Now, to be clear, Fallout shelter is not a new game. It was launched in 2015and although it started as a mobile version, it was later ported to PC and consoles. It’s a bit like a city construction project, which takes place mostly underground. You are the overseer – a sort of post-apocalyptic mayor – tasked with not only managing a vault, but also expanding it. You will have to ensure the happiness of the residents, while ensuring a constant supply of food, water and electricity. You’ll dig underground to add new homes and facilities and fend off attacks from looters and cockroaches. Eventually, you can build things like a radio studio to attract new surface residents and embark on quests that play out like very simple dungeon crawling RPGs.
Shelter works because it offers just enough strategy without being overwhelming. I regularly find myself ensuring that production runs smoothly and I am constantly thinking about how to develop my little community; Right now, I’m looking forward to building a tailoring workshop so I can make uniforms to match each type of job. This is essentially the atmosphere of To fall – silly humor mixed with postapocalyptic violence – but in a cute package that looks like a retrofuturistic ant farm. It’s the kind of game you can check in with several times a day, play for a few minutes, and then finish.
In a smart move, Bethesda gave the game away a little update this week, which adds a new questline so you can recruit characters from the series. It doesn’t make much narrative sense that Walton Goggins’ gunslinger Ghoul is now on my team, but it’s nice for someone like me, getting back into Shelter entirely because of the show. Additionally, Lucy, Maximus and the others have some pretty interesting stats and equipment.
There are some issues with the game. It has a few free-to-play annoyances, including ads that you can watch to unlock premium goodies, as well as loot boxes filled with special items. I found these largely easy to ignore, but your mileage may vary; Sometimes it’s tempting to spend a little to speed up a quest, which can take hours.
And since I played Shelter compulsively a few years ago, I already know that there is a point where your safe becomes massive and bulky and there really isn’t much interesting left to do. It’s definitely inevitable, but for now I’m just enjoying soaking up the desert vibe. Maybe when I’m done, season 2 will be announced.
