Fallout Shelter 1.15.15



Vault Permeability Simulator



The Freemium model usually destroys any semblance of quality in a game, no matter its pedigree. I remember my massive disappointment of playing the Dungeon Keeper game for Android. "Never again," I said like a veritable tribesman. That until I caught wind of a base management game in the Fallout universe. Since the Fallout franchise is just treading on the borderline of being a cash cow for Bethesda, but not quite, my interest was piqued because of two things: It's not another first-person shooting RPG and, secondly, it reminds me of the base building gameplay in Firaxis' gem of a game, X-COM.

Fallout Shelter

As a veritable "free" game, there is no ultimate goal in Fallout Shelter. However, the setting is such that there are plenty of reasons to remain invested for a long time. The primary aim is to keep the shelter functioning by balancing your workforce between water treatment, electricity production, and food supply. Besides the occasional radroach infestation or raid, your shelter is somewhat self-sufficient if you only build and manage these three basic facilities.

However, the most exciting rooms are locked and only become available as your population grows. The quickest way to do that is to have babies. Assign men and women to the living quarters, and in less than a day you will get some new vault dwellers. Most dwellers are nothing 'special,' but once in a while, you might get one or two with an above than average stat. Most operable rooms receive a benefit if you allocate the right dwellers. For example, a high Agility is useful in the Cafeteria, while Strong dwellers are perfect in the Power Plant.

Fallout Shelter

As dwellers work on their assignments, they will level-up, which will increase their maximum HP and will grant you a small amount of Caps (the classic Fallout currency). When you unlock more advanced rooms, you will also be able to train your dwellers to increase some of their stats.

However, caps are relatively rare inside your shelter. The best way to get more is to send dwellers out to explore. From these expeditions, you can obtain more than Caps. Besides weapons and outfits, you will also collect 'junk' which is essential for crafting items inside the vault. After building the Overseer's Office, you will be able to send dwellers on various quests. Unlike expeditions, which are random series of encounters, quests are episodic combat oriented scenarios. Completing them will reward you with better gear and loot.

Fallout Shelter

If there's anything that I don't like about Fallout Shelter is the way in which crisis events are managed. Whether it's fire, radroach infestation or raider attack, the focus of gameplay is on rooms rather than on characters/enemies. This mechanic forces you to learn the breach patterns so that you can send dwellers preemptively into rooms. This behavior is especially annoying during fire outbreaks. However, the most glaring problem is during raids. For example, if you send armed guards to a room some seconds before the raiders decide to leave, you will merely watch these two opposing forces pass each other without firing a shot. This problem is further amplified by the fact that raiders always breach the front entrance and you can't have more than two dwellers standing guard behind it. If you add in the passive behavior of dwellers, which won't move from one room to another unless they're on "coffee breaks" then you can understand my gripe with the system.

These problems wouldn't be that annoying if they weren't a regular gameplay occurrence. In fact, I would gladly dispense with them, as the gameplay won't suffer that much. Maybe this is an incentive to keep all of your rooms staffed with armed dwellers, but it's rare that you will have enough dwellers to man all your facilities, so these events are more of an annoyance than anything else.

Final Thoughts

The base-building aspect is simple but effective. If it weren't for the quasi-nonexistent crisis management system, Fallout Shelter would be a delightful game. The expeditions an quests help break the feeling of complete isolation and serve as vehicles for bringing in a variety of items and characters, which is always refreshing. The good thing is that the shelter appears to be dormant while you're away. So probably the best strategy would be to play it in brief sessions to minimize the occurrence of crises. On the other hand, I much appreciate the way in which Bethesda has approached the freemium model. The in-app purchase element is entirely non-intrusive, which is exemplary.




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Users Rating:  
  4.5/5     1
Editor Rating:  
  4.0/5
Downloads: 203
Updated At: 2024-03-27
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks LLC
Operating System: Android
License Type: Free