Highlights
- VATS, the iconic combat mechanic in the Fallout series, should be retired in Fallout 5 to keep up with modern game design trends and make combat more aligned with other contemporary RPGs.
- VATS was introduced as a way to ease players into the transition from turn-based combat to first-person action, but it now seems outdated and unnecessary in the current gaming landscape.
- The absence of VATS in Bethesda's recent release, Starfield, suggests that players are comfortable with action-based combat in modern RPGs, making VATS an unnecessary feature for the future of the Fallout series.
The Fallout series has undergone a variety of changes as the games have evolved from their origins as isometric, turn-based RPGs to the modern Bethesda-developed FPS RPGs Bethesda fans have come to know today. While some of these changes have helped streamline Fallout gameplay and make it more accessible to new players, others have become outdated as the first-person RPG genre has changed in recent years. As such, the classic VATS mechanic, which has become an iconic part of the series, should be removed from Fallout 5 to bring the series on par with other modern titles in the genre.
Fallout 5 may still be a ways off with Starfield having just released and Bethesda's attention turning towards The Elder Scrolls 6, but fans of the Fallout series likely still have the game and the future of the series on their minds. The Fallout series has certain staple plot elements and gameplay mechanics that players have come to expect, and it's likely Fallout 5 will continue these trends. However, as notable as the VATS mechanic is to the series, it's the one feature that warrants being retired the most from the series with the release of Fallout 5.
The Fallout Series is Ready to Move On from VATS
As a mechanic, VATS allows players to slow down or pause time during combat and target specific areas of the enemy before automatically executing an attack. This system lets players who may have a harder time with real-time combat deal with some of the more difficult enemies the Fallout series throws at them. However, as a game like Fallout 76 demonstrates, this mechanic can run into some issues with the way modern games are being designed to incorporate online multiplayer components to the point where it seems to be holding the series back.
VATS seems to be a hold-over mechanic from Fallout's roots as an isometric, turn-based RPG where players have time to consider their actions and how many action points they have available each turn. When Bethesda acquired the Fallout series and developed Fallout 3, the series switched from its previous isometric design to a first-person shooter with RPG elements. In order to ease players into this new genre, VATS was implemented as a way to emulate the turn-based combat of the previous entries while players became accustomed to the new action-based combat the series was developing.
This mechanic was present in Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76, though it had to change somewhat to account for Fallout 76 being an online multiplayer game. Now that Starfield has been released, it's clear that the game draws a lot of inspiration from the Fallout series, especially in the combat department as both are FPS RPGs. Unlike Fallout, Starfield doesn't have anything like the VATS system to give players an alternative to the game's action-based combat, demonstrating that most players are comfortable with modern RPGs' approach to combat and that VATS may no longer be a necessary feature for Fallout 5 to have.
While at the time it was introduced in Fallout 3, VATS may have been a helpful feature for players jumping from the classic Fallout titles to the series' new direction, the amount of action-RPGs and FPS RPGs that exist in the gaming space today have rendered the mechanic a little outdated. Starfield shows that a Bethesda FPS RPG doesn't need a slowed combat mechanic to make combat accessible or enjoyable since action-based combat has become the norm for the genre. As such, the Fallout series no longer needs to include VATS, and while some players may be nostalgic for it, Fallout 5 is better off without it.