I know, I know: it’s been a while since I’ve written anything here. But hear me out: life gets in the way of things, as I’m sure anyone reading this (over the age of, like, 22) knows full well. However, that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped playing games or anything like that; quite the contrary. I recently decided that getting like 97 percent in Arkham Knight was definitely enough for me to put the game away and I’m about three-quarters of the way through Limbo, which I may actually write about. Before that, though, I had to show some love to my latest mobile gaming obsession: Fallout Shelter.
I’ve only been playing FS for the past few days—since it hit Android, to be precise—but I know I’ll be playing it for months to come. How do I know this? Well, because it contains all five of the following elements that have left my utterly addicted, though not to the point I’d ever put actual money towards it.
1. I’ve never played a Fallout game
Sacrilege, I know. However, you need to understand that I never owned a PC growing up that could handle something like one of the Fallout games. DOOM? Yes, of course. Starcraft? Duh. But something this advanced? Nah, my parents weren’t about to drop that much loot on a gaming card. And if they ever were inclined to spend that much, I would have been like, “Nah, let’s get a console and a bunch of games instead,” with a shit-eating grin on my face. Also, I realize this isn’t a traditional Fallout game—how fucking dumb do you think I am?—but Bethesda made it and…
2. I’m really excited for Fallout 4
Yeah, I’ve never played a Fallout game, but you can kick every rock imaginable if you think that’s reason enough for me to not be excited for the fourth installment. I own a PS4, after all, and have lost my shit over every single trailer that’s hit the web so far. But yeah, Nov. 10 (the game’s release date) cannot get here soon enough. Until then, I’ll be watching over my vault dwellers. Ah, my poor, poor vault dwellers.
3. It’s made for OCD people like me
I previously wrote about my sometimes-crippling OCD in my review of another mobile game, Boom Beach, but FS ups the OCD ante like you wouldn’t believe. While I can leave my village alone for days in Boom Beach—shit, I wonder how they’re getting along in my absence…—I can’t do that with my vault. If I did, I don’t know if I could sleep at night knowing that those radiation-fueled cockroaches (aka radroaches) were ready to kill my dwellers at any moment. Not only that, but I want to make sure my lil’ guys get upgraded, have babies, do their chores, etc. You get my point, right? Funny enough, I hate errands.
4. It’s pretty damn difficult
FS is probably the most difficult game I’ve played on my phone yet. It’s not because Bethesda is trying to punish its users or anything like that, it’s simply the nature of the damn game. If you don’t have the right people in the right place with the right weapons, your dwellers are toast. Those radroaches I mentioned earlier? Let five of them attack a single room and you can say goodbye to a handful of dwellers faster than you can say radroaches. Oh, and if you’re unlucky enough to get attacked by raiders armed with high-tech guns? Sayonara, folks.
5. But it’s also pretty damn forgiving
As much as FS has made me want to wince in pain at its difficulty, the game can also be rather forgiving at times. I’ve lucked out a few times when sending my highest-leveled character to the Wasteland to collect caps, guns, and other resources, and I’ve been able to rush plenty of my resource stations without everything going up in flames. Also, I haven’t had that many issues with pairing up my dwellers to reproduce/maintain their happiness. Sure, it really sucked that, like, 10 of them died the other night from a radroach infestation, but I know I can get my population back up there… I just know it.
Download Fallout Shelter for iOS and Android.
Below, you can view an infographic about what people have done in the game to date.
