Fallout 3 gameplay

This article describes the gameplay system of Fallout 3 by Bethesda Softworks.

Character system
Main character creation occurs as the player experiences the character's childhood. The character's mother dies in labor in the Vault 101 hospital, immediately after which the player decides the character's general appearance through a DNA analysis conducted by the father. Afterwards, the father removes his surgeon's mask to reveal a face similar to the one chosen by the player for the character. 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 aptitudes. The character receives training weapons and a PIP-Boy 3000 later on during childhood, and the player's performance in various tests determines the rest of the attributes. Additionally, several quests inside the Vault will be able to influence the player character's relationship with his or her father. Skills and Perks are similar to those in previous games: the player chooses three Tag Skills out of 13 to be the character's specialties. Five skills have been cut out from the game (Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics had 18 skills). First Aid and Doctor have been integrated into Medicine, Throwing and Traps have been merged into Explosives, Steal integrated into Sneak, and both Outdoorsman and Gambling have been removed completely. The maximum level the player can achieve is level 20 (pre Broken Steel DLC). The Traits from the previous Fallout installments were combined with Perks in Fallout 3, and the player can choose a new Perk each time after gaining a level.

Perspective
The game features both first-person and third-person perspective.

Combat
The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, or V.A.T.S., is an active pause combat system implemented in the game. While using VATS, the otherwise real-time combat is paused. VATS will also allow the gory deaths in the game to be shown in slow motion and great detail. Attacks in VATS cost action points, and the player can target specific body areas for attacks to inflict specific injuries.

Items
Another facet of gameplay is that firearms wear out over time: as a weapon degenerates, its rate of fire slows and it loses accuracy. However, worn out firearms can be combined to make more reliable and powerful weapons. Weapon schematics can also be found and used to create various devices such the Rock-it Launcher, created by combining a leaf blower, a vacuum cleaner, a firehose nozzle and a conductor, that can fire various items such as lunchboxes and stuffed animals, or the Clever Bottlecap Mine, made out of a Vault-Tec lunchbox and bottlecaps. Along with equipping various weapons, the player can also utilize different armors and clothing that may have effects that can alter various skills. For example, a pair of mechanic's coveralls may boost the player's repair skill while it is worn. Armor and clothing come in two main parts for the head and body, allowing a player to wear different combinations of hats and armor. Also, a player's inventory has a specified weight limit, preventing a player from carrying too many items. Items like weapon ammo have no weight, due to the developer not wishing to bog down inventory management.

Dialogues
When you press the action button while facing almost any non-hostile character, you will, most of the time, have 2 or more choices (rarely one) of dialogue that may influence your karma. The NPC will react and you will have other choices. After you have choosen a dialogue, it will be darker than the others

Crafting
You will have a chance to find schematics for and create one homemade weapon for each of the combat skills. Weapons are created on a workbench.

Party
The player will have a maximum party of three, consisting of himself/herself, Dogmeat, and a single human(oid) NPC. In addition to having Dogmeat in your party you will be able to send him out on his own to search for items such as arms and ammo, radiation medicine, and stimpacks. 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. Only one NPC can travel with the player at any time, and in order to get another NPC to travel, the first one must be "fired" by the player.

Karma
A Karma system is an important feature in the gameplay. A players actions, including conversation and combat choices, will 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. 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 was planned to be significantly smaller than that of Oblivion's but is now expected to be similar in size.

Lockpicking
Lockpicking in Fallout 3 requires two things: a Bobby Pin, used to pick the lock, and a sufficient ranking in the Lockpick skill to be able to pick the lock. The actual minigame is very similar to the lockpicking minigame in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, the bobby pin is moved into position by the player, and then the lock turned with a screwdriver. If the bobby pin is in the right location, it will open the lock. If the bobby pin is not in the right position, the bobby pin may break. The player also has the option to try to force the lock, but if the attempt fails, the lock will be broken and can only be opened with a key, or reset with the Infiltrator perk.

Hacking
Hacking only requires that a character be at the sufficient Science level to attempt the hack. The minigame is a logic puzzle, similar to the board game Mastermind, with the player having to guess the passcode out of a pool of given words. Upon choosing a codeword out of the list, the computer will either login (if the word is correct), or tell the player how many letters are correct. Based upon this information, the player may guess another word. The player has four attempts to find the correct word: if the fourth guess is incorrect, the computer will lock the player out of the system until the player receives the real password.

Controls
The Fallout 3 controls are similar to the ones in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, being based off of the Oblivion game engine.

Changes from previous Fallout games

 * While Fallout and Fallout 2 featured turn-based combat and top-down isometric view in a 2-D engine, Fallout 3 features real-time combat and first or third person view in a 3-D engine (like Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel). Fallout Tactics and the cancelled Van Buren featured both turn-based and real-time combat and a top-down view.
 * In the SPECIAL character system, the number of skills has been reduced from 18 to 14 and perks are selected every level instead of every 3 to 4 levels. Traits have been removed and retooled into new perks. It is unknown whether any other elements of the character system will be changed.
 * Early comments and previews indicate that the game may feature a lightened version of Oblivion's dynamic difficulty adjustment, in which the strength and power levels of foes (and potentially acquired loot) is scaled in relation to the player's level, to preserve a sense of challenge no matter where the player went in the nonlinear game world. Issues with the system arose when, in Oblivion once the player rose to high levels, even the weakest bandits or cannon-fodder guards could be seen wearing the rarest and most powerful equipment available. It would be akin to the PC encountering Raiders in Power Armor wielding Miniguns very early, if he happened to exit the vault at the maximum possible level.
 * Comments implied that unlike Oblivion, where the level scaling occurred at all times, levels would be "set" at a given location depending on the travel path of the player. This is subject to change or even outright removal, as the game is still in development.
 * Perks and Traits have been merged. Traits were chosen at character creation, and were commonly a combination of a powerful advantage and a potent disadvantage, where Perks were purely advantageous.