I, like many other people, enjoyed Fallout 4 (especially for its exploration and combat), but many of the shortcomings (the bland story/quests, voiced protagonist’s limited dialogue options, etc.) definitely hampered my enjoyment.
Enter FROST, a mod that completely overhauls the game. No longer are you looking for your son Shaun, no longer are you welcomed into Sanctuary or the Minutemen with open arms. Practically every NPC present in the vanilla game has been stripped out, and those that do exist will often try to kill you outright.
All of the major quests are gone. There’s just one objective now: survive.
In FROST, death comes quickly. A single stray bullet can kill you instantly. Ghouls and dogs can easily kill you if you don’t block their attacks. As if this wasn’t enough, you’ve got to manage your own needs, including securing food, water, and sleep (which often means that you need to travel to extremely dangerous places, preventing you from staying in any one spot for too long). If you do die, be prepared to lose a lot of progress if you didn’t find a place to sleep.
Resources are scarce, so running away is a highly recommended option, especially when you don’t get the drop on the enemy.
FROST certainly has its own issues. The performance is worse than the vanilla game, and the buggy nature of FO4 definitely detracts from the experience.
But overall, there’s nothing quite as brutal or immersive as FROST (except for maybe the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series) and it has sucked me in for hours.
Three recommendations:
- Play in Survival Mode. FROST is balanced around that, as quick saving and the lack of illnesses/debuffs strips out a lot of the tension.
- Get the DLC, if you can. The Vanilla game has long since stopped being supported, and many of the updates (featuring new content) rely on you owning the season pass.
- Install the recommended mods. While FROST on its own is excellent, the numerous immersion mods (listed on the mod page) really contribute to the bleak and tense atmosphere. Having a horde of ghouls clicking before pouncing at you is genuinely terrifying.
Mod Page – Link
Original Link – Continuation of discussion
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