Management games are a dime a dozen but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few good ones around and Bethesda’s Fallout Shelter might just rank among one of those better executed ones. Released on Android around a month after it was out on iOS, this game had been installed on my device for “testing” and up till now its still on there eating up my battery!
If you’re new to the concept think of it as raising an ant colony with virtual people instead of ants so you’d end up with something to show to others. Now this is no simple task as these virtual people have needs that you’d need to supply being their ‘overseer’.
Food, power, and water are essential and your tasked with keeping these things in check apart from the happiness of your individual dwellers.
With caps, (in game currency) you develop the shelter in order to cater to the population that you are maintaining – laying out elevators and a variety of spaces that provide resources and training for your underground colony.
The dwellers all have names and individual strengths and weaknesses outlined by their SPECIAL stats making them a better fit for the resource generating spaces and can be boosted by outfits that you either find in lunchboxes or through exploring the wasteland.
The number of dwellers increase by random people showing up in front of your vault or through babies that is a result of a man and a woman in a room together… This is a necessity mind you, the world is a wasteland after all and so the population is thusly reinforced (plus the objectives say so haha)
From time to time there will be threats to your society in the form of fire, roaches, raiders, and more ramping up the excitement for your residents at times causing their untimely demise (which you can counter by giving up some caps).
It’s a very well put together time vortex with very nice graphics in the form of sectional perspectives that are reactive to device tilt and zoom. The in game economy seems to be nicely balanced overall and has enough drive to keep the user engaged for hours on end giving off just the right amount of push for purchases that will, with powerful luck and enough cash, bring your vault to greater status.
Thus far I’ve managed two vaults, the first one I abandoned due to food scarcity, something my new vault will, hopefully, not lead up to. I feel quite lucky with my new vault such that it has the potential to develop quite nicely with a good pace even without going thru purchases. Do watch this space for some progress captures!
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