waterways than to go all the way back to your settlement. Or have to carry too much water weight. I don't think it is useless. But you are free to your opinon.

[Shahadem]

Late game Survivor is just as easy as late game normal mode. Early game Survivor can be more difficult if haven't played the game before and don't know where all the easy to find good weapons are. But once you can start metagaming the challenge away, no mode is going to make the game more difficult. Likewise getting an early game explosive affix drop will make the entire game easy unless you sell it.

Lead Belly is indeed useless because it is super easy to grow nonradioactive food, to cook nonradioactive meat, and lead belly doesn't fix the biggest problem with drinking dirty water, specifically the overly high chance of getting a negative symptom from the dirty water. The rads from food and dirty water are fairly negligible.

I really don't recommend Survivor because it doesn't really add any difficulty but does make the game more annoying due the lack of saving. Any time your game crashes or you encounter a bug you just lost an hour of playtime, and it will happen extremely frequently. The enemies aren't really any more difficult once you get a few levels under your belt, but the danger from crashing never goes away and that's the only danger you can't control.

[Vinnie Mack]

you won't lose an hour of game play if you find a mattress. And they are abundant in most places.

[wellser06]

Someone else said this too forgot wich post but..always save your game when the opportunity presents itself adrenaline is easy as hell to stack up again...