I’ve decided to withhold my general opinion of the game until I get a little more of the game experience behind me.
However, I thought that this one piece of advice is worth exploiting,
as it has single-handedly changed my experience of the product.
It turns out that simply playing the game on Hard (after leaving the vault or anytime thereafter) immediately shifts combat to a tactical engagement reminiscent of Fallout 2. I cannot imagine anyone who is playing this game on normal after I performed this switch.
Within an instant of changing the difficulty to hard, the game has
turned from having a superfluous item inventory to feeling as if you
are just barely surviving (.... w/ some room for comfort). From
mindless FPS to deadly and complicated combat scenarios.
On the Hard setting, every combat engagement has required tactical
strategizing, and accordingly, VATS begins to be used more in the vein
of the turn-based targeting system we all used to love. In simpler
terms, VATS becomes necessary, just as the turn-based system was
necessary in taking out Frank Horrigan’s machine-gun arm and then legs
before he could decimate my HP. Lots of strategic planning with mines,
frag grenades, sniping, targeted shots, scraping for any ammo you can
find, and laying traps in advance to catch enemies off guard. Lots of
saving and reloading.
Again, I am only mentioning this because the game on normal was a
ridiculously mindless FPS. With the simple change of difficulty, the
experience and adventure of my survival has become very reminiscent of
Fallout 2. And quite honestly, this pleases me greatly. Once again, I
cannot imagine any Fallout fan muddling through this on a lower setting
– that is, doing so and expecting it to resemble the feel of the
previous games.
This is not to say that I feel the game should at all be likened to
Fallout 1 or 2...a judgment I will reserve for latter. I am simply
stating that the difficulty setting has completely changed my
experience with the game for the better, and that that effect has amazingly brought the experience closer to my memories of Fallout 2.
What do you think? Agree/disagree? I'm still waiting for my freaking copy in the mail.
