I have a feeling since I've never played a fallout game before I'm going to have a steep learning curve
It's not too bad. But it doesn't help that they really don't explain much and kinda toss a bunch of shit at you all at once. It was like me jumping into New Vegas with no knowledge whatsoever of Fallout nor have I spent much time playing rgs in general. The good news is you don't need to know anything from the previous storylines, it's all irrelevant.
I'll post some beginners tips I gave someone else, no spoilers, just some tips. Plus butcher myself and a few others don't mind answering any questions if you ever have questions.
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I'm going off the assumption you never played fallout before, so excuse me if I'm incorrect but here are a few things I wish people explained to me when I first started playing Fallout 3:
V.A.T.S (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System)- This is a cool feature that they never really bother explaining to new players. It's a feature of the technology of the Pip-Boy attached to your wrist that slows down time during combat. You have an "AP" points meter (bottom right of your screen) that shows if it's full or drained. It will fill back up by itself. When you see an enemy, press the VATS action key/button to enter this mode, now time will be slowed down dramatically and you can select which body part you want to aim and shoot at (head, limbs, torso). Extremely useful. I've read on forums some people new to Fallout 4 made it incredibly far into the game without ever knowing this feature existed! So it's worth mentioning since it's such a trademark feature of Fallout. Usually when your in VATS, your shots will be much more accurate but typically less powerful than if you shot someone in free combat mode but if you're surrounded by enemies, VATS is a must, not only does it give you more time to assess your situation, you can strategically select to shoot an enemy in his leg, shoot another enemy in his head and another in his shooting arm. That way when you're done firing off your rounds and time goes back to regular speed, you killed one foe while crippling the other two, giving you more time to attack them without having to be worried as much about them getting you.
Food/Water/Chems - Food gives you health, eat it when energy is low. Same with water. Some food has a little bit of radiation, which is generally OK but should be monitored. Chems are drugs in the game you can take that all have benifts, such as more strength or the ability to slow down time (without being in VATS) for a certain amount of time. For example, Jet is one of my favorite drugs (in combination with a couple others) that slows down time for 15 seconds which is very useful in stressful combat situations especially when your about to die. Experiment with new drugs that you find and craft new ones yourself! Keep in mind, most chems are highly addictive and will have negative effects if abused! So be smart with your drugs! I typically use them only when sh it hits the fan and I'm about to be overwhelmed by enemies.
Perks. Perks are a little confusing, especially for a beginner, but it's pretty simple once you understand what's going on. Essentially, any time you level up, you get a free Perk point. There are a ton of Perks you can choose from and they pretty much tell you exactly what each Perk does. So just go through them and see which one you like the most and "spend" your point on it. If there are others you want, don't worry, you'll have plenty of more points to come as you progress in the game. For me, "Gun Nut" perks (there are 4) are pretty essentially early on, because modding weapons is really fun and these perks unlock more modding abilities to your weapons, as well as "Lockpick" since you'll come across A LOT of locked safes/treasure chests and locked doors. It's a useful skill as you can imagine!
Exploring. As I mentioned, exploring is one of the best parts of the game. But don't overextend yourself too early in the game. There are places you can go, where you probably shouldn't go right off the bat. Spend some time getting used to the world, do a few missions, get comfortable with a couple cool weapons, equip some armor you might find, then explore. Just make sure to bring some food and some medical supplies (stimpak for health, Radaway for radiation). Also, if you ever find yourself in a bad spot, you usually can run away. A friend of mine spent an hour in a room getting killed over and over again against a way more powerful enemy, and he was so frustrated. I asked him if he could walk out the front door and leave. It never occurred to him. Sure enough, he opened the door and left and lived to play another day.
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I love the pacing of these games; you can take your time and do whatever you want when you want. You're not forced to absolutely do this mission right now or whatever and you have a lot of freedom as to how you can play the game and interact with characters. Another cool thing about Fallout is some of the best stuff in the game has absolutely nothing to do with the main quest. So if all you do are the main quests, you're missing out big time. The side missions and exploring is when you find the coolest stuff.
Also one last thing, they put you in a really action paced "mission" right off the bat but then things slow down, so don't worry that the whole game is like that. I think they just wanted to show you some cool stuff early on before you really get a chance to get into the game. It's almost a little misleading because it's kind a easy, as it should be in a beginning of a game, but again don't worry, the difficulty is much harder after that.