Hmmm, not really. The VATS thing is just a gimmick, although bloody useful.
I remember your predicament exactly but it's definitely worth persevering. You're struggling to fend off a few raiders now but once you've got going with it, levelled up a bit and picked out some super hard weapons you'll be dicing up Raiders in your sleep. In fact any human character is only a couple of hits away from being melted flesh. It's when you start squaring up to Deathclaws that you realise what a piece of piss the humanoids were.
I mean it isn't for everybody. You might just not get into it but I have to say I have never enjoyed a first person shooter so much and the epic scale of it is often mind blowing.
It can seem very daunting though, especially at the start, as the scale of it is utterly immense and around every corner are vicious bad folks who wants to tear you to shit. And of course you never seem to have any ammo which just makes it even more irritating because as soon as you find something that actually does inflict decent levels of damage on your foe you realise you don't have the bullets to keep it going. HOWEVER you soon realise that powering through all the struggle was definitely worth it and before long you're picking off bad guys ten a penny and have mountains of ammo in your backpack so as never to fear the wasteland monsters again.
I can only advise perseverance because I felt exactly the same when I first gave it a go and yet now it is the game that has consumed more of my time than even Football/Championship Manager.
I'm genuinely jealous of your position. If you allow yourself to really immerse in it you're in for an EPIC adventure
You really found the game that rivetting? For me it was shallow, and the combat was absolute gash compared to Oblivion which this game just feels like a cheap spin off of, the graphics are shit too.