New Juicy Details About Fallout 4 Survival Mode

Fallout fans who feel that New Vegas was the apex of the series noticed a few glaring problems with Fallout 4’s Survival Mode.

Notably was the lack of a tangible features that required players

to eat and drink in order to survive (like in New Vegas‘ hardcore mode).

Even after all of the official DLC and updates had released for New Vegas,

Lead Designer JE Sawyer released an unofficial mod that further refined

the game’s mechanics, putting an even greater emphasis on survival skills.

Today, Bethesda announced a beta test for a revamped Fallout 4 survival mode,

and it is far more brutal than even hardcore fans had hoped.

The team says that the new survival mode is intended to “force you to make

interesting choices.” Some of the basic features from New Vegas‘ hardcore mode return.

The Sole Survivor has to eat, drink, and sleep or they’ll suffer from fatigue.

This will lower the character’s SPECIAL stats and drain action points. Ammunition has weight,

as in New Vegas, as do stimpaks. The larger the ammo, the heavier each round is.

The character’s overall carrying capacity has been reduced, and hauling around too

much stuff will increase the new fatigue meter as well.

Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls games have lots of diseases that characters can catch,

but Fallout hasn’t had many. The new Survival Mode introduces more diseases to

Fallout 4 through a wellness level that is affected by what the Sole Survivor eats,

as well as what chems they use. RadAway can give players an immunodeficiency

condition that lowers wellness too. The beta test currently has craftable antibiotics

that cure these diseases.

One feature not seen in the New Vegas Hardcore Mode is that players will have to sleep

in a bed in order to save the game. This replaces the autosaves and manual saves that

can be exploited by saving before a tough fight. This is already drawing fire from beta

players who don’t have the real-world time and freedom to hunt down an in-game bed

every time they need to save.

Fast travel has also been removed, but this is likewise getting complaints from players

who point out that they already have trouble managing their settlements, and think it

would be a nuisance to run across the entire Commonwealth each time a settlement

comes under attack.

Companions will be slightly different; they won’t automatically recover after being disabled

in a fight. They’ll need to be revived with a stimpak or they’ll return home. Even damaged

robots from the recent Automatron DLC will need to be repaired with robot repair kits, or they’ll head back to a settlement. Something that players are going to like is an adrenaline perk that increases damage as players make kills. In the current beta version, it can increase damage by up to

50%, although this bonus decreases when the Sole Survivor sleeps.

All of these features and more are part of the beta, but won’t necessarily appear in the final

release. PC players can have a look at the beta test on Steam right now.