Game EXP: Fallout Shelter (NS)

So what if I reused the same graphic as before, it's practically the same as before anyway.

When Fallout Shelter was announced a few weeks back at E3 2018 for the Switch, I admit that I was initially excited.  Not because I had not played the game before, I had both on mobile and on PC, but because it was another game from Bethesda on the Switch.  I also wondered how the game would work with controller support, a way I had never played the game before, and with the micro-transaction model that the game was built on.  There was also a part of me that was hoping that if there was enough interest (and downloads) that Bethesda would begin to port Fallout titles to the Switch.  We all can hope.  So I gave it a go, and started Vault 47 for the third time.

Now, there have been a number of changes to the core game and upgrades to what you can do since I first played it on my Galaxy S III Mini nearly three years ago, but the premise is still basically the same.  You build your shelter in order to acquire more vault dwellers which requires you to expand your shelter which requires you to have more vault dwellers to work in various areas of the shelter, to keep the shelter running and to defend it from raiders, and so on.  Since the game was first launched three years ago, there are quests to send your vault dwellers out on have been added, which all require real world time to travel to and return from.

This was actually one of the aspects that I was curious about.  Since the game was developed for mobile devices, there was the time mechanic built in.  That frequent checking up on your vault dwellers was necessary as events (albeit non were usually lethal, but time did pass in at least some manner for them) could happen while you were away.  The player is encouraged to check up on vault dwellers that they send out into the wasteland either on missions, or just out to gather supplies.  If you failed to check in on a dweller out in the wastes who was low on health, they would die requiring you to use resources to resurrect them to bring both themselves and their loot back to the vault.  This mechanic is not as easily translatable to a home console (as it was also ported to the PS4).

Sadly, this Skinner Box type mechanic was still in effect in the Nintendo Switch version, as I am pretty sure that it was carried over as well to the PS4 port.  And I really should not have been surprised considering that it was the same when it was ported to the PC, although PC's are typically more portable than home video game consoles.  Once I figured this out, I felt that my days playing Fallout Shelter were once again numbered.

And that number was apparently 5 hours as I have since stopped playing the game.  Again.  Cold turkey.  After not checking on my vault for a day after maybe a week of frequently playing, I had not looked back to see the desolation that my absence has wrought.  I was half expecting to see either the vault completely empty, devoid of human life, maybe a Deathclaw or maybe a nest of molerats have taken hold in the Overseer's Office.  What surprised me was that everyone was still there.  Sure the one pregnant woman had been ready to give birth for a couple of days (do not want to calculate what that would be in in-game time), but the food, water, and electricity stores were all hovering around the bare minimum line to keep the vault up and running.

And so once again, I say goodbye to Vault 47.  You provided some fun for the times I was building and watching the dwellers do their thing, like procreate and hopefully not with your grandchild because I cannot keep track of who were the parents after children become adults and from that point on just perpetually are.

But when I turned the game back on to find out the condition of the vault, I do admit that it was pretty satisfying clicking on every one of the dwellers who were leveling up, giving birth, gaining attributes,  and crafting weapons.

Oh no. . .

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental