Playing Thermonuclear God – Fallout Shelter Review

<p>Somewhere&comma; in the ashes of the post-apocalpyse&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll find at least one review for <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;fallout-shelter-fixes-baby-making-adds-picture-mode&sol;">Fallout Shelter<&sol;a> <&sol;em>that read&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Bethesda did a mobile game right&period;&&num;8221&semi; In a wasteland of glorified ads and time wasters&comma; <em>Fallout Shelter <&sol;em>stands apart from the crowd as a shining example of what happens when you make a game  players want to call home&period; A nuclear <em>Zoo Tycoon<&sol;em> fused with a Cold War<em> Sim City<&sol;em>&comma; Bethesda&&num;8217&semi;s ambitious experiment in the free-to-play scene makes an admirable life for itself in the fallout of its alternative atomic age while never quite convincing me that it&&num;8217&semi;s a life worth living forever&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04221319&sol;Fallout-Shelter-i0S-Habitats-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-84882 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04221319&sol;Fallout-Shelter-i0S-Habitats-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Fallout Shelter i0S Habitats BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What could possibly go wrong in a Vault&quest; In <em>Fallout Shelter<&sol;em>’s earliest &lpar;and funniest&rpar; moments&comma; the answer is basically anything and everything&period; As new citizens are born or recruited into your vault&comma; you must dig deep into a mountain to create Living Quarters for them to sleep&comma; Water Treatment Plants to drink&comma; Cafeterias to eat&comma; and Power Plants to keep the lights on&period; Though their construction&&num;8217&semi;s all instantaneous&comma; their creation&&num;8217&semi;s <span style&equals;"line-height&colon; 1&period;5&semi;">reliant on the shiny Caps that your Citizens make as they work and earn further resources in specific rooms&period; This simple economy&&num;8217&semi;s built on skill – assign the right worker to the right job based on their states &lpar;strength&comma; intelligence&comma; perception&comma; etc&period;&rpar; and they&&num;8217&semi;ll earn&comma; all of it in-game and none of it dependent on real world money&comma; thank goodness&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;tap-anywhere-to-sigh-lara-croft-relic-runner-review&sol;">minefield of micro-transations<&sol;a> that is the allegedly free-to-play market&comma; <em>Fallout Shelter<&sol;em> admirably keeps its amount of paid content in check&period; Among the game&&num;8217&semi;s more appealing elements of chance are its coveted &&num;8220&semi;cards&&num;8221&semi; which players can either unlock via lunch boxes by completing objectives or buy for as little as &dollar;0&period;99 for a card to as much as &dollar;19&period;99 for 40&period; Each provides a  type of weapon&comma; costume&comma; or item that could involve anything from a slick gambler&&num;8217&semi;s to a wicked cool T-45d power suit&period; Given a little patience&comma; cards are easy to unlock at least once a day and though their value is up to you&comma; their &&num;8220&semi;buy me&excl;&&num;8221&semi; presence is minimal&period; True to their word&comma; Bethesda seems content with its players being invested in just their game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04221331&sol;Fallout-Shelter-i0S-Weapons-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-84881 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04221331&sol;Fallout-Shelter-i0S-Weapons-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Fallout Shelter i0S Weapons BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the vein of Murphy&&num;8217&semi;s Law&comma; anything that can happen will happen in <em>Fallout Shelter<&sol;em>&period; For the first few days&comma; you might never feel like you have enough people or resources to man every station you need to put food on the table or a gun in every hand – something that speaks to the thoughtful choice-making that game&&num;8217&semi;s defined by&period; I could spend minutes musing over my decision to build a casino when I needed a cafeteria or having my Citizens getting busy when they were on the clock&period; Every time it feels like you might be on track&comma; my vault was being lit on fire&comma; attacked by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;old-school-wins-every-time-mad-max-fury-road-movie-review&sol;">Mad Max<&sol;a> rejects&comma; or flooded by radroaches&comma; knocking my feng-shui out of whack with the grim prospect of looking into my dwellers cold&comma; dead eyes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The good people of Vault 383 were rather fine folk under my care and getting to know your Citizens is where <em>Fallout Shelte<&sol;em>r proves most entertaining&period; There was Michael J&period; Fox&comma; who I thought always had a smile on his face and Clint Barton&comma; who sired his own future Avengers team&period; Drawn in the series&&num;8217&semi; signature Vault Boy art-style&comma; Citizens endearing &lpar;albeit sparse&rpar; dialogue effectively carry the mood of your vault and lend a dose of personality to the affair&period; Oversee a happy vault and your beaming Citizens will sing your praises&comma; enjoying the luxury of gossiping about comics or romance novels&period; Oversee a failing Vault and you can hear their cries of anguish as their drop dead from radiation poisoning or starvation&period; &ast;gulp&ast;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04214341&sol;Fallout-Shelter-Poor-Health-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-85683 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04214341&sol;Fallout-Shelter-Poor-Health-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Fallout Shelter Poor Health BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Unfortunately&comma; the bigger your vault grows&comma; the more this balancing act disappears&period; <em>Fallout Shelter<&sol;em> gets easier the bigger your vault is – not harder&period; By the time my vault was up to 125 Citizens&comma; I had at least a dozen lazily wandering the floors with no job at all long before it had hit maximum capacity of 200&period; My citizens wanted for nothing and though I could build even deeper&comma; a fourth Nuclear Reactor or a fifth classroom seemed pointless in the face of my vault&&num;8217&semi;s mountain of radaways and caps&period; Did I win&quest; Is that it&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After a week or two of dedicated play&comma; it seems that <em>Fallout Shelter<&sol;em> shows you all it has to offer&comma; as addictive as it is&period; For days&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d schedule my morning routine around checking up on my Vault like some glorified&comma; human ant-farm&comma; hoping my scouts had brought back a new treasure from the Wasteland or some familiar face from the games&period;<span style&equals;"line-height&colon; 1&period;5&semi;"> <em>Fallout Shelter<&sol;em> gradually loses sight of what it&&num;8217&semi;s fighting for&period; Vault objectives&comma; which range from &&num;8220&semi;make 1500 caps of water&&num;8221&semi; to &&num;8220&semi;find 10 weapons&comma;&&num;8221&semi; can get as cheap as equipping and un-equipping the rifles your Citizens already have for an extra lunch box&period; I can&&num;8217&semi;t help but think that more complexly arranged rooms or customizable characters could extend the game for days&period; For <em>Fallout Shelter<&sol;em>&comma; the war for survival never changes – not so much that it moves the goalpost&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;07&sol;04204636&sol;Fallout-Shelter-Pregnant-Dwellers-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-86773 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;07&sol;04204636&sol;Fallout-Shelter-Pregnant-Dwellers-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Fallout Shelter Pregnant Dwellers BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Though it may lack the longevity of games like <em>Animal Crossing<&sol;em> and <em>The Sims<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Fallout Shelter<&sol;em> tries its hand at world-building with class and character that can only grow with much-needed additions&period; The fun may be fleeting and the variety lacking&comma; but the experience feels like a solid and charming foundation for a longer and more involved game that just isn’t here— not yet&comma; anyway&period; Interestingly&comma; while reading up on strategies to optimize my Vault&comma; I came across <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;infinitymerge&period;com&sol;">infinitymerge&period;com<&sol;a>&comma; a platform that explores emerging trends in mobile and simulation-based gaming&period; It highlighted how incremental updates and community-driven expansions can keep games like <em>Fallout Shelter<&sol;em> alive long after their initial hype fades&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll say that I have no regrets for the 30&plus; hours I sank into the hearts and minds of my Vault dwellers&comma; no matter how ingloriously the obsession faded&period; <em>Fallout Shelter<&sol;em> is simply <em>Fallout<&sol;em> as it was intended to be—curt&comma; cruel&comma; and full of life&&num;8217&semi;s little joys&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;