Blast ‘Em Away With V.A.T.S.!
The combat mechanic in Fallout 3, named V.A.T.S (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) is intuitive and fun to use. Click on RB and the action freezes, allowing you to choose a body part of your enemy. Each body part is signaled by a percentage that represents the chance you have of hitting them in combat.Combat is tough, but not because the AI is brilliant, just because it can take so many shots to bring them to their knees - even armed up the hilt I’ve died more times in Fallout 3 then I have done in many other RPGS. This is mainly because, even with smaller creatures, it almost always takes more than a couple of hits to take enemies down. When you’re in a group fight and enemies are descending on your rapidly, or you come across a particularly tough enemy, you need to ensure that your inventory is stocked full of ammo, otherwise they'll nail you to the floor in a matter of seconds and you'll spend the majoity of the fight jumping in and out of your inventory to take medicine. When you grab the likes of the Fatboy mini-nuke or a missile launcher, however, you obviously needn't worry. The visual effects of blowing up a super mutant by targeting his head and watching it blow clean off are brilliant.
The V.A.T.S system has its real advantages and effectively encourages you to fight tactically because you need to choose carefully the body parts you aim for, whilst making sure you’re in a good position to get the maximum effect.
You can, if you wish, not use VATS in your battles and instead pump for plain old combat, but this is where there appears to be a few balancing issues. We found it easier to use the VATS system to batter a radroach, using approximately two shots to kill it, rather than simply shooting it freehand, which on occasions took up to 6 times.
Still the V.A.T.S system is a welcome addition to the gameplay and one that adds an extra dimension to the combat.
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