Bethesda has been keeping a bunch E3 2015 interviews locked away in their vaults, only to slowly release them. The videos have Fallout 4's game director Todd Howard talking about what makes the game different from everything else they've done.
Howard has already detailed the changes to VATS, saying that Bethesda's goal is to make gameplay "a bit more dynamic." In the newly released interview Howard goes on to speak more on the game's gameplay and shows us some nice and bloody gameplay.
Yes, bloody exploding arms are in this video.
When developing Fallout 4's combat, Bethesda was very particular in creating an action experience that wasn't held back by the fact the game is an RPG before being a shooter.
According to Howard, "If you were to pick it [Fallout 4] up and play it, it feels like a modern shooter." This is partially thanks to the DOOM developers being a part of the Bethesda clan. "Since id Software is part of our company, the first thing we did was call them. We said 'alright, we're going to do this from scratch, give us some tips.'" All of the role-playing elements are layered on top of the action elements they have been developing.
Ultimately, Fallout 4's gameplay leaves us with a lot of options – we can play in first-person or third-person, we can choose to fight everything we see or not.
As Howard says it, "You're the director of your experience."