I initially feared that Fallout 4's survival mode would be nothing more than a gimmick, a cheap way to extend the game's longevity without actually creating a unique and exciting experience, but thankfully Bethesda has proven me wrong by not only releasing a bunch of interesting changes, but also spending well over a month in public beta to ensure that they work as expected.

After going through numerous revisions the survival mode is now finally, and officially available on Steam as a part of Update 1.5. The reworked survival mode aside, Update 1.5 also brings with it a couple of much-needed bug fixes and quality of life changes, all of which you can read right below:

New Features

• New Survival difficulty

- Survival adds additional challenges including no fast travel, saving only when you sleep, increased lethality, diseases, fatigue, danger and more. See the in-game Help menu for more details.

- Characters set to Survival difficulty appear under their own Character Selection filter

- Third person camera movement improvements when player is close up against walls and other objects

Fixes

• General stability and performance improvements

• Fixed rare crash related to reloading a save that relies on Automatron

• Fixed issue with the robot workbench camera not moving properly immediately after canceling out of the menu

• Fixed issue with perks being repeatedly added when reloading a saved game while in robot workbench

• Fixed issue with Ada not properly traveling to an assigned settlement

• Robots can now be assigned as settlement vendors

• Fixed issue with "Appropriation" where blueprints would not appear properly if the container had already been looted prior to getting the quest

• In "The Nuclear Option," entering the Institute using the targeting helmet on Power Armor no longer inadvertently causes the player to go into combat, and become stuck in the Institute

• Fixed distance check with Robotics Expert perk

• While in Workshop mode, if the Jump button is remapped, the Y or Triangle button can still be used to jump

• Fixed issue with "Defend the Castle" where speaking to Ronnie Shaw would not properly complete the quest

• During "The Nuclear Option," fast traveling away from the Institute immediately after inserting the relay targeting sequence holotape will no longer block progression

• Fixed issue where Workshop placed light bulbs would occasionally not light properly

• Fixed occasional flashing issue with entering and exiting Power Armor

• Fixed issue where terminals would not work properly after downloading and initializing an Add-On from the Add-Ons menu

As of right now Update 1.5 is expected to arrive on consoles next week, though no actual date has been given as of yet.

Finally, if you're interested in learning what exactly the survival mode is all about, and what changes and additions you can expect to see, I welcome you to read a brief overview I've done on just that topic.