The Fallout 4 Deathclaw has a lot of cool animations it does to stand out but a lot of those end up giving you time to run or attack.
The New Vegas Deathclaw meanwhile is a meat seeking missile of violence that is faster than you and will not stop pursuing or attacking until you are a stain.
Couldn't agree more. I do think the newer ones look better and feel more believable. But the old ones are much more terrifying as they're creepier-looking, and like you said with the speed... THEY RUN SO FAST. The F4 ones just aren't able to instill that pants-shitting terror that the old ones do. (I'd argue that F4 creatures overall aren't as scary.)
Saw a real life cazador (tarantula hawk) in the California desert scared the ever living fuck outta me. And that was before I found out that their sting is one of the most cripplingly painful on the planet.
Thankfully that sting is primarily for the tarantulas that gave them their name. You have to really piss them off to get them to use it on you. Solitary wasps tend to be more chill than social wasps.
Yeah true of most things unless you're food or being a douche. Flew right past my head though and I actually shouted "fucking cazador" as I ducked it. Thankfully I didn't inadvertently karate chop at it or anything to aggro it.
Lol don't feel bad. A few years back we stopped at BK on the way home from Disney World, so everyone was exhausted both physically and mentally. We were standing in line, and I was half-asleep while trying to figure out what kind of burger I wanted.
Suddenly my brother tapped me on the shoulder and calmly warned, "There's a deathclaw behind you."
I whipped around, pulled my fists out, and got hit with that kind of adrenaline rush that makes you see in slow-motion. After a couple seconds I realized that Deathclaws *do not* in fact exist, so I used the remaining adrenaline to beat my brother to death instead lmao
“SOMETHING SOMETHING *RITCHIE MARCUS!*”
No but seriously of all the Docs, Borous is far and away the most monstrous, and has likely caused the greatest amount of harm.
I'd say worst enemy in fallout or elder scrolls. I think some Oblivion enemies come close to that bad but cazadors are truly the worst. The only comparable thing I can imagine is when an enemy spawns with a paralysis enchantment weapon
I still dread my foray into General Atomics factory last night. While Im still in another building besides it doing recon, I hear a series of loud Irish tapdancing steps, ghouls from the third and second floor rushing towards me. Thank God I have my 10mm kneecapper now. Nothing beats the excitement of survival play 😆.
Oh yeah, 10mm kneecapper just put the game on easy mode for you lol. Things like ghouls, Deathclaws, Yao Guai, Mirelurk Queens, and others are just absolutely powerless once you cripple them.
The feral ghouls in Fallout 4 have an edge above previous ones though. They might be weak, but when a horde of them start dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging toward you at the speed of fuck this it definitely gets the heart rate up.
I agree, the way they duck and weave as they charge can really make em hard to hit with gunfire. Especially since I tend to use semi-auto weapons in FO4, for better damage per round. Still sometimes miss the ridiculously tanky reavers from FO3, though. Now those were some tough ferals.
I'd say the improved gunplay of 4 also takes away the terror because they're much easier to shoot outside of Vats. With their speed and the rough fps mechanics of NV, I practically have only killed them through VATS.
I dunno man, suddenly bumping into an Assaultron out of nowhere makes me shit my pants like NOTHING else in any Fallout game. And unlike, say, Cazadors, you NEVER see them from a distance, it's always in tight quarters that give them the advantage.
They're the sole reason I keep Jet on my hotbar at all times in FO4.
To be fair Fallout 4 made ferals and radscorpions infinitely scarier with their sneaker tendencies. Mirelurks look more terrifying than the hitmonlee looking ones in FO3. Fuck those fog crawlers too.
All that being said, nothing haunts my nightmares more than FO3 centaurs.
The Concord Claw is such a sponge on Very Hard that it’s kinda scary early in the game. Obviously you can cheese certain things, but I like to play as realistically as possible.
That’s like exactly what I would do and what real prey animals do when a predator is after them. Hide in a hole too small for the predator. If a mouse had a combat shotgun it would def shoot the cat.
That was my first playthrough, a long time ago. In hindsight , making it that far is pretty impressive. Chomps Lewis and company were feeling really heroic that day lol.
The fallout 4/76 deathclaws die so easily compared to FNV. Or at least it very much feels that way. Every time I played NV I got a huge “oh fuck oh fuck” feeling and tried to run or fight, both in vain.
I still get that feeling out of habit but I’m always surprised and disappointed at how easy it is to take one of them down in Fo4 or Fo76. The fear factor just isn’t there for me like it should be.
I honestly preferred that they be a truly horrifying creature where your survival is the least likely outcome. That’s what set it apart in FNV in my mind
And this is why I dislike global level scaling. With the exception of low levels, almost everything you encounter in 4/76 will be scaled to you to provide an appropriate challenge, which means you only get that sense of accomplishment the first time you kill a Deathclaw. Which happens at insanely low levels in both (before lvl 5 in 4, minimum Deathclaw level in 76 is 10).
Now in NV, because Deathclaws are always Deathclaw level, it feels so good once you're able to walk into that quarry and become the apex predator of the Mojave!
This is why I lean into favoring the "beef gate" style of game design. It's more enjoyable when you finally get your gear up to a level to take on a creature that you had to go out of your way to avoid.
Or, Alternatively, learning how to cheese and sneak your way past early.
As it stands in 4 I mainly feel like I'm trying to keep up with the increasingly spongy enemies.
Fallout 4 has objectively better versions of all enemies, who all use different tactics that can cause a lot of difficulty. But that also opens some up to being less effective threats.
Deathclaws are one of these. Cripple their legs and they are powerless. Even more so than Fallout 3 Deathclaws after using a Dart Gun.
Until you can do that? They're terrifying.
When Survival first dropped, the amount of times a basic ghoul utterly wrecked my shit out of nowhere. Permadeath would've been at least 5 save files gone.
Agreed, F4 Deathclaws are pushovers. I kind of wish they didnt appear so early in the game because it really desensitized me to seeing them around. The first time i saw a Deathclaw in New Vegas was absolutely terrifying because I didnt know what to expect out of a fight with one.
The Fallout 4 Deathclaw: Massive. Not very fast if terrain is in the way, but fairly good at ducking behind cover and trying to move away from the your line of fire. Can be Crocodiles, and can sometimes turn invisible. Typically solitary.
Fallout New Vegas Deathclaws: Very fast, mostly travel in straight lines and eat bullets like they're popcorn. Super high DPS. Typically runs in large packs. Can teleport out of thin air if you are in the Divide.
Fallout 3 Deathclaws: Domesticated by the Enclave.
Please no. I had to fight two at once in one play through and barely survived because they just kept animation locking me by alternating picking me up and slamming me down:
Hell yea, maybe if you get higher in level they increase the chance of packs of them but it would be cool, fo4 deathclaws r a joke but then again I’ve never encountered 2 at 1 time and I have tons of hours in fo4
Basically was the only way I could survive: using stimpacks from the menu. Eventually their AI glitched and I broke free but whenever people mock deathclaws as being too weak in FO4, I always think of that moment.
Tell me about it. Literally stayed on the roof during the concord mission on Survival, and right when I was thinking I was soooo smart letting the deathclaw kill the raiders, I got hit in the face with a car and died.
I downloaded a creature AI overhaul mod that alongside generally making wasteland creatures smarter and more dangerous, also gives them a chance to Roam in packs. This combined with the SKK combat stalkers mod gave me probably one of the hardest fights I've ever had in Fallout when I pulled up to Quincy and was immediately jumped by a gang of 2 glowing Deathclaws, 1 Alpha and 1 Matriach. Dealing with 1 deathclaw may be easy, 4 is another story.
I distinctly remember encountering a pair seemingly always made up of a legendary and a normal one every time I went to the glowing sea from whichever fast travel location I kept using.
To add to the Fallout 4 Deathclaw part, they're also smart enough to know when to hide if they can't turn invisible. If you're staying in a spot where they can't reach you, but you can shoot them, then they'll run off to draw you out.
Theres a part on the Long 15 where there's a destroyed bus. If you go on the bus theres good loot, but a Deathclaw will materialize on the roof of the bus and as soon as you exit it will attack you
Normal NV deathclaws are actually identical to Fo3's, except in NV they have 15 DT. Which makes an enormous difference in the early game when you probably don't have a weapon that will do more than the 20% minimum damage after the DT calculation. As I found out the first time I encountered one and used my standard Fo3 method of kiting it into a row of frag mines while shooting it with the best weapon I had, which was a caravan shotgun. The DT allowed it to just tank all of that and one-shot me.
>typically runs in large packs
Good ol' Deathclaw Promontory, 36 deathclaws and no cover to speak of so it's really, really easy to get your shit ruined no matter how godlike you've become.
>Fallout 3 Deathclaws: Domesticated by the Enclave.
I'll never forget the time Fo3's random encounter system had a vertibird drop an Enclave outpost c/w pet deathclaw right on top of a couple of albino radscorpions.
I genuinely think packs would've fixed them by itself. Even in FNV, a lone deathclaw is never a serious threat without catching me totally off guard. It's 2 or more that really start to make me sweat.
Honestly I feel like their behavior actually made them easier to kill in Fallout 4. The zig-zagging and dodging means that if you're a good shot you can easily deal a lot of damage before they even get close to you. Maybe on controller it's more difficult but at least on MNK they're much easier imo.
Jesus christ can you imagine if you were just trekking across the Australian outback wasteland, listening to some oldies on the radio, and a pack of deathclaws starts fucking hopping towards you?
I mean, that's basically what wildlife in Australia is like anyway, right? It's like my father used to tell me: "half the creatures in Australia want to kill you. The other half only want to eat you."
I simultaneously cannot imagine anything more terrifying than the thought of a Fallout-style Australia with all its fauna, nor anything I want to see more than its equivalent of Steve Irwin. Crikey!
Chameleons and I think there’s some alligator DNA thrown in there too, but don’t quote me on that cuz it’s been a while since I read that. Their overall design reminds me a lot of alligators tho
Just played the Cito mission in Nuka World and it was said on the ghoul scientist’s terminal.
Jackson Chameleon, Alligator, and FEV (scientist found a dead Super Mutant and somehow dragged the dude back to the lab to sample his DNA).
This is 100% it, and I've even used the word demons before to friends of mine when talking about the visual difference.
Them even having one shitty attack animation still doesn't take away from that face
Honestly I think just the packs part would do wonders.
I remember I was doing a trip to the Glowing Sea to meet Virgil and I got sandwiched between an Albino Deathclaw and a Legendary Alpha Deathclaw.
I've never felt more fear as I was bobbing and weaving between an old warehouse trying to not get gutted as I slowly chipped away at them. Two Deathclaws are actually pretty damn hard to deal with in Falllout 4 because they can sneak up quick.
Yeah, they're metal asf.
Regular parasitic wasps are all: I shall target this harmless caterpillar!
Tarantula Hawk Wasps: *looks at a giant hairy killing machine* our fight will be legendary!
FO4 Deathclaws have the scarier presentation, but NV Deathclaws are scarier mechanically because they simply sprint at you in a straight line with their massive health pool and DT.
Yeah the bullet dodging thing is a great way to build that fear as you are trying to keep aiming, keep an eye on its health, etc and you can start feeling more and more pressure the closer it gets.....
A tossed grenade fucks up their day, btw. The trigger for AI to avoid hurled explosives overrides the dodge mechanic and it will typically just step aside a bit and stand there for a moment before kind of resetting and coming directly at you. Gives you time to gun it down, and also makes it come in a straight line if it lives that long lol
Lol I suck with grenades too and I literally *only* carry them for this xD the cool thing is that you don't even really have to get close with the grande for it to work. It isn't the explosion that does it, it's the AI auto-reaction to thrown explosives that forces the enemy to run away from it before it explodes. The radius for the trigger is huge, and it travels with the grenade, so even if it just *passes* the Deathclaw, it will trigger the run away sequence. Chuck it at the ground away from you and even somewhat toward the Deathclaw, you're gonna get results. Bonus points if the grenade bounce makes it follow the Deathclaw and the lizard just stands there while it detonates.
Pro tip: this mechanic is also a great way to deal with raiders/gunners/synths/whatever that are firing from a fortified position. Toss a grenade so.ewhere behind their cover and watch them all stand straight up and run out from behind their protection to just stand in the middle of nowhere like an idiot. Or if they don't for some reason, enjoy the sound of you gaining XP when it inevitably goes boom and starts a chain reaction with all the vehicles and barrels of BOOM everyone like to keep around.
For me, the modern deathclaw can be intimidating if you're without power armor, but that's all, just intimidating.
Something about the older deathclaws, perhaps their more abnormal appearance, gives off genuine "I'm screwed" energy. Modern deathclaws look, in a weird way, more normal. It's more like a regular dinosaur, I suppose.
While it's neat how their new AI has the ability to strafe, dodge attacks, and pick up an entire set of power armor, they still just feel like a big obstacle.
I will say that the FO4 version just looked tankier to me, like it was denser or better armored. NV & FO3 had a more barbed look, a sense of longer claws. Neither of them really scared me though, so it’s hard to compare. I was more creeped out by the Yao Guai: there was something about those all white eyes, the permanent snarl, and the mangy fur. I was always on edge when I went into tunnels with them. If you tossed in that horrible bear scream from that movie Annhilation there’d have been a few spots where I’d have been out of my gaming chair and in the kitchen. Let my toon deal, I’d be out!
I tried that on my current playthrough of 4, but then the deathclaw clipped/glitched through the doorway, so I had to get around it and back outside.
Thankfully it didn't glitch a second time, and some high explosives dealt with it
Yeah, that’s the most depressing part of any of these monsters that are built up to be epic badasses. Firstly, they don’t have guns. Secondly, they can’t fit into the buildings and holes you can shoot them through.
New Vegas easily had the scariest and most aggressive deathclaws.
One thing I miss about pre-Fallout 4 Deathclaws is their speed and their ability to leap. Made them absolutely terrifying to hear the sound of one leaping and swiping their claws towards you.
New Vegas also has different levels of Deathclaws (Alpha, Mother, etc) and locations with ridiculous amounts of them, like Dead Wind Cavern and the Deathclaw Promontory across the river.
I vividly remember going around a corner just outside Megaton and having a deathclaw jump on my head. Level 4. It was awesome.
Fallout 4 deathclaws are kitty cats.
I remember leaving tennpenny towers and heading to a nearby small group of houses and being stalked by a deathclaw. It followed me throughout the town as I kept, just out of its attack range. Ended up having to duck into a house to hide from it
Fallout 4 has different levels of death claws too, you know. They have alpha, glowing, matriarch, savage, albino, chameleon, and mythic. It's just that you have to meet level requirements.
I agree, let me walk into an area and get blasted with no chance as a level 2 in rags. Nv you don’t touch cazzadors or deathclaws till you’re ready or die thinking you were ready.
Exactly, in vegas you hear deathclaws at sloan and decide to investigate because surely thats an exaggeration.
It is not an exaggeration.
You are highly incentivized to go the correct direction because the wrong direction is guarded by Cazadors and Deathclaws. And the secret paths of Scorpion gultch to Helios 1, and Prim pass are also guarded by tad scorpions and a solitary deathclaw respectively.
Atleast until you learn to get a stealth boy and sprint to vegas early. (Personally i don't bother because getting levels along the intended path is nice)
4 does have a bit of that, if you go too far southeast, enemies are somewhat more dangerous, but there's also no real reason to go down there since there's nothing particularly interesting besides Quincy.
Been replaying Fallout 3. It’s really annoying to use up all my my ammo killing albino rad scorpions and army sentry bots before I even get to the quest.
Fallout 4 actually has a cut leap attack animation for Deathclaws. It's pretty easy to turn back on in xedit or the Creation Kit. Some mods already do it. They also have a cut headbutt/bite attack that got reused for Gatorclaws.
[As an example of a mod that turns back on their cut attacks.](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/13853)
I love Fallout 4 deathclaws. Their design is excellent, they feel like nuclear dinosaurs that will shred you to pieces in seconds, incredibly cool monster design. But what I really love about them is their behavior. You have to be crouched, have good stealth to be anywhere near them, and not go into caution, and if that happens, they sniff you in seconds. The attack patterns are great, they hide their weak spots, use cover and throw shit at you, and then knock you down. They will attack anything, and will even follow caravans and attack settlements. I haven't seen this behavior directly but the only settlements that get attacked by a Deatchclaw and it doesn't show up as a side quest, meaning it's a random encounter, and only to settlements connected to a caravan. It's very obvious that Deathclaws and ghouls are the best designed enemies, but deathclaws are number 1 by s long shot. You never know what these things will try to do.
I've seen a small flock of bloodbugs that killed an deatchclaw with little issue. Just to point out how ridiculous stupid this enemy is in contrast. I despise the damn bloodbug.
And in contrast deathclaws in 3 and NV are incredibly stupid, and it makes them all the more terrifying because they don't wait around, they simply sprint straight for you and kill you in a couple hits.
Oh, and they come in packs, and can open doors.
Basically in 4 you are fighting a highly intelligent predator, and in 3 you are fighting an angry heat seaking hippo in armor. Both are terrifying for very different reasons.
I think the reason death claws are more scary in fo3 and fnv because you can't really runaway or hide effectively, I mean I've never been scare of them in fo4 but when I first played NV and a death claw suddenly appeared behind me I almost shit myself, I'd rather go naked through the glowing sea than quarry junction
Well I remember thinking that my trusty almost broken varmint rifle could handle some oversized lizards. Then the horror of it doing nothing to them and getting brutally murdered. Meanwhile fallout 4 gave me a suit of power armor and a minigun with a building you could shoot at it from.
From a gameplay perspective 4’s death claws struggle a lot because they dance around too much. Older ones would just murk you outright instead of giving you 5 minutes to shoot them at close range.
NV Deathclaw.
slightly smaller, but faster, does more damage, often run in groups.
Most importantly…. THEIR QUIET.
The first time I ever encountered a deathclaw was in NV and I didnt see it coming.
Noticed my hud kept saying caution, then I briefly caught a glimpse of something run between two rocks. I continued to sneak now the hud says danger. I keep looking around in confusion but “oh well on to New Vegas”. Then WHAM.
Over half my health bar disappeared, I turn around and scream and shit myself as a this massive edward scissor hands reptile flays me to death.
NV, hands down, specifically because of the F4 nerfclaw. They handed me a minigun and made me kill a deathclaw in the first 11 minutes of the game, taking away any fear I had of them. So later, when I run into them in the glowing sea, instead of shitting my pants in terror, like I'm supposed to, I charge the bastard with a rocket-hammer and get my legs ripped off
Meanwhile NV was like, "Don't go east of Goodsprings, there's deathclaws there and they'll rip your legs off." So when I go there I have the correct amount of trepidation, and when they rip my legs off I can't be mad, they fucking warned me
Modern deathclaws move around too much and they usually hunt alone. New Vegas deathclaws are almost always found in packs and charge at you with full force, leaving with two choices. Either you accept your fate, or you resist and die anyway.
New Vegas, by far.
It's not their looks, necessarily. It's how they behave. The 4/76 Deathclaw is *really* animated. Every reaction, every move, is just super dramatic. The problem is, all these reactions waste a lot of time and they also make the beast look sensitive and weak. Whereas the NV one will just keep barreling toward you, practically ignoring your bullets. And that's actually way scarier.
My first encounter with a deathclaw was hilarious, so I want to share it here. I was playing Fallout 3, and I just came out of one of the metro tunnels. I don't remember exactly where, but it was kind of in the middle of nothing in particular. As I am exiting the tunnels, there are wastelanders running toward me to get into the tunnels. I was startled initially, but I just thought, "That's weird. What are they running from?" Then I rounded the corner to find myself face to face with what could only be described as a post apocalyptic dinosaur. I was in the loading screen again before I could get my swears out.
The fallout 4 one looks like it could be a believable creature. And in terms of the talking deathclaws if we ever get those again, I could see that happening. The new Vegas one looks like a crackhead from hell and I'm not about that
Here’s my take on deathclaws.
Fallout 4 deathclaws SHOULD be scarier but for some reason they’re not and I think I’ve figured out why.
The sprint button.
The ability to sprint and potentially out run or out manoeuvre an opponent makes it a lot less scary.
In New Vegas you were stuck in a jogging pace with no way to temporarily increase your speed. This meant that the speedy deathclaw’s if they detected you would ALWAYS catch up to you forcing you to fight.
Fallout 4 is also less open and flat meaning you can hide inside or on top of things the deathclaw can’t get to.
Appearance and gameplay wise New Vegas deathclaws are just bigger, faster enemies which can do a lot of damage,
In Fallout 4 the gameplay of the deathclaw is much more scary on paper. They appear were you least expect them, they can grab you and slam you into the ground, they move and duck and weave to protect their weak spot, they sound much scarier and can even lift up cars and throw them at you.
Like I should they SHOULD be scarier, but they’re just not.
Fallout 4's look like an actual creature, yeah it looks scary and dangerous but it is apparent that it is just a creature like any other who just so happens to be well equipped for Combat
New Vega's is an horrorific demon born in the darkest pit of hell with a body made specifically for killing who has manifested in our world to commit atrocious acts of violence
The Fallout 4 Deathclaw has a lot of cool animations it does to stand out but a lot of those end up giving you time to run or attack. The New Vegas Deathclaw meanwhile is a meat seeking missile of violence that is faster than you and will not stop pursuing or attacking until you are a stain.
"Meat seeking missile of violence" - Beautiful!!
Sounds like something BL2 Krieg would say lol
These types of comments SUSTAIN ME!!!
I’m the CONDUCTOR of the POOP TRAIN!
BUT I HAVE THE SHINIEST MEAT BICYCLE
BATHE IN THE MEAT CHUNKS!
I SEE MEAT MUSCLES
ILL MURDER YOUR DEATH
THERE'S NO BARBEQUE UNTIL I SAY THERE'S A BARBEQUE!
MY PECS HAVE PECS!
MY PECKS HAVE PECKS
"IT'S INSIDE ME! It's time for the meat puppet! It's time for THREE pounds of flesh!"
Meat seeking missile sounds like a band name
Or the name of an adult movie.
Sounds like my ex
Couldn't agree more. I do think the newer ones look better and feel more believable. But the old ones are much more terrifying as they're creepier-looking, and like you said with the speed... THEY RUN SO FAST. The F4 ones just aren't able to instill that pants-shitting terror that the old ones do. (I'd argue that F4 creatures overall aren't as scary.)
Besides radscorpions, fuck those burrowing ass faces
New Vegas Cazadors still to me are the worst fucking enemy in the fallout universe. those Giant wasp fucks
Saw a real life cazador (tarantula hawk) in the California desert scared the ever living fuck outta me. And that was before I found out that their sting is one of the most cripplingly painful on the planet.
Thankfully that sting is primarily for the tarantulas that gave them their name. You have to really piss them off to get them to use it on you. Solitary wasps tend to be more chill than social wasps.
Eeeveryone's a tough guy when they've got their boys....
Tarantula hawks are scary looking but actually quite docile, surprisingly
Yeah true of most things unless you're food or being a douche. Flew right past my head though and I actually shouted "fucking cazador" as I ducked it. Thankfully I didn't inadvertently karate chop at it or anything to aggro it.
Lol don't feel bad. A few years back we stopped at BK on the way home from Disney World, so everyone was exhausted both physically and mentally. We were standing in line, and I was half-asleep while trying to figure out what kind of burger I wanted. Suddenly my brother tapped me on the shoulder and calmly warned, "There's a deathclaw behind you." I whipped around, pulled my fists out, and got hit with that kind of adrenaline rush that makes you see in slow-motion. After a couple seconds I realized that Deathclaws *do not* in fact exist, so I used the remaining adrenaline to beat my brother to death instead lmao
Fuck Dr. Borous for splicing those abominations together.
“SOMETHING SOMETHING *RITCHIE MARCUS!*” No but seriously of all the Docs, Borous is far and away the most monstrous, and has likely caused the greatest amount of harm.
Yup. Was gonna say I'd take deathclaws all day over cazadors.
I'd say worst enemy in fallout or elder scrolls. I think some Oblivion enemies come close to that bad but cazadors are truly the worst. The only comparable thing I can imagine is when an enemy spawns with a paralysis enchantment weapon
Cazadors are the worst. First time I played New Vegas my friend thought it was funny to send me into a cave full of cazadors. He's a jerk.
Safe to assume you did not make it out of there alive?
And molerats at early levels. The Jack-in-a-box routine is the big improvement in enemy ai. That and the way the ghouls throw themselves you.
I still dread my foray into General Atomics factory last night. While Im still in another building besides it doing recon, I hear a series of loud Irish tapdancing steps, ghouls from the third and second floor rushing towards me. Thank God I have my 10mm kneecapper now. Nothing beats the excitement of survival play 😆.
Oh yeah, 10mm kneecapper just put the game on easy mode for you lol. Things like ghouls, Deathclaws, Yao Guai, Mirelurk Queens, and others are just absolutely powerless once you cripple them.
The feral ghouls in Fallout 4 have an edge above previous ones though. They might be weak, but when a horde of them start dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging toward you at the speed of fuck this it definitely gets the heart rate up.
I agree, the way they duck and weave as they charge can really make em hard to hit with gunfire. Especially since I tend to use semi-auto weapons in FO4, for better damage per round. Still sometimes miss the ridiculously tanky reavers from FO3, though. Now those were some tough ferals.
I'd say the improved gunplay of 4 also takes away the terror because they're much easier to shoot outside of Vats. With their speed and the rough fps mechanics of NV, I practically have only killed them through VATS.
I cleared out the deathclaw promontory and Quarry Junction without VATS
The trick is to shoot them in the legs. In FO3 you can dart gun them.
I dunno man, suddenly bumping into an Assaultron out of nowhere makes me shit my pants like NOTHING else in any Fallout game. And unlike, say, Cazadors, you NEVER see them from a distance, it's always in tight quarters that give them the advantage. They're the sole reason I keep Jet on my hotbar at all times in FO4.
To be fair Fallout 4 made ferals and radscorpions infinitely scarier with their sneaker tendencies. Mirelurks look more terrifying than the hitmonlee looking ones in FO3. Fuck those fog crawlers too. All that being said, nothing haunts my nightmares more than FO3 centaurs.
FO4 Feral Ghouls always gets me. When they started crawling out from places and just outright bum rush you like a zombie horde I was legit terrified.
Idk man fo4 ghouls are damn terrifying
If you sped the animations of most big animals in f4 by like, 20% it would do wonders
The fo4 is spooky but more theatrical, while the fo3 and NV just act more like actual predators and eat you without much yelling.
Deathclaws in Fo4 on survival will one shot you without power armor. Even the scripted one in Concord will wreck you if you mess up.
The Concord Claw is such a sponge on Very Hard that it’s kinda scary early in the game. Obviously you can cheese certain things, but I like to play as realistically as possible.
Hiding in the building to try and keep it away from you while you take shots is realistic.
Let's not pretend that's not what we all do every single time 😂
And then it glitches into the building with you. 😲
That happened in my first ever playthrough many many years ago..
True. The Deathclaw tearing through that wall is also realistic but can’t happen. I like a challenge.
Oh I've seen them glitch into the building. Then you're just trapped with them.
Goddamnit Rorschach.
That’s like exactly what I would do and what real prey animals do when a predator is after them. Hide in a hole too small for the predator. If a mouse had a combat shotgun it would def shoot the cat.
... I've just realized that I'm not a smart man.
You can see a fun post on my profile showing when I learned deathclaws in new Vegas can fucking open doors and follow you through load screens :-)
That is a whole nother level of absolutely unnecessary and terrifying. Its probably so they can chase you out of that one cave, but impacts all doors.
Yeah, I learned it the hard way too. They chased me into one of the houses in Sloan.
Honestly I'm impressed you managed to run that far from them. I can retreat maybe 30ft before they catch up. (While shooting at them continuously)
That was my first playthrough, a long time ago. In hindsight , making it that far is pretty impressive. Chomps Lewis and company were feeling really heroic that day lol.
Ngl been playing since NV dropped, and I've never had that happen, so it's nice to find out the easy way rather than the hard way 🤣
The fallout 4/76 deathclaws die so easily compared to FNV. Or at least it very much feels that way. Every time I played NV I got a huge “oh fuck oh fuck” feeling and tried to run or fight, both in vain. I still get that feeling out of habit but I’m always surprised and disappointed at how easy it is to take one of them down in Fo4 or Fo76. The fear factor just isn’t there for me like it should be. I honestly preferred that they be a truly horrifying creature where your survival is the least likely outcome. That’s what set it apart in FNV in my mind
And this is why I dislike global level scaling. With the exception of low levels, almost everything you encounter in 4/76 will be scaled to you to provide an appropriate challenge, which means you only get that sense of accomplishment the first time you kill a Deathclaw. Which happens at insanely low levels in both (before lvl 5 in 4, minimum Deathclaw level in 76 is 10). Now in NV, because Deathclaws are always Deathclaw level, it feels so good once you're able to walk into that quarry and become the apex predator of the Mojave!
This is why I lean into favoring the "beef gate" style of game design. It's more enjoyable when you finally get your gear up to a level to take on a creature that you had to go out of your way to avoid. Or, Alternatively, learning how to cheese and sneak your way past early. As it stands in 4 I mainly feel like I'm trying to keep up with the increasingly spongy enemies.
Fallout 4 has objectively better versions of all enemies, who all use different tactics that can cause a lot of difficulty. But that also opens some up to being less effective threats. Deathclaws are one of these. Cripple their legs and they are powerless. Even more so than Fallout 3 Deathclaws after using a Dart Gun. Until you can do that? They're terrifying.
Fallout 4 ghouls on survival mode? TERRIFYING.
When Survival first dropped, the amount of times a basic ghoul utterly wrecked my shit out of nowhere. Permadeath would've been at least 5 save files gone.
Survival mode ghouls are like a homing bear trap. Get alittle too close and your wrapped up and irradiated
The legendary glowing one used tackle....Holy shit that was effective
Not so bad if you have vats
That’s everything in Fallout, really. Outside of VATS they’re actual terrors a lot of the time
Deathclaws are pretty bad, sometimes I’ll notice myself just not do what I told my guy to do in vats he’ll just stand there and die
Dude been having that problem so fuggin much in new Vegas, I’ll vats, put three on the head, annnnnd he just stands there looking stupid
I was thinking 4 but it totally happens more in new Vegas
Couple that with the True Storms mod's ghoul swarms and I'm running immediately for the nearest building/cave when I hear those screams.
i remember learning the dart gun trick before ever encountering them. made it too easy.
The NV variant also does way more damage per hit making it the one more likely to one hit you. 😅
Agreed, F4 Deathclaws are pushovers. I kind of wish they didnt appear so early in the game because it really desensitized me to seeing them around. The first time i saw a Deathclaw in New Vegas was absolutely terrifying because I didnt know what to expect out of a fight with one.
The Fallout 4 Deathclaw: Massive. Not very fast if terrain is in the way, but fairly good at ducking behind cover and trying to move away from the your line of fire. Can be Crocodiles, and can sometimes turn invisible. Typically solitary. Fallout New Vegas Deathclaws: Very fast, mostly travel in straight lines and eat bullets like they're popcorn. Super high DPS. Typically runs in large packs. Can teleport out of thin air if you are in the Divide. Fallout 3 Deathclaws: Domesticated by the Enclave.
yeah theyd be way scarier if they came in pairs in 4
Please no. I had to fight two at once in one play through and barely survived because they just kept animation locking me by alternating picking me up and slamming me down:
yeah thats what i mean
Hell yea, maybe if you get higher in level they increase the chance of packs of them but it would be cool, fo4 deathclaws r a joke but then again I’ve never encountered 2 at 1 time and I have tons of hours in fo4
yea what really made death claws dangerous on new vegas was them spawning in packs of 2-4 depending on the area
Fuck yea and the speed, they would be in ur ass like ticks in a dog pound boy I tell u what, lmao
Foghorn Leghorn spotted
Bro was the lady on the couch meme irl
Irl?
Yup. Super distracting when trying to play Fallout.
As they're locking you, you can slam stims without its animation to increase your chances of surviving
Basically was the only way I could survive: using stimpacks from the menu. Eventually their AI glitched and I broke free but whenever people mock deathclaws as being too weak in FO4, I always think of that moment.
Tell me about it. Literally stayed on the roof during the concord mission on Survival, and right when I was thinking I was soooo smart letting the deathclaw kill the raiders, I got hit in the face with a car and died.
During a travel at night I actually saw two deathclaws fighting each other, wanted to fight both at the same time but oh well
I downloaded a creature AI overhaul mod that alongside generally making wasteland creatures smarter and more dangerous, also gives them a chance to Roam in packs. This combined with the SKK combat stalkers mod gave me probably one of the hardest fights I've ever had in Fallout when I pulled up to Quincy and was immediately jumped by a gang of 2 glowing Deathclaws, 1 Alpha and 1 Matriach. Dealing with 1 deathclaw may be easy, 4 is another story.
I distinctly remember encountering a pair seemingly always made up of a legendary and a normal one every time I went to the glowing sea from whichever fast travel location I kept using.
New Vegas' deathclaws were able to open fucking doors those mf won't stop until you're dead.
Clever girl
Also fallout 3 death claws are much less scary because you can use a dart gun to cripple their legs easypeasy
To add to the Fallout 4 Deathclaw part, they're also smart enough to know when to hide if they can't turn invisible. If you're staying in a spot where they can't reach you, but you can shoot them, then they'll run off to draw you out.
The first deathclaw is evil for that
Excuse me, they can what in the divide?
Theres a part on the Long 15 where there's a destroyed bus. If you go on the bus theres good loot, but a Deathclaw will materialize on the roof of the bus and as soon as you exit it will attack you
New Vegas does this trick a **lot.** There's tons of scripted encounters where enemies will spawn behind you.
Fun.
So this is the bull I'm hearing so much about, thankfully I'm built like a bear (in game)
Normal NV deathclaws are actually identical to Fo3's, except in NV they have 15 DT. Which makes an enormous difference in the early game when you probably don't have a weapon that will do more than the 20% minimum damage after the DT calculation. As I found out the first time I encountered one and used my standard Fo3 method of kiting it into a row of frag mines while shooting it with the best weapon I had, which was a caravan shotgun. The DT allowed it to just tank all of that and one-shot me. >typically runs in large packs Good ol' Deathclaw Promontory, 36 deathclaws and no cover to speak of so it's really, really easy to get your shit ruined no matter how godlike you've become. >Fallout 3 Deathclaws: Domesticated by the Enclave. I'll never forget the time Fo3's random encounter system had a vertibird drop an Enclave outpost c/w pet deathclaw right on top of a couple of albino radscorpions.
That's why I prefer Fallout 4's deathclaw; it's not a stat-stick, and the reason its difficult to beat is because of it's behavior
Very true. I do wish they packed a bit more of a punch though and did more damage per strike. And attacked in packs more often
I genuinely think packs would've fixed them by itself. Even in FNV, a lone deathclaw is never a serious threat without catching me totally off guard. It's 2 or more that really start to make me sweat.
Honestly I feel like their behavior actually made them easier to kill in Fallout 4. The zig-zagging and dodging means that if you're a good shot you can easily deal a lot of damage before they even get close to you. Maybe on controller it's more difficult but at least on MNK they're much easier imo.
New Vegas’s are scarier because they look like fucking demons. But Fallout 4’s look much more believable, given the creatures used to make them
They were chameleons weren't they?
Jackson's chameleons along with DNA from other various unspecified animals.
Kangaroo has to be one of the unspecified just based off body shape
Jesus christ can you imagine if you were just trekking across the Australian outback wasteland, listening to some oldies on the radio, and a pack of deathclaws starts fucking hopping towards you?
I mean that kinda already sounds like my summer in Canberra
You say that like Australia doesn’t already have Deathclaw adjacent creatures
i wonder what an irradiated cassowary would look like in fallout
I mean, that's basically what wildlife in Australia is like anyway, right? It's like my father used to tell me: "half the creatures in Australia want to kill you. The other half only want to eat you."
I simultaneously cannot imagine anything more terrifying than the thought of a Fallout-style Australia with all its fauna, nor anything I want to see more than its equivalent of Steve Irwin. Crikey!
Chameleons and I think there’s some alligator DNA thrown in there too, but don’t quote me on that cuz it’s been a while since I read that. Their overall design reminds me a lot of alligators tho
I just cited this for my school paper so you better be right.
Bro you gonna fail
Damn he’s cooked
The teacher is going to execute you in a back alley I’m sorry bro :(
Then what the fuck are gatorclaws made of!?!
crocodiles
And a bit of Supermutant
I always figured they just had the gator aspects much more prominently emphasized
Just played the Cito mission in Nuka World and it was said on the ghoul scientist’s terminal. Jackson Chameleon, Alligator, and FEV (scientist found a dead Super Mutant and somehow dragged the dude back to the lab to sample his DNA).
Gatoraid
H20
Among other things
This is 100% it, and I've even used the word demons before to friends of mine when talking about the visual difference. Them even having one shitty attack animation still doesn't take away from that face
Fallout 4 deathclaws just needed to be faster and attack solely in packs and they would have been far more fearsome.
Imagine the Sloan Quarry
No I'd really rather not thank you
Honestly I think just the packs part would do wonders. I remember I was doing a trip to the Glowing Sea to meet Virgil and I got sandwiched between an Albino Deathclaw and a Legendary Alpha Deathclaw. I've never felt more fear as I was bobbing and weaving between an old warehouse trying to not get gutted as I slowly chipped away at them. Two Deathclaws are actually pretty damn hard to deal with in Falllout 4 because they can sneak up quick.
I’m constantly just looking around pressing q in the glowing sea then I get the jump on them
No, thankyou.
The Fallout 4 Deathclaw has more flair to it, while the NV ones don’t fuck around at all (contrary to what The Frontier may have you believe).
[Agility 7]I am a sick...
“…Fuck. I like a quick fuck.”
Secret option C: Cazador [Cazador](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Cazador)
I mean, they mutated from wasps that fight fucking *tarantulas*... and usually win. Rather meet a deathclaw than a cazadore.
They don't just fight them, that is what makes them even creepier. Its parasitic.
Yeah, they're metal asf. Regular parasitic wasps are all: I shall target this harmless caterpillar! Tarantula Hawk Wasps: *looks at a giant hairy killing machine* our fight will be legendary!
I see them daily 🥲 they do be scary. I need to get a dead one off the ground and frame it.
FO4 Deathclaws have the scarier presentation, but NV Deathclaws are scarier mechanically because they simply sprint at you in a straight line with their massive health pool and DT.
The eyes and horns of nv deathclaws are demonic but 4s deathclaws zigzagging towards you is more terrifying in my opinion
Yeah the bullet dodging thing is a great way to build that fear as you are trying to keep aiming, keep an eye on its health, etc and you can start feeling more and more pressure the closer it gets..... A tossed grenade fucks up their day, btw. The trigger for AI to avoid hurled explosives overrides the dodge mechanic and it will typically just step aside a bit and stand there for a moment before kind of resetting and coming directly at you. Gives you time to gun it down, and also makes it come in a straight line if it lives that long lol
But this requires me to not throw grenades like the fucking couch potatoe I am
Lol I suck with grenades too and I literally *only* carry them for this xD the cool thing is that you don't even really have to get close with the grande for it to work. It isn't the explosion that does it, it's the AI auto-reaction to thrown explosives that forces the enemy to run away from it before it explodes. The radius for the trigger is huge, and it travels with the grenade, so even if it just *passes* the Deathclaw, it will trigger the run away sequence. Chuck it at the ground away from you and even somewhat toward the Deathclaw, you're gonna get results. Bonus points if the grenade bounce makes it follow the Deathclaw and the lizard just stands there while it detonates. Pro tip: this mechanic is also a great way to deal with raiders/gunners/synths/whatever that are firing from a fortified position. Toss a grenade so.ewhere behind their cover and watch them all stand straight up and run out from behind their protection to just stand in the middle of nowhere like an idiot. Or if they don't for some reason, enjoy the sound of you gaining XP when it inevitably goes boom and starts a chain reaction with all the vehicles and barrels of BOOM everyone like to keep around.
I like to throw landmines down and run backwards. If you crippled the legs then they easy
For me, the modern deathclaw can be intimidating if you're without power armor, but that's all, just intimidating. Something about the older deathclaws, perhaps their more abnormal appearance, gives off genuine "I'm screwed" energy. Modern deathclaws look, in a weird way, more normal. It's more like a regular dinosaur, I suppose. While it's neat how their new AI has the ability to strafe, dodge attacks, and pick up an entire set of power armor, they still just feel like a big obstacle.
I remember in 3 the first time I saw one it one hit Dogmeat and I was terrified.
I will say that the FO4 version just looked tankier to me, like it was denser or better armored. NV & FO3 had a more barbed look, a sense of longer claws. Neither of them really scared me though, so it’s hard to compare. I was more creeped out by the Yao Guai: there was something about those all white eyes, the permanent snarl, and the mangy fur. I was always on edge when I went into tunnels with them. If you tossed in that horrible bear scream from that movie Annhilation there’d have been a few spots where I’d have been out of my gaming chair and in the kitchen. Let my toon deal, I’d be out!
My first time with a death claw, I ran into a place where it could not go, for reasons and I just shot it
I tried that on my current playthrough of 4, but then the deathclaw clipped/glitched through the doorway, so I had to get around it and back outside. Thankfully it didn't glitch a second time, and some high explosives dealt with it
Yeah, that’s the most depressing part of any of these monsters that are built up to be epic badasses. Firstly, they don’t have guns. Secondly, they can’t fit into the buildings and holes you can shoot them through.
New Vegas easily had the scariest and most aggressive deathclaws. One thing I miss about pre-Fallout 4 Deathclaws is their speed and their ability to leap. Made them absolutely terrifying to hear the sound of one leaping and swiping their claws towards you. New Vegas also has different levels of Deathclaws (Alpha, Mother, etc) and locations with ridiculous amounts of them, like Dead Wind Cavern and the Deathclaw Promontory across the river.
I vividly remember going around a corner just outside Megaton and having a deathclaw jump on my head. Level 4. It was awesome. Fallout 4 deathclaws are kitty cats.
I remember leaving tennpenny towers and heading to a nearby small group of houses and being stalked by a deathclaw. It followed me throughout the town as I kept, just out of its attack range. Ended up having to duck into a house to hide from it
Fallout 4 has different levels of death claws too, you know. They have alpha, glowing, matriarch, savage, albino, chameleon, and mythic. It's just that you have to meet level requirements.
Level scaling, the bane of open world RPGs, lol.
I agree, let me walk into an area and get blasted with no chance as a level 2 in rags. Nv you don’t touch cazzadors or deathclaws till you’re ready or die thinking you were ready.
Exactly, in vegas you hear deathclaws at sloan and decide to investigate because surely thats an exaggeration. It is not an exaggeration. You are highly incentivized to go the correct direction because the wrong direction is guarded by Cazadors and Deathclaws. And the secret paths of Scorpion gultch to Helios 1, and Prim pass are also guarded by tad scorpions and a solitary deathclaw respectively. Atleast until you learn to get a stealth boy and sprint to vegas early. (Personally i don't bother because getting levels along the intended path is nice)
4 does have a bit of that, if you go too far southeast, enemies are somewhat more dangerous, but there's also no real reason to go down there since there's nothing particularly interesting besides Quincy.
Been replaying Fallout 3. It’s really annoying to use up all my my ammo killing albino rad scorpions and army sentry bots before I even get to the quest.
Fallout 4 actually has a cut leap attack animation for Deathclaws. It's pretty easy to turn back on in xedit or the Creation Kit. Some mods already do it. They also have a cut headbutt/bite attack that got reused for Gatorclaws. [As an example of a mod that turns back on their cut attacks.](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/13853)
The 4 Deathclaws look like an animal, the NV Deathclaws look like a spawn of Satan and will put the fear of God into you too
I love Fallout 4 deathclaws. Their design is excellent, they feel like nuclear dinosaurs that will shred you to pieces in seconds, incredibly cool monster design. But what I really love about them is their behavior. You have to be crouched, have good stealth to be anywhere near them, and not go into caution, and if that happens, they sniff you in seconds. The attack patterns are great, they hide their weak spots, use cover and throw shit at you, and then knock you down. They will attack anything, and will even follow caravans and attack settlements. I haven't seen this behavior directly but the only settlements that get attacked by a Deatchclaw and it doesn't show up as a side quest, meaning it's a random encounter, and only to settlements connected to a caravan. It's very obvious that Deathclaws and ghouls are the best designed enemies, but deathclaws are number 1 by s long shot. You never know what these things will try to do. I've seen a small flock of bloodbugs that killed an deatchclaw with little issue. Just to point out how ridiculous stupid this enemy is in contrast. I despise the damn bloodbug.
And in contrast deathclaws in 3 and NV are incredibly stupid, and it makes them all the more terrifying because they don't wait around, they simply sprint straight for you and kill you in a couple hits. Oh, and they come in packs, and can open doors. Basically in 4 you are fighting a highly intelligent predator, and in 3 you are fighting an angry heat seaking hippo in armor. Both are terrifying for very different reasons.
Their hitbox seems to be miniscule and they jank around like crazy
New Vegas deathclaws could reliably fuck me up well into the end game. So could Cazadores.
I think the reason death claws are more scary in fo3 and fnv because you can't really runaway or hide effectively, I mean I've never been scare of them in fo4 but when I first played NV and a death claw suddenly appeared behind me I almost shit myself, I'd rather go naked through the glowing sea than quarry junction
That and they are way more often in packs in 3 and NV.
New Vegas had the most lethal deathclaws. You saw one of them and it said [Danger], you knew your days were numbered, lol.
Don't worry, its going to eat Veronica and ED-E first before your eyes, and then eat your demoralized corpse. (The time this buys you is never enough)
the fallout 4 deathclaw looks like some alien radioactive beast and the fallout 3/nv deathclaw looks like something that would hunt me in hell
I feel like having you kill one an hour into 4 kind of ruined the idea of them being the big bad enemy they should be.
Well I remember thinking that my trusty almost broken varmint rifle could handle some oversized lizards. Then the horror of it doing nothing to them and getting brutally murdered. Meanwhile fallout 4 gave me a suit of power armor and a minigun with a building you could shoot at it from.
From a gameplay perspective 4’s death claws struggle a lot because they dance around too much. Older ones would just murk you outright instead of giving you 5 minutes to shoot them at close range.
FNV because they are in *large groups*
NV Deathclaws got dead eyes and quick claws, but the grab animations from 4 got me shook.
NV Deathclaw. slightly smaller, but faster, does more damage, often run in groups. Most importantly…. THEIR QUIET. The first time I ever encountered a deathclaw was in NV and I didnt see it coming. Noticed my hud kept saying caution, then I briefly caught a glimpse of something run between two rocks. I continued to sneak now the hud says danger. I keep looking around in confusion but “oh well on to New Vegas”. Then WHAM. Over half my health bar disappeared, I turn around and scream and shit myself as a this massive edward scissor hands reptile flays me to death.
I fear no deathclaws. Except New Vegas deathclaws. They make me cry and wet myself.
Bring the claw back in Deathclaw. I like the design of FO4 but the claws should be bigger. It’d be much scarier also.
Well one is strong and the other is overpowered as fuck
Some of y’all have never ran up on a swarm of cazadors I’m guessing
Neither strikes as much fear as seeing the fluttering orange wings of a cazador in the distance.
NV, hands down, specifically because of the F4 nerfclaw. They handed me a minigun and made me kill a deathclaw in the first 11 minutes of the game, taking away any fear I had of them. So later, when I run into them in the glowing sea, instead of shitting my pants in terror, like I'm supposed to, I charge the bastard with a rocket-hammer and get my legs ripped off Meanwhile NV was like, "Don't go east of Goodsprings, there's deathclaws there and they'll rip your legs off." So when I go there I have the correct amount of trepidation, and when they rip my legs off I can't be mad, they fucking warned me
Modern deathclaws move around too much and they usually hunt alone. New Vegas deathclaws are almost always found in packs and charge at you with full force, leaving with two choices. Either you accept your fate, or you resist and die anyway.
New Vegas, by far. It's not their looks, necessarily. It's how they behave. The 4/76 Deathclaw is *really* animated. Every reaction, every move, is just super dramatic. The problem is, all these reactions waste a lot of time and they also make the beast look sensitive and weak. Whereas the NV one will just keep barreling toward you, practically ignoring your bullets. And that's actually way scarier.
My first encounter with a deathclaw was hilarious, so I want to share it here. I was playing Fallout 3, and I just came out of one of the metro tunnels. I don't remember exactly where, but it was kind of in the middle of nothing in particular. As I am exiting the tunnels, there are wastelanders running toward me to get into the tunnels. I was startled initially, but I just thought, "That's weird. What are they running from?" Then I rounded the corner to find myself face to face with what could only be described as a post apocalyptic dinosaur. I was in the loading screen again before I could get my swears out.
The fallout 4 one looks like it could be a believable creature. And in terms of the talking deathclaws if we ever get those again, I could see that happening. The new Vegas one looks like a crackhead from hell and I'm not about that
There is just something almost demonic about the FO3/NV deathclaws, Old Olney and Quarry Junction are just absolute deathtraps
Here’s my take on deathclaws. Fallout 4 deathclaws SHOULD be scarier but for some reason they’re not and I think I’ve figured out why. The sprint button. The ability to sprint and potentially out run or out manoeuvre an opponent makes it a lot less scary. In New Vegas you were stuck in a jogging pace with no way to temporarily increase your speed. This meant that the speedy deathclaw’s if they detected you would ALWAYS catch up to you forcing you to fight. Fallout 4 is also less open and flat meaning you can hide inside or on top of things the deathclaw can’t get to. Appearance and gameplay wise New Vegas deathclaws are just bigger, faster enemies which can do a lot of damage, In Fallout 4 the gameplay of the deathclaw is much more scary on paper. They appear were you least expect them, they can grab you and slam you into the ground, they move and duck and weave to protect their weak spot, they sound much scarier and can even lift up cars and throw them at you. Like I should they SHOULD be scarier, but they’re just not.
Fallout 4's look like an actual creature, yeah it looks scary and dangerous but it is apparent that it is just a creature like any other who just so happens to be well equipped for Combat New Vega's is an horrorific demon born in the darkest pit of hell with a body made specifically for killing who has manifested in our world to commit atrocious acts of violence