When I found the power armor I managed to loot it before equipping it not realizing I had stripped off all the armor. The deathclaw was fun.

^I did that...

(It wasn't until much later that I started to wonder why I was totting along all those heavy-ass pieces of armor I couldn't use...)

I actually think it's too easy on survivalist, about ~30 hours in. It started off fairly hard, but it only gets easier. I'm not saying I never die (I'm looking at you, Corvega), but basically pwn everything with just my hunting rifle and shotgun. Modded hunting rifle headshots destroy nearly every enemy in one or two shots, plus there's so much food that recovers basically all your health. I have pretty low health perks, and only 40% damage increase on non-automatic rifles. The game only gets exponentially easier as it goes on, which shouldn't really be the case.

With that said, the difficulty is much better scaled than in Fallout 3, where everything just turned into this massive bullet sponge, and the higher tier enemies were so tough the only real way to kill them was to bait them into mines. But I'd really like to see a harder mode, somehow. I'm really worried that I'm going to one-shot every freaking enemy when I get more damage and health perks. I feel perks like removing radiation from all foods kind of destroys the point of cooking to an extent, but whatever. Point is, game could be harder! But I'll commend Bethesda for doing it much better than FO3.

In the outskirts of Diamond city, heard gunshots so I figured it was a bunch of scavengers/raiders duking it out, so I jump out of the ally to earn some slightly used gear, when I'm Bombarded by a bunch of Super mutants, and got blown up by a suicide bombing Super Mutant...And yeah, I was using a newly repaired set of power armor too!

I dunno, there was these games called Fallout1, Fallout2, Fallout3, Fallout:NV where you could do that. Hell, not only could you do that but it was actually superior in some of them Anyways, I get that this is a new game with more shooter elements.

After facing Suicide Bombers, every mob (even with guns) being able to stagger, a block system which is actually worse vs. multiple enemies (almost always), only vats-crits, regular attacks being as slow as Skyrim power attacks, and noticing you can't even use Unarmed weapons with PA (lol what?), I pretty much understood FO4's new design philosophy on close-combat is a supplemental skill rather than primary. More of a shooter-rpg if you will.

It's still very do-able (but near pointless, just max your Shotgun noob!), especially once you carry a few sets of fully upgraded PA and a upgraded Super Sledge with smart VATS use, just some monsters you literally 100% have to switch weapons and that's a first for me in FO. I'm going to have to throw some perks for a ranged weapon, probably minigun or shotgun oriented. I considering it artificial difficulty, since it's just a severely nerfed weapon set for absolutely no reason.

I'm finding it harder than 3 and NV too, but I thought it was just me! I don't think I am turning the game down from default difficulty setting, or turning it up higher either.

Well I'm not far in (just got the settlers to Sanctuary Hills) but I have terrible hand eye coordination which makes me basically a target in most games (I use VATS a lot) but in Bethesda's games I can cope, sometimes by thinking my way around problems or building up armor and weaponry (especially in Skyrim). That said I'm playing on Normal except for that super Deathclaw in Concord. Died a couple of times before I reset the level all the way down and still barely survived. The problem there is that the minigun isn't great in VATS and what you really need is good fire from the hip skills (which I've never had). Everything seems harder but no so hard it's unplayable for an old timer like me (as long as I can dial the level down if I need to). I suspect that once my armorer and gun nut skills move up my armor and weapons will put me on a par with the monsters.

In Skyrim I was really desperately hanging on in the beginning, but once I had built better armor and increasingly superpowered swords I managed to achieve parity. With enough anti-energy spells even Dragons were easy prey. But that said, those initial really hard levels are fun and death defying so I'm liking it so far. Only had one glitch with the door in my house in the beginning (had to load an earlier save) and one crash after jumping down to the ground from the top of the building in power armor. That's pretty decent for a new game.

I'm a retired software engineer by the way, though not in games. After 35 years programming it's hard not to expect some bugs since they are pretty hard to squash completely especially with a game as complex as Fallout 4.

Argh. 7 more hours to go on my Download, after nearly two hours already. I hope you guys are happy!

I like the difficulty. It made me remember what the F5 key is for, lol. I play slower because one has to scout out the enemy position and figure out the best way to attack. Grenades have become my new best friend

I`ve been struggling due to most my weapons being of the pipe variety. Worst moment was trying to take out a legendary ghoul and his pack - I just got murdered over and over until I left the place. Then I killed some Raiders and discovered the short combat rifle and wow, that thing destroys!

Just cleared out a Government building full of Raiders and I was cackling like a madman at the carnage, though some of the comments that Cait comes out with had me chuckling as well. She`s a great psychotic sidekick to take on murderous sprees...

But yeah, the combat rifles do some serious damage to Ghouls and Raiders.

doing the same as you fodder.....running on survival and got lucky that that deathclaw got trapped underground as well. I cleared out the satellite as well, but no village of ghouls yet. One thing I do find frustrating is that the bloodsvckers/ large mosquitoes are KILLING ME!!! An insect of that size should not survive 6 10MM rounds in its abdomen!!!

Stealth/sniper perks are nearly mandatory with this game...It's also a heluva lot cheaper than the tank method.

I fought against that power turret thing on wheels that has a mini gun while i was in power Armour with a mini gun? I got destroyed 4 times and just decided to run away next before it saw me

So have ANY of you managed to never die yet?

Legendary. Bloatfly.

Ok, it wasn't that bad, but only because I had companions to distract it. Whenever it target me directly I died.

There's death, and then there's humiliating death...

I died twice vs a single monster, but generally I don't die often.

Yeah, game is ok hard

Most obnoxious are bloatflies and bloodstingers. I really hate them, lol. Their flight pattern si unpredictable to a degree, which makes them hard to hit, at least for me

Altho the AI is smarter than previous games, it is not without fault either. I stumbled across a raider with skull (above my level) in PA with a rocket launcher. As he raised the weapon to shoot at me, I sprinted for cover, which made him adjust his aim, and blam, firing deadpoint into the wall in front of him (where the trajectory without wall would have reached me) Almost killing him in the blast, since it only took 2 hits from my "bugkiller" sniper pipe rifle I later tested it versus raiders that throws grenades. They can't abort if you run out of sight, and will hit obstacles with molov's / nades and trajectory weapons, very often harm themselves in the process. Dunno if this is intended behaviour, or just a bit buggy. Anyways, it can make for some fun moments, hehe!

I'm only 6 hours in and have had several near death experiences due to radroaches, bloatfly's, and molerats. I've been killed by raiders twice, and have been killed by a deathclaw twice as well.

Mine too. I did take Gun Nut 1 though and I have two pipe weapons which are pretty effective. After working up to high levels in Fallout 3 though it's hard having to shoot something 12 times to kill it though and being swarmed is when I did. Ghouls can easily kill me in a swarm. Even though I'm not an explosives guy, grenades and mines (and molotovs) are your friend and then there is the "tactic" of running away. The bad guys aren't bright, especially ghouls, so if you can arrange to kill a few at a time, you can avoid the swarm.

I made myself a .308 bolt action sniper's rifle from a pipe pistol and I'm hoping it will work well to pick off raiders. But every monster in this game is an evil parody of the ones in Fallout 3. Every monster would be considered "legendary" in the Capital Wasteland or Mohave.

Thats what I'm saying!

wait till u find a bloodinsect, and his poison, they are the new cazadores on the game. [censored]s.

Nice, VATS is useful just to know where to aim your shots.

I sense an uptick in challenge as well. Then again, I'm putting most of my points into scavenging and crafting pursuits instead of combat skills...and I'm only level 14 too. Once I feel like I can make sufficiently cool weapons, I'll prob start pumping up combat related perks. Then it'll prob feel a bit easier.

Oh and the feral ghouls in this game are scary and dangerous! I've hit a couple pocket "settlements" of feral ghouls and I almost always get initially killed and have to re-load, this time approaching far more carefully.

The converga factory was brutal on my way through it on survival, the only thing that got me through it was the cryolater.

I'm thinking i should level up agility some more as i'm currently on 3 agility. I'm using vats a lot more than i thought i would.

Oh man cazadores. That is how I knew I wasn't in Fallout 3 anymore Toto. Scaling be damned--I like games that have a enemies that can one or two shot kill you even early on.