Fallout 4's biggest features hinted by developer: do we believe it?

What he says sounds exciting and plausible, but is it worth taking as truth?

[maniacmayhem]

Having the difficulty ramped up would be a huge improvement. I love the games more than anything but I always thought that once you got to a certain level you could breeze through a lot of the enemies.

And when you got a partner the game became even easier.

The only enemies I actually feared were those Deathstalkers.

[tylercolp]

Yep. At least the option to make it more challenging.

[KonsoruMasuta]

As long as it's optional and they don't force everyone to play with this ramped up difficulty.

Personally, I don't play Fallout games for the difficulty or combat. I play them for the roleplaying aspects, roaming the world, and making choices.

[maniacmayhem]

Yes, I play it for that too as the combat always seemed to come second. But having the difficulty up and the AI smarter wouldn't hurt and would probably make the gameplay that much more enjoyable.

[Detoxx]

Sounds like you haven't played Fallout 3: Point Lookout on very hard. That was a pain in the *ss...

[Sideras]

The trick is to make it interesting first and let the challenge come on it's own, hardships will always be overcome.
Take Dark Souls for instance, it's (in)famous for it's difficulty but once you know how to deal with it, you can just breeze through it.

Anyways so long as they don't go the oblivion route and scale it so a simple wolf takes 20 sword blows to die.

[AgentSmithPS4]

It's so dumb when they put a difficulty slider that gives enemies a stupid amount of health, it's immersion breaking too (it's like they don't care or don't have any common sense). The enemies should do more damage, act smarter, dodge more, etc.

[Vegamyster]

The game was hard if you turn the difficulty up in the later half but the problem is that its just a damage and health increase of enemies, I'd want them to make the AI smarter and implement a good stealth system.

[Anthotis]

After how badly they dumbed down their Elder Scrolls games, i can't see Bugthesda doing any different with Fallout.

I just hope they keep the hand holding to a minimum.

[MasterD919]

Fallout may not have been challenging but it had a few sections that forced you to think accurately before you made any next moves. I think that is what they should go for again.

Ramping up the difficulty was an option in New Vegas that never interested me. I disliked the idea of more bullets for harder enemies.

[markoghc]

I just want them to return proper use of action points (for movement and inventory use as well as shooting), and make combat fully turn based, with optional real time combat that we had in 3 and New Vegas. Oh, and bring Harold back.

[greatcrusader44]

This is a comment from Josh Sawyer of Obsidian, so unless Obsidian is making the next game again (we presume at the moment Bethesda is making f4) then I don't see this as a hint towards f4 as much as how he sees Fallout should be in general.

[FalloutWanderer2077]

The modern fallout games certainly could use a boost in the challenge department. That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be what many perceive as 'Difficulty'. There could be changes as like what Sawyer alluded to - Complicated and challenging decisions based around morality or the lack of.

Decisions not leaning towards the typical binary black & white , who is good,who is evil/what is good and what is evil - Instead there could be choices that are morally grey,which resembles the human dilemma between what is right and what is wrong,IF there is a right or wrong as well,depending on the situation and persons involved.

The Witcher series comes to mind.Those games have some of the best morally grey decision making in the games industry.Personally,I'd love for the next Fallout to have more shades of grey and choice and consequence.

Traditional difficulty could use some changes as well in my opinion. Most games now a days utilize increased health and increases in damage output or the lack of damage output via the player character. Ultimately leading to 'Bullet sponges' which to me is not difficult per se or the right way of increasing difficulty.

I would much rather have modern games and the fallout series offer more intelligent A.I. for enemies and companions alike. Dynamic reactions,flanking,taking cover,realization when they are out gunned by a superior opponent,instead of how we have enemies running wildly at you wielding only a kitchen knife against the player character equipped with a Gatling laser!!! you get my point.

Skyrim was a little bit better and moving in the right direction. Enemy NPC warned the player to not come any closer or there would be conflict,enemies near death begging for mercy and crawling away- These are the kinds of things I would love to see more of and improved in future titles.Along with the points I posted above with dynamic A.I. actions and reactions.