G'day there guys and gals!For the first (and probably last) time ever, I'll be reviewing a mobile game, one that has taken the world by storm since the release of E3 2015. While originally released for the iOS during E3, its release on the Android has been a welcome one and rightly so!
I'll admit to it now; I have never thought (or praised) highly of any mobile game, ever. Generally I disapprove of many of the standards of mobile game development, but the people at Bethesda Studios and Behaviour Interactive have gone above and beyond any current mobile game.
To put it simplistically, Fallout Shelter takes place in the world and lore of the Fallout universe (I wonder what the first clue was...) and players take control of their own customisable Vault. You are the Overseer, the person in control of a Vault and it's up to you to control, manage and protect both the population inside the Vault and its resources.
Gameplay is reminiscent of SimCity, where players must gather humans (or make their own the old fashioned way) and their three key resources (Food, water and power) through building rooms. Players can also build rooms to up the stats of their dwellers, create Stimpaks and RadAway, radio stations to call for more citizens, living quarters, storage rooms and so on. Players can also choose to kit up their dweller in clothing and arm them with weapons to survive gathering resources from the surface; all of this done while fighting off raiders, radroaches, room fires, radiation and more. All gameplay is 2.5D, where the Vault and its dwellers are all viewed side on. Players control their movements, where there go and what they do by tapping and moving them to each destination.
This is not even mentioning the stats of each individual dweller, how they're used in each room, how players need to keep every resource level, etc.
Storyline is little to non-existent; each character often remarks on how great/terrible they feel, or jokes about what they'd do with their own vault, even down to how great their Overseer is! However the meat of what little there is comes to dwellers who venture out into the Wasteland; often remarking on how scared they are, finding injured people, sneaking past Raiders, ect. These do repeat incredibly often but that's to be expected.
No voice acting or musical score is present in this game (I won't be counting the main menu music) but the musical cues during rushing a room for its resources is as close as you'll get. While it has a great Fallout-esque style, if you refuse to pay the microtransations, prepare to hear it often, but again, to be expected.
Graphics, for a mobile game, are very diverse and unique, while still retaining the Fallout features and look. The game itself is incredibly detailed (especially when zooming in on a room and the characters) but retains its own personal feel and vibe to the series.
The only major issue with the game is the purposeful slowness at specific points of the game. When resources are full but Caps are low, the game's fun and energetic style does slow down to a halt as you wait for your dweller to find decent items out in the Wasteland. To this gamer, it seems that this is the point some will buckle for microtransations but this is where the game shines. Another small issue are the game's few glitches (such as the game's options disappearing when entering a game when a baby's been born), but these tend to be only temporarily and rarely game breaking.
As gamers, let's face the cold truth; microtransations are here to stay. To be fully honest, without them, games would cost a lot more than they currently do (and as Australians tend to pay $90-$110 already, that would be a tremendous issue). But what Fallout Shelter does better than any other mobile game is the they don't shove microtransations or ads down your throat. In fact, for a Free-To-Play game, there are no ads at all! The only ad I have seen so far is a "rate this game" ad and that was after the first time I just created a Vault!
Microtransations are constantly there if you wish to pay $5 for a stack of Cards (cards being a sort of random chance gamble at resources/new items) but they're off to the side and aren't ever thrown onto the gamer as a quick-fix to their Vault's issues. While I would like to have a Caps for Cards exchange in the game, at its current standing, the game works perfectly.
As I said earlier, I have never been a big fan or supporter of mobile phone games, but the people behind Fallout Shelter have done such an excellent job, I cannot praise it any higher. Officially, Fallout Shelter will forever be my benchmark in mobile phone games. Kudos to the entire team!
Out of 10, I give Fallout Shelter a 9/10
You can find it now on Android and iOS appliances for free!
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