Fallout 4's Survival Mode Fixes The Game's Most Useless Features

When Bethesda introduced Survival Mode into after release, it raised questions about how the franchise should implement survival and crafting mechanics. The new version of the game makes headshots do greater damage and causes limbs cripple more easily. It also introduced hunger, thirst, and rest requirements. While the mode received praise for some of its changes, it also saw backlash for the tedious way it handles resource gathering. But one alteration that doesn't get nearly enough attention because of how much it changes the game is the removal of the fast travel ability.

Using fast travel to quickly navigate the wasteland is important given how large map is. Having to walk long distances, taking up minutes in real time, just to go from one NPC to another gets dull. Players can fast travel at any time to any pre-discovered location in the base game, as long as they are not in combat or inside a structure, and generally the mechanic saves time and makes the story more fluid. When it comes to Survival Mode, though, this increased difficulty in traveling is the entire point.

This version of the game is not just meant to be harder than basic; it is also meant to feel more grounded, like the player character is really having to live their life in the hostile Commonwealth. Slowing down travel and requiring more walking means that players run into more random encounters and have a greater chance of losing resources or their life on the road. It makes the prospect of trekking through miles of dangerous territory without a settlement in sight more daunting, and encourages careful thinking about what routes players take and where they can rest.

This mechanic works hand-in-hand with the added resource requirements, since more time walking means more food and water are needed to survive. Settlement locations in can now be used to set up safe houses along players' usual paths with extra gear in case they run low. Consumable resources are now considerably more valuable,