Summary

• Fallout 4's Survival Mode slows down travel, increasing difficulty and resource management.
• The removal of fast travel highlights the value of Brotherhood vertibirds and the Institute's relay.
• The choice of factions becomes more dependent on utility, not just morality.

When Bethesda introduced Survival Mode into Fallout 4 after release, it raised questions about how the franchise should implement survival and crafting mechanics. The new version of the game makes headshots do greater damage and causes limbs cripple more easily. It also introduced hunger, thirst, and rest requirements. While the mode received praise for some of its changes, it also saw backlash for the tedious way it handles resource gathering. But one alteration that doesn't get nearly enough attention because of how much it changes the game is the removal of the fast travel ability.

Using fast travel to quickly navigate the wasteland is important given how large Fallout 4's map is. Having to walk long distances, taking up minutes in real time, just to go from one NPC to another gets dull. Players can fast travel at any time to any pre-discovered location in the base game, as long as they are not in combat or inside a structure, and generally the mechanic saves time and makes the story more fluid. When it comes to Survival Mode, though, this increased difficulty in traveling is the entire point.

Fallout 4 Survival Mode Fulfills Its Purpose In Slowing Things Down

The Commonwealth Is Much More Dangerous

This version of the game is not just meant to be harder than basic Fallout 4; it is also meant to feel more grounded, like the player character is really having to live their life in the hostile Commonwealth. Slowing down travel and requiring more walking means that players run into more random encounters and have a greater chance of losing resources or their life on the road. It makes the prospect of trekking through miles of dangerous territory without a settlement in sight more daunting, and encourages careful thinking about what routes players take and where they can rest.

This mechanic works hand-in-hand with the added resource requirements, since more time walking means more food and water are needed to survive. Settlement locations in Fallout 4 can now be used to set up safe houses along players' usual paths with extra gear in case they run low. Consumable resources are now considerably more valuable, given how long they can take to acquire, and how many are needed to stay alive.

Alternatives To Walking In Survival Mode Are Invaluable

Brotherhood Vertibirds & The Institute's Relay Are Actually Useful

The lack of fast travel also gives use to two of the least useful features in the base game: the Brotherhood of Steel vertibirds and the Institute's teleportation relay. Both of these features give players allied to their respective factions the ability to travel more quickly and safely to points on the map. They see hardly any use in the base game because fast travel is just a better alternative, but in Survival Mode, they are some of the best features players can gain access to.

Giving actual meaning to the vertibirds and relay makes sense, given that the Brotherhood of Steel and the Institute are supposed to be the most powerful factions represented in Fallout 4, compared to the Minutemen and Railroad. In reality, all four main factions give players access to powerful weaponry, armor, and other resources. But now, the two objectively more powerful (and morally dubious) factions have something to offer that the others simply don't. The choice of whom to ally with in Fallout 4 becomes dependent not only on morality, but also utility.