Put all dependent steps in a subroutine, and mark the subroutine steps to Exit subroutine on failure.
http://www.visualbuild.com/Manual/su...callaction.htm
http://www.visualbuild.com/Manual/stepfailure.htm
Or, in the Failure steps, create a temporary macro (i.e., STEPS_FAILED) to indicate that steps have failed, and on all dependent top-level steps, use a conditional build rule to build only if %STEPS_FAILED% is undefined.
http://www.visualbuild.com/Manual/setmacroaction.htm
http://www.visualbuild.com/Manual/buildrules.htm