V.A.T.S. critical prompt: 'RAIDER PSYCHO', full CRIT bar, 'EXECUTE CRITICAL' / 'ABORT'

About this game

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios · Publisher: Bethesda Softworks · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Realistic 3D · Screen type: Battle / Tactics

More Fallout 4 screens in the Gallery

What to study

The second half of the V.A.T.S. loop is a single decision rendered as a prompt bar. Once the critical meter is full, the game freezes its slow-motion camera behind the enemy, a Raider Psycho, named in red at top centre with his health bar still mostly full, and offers exactly two verbs at bottom centre: '[X EXECUTE CRITICAL' and 'B ABORT]', each with its controller glyph in a circle, bracketed as one unit under the filled green 'CRIT' bar. There is no menu, no cursor and no timer bar visible: the whole interface is the meter that earned the choice and the two buttons that spend or keep it. It is the same green-on-scene grammar as the targeting frame, narrowed from six percentages to one binary choice. Frame at about 2:03 in the Fallout 4 Launch Trailer (Steam), pipeline candidate candidates/v1_0064.png at 123.2s, copied unchanged (MD5 matches the candidate).

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

hud-overlay prompt-bar charge-bars

Components

Parts on screen.

Nameplate Vitals bar Button prompts

Screen inventory

• red 'RAIDER PSYCHO' nameplate with a mostly full red health bar under it, top centre
• green 'CRIT' label and a completely filled green critical bar, bottom centre
• green prompt bar reading '[X EXECUTE CRITICAL B ABORT]' with circled X and B button glyphs, bottom centre
• the V.A.T.S. slow-motion camera framing the enemy from behind as he raises a bladed weapon

Top 3 colors

#151618 23%#393433 23%#464945 16%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks, Fallout 4 screenshot: Creations Bundle Trailer and Fallout 4 Launch Trailer (Steam), shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Bethesda Softworks.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-10-22. verified 2026-10-22: pipeline candidate frame inspected visually at full resolution (1920x1080); real game UI (RAIDER PSYCHO nameplate and health bar, full CRIT bar, EXECUTE CRITICAL / ABORT prompt bar with X and B glyphs) confirmed visible and legible; no trailer caption or watermark overlays the UI

no published policy found (checked 2026-10-22); fair-use study use, takedown honored within 48h

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.