Fallout Shelter | Review

Fallout Shelter is a free-to-play game that was released for Android and iOS devices. However, my time with the game was spent on the version released for the Nintendo Switch.

Fallout Shelter is unlike any previous Fallout game. Fallout Shelter has you watch over a large amount of vault dwellers as you assign them to certain rolls within the vault you create.

PROS:

-The art is nice. Fallout Shelter has a somewhat unique art style for the series, although the inspiration isn't hard to track down if you're even slightly familiar with the Fallout series. I like the look of the 2D characters, and they manage to look fine in the 3D environments.

-Microtransactions are optional. Fallout Shelter is a free-to-play mobile game, so microtransactions are expected. As with most games like this one, I expected a fairly obvious attempt at getting the players' money for menial tasks, but Fallout Shelter doesn't really do that. There are very few instances where I felt like microtransactions would have been helpful.

CONS:

-This game is unfairly difficult. Random events can appear, and some of them will almost certainly kill a few of your vault dwellers. Some resources are also incredibly difficult to acquire, no matter how many people you assign to get that resource. Money is also a constant struggle, as the game doesn't provide very much of it.

-The sound design is repetitive. The Fallout series is known for having a retro feel, and that's especially true in the music. Fallout Shelter fallows that trend, and the music in Fallout Shelter is quite nice. Sound effects, however, are often repeated, as each action only has a small number of potential sounds. This isn't a problem in most games, but Fallout Shelter has you doing many of the same action in a short amount of time.

-The controls are inaccurate. Sometimes you want to move the camera and you accidentally move one of the vault dwellers. Sometimes you need to tap on one character and you tap on another. Sometimes you want to tap on a room and you tap on a vault dweller. These aren't rare mistakes that only happen in unique circumstances, they happen regularly.

OVERALL OPINION:

Fallout Shelter is a free-to-play mobile game. It's a particularly poor one though. It doesn't offer interesting enough gameplay to keep players engaged, and it's lacking in content. However, it is free, so try it yourself.