Players can build various defenses around their settlements, such as turrets, guard towers, and traps, to defend the settlements from raids and attacks. Merchants and non-player characters can inhabit player towns and help keep the settlements running as a community. Towns can be powered with electricity, using a dynamic power line system, as well as equipped with water pumps and crops/gardens to keep a steady income of food and drink. Each settlement can also connect to others by Brahmin caravan, which then share resources. Within the boundaries of a settlement, players can scrap objects and structures for resources and use them to build their own structures, including housing, vegetable gardens, defenses, stores, and crafting stations. Unlike the previous two Fallout games, weapons and armor do not deteriorate with use and no longer require constant maintenance.Ī new feature to the series is the ability to build settlements. costs action points, limiting the number of actions available at a time, and the player can target specific body areas for attacks to inflict specific injuries headshots can be used for quick kills or blinding, legs can be targeted to slow enemies' movements, and opponents can be disarmed by shooting at their weapons.Ī new equipment system allows a wide variety of upgrades and customization for weapons and armor.

While using V.A.T.S, real-time combat is slowed down, and action is played out from varying camera angles in a computer graphics version of 'bullet time.' Attacking in V.A.T.S.

Another returning gameplay feature is the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.), which can play a critical part in combat. Players can also find game cartridges with retro themed mini-games which can be played on the Pip-Boy. The player character, the Sole Survivor, accesses the in-game menus through a Pip-Boy to manage statistics, maps, data, and items. Enemies such as mole rats, mirelurks, raiders, super mutants, deathclaws, and ghouls return to the series. Additional features include a split-piece armor system (reminiscent of the armor system in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind), base-building, a dynamic dialogue system, an in-depth crafting system that makes use of every lootable object in the game as a source of raw material and more. The gameplay is largely similar to that of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, with the ability to switch from first to third-person view.

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