Fallout 3

The game features interchangeable first-person and third-person perspectives. Main character creation occurs as the player experiences the character's childhood. As a child in the Vault, the character receives a book titled "You're SPECIAL", whereupon the player can set the character's seven primary attributes. The character receives weapons training and a PIP-Boy 3000 later on during childhood, and the player's performance in various tests suggests a set of skills for the character. Additionally, several quests inside the Vault influence the player character's relationship with his or her acquaintances. Skills and Perks are similar to those in previous games: the player chooses three "Tag" Skills out of a total of 14 to be the character's specialties. The maximum level the player can achieve is level 20; every level up, a new perk can be selected, each offering advantages of varying quality and form. The Traits from the previous Fallout installments, slightly modified, were combined with Perks in Fallout 3, and the player can choose a new Perk each time after gaining a level.

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V.A.T.S.

The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, or VATS, play an important part in the fighting phases of the game. While using VATS, real-time combat is paused, and action is played out from varying camera angles in a computer graphics version of 'bullet time', creating a combat system that the Bethesda developers have described as a hybrid between turn-based and real-time combat. Various actions cost action points, limiting the actions of each combatant during a turn, and both the player and enemies can target specific body areas for attacks to inflict specific injuries. The game features a new health and radiation system as well. The player can measure an object's radioactivity and gauge the effect it will have on the character.

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Item decay and custom-made weapons

Another game mechanic is item degradation. The more weapons and armour are used and damaged in combat, the more they lose their effectiveness. Firearms slow their rate of fire and do less damage and apparel gradually becomes less protective. Items can be repaired for a price from special vendors, or if the player has two of the same item, one of the two can be salvaged to repair the other.

Players also have the option to create their own weaponry using various scavenged items found in the wasteland. These items can only be created at workbenches, if the player also possesses the necessary schematics. These weapons include melee, a variety of ranged and several extremely explosive devices. There are 3 versions for each Schematic, making the related weapon stronger and more durable. These Schematics are only found in certain locations, either on the ground, sold by some vendors or offered as quest rewards.

Team members

The player can have a maximum party of three, consisting of himself or herself, a dog named Dogmeat, and a single non-player character or NPC. Dogmeat can be killed during the game if the player misuses him or places him in a severely dangerous situation and he cannot be replaced; it is possible to not encounter Dogmeat depending on how the game is played. One other NPC can travel with the player at any time, and in order to get another NPC to travel, the first one must be dismissed by the player.

Karma system

The karma system is an important feature in the gameplay. The player's actions, including conversation and combat choices affect the player's status in the game world; a player who makes good choices will be received more positively by NPCs, and a player that makes bad choices will have the opposite reaction. Quest choices can also have more extreme repercussions on karma; for instance, the player is given the choice.

of destroying an entire city for a quest, and this single action gives a great deal of negative karma. Extremes of karma have certain effects: a high karma leads to the player being attacked by bounty hunters, and for random NPCs to give the player gifts in thanks of their service. Crimes can also be committed by a player, and whichever faction or group that is harmed by a crime will be fully aware of the player's action. Other factions that were not affected by the crime will not be aware of it, and since a town is usually its own faction, news of a crime committed in one town will not spread to another. Factions can range in size and boundaries, however, and may not be restricted to a single area. The game world itself is similar in size to that of Oblivion, which has a 16 square mile game world.

 

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