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| Fallout 4 created by Bethesda Game Studios. Images used for educational purposes only. |
Vault 111
- After the events of the end of the world you’ll wind up in a ruined, largely-abandoned Vault 111. First priority: check on your spouse. Use the control pad to the right side of their cryo pod to pop it open, then check your spouse for a Wedding Ring. Ouch.
- On the left side of the row of pods is a computer terminal that will shed a bit more light on what has happened, though not much. Peruse its options at your leisure.
- Leave this first room and head west. The Emergency Exit door isn’t working, so take the door on the right instead. Note the presence of some… large… bugs, in the adjacent room.
- There’s an office ahead, and it marks the first place where you can start picking up everything in sight. Ah, yes, this is a Bethesda game, isn’t it? There are Coffee Cups here that aren’t much use, but you probably will find some value in the Bobby Pin and Cigarette Carton on the desk, as well as the Stimpack on the filing cabinet. You can find some Prewar Money, a Battered Clipboard, and a Cigarette in the filing cabinets beside the computer. (Don’t worry, I’ll ignore the useless stuff after a while.)
- The security terminal in this office will reveal a great deal more as to what the hell was happening in this Vault. Ouch. It will also have an option called ‘Load Holotape’; once you have a Holotape, which you currently don’t, you can take advantage of this to play a few minigames. Mind it for later.
- Keep following the doors past this office until you find a room with your first enemy, a fiend called a Radroach. Smack it down, as instructed. One hit’ll do. (Want some Radroach Meat? Yummy.) On the bench to the left of the room is a Security Baton, which you’ll equip automatically to increase your damage output. Note, too, that it is automatically assigned to a set of hotkeys; you can use these to quickly change between items and weapons.
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| The Red Menace Holotape in Fallout 4. Weee, platformable Communism! |
- Your next destination is to the left, but there are two joined rooms straight ahead: a kitchen and a sleeping area. So far as I can tell, neither is of much use, since there’s nothing to eat and you can’t sleep on the beds. (I stole a Hot Plate!) The only item of note is a Recreation Terminal in the eatery which provides the Red Menace Holotape. Yeeeep, that’s pretty much Donkey Kong.
- The larger room on the left contains two electrical generators, and if you watch long enough they’ll fry a Radroach patrolling the middle of the room. Avoid their electrical shocks by using the catwalk on your left to skirt around the area. You’ll have to kill more Radroaches along the way, but, meh. The next room over has more Radroaches, and the game will teach you about Power Attacks. Yay! (Also, completely unnecessary!) Be sure to hold the indicated button down for the duration of the attack, otherwise your character will abandon it halfway through the animation.
- Up the next set of stairs is an office. There are three Stimpacks on the desk near the entrance, and smack in the middle is a 10MM Pistol and 50 10MM Rounds. There’s another 10MM Pistol in a caged-off storage room near the desk, 10 more 10MM Rounds, and a Cryolator. In a locked case. You can’t possibly get this open yet, but… some day. Last is a small room to the side of the office; check the locker beside the bed for 24 more 10MM Rounds. Your gun should be good for a while, now.
- There’s an Overseer’s Terminal on the desk with plenty more juicy details about what happened here, as well as the ‘Open Evacuation Tunnel’ command, right at the bottom. Make sure you do this, if nothing else, as it will pop open a nearby door and let you leave. Beyond is a tunnel filled with Radroaches, as well as a new tutorial-in-waiting.
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| The V.A.T.S. system in action in Fallout 4. |
Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.)
In addition to aiming a gun, you’re now introduced to the V.A.T.S. function. V.A.T.S. essentially serves as Fallout 4’s turn-based RPG combat system, allowing you to temporarily slow time and allow the game to choose targets for you. When you activate V.A.T.S. you’ll zoom in on one of your targets, and the game will display the target’s various body parts. You can then allocate Ability Points (heretofore known as AP) to swiftly attack those body parts in whatever order you like. By doing so you can bypass the need to manually aim a weapon, and, in essence, turn Fallout’s FPS combat into RPG combat instead.
It should be noted, of course, that V.A.T.S. will only work if you have AP available. If you run out you’ll be unable to perform any V.A.T.S. actions, and will have to wait for your AP to recharge. This can make for some sticky situations if you’re no good at shooting manually, so try to allocate your AP wisely, and take down targets in one round. Aiming for more vulnerable areas - say, the head - is a good way to do this, though there’s a chance you’ll miss, depending on the number beneath the target’s body parts (in essence the percent chance that you’ll hit said body part). The higher your Perception, the better you’ll be at hitting smaller body parts in V.A.T.S.
V.A.T.S. will only activate if there are enemies within your line of sight. As such, it’s sometimes wise to turn V.A.T.S. on just to see if there are any enemies you didn’t notice yourself. Who knows, you might spot an errant Radroach that wasn’t otherwise obvious.
- Clear out the Radroaches and you’ll open a path to a larger room. This… is also populated by Radroaches. The room serves as an opportunity to practice Sneak Attacks. Once you’ve killed the two Radroaches, check the corpse on the platform nearby to gain a Pip-Boy. This will serve as your menu for the rest of the game, and allows you to view your stats, your inventory, any active quests, and a map, as well as listen to a radio. Sweet.
- (It’s worth noting the lower level of this room, which is filled with water. If you are dumb enough to drink it - like me! - you will accumulate Rads. You also gain Rads by attacks from Radroaches, hence the name. Rads are bad, as they measure radiation buildup, and will stunt your stats and health somewhat. Try not to accumulate Rads, if you can.)
- Aside from a locker in the darkened portion of this room that contains more 10MM Rounds, there’s nothing else to see here - or in Vault 111, for that matter. Use the door controls by the corpse with the Pip-Boy to trigger a cut scene of sorts, ultimately popping Vault 111 open. My god, that’s the world, innit?
- Hop on the elevator. You’ll see something cool before you leave: some familiar menus, including changing your appearance and changing your stats. If you feel like reallocating your stat points to create a whole new character, you can do it here. This is your last chance to do this, so make sure you're happy with your character build!