The difficulty comes from random encounters, which are often lethal in the late game, or not knowing what a specific encounter will be like, which just comes with experience of playing the game. It can be hard for people who have never played it before, but a lot of it disappears once you have the game figured out and know ways around it.

Originally posted by identity:

The difficulty comes from random encounters, which are often lethal in the late game, or not knowing what a specific encounter will be like, which just comes with experience of playing the game. It can be hard for people who have never played it before, but a lot of it disappears once you have the game figured out and know ways around it.

exactly, i feel like a big problem the youtubers had with the game was they were rushing through it and not understanding the mechanics.

The time limit for the water chip plays a part. It's one of the more controversial things about the game. There's a sense of anxiety as you play knowing that the clock is ticking down, and it puts a lot of people off. Getting stuck in one or two hard encounters can make it seem like success is far away, and you're already stretched for time. It was worse back in the day, because there used to be a hidden time limit for the second half of the game, and losing could sneak up on you if you weren't careful about your time... But that has been patched out long ago.

it ramps up at the end with super mutants. also you didnt go in blind either.

Originally posted by identity:

The time limit for the water chip plays a part. It's one of the more controversial things about the game. There's a sense of anxiety as you play knowing that the clock is ticking down, and it puts a lot of people off. Getting stuck in one or two hard encounters can make it seem like success is far away, and you're already stretched for time. It was worse back in the day, because there used to be a hidden time limit for the second half of the game, and losing could sneak up on you if you weren't careful about your time... But that has been patched out long ago.

That second time limit is what most people had a problem with. I don't really see that many people complain about the water chip time limit. That second timer was a problem though, especially since it slowly eliminated settlements one by one, locking players out of a ton of content if they weren't fast enough. Even Tim Cain, the game's creator, said he believed it was a mistake to put that second timer in, which is why they patched it out later on.