Are you sure you played FallOut 1, like, recently, before making those assessments? :p As of now, FO1 is probably one of the most disorienting RPGs I ever played. Or tried to, actually. Never could bring myself to do a full playthrough, but I only attempted to play it recently, like one year ago.
Really, there are like 2 shores you can go on. It's not like you can't explore there. The entrance, even being supposedly hidden, really stands out. This is the exploration part of the game really, and also the roleplay part, where you can't have a magic compass showing you where to go next. This is more or less what's making the game lovable.
You have more than enough ways to know whether you're going to engage in a battle too difficult for you, because, except for scripted ambushes, you can always do some scouting ahead and check if the encounters levels are too high for you.
If your hit chances are too low, check that you aren't using a buff that would make you hit harder but also have higher chances to miss. Or get your archer closer, or just flee !
Other than that it may be you're using talents known to be buggued as of the latest beta build, poor gearing choices or stat building. If you're low level but your mages are already standing at 11 int ( which isn't a very high score, true ), maybe you should consider putting some points elsewhere, like speed or con to get either more AP or more health.
The team indeed seems to walk slowly, especially when you're discovering the game. Surprisingly, while you could think that with higher knowledge of the map it may seem even more boring to run from one point to another, it actually feels kinda small.
