My fourth time playing through Fallout 4! I had played New Vegas again for the 1,000,000th time as well as Fallout 3 so I thought, why not play 4 again as well? This time I did something different: I activated Survival Mode, something they included to be a bit like Hardcore Mode in New Vegas. I found Fallout 4 quite difficult starting out anyway - same thing here times a thousand. It was a really refreshing new way to play.
After playing a balance/settlement character, then a melee-only character, then a power armor nut, it was time to play as a stealth sniper once again. I always plan the SPECIAL stats with the Bobbleheads and You're SPECIAL magazine in mind.
The first Deathclaw took forever to kill. Thankfully I had a fair bit of ammo lying around and different guns. It eventually got stuck here.
Dog was useful for a while, but as usual I got sick of him and dismissed him.
Even the most trivial encounter became deadly.
Such a cutie! Me having to back away from a Behemoth.
I would often get Infections as shown in red above. Annoying but not debilitating. Was hard to get antibiotics for the first while.
I don't think I ever used the flares before but they didn't help me.
I didn't want to just have Vault suit and Combat Armor like usual but it certainly was going that way.
Conversing with a tree. Oh, Bethesda.
Blagging my way into Diamond City.
Bugs aplenty BUT as usual it only crashed for me a handful of times, if even that.
I did not win this fight, sadly.
Only involving myself with these losers for the Charisma bobblehead.
Walking under water in power armor I found on the way to the insane asylum...
Stealth a must in Survival Mode.
Charisma was good in this, actually managed to succeed more than before.
Extraorindary lengths for the Strength bobblehead. These playthroughs are just me trying to get the collectibles, I don't care about ANY of the quests in this game.
Murdering Brother Thomas with nuclear explosives as usual.
All the guides I read kept referring to 'filling bottles' = so useful. I had purified water hotkeyed to '0' so any time I needed some water I'd hit that
Yes I will buy a cow
What it's all about.
Get in the lift
Killed the Dad and got the hell out of there
Buying a doggo for Sanctuary Hills
Blowing the head off the alien as usual. There is no other way
Fun in Sanctuary Hills. Robot armor from defeated raiders came in handy.
Scenes from the Wasteland.
Assortment of weaponry. Ol'Blasty and La Longue Carbine were my shotgun/rifle combo that I would eventually ditch in favour of purchased legendaries.
Jesus was it hard at times. Fights would be staged around me hopping into a bed for a nap, saving the game at the same time and then getting into another scrap.
My clearing of Libertalia the first time round was epic and netted me the Fusils Terribles which briefly replaced my shotgun.
Random naked caravan guards
My CHA was through the roof so most conversations became laughably easy
I started making my own robots.
I read a lot of good things about it and decided to make it my rifle.
Silencers on EVERYTHING
Acquired Ballistic Weave for the first time and immediately upgraded to Mark V with my clothes of choice, combined with Deep Pocketed Polymer Combat Armor I was unstoppable, almost. I also upgraded my charisma suit with the weave.
Slaking my thirst with pumps instead of using up my bottles.
At some point I gave up on shotguns and bought the explosive Spray n Pray
Helping out the trapped Chinese sub
Saving Valentine
Random raider toll in the extreme north east of the map. Grenaded.
Hell of a kick off thsi gun...
Still have not got the cake
Always makign Sanctuary the centre. Next time, Starlight Diner. Maybe.
Turning a corner and finding this.
Ah, Cricket. My main source of ammo. Didn't need Trashcan Carla as much in this game.
Obligatory confidence man fight.
Got to Sandman Kill a few people! Mostly raiders.
Turning Ada into a powerhouse.
Got Aquagirl perk eventually to end the gradual irradiation.
Having to resolve this quest to end all the horrible robots attacking EVERYTHING
This fight was ridiculous.
Making Ada more mobile
Got some X-01 armor for the final encounter with Mechanist!
Level 63 from pure grit, no real spamming at settlements, not too many actual quests completed... just killing stuff. Lots of Agility purchases. Later, Luck.
I didn't mean to kill the Mechanist, it just sort of happened.
Managed to go this far with no Medic.
Rounding out the Bobbleheads.
Cooking stations were a lifesaver.
Back to Nukaworld.
A look at my armour prior to fighting this prick again.
DOHOHO
60+ hours on this craic over a two month period.
The usual Nukaworld shenanigans. I only did it for the two perks at the end.
It's too bad they didn't make the alternate ending more compelling otherwise of course I'd side with the slaves.
He seemed more impressive the first time. Managed to talk him into leaving.
Big enemies were so easy after a while.
More looks at the perk tree lategame.
Killed him instantly.
Made a habit of gunning down these.
I eventually got tired of this playthrough so it was time to rush through the final questlines and defeat the Brotherhood for the Institute.
Some comparisons of the previous playthroughs:
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In sum, a thrilling experience for the most part. Just like the way my character got adrenaline from fights, I got adrenaline in real life from all the near death experiences. I died PLENTY of times, sometimes losing an hour or two of progress but gradually honed the whole hotkey food/water situation and even reduced the need for sleep with all the Nuka Cola. Sleeping bags/mattresses/real beds were only essential for saving after a while.
Steath sniping as usual was super satisfying until the mid to late game where I was strong enough to go toe to toe and end fights quick. Drugs were also useful early to mid game, particularly PsychoJet.
Settlements were not particularly essential in this; I had most of my stuff in Sanctuary so having to run across the map every few hours was awkward but not too difficult after a while. I was always able to find a random bed somewhere in the wastes to save in. If all else failed, there was Exitsave.
I thought I'd have more to type here as usual but no. It was a hell of a playthrough and as a bonus I have the last two hours of it recorded here:
