Well for a couple more examples I suppose you could also lay down mines between you and it and then get it to run into them. Or if cryogenic weapons work like frost magic in skyrim use those to slow it down to a crawl while you eat away at its health with that.

Deathclaws were the most powerful ever in NV, I bet whole NCR and Legion NPCs on the map combined together wouldn't be able to clear Sloan Quarry. Your armor didn't matter since their attacks were more than double of the possible amount of protection in the game. So that video is nothing new to me to be honest.

If they move at NV speed, we certainly won't backpedal faster than them with our weapon out and firing, unless we don't slow them down for like 90%.

At what part of the game are you facing the Sewer deathclaw?

Several people have stated the minutemen/ Preston's group is found early on in-game so perhaps the sewer deathclaw faced is weaken/low level so that you are able to take it out whilst the other deathclaws encountered in-game are reasonable tough to suicidal depending on your gear.

I'd say they are a lot more powerful. One scene in the E3 video shows the player character being picked up and disemboweled by a deathclaw. At least, that's the impression I got..

I played on the highest difficulty, so they were always a problem for me. It was either sneak past, or shoot from an elevated position.

If they've gone full Thugclaw, then that's fine by me. I like the challenge, even if most of the people playing gamesas games these days don't.

I found a gauss rifle made short work of them.

There's a part where one hit from the Deathclaw stripped away the entire right arm integrity of the power armor during the gameplay sequence. That encounter was probably only survivable with the bad mother [censored] power armor and the mini gun.

What if the deathclaw has the intelligence of the raptors from Jurassic park? 馃槇

Pretty sure this argument is null, because the Deathclaw is SUPPOSED to be anti-power armor, bred to be close-quarters combat specialist shock troopers. The entire point of Power Armor is supposed to help handle conventional firearms and the occasional small explosion, not some 12 foot tall creature with what appears to be monomolecular edged-claws (which if so, means no matter how tough your power armor is, it'll go right through like a hot knife through melted butter). To be honest, I wish we knew more about the Deathclaw's Physiology, especially those claws of it's.

Not in Fallout 3, a standard and near ubiquitous plasma rifle tore through them.

I doubt deathclaws got easier where you can just pop them with a minigun for a few seconds and loot their corpse. What we saw in the gameplay reveal was obviously edited footage where they just show you the 'execute critical' hit delivering the animation kill to that deathclaw.

I'm pretty sure that same deathclaw that popped out the sewer is a scripted fight. Most likely part of that 'grab the laser musket and head inside' mission we saw in the gameplay reveal and leaked on Kotaku. Probably a tutorial mission for the player getting acquainted with using power armor.

Let's hope so, shall we? Because if not, it's just gonna be another snoooooze fest.

Here's the issue.

Either:

A.) This means Power Armor is practically required to fight a Deathclaw, and that without Power Armor, you'll need really tedious Stimpack spam to kill them. Again this is why I mention the sewers, cause distance advantage could've provided an alternative solution for light armor characters aside from stimpack spam, but with deathclaws getting the drop on you, that possibility is now null.

or

B.) The power armor actually isn't neccesary, and even without Power armor, you will outpace the damage of a deathclaw. This means a deathclaw provides only an illusion of challenge while actually being a very safe and secure fight to partake in. It'll be dull, which is scary to think about, considering deathclaws are SUPPOSED to be one of the most challenging opponents in the game. "New game new mechanics" could be a counter-argument, but I see absolutely zero motivation for them to change deathclaws as powerhouses since they have a reputation of being the staple of "hard enemy" in Fallout, nor do I think they lost that role given that Bethesda chose to showcase these guys in their footage.

Either way, the example footage suggests we'll either be limited in armor choice or the combat in this game will be pretty hand-holdy. Both are bad, if you ask me.

Two things:

1) Melee can totally kill a deathclaw. Melee and Unarmed get Super Slam and Paralyzing Palm respectively to make this happen. Is it a lot riskier and scarier? Hell yeah. Doable? Absolutely. Makes you feel badass to go toe-to-toe with a deathclaw and win? Yep.

2) It's sometimes easy to critique a style, but not so easy to suggest an alternative. Deathclaws either functioned to test your aim (missing meant they'd likely find you), test your trap-planning ability, or test your stats. (by stats I mean weapons such as a Fat Man or Minigun can absolutely kill these guys head-on, but these are very demanding on STR and their respective skills, not to mention income and cost) Would it be nice if Deathclaws challenged more playstyles rather than slaughtering them or making the odds iffy?? Absolutely. But how would you suggest doing that? If you would do it by lowering their damage, this is quid pro quo, because now the very same snipers and minigun users scoff at deathclaws, call them too easy and pick them off without a care in the world.

Furthermore, I think deathclaws only challenging some playstyles would be an issue if it applied to every enemy type. New Vegas provided multiple types with multiple strategies. You do not want to try and snipe versus a cazador swarm; you'll try because why not, but you'll quickly end up with a full-auto weapon in the hand as you aim for their wings. You do not snipe in OWB because it's simply not viable; the enemies see all. You don't likely use a minigun either because it's so demanding on ammo count that if you've got hardcoe mode on, you might sincerely struggle with bringing enough ammo to deal with all the enemies present. Melee and Unarmed also shine when it comes time to fight close quarters or in areas such as Dead Money, because there enemies die by being crippled, which melee and unarmed do better. Every playstyle will encounter some form of challenge, they'll just encounter it in different parts of the game.

So until a good working alternative is provided, I think they did the best they could: different enemy types challenge different playstyles, so you end up being tested either in a wide variety of talents OR you're expected to excel with your chosen playstyle, because there will be an enemy type you'll struggle with.

I don't see how any of this negates my argument. Edited or no, you can catch a glimpse of the minigun's DPS on the deathclaw in each individual cut. I agree it's scripted, but does that mean this deathclaw is programmed to be easier...? It's possible, just like it's possible that this footage isn't a good showcase of what a deathclaw is like. But that's always been a risk that I'm wrong and will always be a risk since release. I'm merely using the little evidence and footage I have to try and speculate what this game will be like, and sadly, I know Bethesda has a bad habit of stacking enemies with HP rather than damage, resulting in tedious fights.

Anyone who doubts that? Load up FO3 on a character with Power Armor and 60+ DR, go fight a deathclaw. Now load up New Vegas and go do the same. You should see a clear difference in how long the fight lasts. (should clarify that I don't think deathclaws got HP boosts in FO3, but rather the damage you can deal is far more limited whereas your armor is superior. Vegas is the opposite, with quality weaponry but limited armor)

We also need to know how that ''execution'' in skyrim style cutscene works. He gets too close? Is it random?

I hope the deathclaws are like they are in New vegas. where theres one ten more are, it feels more animal like then they did in 3.

If it functions like it did in Skyrim, this is going on a list of reasons I may not be buying FO4.

Well first of one simple step is to accept that frankly deathclaw been broken since Fallout 1 and should not be really devoted fan dawdled. Tune both dmg and hp to make them a challenge but not to the op degree they been so far, remove silly broken things like there DT ignoring attacks. Keep things like there high movement speed to keep them lethal but managble, stuff like that, the problem only persists because people have stiff, pre defined notions of how a deathclaw should be.

It seems that in some cases the difficulty may be in location of said deathclaw. Obviously they would svck in enclosed spaces but outside I felt they were far less lethal with terrain quirkiness and certain weapon/ammo combos in previous titles. I noted that in a very short clip (maybe Microsoft e3 clip) the deathclaw had a few juke animations that appeared very cazador like in terms of speed despite its bulk. He also knocked the [censored] out of the PC in another shot physically moving the PC back while in power armor.

I would love to see smarter AI concerning the deathclaw. In the open I would want to be terrified of trying to take them on without dropping in some power armor assistance. In enclosed spaces it would be even better if Bethesda added a simple trap awareness routine. Ultimate cat and mouse.

Ah yes, of course. Clearly Bethesda is finally gracing us with their ear and heeding the cries of the millions of people that've been saying Deathclaws are a horrible imbalanced concept for the last four (or five) games in the series, and this will finally be the blessed game where this inheritly flawed enemy concept finally gets fixed! Finally we will no longer have to deal with this horrible enemy design that we all hated and despised and got no enjoyment or fulfillment out of fighting. Bethesda truly are the saviors of gaming!

Going by the original Deathclaws, the only weak spot was their eyes, everywhere else had DT & DR out the wazoo so to speak, also their claws treat all armour (including the power armour) as if it was a soggy toilet paper bag.

As for primarily using miniguns to kill deathclaws, that's akin to nibbling them to death or death by a billion finger flicks, forget DPS when facing them, you want High Damage per hit.

The Deathclaws in Fallout 3, in comparison were fluffy plush versions and not the ALPHA alpha predators they should be.

Yep, i saw that too. The Deathclaw was definitely leaning forward to reduce his profile, and zig zag juking as he ran towards the player.

If that deathclaw execution is the introductions of killcams, I am all for it. It would be cool if a character with a bayonet or pistol could, if they had an enemy inside a certain radius, could bayonet/buttstroke or pistol whip someone to death. Or if they are outside that radius you can shoot them with a cool/stylish/creative way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a5Qth5BPRk

Am I the only one who found Old Olney basically a long corridor style shootem up zone for Deathclaws. Id hear them, then they might stop and see me and walk/charge.

By this time Im alreading wearing them down and lining up vats for the head shots.

I think Deathclaws work amazingly better in Enclosed big spaces. They can still move around but I think more corners blind and not. You will still hear them.

Every time I went to Old Olney, there was only 1 deathclaw inside the walls. All of the other ones were outside the walls ready to run up on me