Fallout 3 recommended difficulty level

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Fallout 3 recommended difficulty level

(24 posts)

Started 2 months ago by Digital Bamboo
Latest reply from Telepathic.Geometry

Digital Bamboo
Member

I'm going to start Fallout 3 tonight (PS3, first playthrough) and am unsure what difficulty level to choose.

How hard is it? Does bumping up the difficulty from normal to hard make the game more challenging in satisfying ways, or does it just make enemies bullet sponges?

For reference: I started Oblivion & Skyrim on normal, but increased the difficulty to Hard & Very Hard over time. I've beaten games that are considered hard like Demon's Souls and Valkyria Chronicles. However, I usually play console shooters on normal.

I know this is a very subjective question, but any input would be much appreciated.

Posted 2 months ago #
Jerykk
Member

I recommend Very Hard. Like any Bethesda game, it will still be too easy but you might occasionally die. It makes enemies tougher and do more damage, which does actually make a difference in how you play. You'll definitely be shooting more bullets, which means that the gun skills, repair skill and bartering skill will be more important.

Posted 2 months ago #
Telepathic.Geometry
Member

Woah, weird, I just started playing this again recently after I got the Game of the Year edition to replace the one I had to return to my mate after hanging on to it for years...

Anyway, I never changed the setting or even noticed it to be honest. If you feel that it's too easy, I think there are better ways to make it more challenging than fiddling with the settings. Just head for the deathclaw sanctuary and only do the story missions so you don't get over-leveled.

But for me, it's not a game about challenge, it's about discovery, finding rare weapons, armor, finding hidden missions and bobbleheads, all that good shit... That's what you should be focusing on IMO mate. :)

Posted 2 months ago #
Digital Bamboo
Member

So that's one vote for Very Hard and one vote for Normal. I think I'll take the average and go with Hard, as I was leaning towards that anyway.
Thanks guys.

Given the setting of the game, I want to be struggling to survive, with barely enough ammo, and possibly have to resort to killing a few innocents when things get desperate.

Posted 2 months ago #
Digital Bamboo
Member

Ha, turns out the difficulty can be adjusted at any time during the game, so the initial setting doesn't even matter.
Normal is working out nicely for now.
This game is fucking great!

Posted 2 months ago #
Samoan Spider
Member

Yes it is an awesome game. If you're up for a true challenge, once you've wrapped up F3 move on to Fallout: New Vegas and give hardcore mode a try. Its a bit different where medkits heal over time and wont heal limbs, sleep, food and other things become really important not to mention how scarce ammo is. Its a gamechanger =). Anyhoo, enjoy.

Posted 2 months ago #
Anonymous
Unregistered

hahaha we're doing the same thing :) I'm starting Fallout 3 again too because my save data got erased a few years back. the story was getting good to man. I'm going to be playing on normal as it was fun and still challenging.

Good luck hope you enjoy the game as much as I was/will again.

Posted 2 months ago #
Edo
Member

My favorite game of all time,I started it on normal but ended up on very hard.

Posted 2 months ago #
fearmonkey
Member

I don't play bethesda games for the combat, I play for the exploration and story, I usually just play on default settings. If combat is important then yeah you need to bump it up because it will be too easy. If you didnt get all the DLC yet, I recommend point lookout. that was my personal favorite.

Posted 2 months ago #
freedoms_stain
Moderator

I'd recommend pumping the difficulty up a bit.

You can perk up in FO3 to be a super-VATS god, so in late game combat becomes a mere triviality.

I remember fighting the Super Mutant Goliaths with my Mothership Zeta weapons. I almost pitied them as I slaughtered them. Almost.

Posted 2 months ago #
OrbitMonkey
Member

The difficulty makes no odds to the content, so take your own advice & adjust accordingly :)

Though if you want a REAL challenge... Never save, only use autosave. Your game will crash often & never knowing when racks up the tension!

Posted 2 months ago #
Hunam
Member

I find upping the difficulty as you progress through the game is best for Fallout 3. You can get really silly OP quite easily and if you wipe out an entire 'dungeon' without taking a hit, then it's time to knock it up one.

Posted 2 months ago #
sh4dow
Member

Max. difficulty right from the get-go. Only then you know that you actually beat a game.

Posted 2 months ago #
Anonymous
Unregistered

well you guys play for the challenge I play for the story and Fallout 3 is best enjoyed smoothly while you focus on the story. Theres just too much awesomeness to take in while piecing the story together. I hate those difficulty based trophies that make you play on all difficulty levels.

Posted 2 months ago #
Telepathic.Geometry
Member

@sh@dow: I really think that that style of thinking is ill suited to gaming, and I hope the need to beat a game at max difficulty in order to nab the platinum trophy is not just lobbed in as standard.

In some games, like Vanquish, or Bioshock, or Lords of Shadow, or Demon's Souls on NG+ or Dead Space 1, it really works, because you are encouraged to play at a higher level. But in games like Mass Effect and Dante's Inferno, the difficulty just made the game drag on too much. I think that those games could really do with a feature whereby both you and the enemies do double/triple damage. So it's high risk, high return.

This long drawn out slog is just NOT fun.

In summary: Challenge, adversity, yes please.
Difficulty, waste of my precious gaming time, no thanks.

Posted 2 months ago #
rocketgirl17
Member

Sad to say I wasn't able to play this title. My only exposure to the series was New Vegas on the PC. I had fun with it actually.

Is it worth going back to try the earlier Fallout series games?

Posted 2 months ago #
Telepathic.Geometry
Member

Well, I can only speak for Fallout 3. I think New Vegas has better graphics, and has a few nice things like certain perks that you get for killing a certain number of a certain kind of enemy, but overall, F3 is the better game IMO. Little to no grinding, and the story is much bigger. Also, if you get the game of the year edition, there's a lot of game to be had too...

Posted 2 months ago #
Jerykk
Member

New Vegas is better than FO3 in almost every way. The writing is exponentially better, the quests are much more open-ended and have branching paths, skill checks are implemented much, much better (FO3 had the worst skill checks in the history of RPGs), the faction system allows you to choose your own end goal, the companions are much more interesting and fleshed out, there's a ton more content (in terms of loot and quests), the crafting system is greatly expanded and the game is better balanced (if you play in Hardcore mode). It is a better RPG in every way.

People who prefer FO3 tend to do so simply because they like the setting better.

FO1 and 2 are definitely worth trying out if you like old-school CRPGs. Keep in mind that they are significantly harder than the newer games and have turn-based combat. There's no handholding whatsoever. In FO1, you are told to find a water chip and that's it. You also have a limited time to do so. Some people may find the lack of guidance frustrating but I enjoyed it. Made me feel like I was actually on a journey, as opposed to just doing chores. I explored and talked to NPCs because I was looking for clues as to the water chip's location, not because a quest log told me to go to a specific place and talk to a specific NPC.

Posted 2 months ago #
Telepathic.Geometry
Member

In New Vegas, my followers mostly got in the way, especially that bloodthirsty maniac Boone, who stole so many of my kills. But just to address Jerykk's post, I don't necessarily disagree with anything you say, but I am a trophy whore, I admit it. And in order to snag the Fallout 3 Platinum, I had nothing but fun and good times. The New Vegas one was pure grinding. Take this much damage. Eat this much food. And various other irritating pointless grindy requirements.

By contrast, all of Fallout 3's involved exploring and playing the game in interesting ways. So, maybe I'm just coming at it from the point of view of a trophy hunter...

Posted 2 months ago #
Digital Bamboo
Member

My God, did I really only start playing this game 4 days ago? My playtime read 22 hours last night.

I really ought to cut down, especially now that I'm back at work. Only 4 hours today :)

Posted 2 months ago #
Jerykk
Member

You can't really complain about grinding if you're a trophy whore. =P The achievements in FNV may very well be tedious to get but they're completely optional. The in-game achievements (or "challenges") are obtained naturally over the course of the game so you're not really grinding for them.

Of course, this does bring up the question: if you don't find a particular activity (like grinding for achievements in FNV) entertaining, why do it? Especially when it tarnishes your view of an otherwise great game?

Posted 2 months ago #
Telepathic.Geometry
Member

"You can't really complain about grinding if you're a trophy whore." I don't see why not.

I have a feeling we won't see eye to eye on this, BUT, I'm gonna give it a shot. :)

First of all, I use the word "grinding" to mean "non-fun, repetitive actions". If grinding's the wrong word, then someone please steer me right. Anyway, you tell me to go find bobbleheads, or kill all of the behemoths, I'm in. You tell me to break my legs 20 times, fuck that. Why? Because it's boring and not fun.

Before there were trophies I was a completionist, which probably describes me a bit better. I found every piece of heart in Zelda, I cleared every stage in SuperMarioWorld, and I saw the proper ending of Metroid Prime. I like a challenge too, so I general play the more difficult levels of the game too, but I'll be the first to admit that the OCD in me drives me to complete even the non-fun trophies just for the sake of completion.

However, I would argue that everyone plays shit they don't enjoy. You don't get to a stage you don't like and say "I quit this game forever!", everyone is prepared to put up with a bit of shit to at least finish the game. For me, finishing the game means platinuming it.

I should also add that it's not just that, the New Vegas story wasn't as epic as F3 for me. And it was mostly more of the same. Also, some of the new things which I liked in theory (the factions and the hardcore mode) turned out to be just a hassle.

Anyway, that's how I see it. There were a lot of good in New Vegas, I recognise that, and some great missions. But I never really had that feeling I had saving DC and hearing about my exploits on the radio, and finding other vaults with crazy shit going on, and that first time I saw a Deathclaw peggin' it towards me, and learning how to wear power armor, and all that good shit... I dunno, nostalgia maybe?

Posted 2 months ago #
nollie4545
Member

If you want to really make the most of and enjoy a game to its fullest, turn off subtitles, don't skip cut scenes and don't ever select easy or normal difficulty unless you are truly new to the genre.

Trophy whores get no sympathy for me and I think games should be made nearly impossibly hard to get all the trophies just so it winds them up. If you're willing to grind away for hours and detest it at the same time just to get that stupid unlock banner then you're to blame not the game.

Whilst I don't want a game so difficult I can't make sound steady progress, I don't want to be able to brute force it and complete it in a few hours, either.

Personally I would recommend Fallout, or any kind of RPG actually, maybe even a story based shooter or first person game, to be played on hard. After all, Fallout is about life after a nuclear apocalypse. Nothing about that sentence sounds remotely easy to me.

Posted 2 months ago #
Telepathic.Geometry
Member

I can see dialogue between our tribes is impossible. War! War never changes...

Posted 2 months ago #

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