GameSpot's The Lobby - How good is Fallout 4's Survival Mode?

[MUSIC] [UNKNOWN] frames the Fallout universe. Yeah. The Bethesda Fallout universe. The WWE universe. [LAUGH] I'm trying to think about, I hate the WWE universe. It's the worst acronym thing I've ever seen in my life. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, man, Jumping off things, anyway. Right Fallout, your review for i4 for GameSpot last year, you played a bunch of it, I played a bunch Yeah, I put 150 hours into that campaign, and I, you know, finished the automatron, DLC And then, I know you're getting at. [LAUGH] Is the survival mode. Yeah. So this is what they didn't put into the game originally within the new Vegas hardcore mode. They have a hardcore mode N4 and F4 but it's just like. But they called it survival mode, but it wasn't basically this is like 2.0. Survival mode. Like they added more things to it. Yeah but what's come out now, the beta, well it's in beta, it's coming out soon. Is survival mode proper with which I think significant amount of changes to fall apart like not even like we've made his ammo carry, has in conference again. It's like do the list, what do we got? It's a pretty fat list. So yes, ammo now takes weight. Mini nukes that you carried around with not to take for granted, they're 12 pounds each. Right. Stimpaks, many people can agree by the end of the game you have like 300 stimpaks. [LAUGH] And you're playing on very hard, I've heard people tell me this. You can just spam your way out of it. But yeah, those have weight now so you can only take like roughly 10 around. You now factor in hunger, thirst, and fatigue. So you can get tired. The only way you can save the game is by sleeping in a bed or mattress and you see them everywhere. Which is suspicious. [LAUGH] To me at least. And then the real kicker is there's no fast travel and there's other things that they tack on including you can take more damage, you can deal more damage. And you get all sorts of things. So, food, least and fatigue factor your ap bar now. Okay. Just like your [UNKNOWN] and your sprints. If you don't manage any of those three, it takes away [UNKNOWN] to the health, so you basically loose all of those. So, if you don't do anything you can't run anymore in less than 20 minutes. You have to basically keep that in check. and also affects with now introduces your immune system so I didn't talk about this in the video I did over the weekend but that also means that animals who are poisonous or You can, basically you can break your bones easier God You can get illnesses, like different types of illnesses, which some of them can only be cured if you go to a doctor. So like, you just...it's a tough life out there. And I love it Yeah, they could have just done the 'we're going to add in a bunch more...' You know health fatigue, water management systems in here like we're in New Vegas and like we're in- Right. The old Fallouts but it seems like they've gone full, the long dark on this where if you jump off something too high you'll break your leg and then you'll have to walk the whole way. Like taking out fast travel completely is- Yeah. Holy ****. And they're are things that I really agree or agree strongly with and some things I think that could be toned back. Fast travel's pretty brutal. Not to have it at all is real brutal. And there's no a la carte menu where you can say, I want this, this is okay. But let's turn fast travel back on. Sure, and what I hope To kind of this is specific mods that cater to breaking this whole mode down to it's core. But you can confidently say that what about fast travel a little bit, like in between settlements. Witcher style. Yeah witcher style, posts, whatever. But taking out fast travel to me was really Cool in that okay now I'm looking at a map that I can't just warp to an area I haven't been or close by. Now I'm required to explore again. Kinda like what the first third of your experience was was seeing all these cool new places. Yeah. But once you start fast-traveling between them. You're not getting any of the random encounters. You're not getting a lot of this breathing world that eventually, by the end of the game, you just don't see it anymore. So when I play recently, I had to go to a different area cuz the game still has those side quests that are procedurally generated where it's Herat, judging by your map, we don't think you've been over here, so now these things open up and as does that lane that you've never seen before. So I was 150 hours in this game. I'm walking through an area I've never been and That- That's also scary though, right? Super scary. Because then you don't necessarily want to go off the beaten path because- Yeah, yeah. In your video you had this whole thing where it was like, okay, you woke up in the morning, so you had the most daytime because at nighttime it gets harder or I'm scared of the dark. [LAUGH] I'm a scaredy. And you brought these types of weapons because you were doing this type of mission Right, but then you're like, there's a sewer, I'll just go into the sewer. Because it's a Fallout game, you do whatever the hell you want. But then suddenly, you're like, no, I shouldn't have done this, I'm getting swarmed by people. I'm getting swarmed by people, I'm now drinking sewage, [LAUGH] I'm that thirsty. It's what the doctor ordered. Yeah, right. And you know, that's the greatest, the more The more you drink you know water that isn't purified the more rads you get. Okay well then I think I'll just pop a couple of these rads aways. Guess what? Those make you insanely dehydrated next thing you know you're just digging a grave and it's real cool and yet And the hoop. The craziest thing Great [LAUGH] But the, you know, it's a survival. I love survival games like know. But the other thing I really adored was okay now I can't carry as much [SOUND] ammo as I'd like. If it's the one thing, you walk into a room in that game, you're like all right where's the ammo. I'm taking all that. I'm like Souping up my abilities to get more ammo cuz I know I can just flip that, no problem. Yeah, sell it. Yeah, sell it. No, I'm going through my ammo. I'm taking 100 bullets, 150 bullets for each of these guns. That's all I can afford to carry. And I get down there and I run out of ammo. So this is the coolest part, I'm picking up a damn pipe pistol something like you got over like within the first two hours of the damn game. Like **** these pieces of ****. [LAUGH] I'm using this thing to survive like, it was this like wow how is this possible? The game is making me use A crap weapon. It always says that this is the way fallout was meant to be played. That's what I thought when you told me and I gave the game a nine. I gave it a really high score, but, man I would have given it a higher nine. [LAUGH] And touching on, I think, what a lot of people agreed on, was why do I need to build a base? Right this is great. Why am I building a base. Like I was into it, you get into the idea. And then you're like this is really junky. Yeah. [INAUDIBLE] And then they're like build another one, build another one. Why would I want to build another one? You kind of just do it for the sake of it. It's a fun thing to do. But [INAUDIBLE] And so then you realize this game mode, I mean it's hard to say whether this was on the back burner the entire time this game was made. Yeah. I'm not going that far. But what becomes apparent is, ok, I'm looking at my map, I've got Diamond City in the middle, that's a safe haven. Sanctuary in the top. If I just made two south east and south west bases I got my stuff covered. Now I don't have to go all the way home. I can establish those supply lines that they try to incentivize but who cares. Yeah. I'm going back to the same place every single time. So you just start realizing, all right, here is now a map That I'm thinking about routes and way points and making that efficient. Mm. As far as travel, and yeah. Yeah it almost makes all that stuff makes way more sense like in the context of the wider game. Yeah. Is there a benefit to sleeping on a real bed than to a mattress? Yeah so there's like, you know if you can imagine the world you walk into a building there's like just a mattress or a sleeping bag. The sleeping bag would be the lowest of them. You get tired and you need to sleep. A sleeping bag will only take X amount of that fatigue away. Just like in real life. That's why you want to sleep in a real bed, like I'm sick of this. So you have to eventually, to wipe that fatigue clean, you have to stay or sleep in a nice bed and->> Like a California King? [LAUGH] Right. What kinda thread count are we talking on the sheets? Over a thousand. Jesus. Yeah, it's a tough life. Hey, Jeff404 says this is how this game should've shipped. Yeah. Kind of feels that way, am I right? Yeah, well just, I mean, just [UNKNOWN] seems like. I mean, everything as far as cooking. Like you see cooking stations. Cool. Yeah. Now you're like, yeah, of course, water, boil it! [UNKNOWN] But of course. [LAUGH] Now, I'm making food. I'm making a sandwich because what else does it do? It eliminates my hunger and it gives me health. And it's delicious. [CROSSTALK] And it's [UNKNOWN]. It's delicious. [LAUGH] And probably less encumbering cuz you're taking all these, Individual items and combining them. Right and certain, you know, like a deathclaw stake. [CROSSTALK]. So much health. [CROSSTALK] I think gives you so much, not health, but like I think some type of perk. [CROSSTALK] [UNKNOWN] [LAUGH] [CROSSTALK] Massive. Yeah, so you compare that to, Syntax, well like syntax eventually seem like well why not go for the twofer? You're right. Right, Like yeah they give you so much more, like syntax become less like less important. Yeah and also another big one which is actually really terrifying too, like where Sympax you know again toward the end of the game you've got 300 of these things you're just like as you're taking damage you're hittin' mashin' one online>>>Quick save, quick save.>>>Yeah. exactly. Now I think the sympax take like Triple amount of time. [LAUGH] Two minutes? No way. Forget it! I was like all right! No problem! Hit it and you see your health like ticking away this slow. I said whoa I'd better get out of this fight then. You're booking it out. [LAUGH] The combat just slowed down significantly- Yeah. Because you're just scared. I don't know. Being scared in this game had its. Effect. I feel like in the early stages and then by the end of it you got power so early on. But also- I mean you [UNKNOWN] a bloody death claw in the first ten minutes of this game. Right, and also, here's another good one, is power armor you can take a lot more weight. Right. Like a lot, I think it's almost double. And I remember thinking, all right, well no problem, I'm over encumbered but I'll just put on my power armour. It's like Ten more slots. Right. Which was nothing. So it's like nothing at all. Like Power Armor is just something that you can use as like a defensive measure. You're not like able to carry more stuff. Does that mean your companions can't carry like everything as well? That is diminished as well. The same extent. Already your inventory is cut in half. They can take about half. But now you've got these robots. It's like I can go on forever. Now you got these robots who- From Automatron. Automatron which are, again you play the single player campaign of that and it's like, all right I'm done, now what do I do? Now these robots are even more essential cuz you can get really nit pick and gritty where, okay I'm gonna **** out one of my robots and just have this person be able to carry and just be like a walking storage mule. Yeah exactly so you can customize your robots. The one I was using I put on like Regenerating health field.>> Cool. Yeah, so when I'm out at combat she'll boost my health up, automatically. God, that's pretty cool. Last point on this, actually, what I wanna ask you is, does this [INAUDIBLE] it's not actually, it's a free update, it's not out yet for everyone? How did you opt into the Beta, was it difficult? No, it's Well as far as like how to do it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah it's that feature in like every game, you know you go to properties and it's like the beta section. You just, you turn it on but I will say man it was rough. I've crashed a bunch. Yeah like crashed the desktop like so often in the forum and everyones just crying like yeah my saves are now, that sucks. God. I thank god and so I finally got it to work. Viewing whatever it was, like windows mode I don't even know- Yeah. Bunch of just random stuff. Windows XP compatibility mode- [LAUGH] I got it to work but like it's data. And what about the player level. Would you start the game with this or did you go in with that kind of a character? Right. No so I went in with like a level 49 and that was still really difficult. To play this game from a new save would be insane. Just like that first, I'm thinking up until Power Armor like Yeah that's going to be rough. That's going to be rough. It's totally like you know if the game, I feel like so many people half way through Just gets boring and not challenging. Yeah, totally. And you still want to retain your character. Like, holy **** this is the way to go. Like get on. All right. Yeah. Rob, thank you so much. No problem. [UNKNOWN] Survivor mode. [BLANK_AUDIO]