Muffin Reviews Fallout Shelter

Hey and welcome to my review of Fallout Shelter, I hope you enjoy it. 

Fallout Shelter is a game that was originally a mobile phone game, it has been ported to the PS4 for some weird reason but I have no complaints. I may be recalling this wrong but I'm pretty sure the launch of this game got a bad reputation as the Fallout community wanted a decent game... and then well Fallout 76 happened.... Anyways it's essentially a simple management game that you can just play once a day (or more consistently if needs be)... So let's begin.

Also keep in mind that I will be reviewing this game as I would a PS4 game, and not a mobile game. 

Graphics
The graphics for the game are actually decent, they're very simple but also effective. It especially helps that the game is pretty much in the style of the vault boy. By that I mean it's cartoonish and clean, but also recognizable. The vault dwellers also stand out from the backgrounds.
It's nothing amazing obviously but it by no means looks bad at all. 

Sound
The sound design is simple but yet again effective. Events happen periodically and the sound design instantly informs you what the issue may be, whether it's fire, infestation, bandits or the mysterious stranger. Which is important as besides the mysterious man the other 3 are a detriment for your vault. 

Addictiveness
As it was initially a phone game you can see how it's designed to be addictive, well addictive to those who don't mind throwing change at a game to make it go faster at least. Happily though this isn't a game that requires the sending of the monies. I've platinumed it without doing so, So for the average player they definitely can have fun without having to spend a penny. However this is one of those games that people play like once a day for five minutes.. Or pretty much not at all. If you actually launch the game and don't think it's horrible within the first hour or so... Then you'll play it for a while... if you do think it's horrible you'll put it down without a second thought. If for some reason you do want to spend money they have the generic things like speed ups and Nuka Cola that can instantly finish a task for you. E.G traveling to a mission .. Or you can buy lock boxes in which you can get materials, bottle caps, weapons or sometimes vault dwellers. 

Story
Fallout Shelter really doesn't have any sort of story honestly. It has quest chains where you can send up to three dwellers off to do missions and then when they eventually arrive at their destination... Which can take like 24 hours at time. You sort of take control of the units you sent and guide them through a 2D series of rooms which may or may not have enemies inside. It's definitely one of better features of the game as well simply because it has game play in it, you have to make sure you keep your team healthy. Especially if your under kitted. It's by no means hard at all. But you have to pay attention for the sole fact you don't want to waste your time or your bottle caps reviving dead vault dwellers.
They are the main reason to keep coming back to the game. However it can take a while to even unlock the ability to actually do them. 
 
Depth
The game actually has a surprising amount of depth. It's not amazing by any means but more than what I would expect from what could be looked at as a cash grab game. Each vault dweller you have has individual S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats which can be improved later down the line. The higher the stats in specific areas the better they are at doing their job. A lot of the stats are related to rooms e.G having good intelligence means you can make stimpaks quicker. So making sure you have the best dwellers on each station is a good idea. Your dwellers can also have children if you so like.. Although children and pregnant women cant help around the vault at all. At least they run away from threats that attack the vault so that's something. 

Difficulty
For me the game wasn't difficult just time consuming. Mainly because I thought I'd get the platinum for no real reason. If you have a basic knowledge of how to manage anything then you'll find this game easy and fun and something that can just be checked on once a day. If you are bad at management well you might not find it fun.. If you cant make your vault productive then the game gets longer indefinitely. It's a game that can snowball if you neglect it as well. So putting the game down for a couple of weeks may result in anger or even a restart of the game. So in short its not difficult if you check it consistently. But it does get harder the more you neglect the game. Whether this is actual difficulty or not is a hard question though. Because being inactive in any game usually means no progression as well. Just this one kinda punishes you for it. 

Final Thoughts
The game is fine for what it is. Is it worthwhile? Honestly no... However if you need a game to randomly play for 5 minutes a day then by all means go for it. But you may be better off just getting the mobile version. The idea of playing a PS4 game for 5 minutes a day is just weird to me. Especially when you think that you have to sit down on a console to play it.  The game is decent enough to be on the PS4, I'm just confused to as who would actually play it that wouldn't on their phone.. It just comes across to me as a business decision of "oh we have this game that has micro transactions on it, if we put it on more platforms we'll get more money". And before you mention that I am that person.. I am just a lazy trophy hunter that sometimes to get trophies for silly games... Why.. Because it's silly.  On the bright side the game is free.. But if you have any intention of playing this game.. Just play it on mobile. 

Now the real nail for me was the kind of dedication I had to pay. I dunno, maybe I don't play these kinds of mobile games the same way everyone else should. A problem I had in Animal Crossing in the past was taking a break for 6 months and coming back and everything was on fire and they were all blaming me so I panicked and started a new game to clear the slate. Now of course, that's a metaphor... for Animal Crossing. In Fallout Shelter if you spend too much time away, things are actually on fire and people are dead. I also generally don't like the whole waiting thing. When I pick a game to play, I want it to take up the time I set aside for it, I find it weird to be like "yeah, let's go hunt Altareon, but first let me see if my eggs hatched yet." I haven't bothered with it since, or any other mini-game-mobile-game.