LET'S DISCUSS FALLOUT 4 - SPOILERS (OBVIOUSLY)

author=Nova
I roleplayed this all the time in FO3, though I never turned up the difficulty past Hard, so I'm interested in seeing how Bethesda handles this. I never touched New Vegas since I heard it was just another FO3.

author=Feldschlacht IV
I don't know man. Full stop, I would argue that Survival mode should have been the default version of the game. It's more or less definitive and fundamentally changes the game for the better. It's less of a 'difficulty setting' and more of a 'total mechanical upgrade.'

author=me
So I picked up Fallout 4 a while back, right? And it's pretty fun, the gameplay is pretty cool. I'm a vet at the series so I cranked it up to it's hardest setting, Survival, pretty much from the jump. The difficulty was okay; I died easier, other things died harder. But it lacked a certain oommph. The difficulty felt artificial, as the numbers were just inflated.

Then a patch came out that revamped Survival mode and oh my god becky it totally switched it up. To start, the toughness of the player character and enemies were scaled parallel and damage was realistic; you took more damage, but enemies also took more damage; no more bullet sponges, and fights because mutual fights to the death as opposed to chipping away at a wall that could kill you instantly.

But that's not even the biggest part; you now have to regularly eat, drink (clean water, at that), get enough sleep, you can only save while sleeping (sort of like Dark Souls), you can't fast travel anymore, and you can get sick or ill if you don't take care of yourself. In addition, taking medication or stat buffing items has side effects, like making you thirsty or tired. Finally, your Carry Weight is heavily reduced and even Ammunition has weight. Long story short, every action has some counteraction, and you have to make smart choices.



At first glance some of these things may sound like arbitrary complications, but they're not, as I played, I realized, these restrictions and the concept of player choice and consequence they made the game far more fun and challenging. As I progressed through the game, it forced me to be careful, calculating, and to think, because the stakes were far higher, I got better at the game, played smarter, and I discovered far more about the game's mechanics and how to actually play the game because the game imposed these challenges on to me.

The game became less about numbers of weapons and armor and more about thinking and skill, and even then, the numbers still mattered, because now I had to think more about things like Damage Resistance, trading in one effect for another, and Carry Weight instead of just slapping on the highest rated gear and calling it a day.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that this new optional mode for this game, via cranking up the difficulty and imposing challenges and curveballs, REALLY made the game far more enjoyable than it ever was before. I couldn't just throw infinite effort and resources around a problem and fix it; I had to think, strategize, adapt, and plan. My question and discussion to you is, what do you guys think about challenge and restrictions in games and in your projects? How do you encourage smart difficulty and making the player think and play smart?