Bethesda’s Fallout Shelter – Game Review

Fallout: Shelter is a first time mobile game developed and published by Bethesda. Bethesda is most famously known for the “Fallout” franchise and “The Elder Scrolls” franchise. Fallout: Shelter was announced on June 14th, 2015, during Bethesda first E3 conference and released immediately after their big conference, which discussed Fallout 4, Dishonored 2, The Elder Scrolls Online and Legends, as well as the DOOM reboot.

Gameplay

The gameplay mainly consists of managing your Vault dwellers and purchasing rooms for your dwellers to train and work in. To start off, your main four rooms to build in the game are: Power Generator, Water Treatment Station, Diner, and Living Quarters. The Power Generator is meant to keep rooms working and is for Power. The Water Station is for keeping the water supply up and the diner does the same but for food. Now the living quarters double as a capacity for the number of Vault Dwellers in your vault and the room where babies can be made.

For each room a player must have at least one Vault Dweller assigned to the room. Keep in mind when assigning Vault Dwellers what stats they have, (their stats include: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck) as each room requires different stats. Obviously you would not assign a Dweller with high Strength and Low Intelligence as the Doctor of the Vault’s Medical Bay, which are used to produce stimpacks for when Dwellers are injured. And they will get injured, as Raiders and Radroaches can attack the Vault.

In order to defend against these attacks you will need to gather weapons and armor, which can be acquired by sending a Vault dweller on an expiation to gather materials. When they return they can come back with Outfits, Weapons, Caps or nothing at all. Everything that happens on the expedition can be tracked as well, as you receive updates from the dweller.

And that’s pretty much the basics when it comes to gameplay.

Price

Fallout: Shelter‘s current price (as of June 15th, 2015) is $0.00. Bethesda Game Studios game director, Todd Howard is quoted as saying:

This game is going to be free. Don’t worry there are no pay wall timers, you don’t need a internet connection… We do let you buy more lunch boxes.

The lunch boxes are simply loot crates, which you receive for completing tasks in the game, or obviously paying real currency, but do not worry, the lunch boxes are optional. 

UI

The User Interface consists of a 2D view of a your vault. On the top of the screen, your Vault’s Food, Water, and Power stats are shown. The top also includes your Vault’s happiness in the top left hand corner of the screen, as well as the number of Vault Dwellers inside you Vault. On the top right hand side of the screen, the number of “Caps” (in game currency) are shown. Also on the top right, a hammer can be seen. If tapped the hammer will open up a list of rooms you can purchase for your vault.

Final Rating

NerdReviews1’s final rating for Fallout: Shelter is a solid 9/10. It is highly recommend mobile game for fans of the Fallout franchise and strategy games. Bethesda Game Studios deserves mad props as this is their first attempt at a mobile game.