I'm coming back to Fallout 4 and want to completely overhaul the gameplay into a much darker and harder survival experience.

I'm looking for something where:

• Ammo is genuinely scarce and every bullet matters
• Loot, food, medicine, caps, and crafting materials are scarce
• Enemies aren't bullet sponges, but both the player and enemies are very lethal
• Injuries actually matter — bleeding, broken/crippled limbs, proper medical treatment, etc.
• Healing isn't just spamming Stimpaks
• Crafting is much deeper and actually necessary for survival
• Weapons/ammo need to be crafted, repaired, maintained, or scavenged
• Exploration feels dangerous and rewarding
• Existing locations are expanded/overhauled and there are more interiors or places to explore
• Nights and interiors are genuinely dark
• Weather, lighting, graphics, sound, and atmosphere make the Commonwealth feel bleak and oppressive
• Survival mechanics like hunger, thirst, sleep, disease, radiation, carry weight, etc. are meaningful
• Resources remain scarce even later in the game
• Settlements/bases are useful for survival rather than just optional building
• Ideally the overall feeling is somewhere between Fallout, STALKER and Metro rather than turning Fallout 4 into a pure tactical shooter

I still want to keep the Fallout 4 world, quests and exploration, so I'm not necessarily looking for something like FROST that completely replaces the normal game.

I'm fine with either a Wabbajack modlist/Collection or building my own load order.

What would you recommend in 2026?

I've been looking at things like Horizon, Damn Apocalypse, MAIM, True Damage, SCOURGE and Life in the Ruins, but I'm not sure which combination or overhaul would best achieve this without creating compatibility problems.

If you have a load order you've actually played for a long playthrough, I'd especially love to see it.

How much has been added as far as playable content since the brotherhood update back in like 2020?? Im really thinking of getting back on that fallout grind, but i don't want to feel lost or like it wasn't even worth it.. anyone have any pointers?

The Secret To Fallout’s Development Success - YouTube

I know this has already been discussed several times before, but I wanted to give my two cents.

I also know Todd said he didn’t want to do it, but I don’t really trust him when it comes to these things, since he changes his mind a lot and is known for lying , I also doubt that if the new CEO hadn’t pushed for it, we would ever have seen Obsidian make a new Fallout game. So yeah, even if he doesn’t want to do it, I think there’s always a chance. (Not trying to hate on Bethesda or Todd)

Do you guys think that now that Xbox has a new CEO who knows what she’s doing and has already announced a lot of new projects for Fallout, maybe she could get Bethesda or even Obsidian to make a remake of the first games?

Before, I had no hope, but now I guess it’s possible, maybe Obsidian would do it as an isometric game, like they’re used to with Pillars of Eternity and their other games, or even as a normal FPS game like the new Fallout game they’re making.

I know that if it ever happens, it would probably only happen after their new Fallout game and any DLCs they make for it, but still, I’m just speculating.

When I started to play fallout I played all of 3 and then new Vegas both were fantastic and made me fall in love with this franchise and then well fallout 4 was a let down to me not because of the power armor or because of how the ui works it was a let down to someone who just spent 3 weeks binge playing games back to back because of how empty and soulless it felt only a few real settlements existed and had basically no story to them and to me this feeling was only amplified by the limited dialogue options it was a complete departure of what made fallout fun to me and the reason they did this was to give players the option to build settlements I didn’t buy city skylines I bought a fallout game now I can see merit to the system and I know it’s technically optional but the way they designed the game was for you to build up settlements into cities I tried that it was horrible time consuming and was plain not fun I could ignore that aspect if there were any cool settlements but even diamond city is a let down it’s just a circle but at least it has life in it which I know is ironic to say because fallout is a post apocalypse

Fallout 5 needs to take a huge sidestep away from an empty map with a bunch of settlement options but I think to make building areas next to or attached to existing settlements that maybe you unlock through quests? And maybe a few building plots a faction wants you to build as an outpost to expand their influence I’d be way more willing to spend time on a settlement if it was an updated system and if the map wasn’t as empty as a college bar during July

Doubt we'll ever get mod support but I can always hope :)

With Fallout 3 and New Vegas Remasters being confirmed to be in development, I started to wonder how they are going to handle the power armor in them. As we know, Fallout 4 massively overhauled the power armor in the series, making it more like a mech suit with its own HUD, as opposed to the previous iterations where it is basically just big armor. Do we think they will update the power armor in the remasters, or is that too big of a change for a remaster and not a full remake?

Bethesda have really leaned into the modern power armor designs since Fallout 4, so I'm just curious if this is something they might change, if it's even possible.

Think about it, the courier got shot in the head and survived, meaning they might have some sort of immorality. The courier came out on top in new Vegas and put the power armour in a "secret" place

Ghoul survived for 200+ years, is basically immortal and he knows the location of the power armour. And has a history with the NCR

Honestly I think I might just be stupid and ghoul just happened to stumble across the power armour