There are a tonne of things that can be done in Fallout Shelter, while the activities you can do here are not as varied as the myriad of activities you will get in the open world franchise, Shelter is a unique experience in its own right. This game puts players in the position of a Vault Overseer, and as such, you end up experiencing the world of Fallout from a completely different perspective. You manage, quite literally, a fallout shelter - one of those large underground facilities that houses people from the dangers of a nuclear war. Such is the game, the surface world has been burnt to a crispy wasteland while you must manage your vault, it's resources, and the vault dwellers that live within it.
So What Does An Overseer Do?
As the Overseer, you are in charge of pretty much everything. It is up to you to decide how the vault gets built. Where the rooms go, where you put your storage, where elevators lead, where people sleep, where the medic bay is located, what type of entrance security to have - all these decisions are in your hands. The layout of your shelter will determine how dwellers get to move from one point to another, how problems like infestations and fires spread, etc. So it takes a bit of careful and tactical planning in order to get a shelter that is easily manageable.
You also get to manage your dwellers - now each person in the vault has their SPECIAL stats (same as in the main Fallout games). These stats determine which kinds of jobs they are best suited for. The good thing is that the game's rooms are nicely labelled so it is easy to identify which stats benefit which room. Aside from their jobs, the stats will also help give dwellers a performance boost when you send them out to the wasteland.
Yes, while you generally keep to the safety of your underground vault, the wasteland on the surface has its share of useful items and resources. As such, it would be a good idea to send a vault dweller or two to look for stuff. While you cannot exactly see them in action, there's a live feed that updates you every minute or two providing you with a general idea of how your vault dweller is faring. Should their health ever get low, all it takes is a single tap of the button to get them to retreat to the safety of the vault - also, the trip back will be 100% safe. Should any of your dwellers die - in or out of the vault, all it takes is a little bit of in-game credit to bring them back.
The World is Dangerous
The world of Fallout is, not surprisingly, filled with very dangerous things that can quickly end the life of an unsuspecting vault dweller - so it is a great thing that you, the Overseer, are there to help keep them healthy and safe. There are two basic kinds of threats in the game - those that appear from within the vault and those that charge in through the main door.
Vault wise, players need to manage resources to keep them from dropping too low (lack of food means that everyone slowly loses health - and other similar stuff). There are also occasional fires, radroach infestations (radiation afflicted roaches - don't ask), and attacks from mole-rats. Barging in from the front door are raiders that will attempt to steal your resources, and death-claws (mutated chameleons, but also the most dangerous species in the Fallout universe), which, like the name suggests, can easily leave a trail of dead dwellers.
While fires are managed by your dwellers manually extinguishing them, all the other threats are dealt with through only one recourse: firepower. You must equip dwellers with both clothing (for stat boosts) and weapons - these will help them shoot down any threat that comes their way. Not surprisingly, it is much faster to gain weapons by exploring the wasteland.
Growing the Vault and Fulfilling Objectives
One of the biggest resources in your vault are the dwellers - and manpower is not an easy resource to obtain. So if you need more workers, you can do one of two things: build a radio station and hope that you can attract new dwellers to stay in the vault, or you can have a male dweller and a female dweller make you a tiny new dweller. There's nothing visually unsafe for the kids to see, but some of you might want to have an explanation for your children if you have them play this game!
Eventually, the game does get to a point where you've reached a great equilibrium of progress - your energy, food, and water productions are at optimum, you have enough happy dwellers, and things are just fine and dandy (aside from the occasional attacks from the post-nuclear denizens of the wasteland). But you will still be quite busy with the various side mission objectives that will often reward you with caps or Lunchboxes.
An Almost Perfect Mobile Offshoot
Fallout Shelter is not without its flaws; many of the special characters and items will not be familiar to players new to the series (though the lore does not matter in terms of game play). But more importantly, this game is a bit of a resource hog. If you don't have one of the newer iOS or Android devices, expect to encounter a lot of crashes. In fairness to Bethesda, they did specifically state that the game was designed for specific devices.
Aside from that, this game is just fun and amusing. There's a lot of stuff to do - just watching the ticker feed for your wasteland-exploring dweller is amusing enough. Add in the many interesting ways you can lay out the various rooms, the surprise events, and the way the game never forces you to buy Lunchboxes (as we said, you can earn these from objectives), makes Fallout Shelter such an endearing handheld game. It sets the standard for F2P titles pretty high, especially with the way that pretty much everything in the game is free.
Download Fallout Shelter for Android or iOS Here
The game became so popular Bethesda decided to port it to PC too! -
Comments