Fallout Shelter

 iOS
User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 219 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 107 out of 219
  2. Mixed: 65 out of 219
  3. Negative: 47 out of 219
Buy Now
Stream On

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Cantosix
    Oct 25, 2015
    6
    This game starts out being all kinds of awesome, but very quickly becomes all kinds of boring. I like the idea of it, I like the graphics, I like the overall goal. I like the tone of the game. I like many things about it. I deleted my first vault and didn't miss it in the slightest. Following an update I reinstalled and started again, but 'completed' the next vault within a week and willThis game starts out being all kinds of awesome, but very quickly becomes all kinds of boring. I like the idea of it, I like the graphics, I like the overall goal. I like the tone of the game. I like many things about it. I deleted my first vault and didn't miss it in the slightest. Following an update I reinstalled and started again, but 'completed' the next vault within a week and will be deleting that one too. How is it possible to simultaneously like and loathe this App? Because it's bursting with potential, but resiliently fails to deliver.

    Getting the shelter up and running is great, but after that it is self-sufficient and there is zero incentive to keep playing. The recent updates have responded to this by increasing the range and severity of attacks, but this is more annoying than engaging and does nothing to tackle the fundamental problem of the vault just becoming dull and repetitive. Despite the updates the game still struggles with poor controls, and each update leaves you with a sense that the game designers don't really have a clue what they should be aiming for. If any developers are reading this then I can provide a summary:

    - Bigger range of rooms. Why not add a cinema? A pool? A go-kart track? Make it harder to achieve 100% happiness. Stop the workers slogging away endlessly at the same tedious, limited range of jobs (why should that make them happy?!) and add a splash of variety.

    - If you're going to limit the game to 200 Dwellers, then add a life-cycle. When the Dwellers get old, why not let us stick them in a retirement room, thereby giving an incentive to actually call new Dwellers in from the Wasteland or breed more? (Plus, WTAF with the 'have 18 Dwellers pregnant challenge? Honestly??)

    - Put a pause button in. You are currently not able to play this game if you might be interrupted by, say, your train getting to its stop, because there is a risk of all your dwellers being killed by a random attack whilst you are dealing with a real-life event.

    - Wasteland mini-games? Why not move away from the tedium a little by literally leaving it behind?

    I really hope that there is a Fallout Shelter II, and that the scope is broader and produces less of a Marxist approach to Vault building.    … Expand
  2. Zri
    Aug 8, 2015
    6
    Nice interface, feels very Fallout, fails to be a satisfying game.

    You start out with the struggle of figuring out the right balance of game mechanics to be able to successfully play, get to the point where you can send people out into the wasteland to scavenge for caps and gear, and then the game stops being fun and turns into yet another game that you open for a few minutes a day to    Nice interface, feels very Fallout, fails to be a satisfying game.

    You start out with the struggle of figuring out the right balance of game mechanics to be able to successfully play, get to the point where you can send people out into the wasteland to scavenge for caps and gear, and then the game stops being fun and turns into yet another game that you open for a few minutes a day to cycle jobs, dump dwellers into a bedroom to breed, check on your foragers to see if you need to bring them home.    … Expand
  3. Captiosus
    Jun 18, 2015
    6
    At the Bethesda E3 Press Release, Todd Howard, the Chief of Bethesda Studios, said that this was the mobile game they always wanted to make. If that's the case, they certainly didn't set the bar very high. Fallout Shelter is little more than a typical timed resource, timed follower game that is set in the Fallout Universe. Like every other resource/follower game, it becomes boring afterAt the Bethesda E3 Press Release, Todd Howard, the Chief of Bethesda Studios, said that this was the mobile game they always wanted to make. If that's the case, they certainly didn't set the bar very high. Fallout Shelter is little more than a typical timed resource, timed follower game that is set in the Fallout Universe. Like every other resource/follower game, it becomes boring after only a few short sessions of play. The only difference is this one doesn't make you pay if you want to speed things along, though there are optional in app purchases that, according to the latest news, is making Bethesda tons of money (currently outpacing Candy Crush Saga and other in-app purchase games).

    This might have been the game they always wanted to make when the iPhone was new (which was when Howard said this game concept came to be), but now it's just another game in an overcrowded genre. At least it gives my 5th gen iPod Touch something else to do besides music, I guess.    … Expand
  4. Mrandom
    Jun 19, 2015
    5
    It is an average game, but it certainly can't match the quality of a Bethesda game. Very boring, just another free game where you build and waste money on useless cards and coins. It is essentially nothing about the Fallout world or post apocalyptic wasteland.
  5. Righter
    Jun 19, 2015
    5
    It's a blatant rip-off of "This War of Mine" - only not half as good. IAP are optional, and I've basically finished the game without them. I refuse to pay Bethesda a dime for a game that they ripped off from another developer, and I'll be uninstalling it. It really is a shameless rip-off, only with cartoon graphics instead of the realistically somber B&W look that TWOM uses. Anybody whoIt's a blatant rip-off of "This War of Mine" - only not half as good. IAP are optional, and I've basically finished the game without them. I refuse to pay Bethesda a dime for a game that they ripped off from another developer, and I'll be uninstalling it. It really is a shameless rip-off, only with cartoon graphics instead of the realistically somber B&W look that TWOM uses. Anybody who says it's play to win isn't trying hard enough. If anything, I found the game too easy. Which is why I've practically finished it already and I've only had it two days and been playing on and off. Once you've got 100 dwellers and have built all the unlocked rooms, its replay value goes to ZERO.… Expand
  6. TheRebel
    Jul 24, 2015
    6
    Gameplay:
    The gameplay is very simple. As the vault overseer, you must keep your vault alive and happy, all while increasing the amount of dwellers and rooms. I did enjoy the fact that once you pressed the option to build a room, it would build immediately. There's no incentive to have to spend real money just to speed up the process. Your dwellers have certain S.P.E.C.I.A.L skills and    Gameplay:
    The gameplay is very simple. As the vault overseer, you must keep your vault alive and happy, all while increasing the amount of dwellers and rooms. I did enjoy the fact that once you pressed the option to build a room, it would build immediately. There's no incentive to have to spend real money just to speed up the process. Your dwellers have certain S.P.E.C.I.A.L skills and you must assign them to rooms accordingly. Dwellers with high amounts of strength should be put into rooms that require strength and so on. Occasionally, your vault will be attacked by raiders, radroaches, and even fires! This game is exciting to play at first, but over time, the enjoyment of the game quickly fades as the gameplay becomes extremely repetitive. There's no real incentive to keep playing after a few weeks.

    Annoyances:
    This game had a lot of annoyances that detracted from the overall enjoyment of the game. There is a ridiculous of amount of lag while moving around your vault, which does not help when your vault is under attack. Another thing that hurts the gameplay is that the controls wouldn't work the way the should. For example, when tapping on a dweller, their S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats are shown and if you click on another dweller immediately, the first dwellers' stats still show up! It seems minor and nit picky, but it's a matter of life-and-death when you're trying to heal your dweller in the middle of an attack. That minor glitch allows your dweller to be killed and ruins the enjoyment of the game.

    Graphics/Appearance:
    Fallout Shelter has the classic look of the Fallout series: characters, enemies, and weapons. I did enjoy the 3d effects of the rooms while looking through the vault. The overall aesthetics are simple and pleasing.

    Verdict:
    I wouldn't recommend this game because of the ridiculous lag and the repetitive gameplay. It's fun to play for a couple of weeks, but soon, you'll realize the gameplay is not dynamic and becomes a chore.    … Expand
  7. Averum
    Jul 2, 2015
    7
    Started out strong, but fell a little flat with me due to radroach issues. I felt like I had to slow my expansion to a crawl or invest heavily into P2W lunchboxes. Pacing is lackluster. Lots of crashing out of the on my Ipad Mini.
  8. GrumpyDan
    Jul 10, 2015
    7
    Fallout Shelter probably isn't the mobile Fallout game you were hoping for.

    It's a building game very much from the Tiny Tower school. You're in control of a vault, and you need to make sure its inhabitants are happy and prosperous. There are nods to the main series here, from the cartoon aesthetic to the monsters that occasionally burst in through the floor, but this is a game with    Fallout Shelter probably isn't the mobile Fallout game you were hoping for.

    It's a building game very much from the Tiny Tower school. You're in control of a vault, and you need to make sure its inhabitants are happy and prosperous.

    There are nods to the main series here, from the cartoon aesthetic to the monsters that occasionally burst in through the floor, but this is a game with both feet firmly planted on the casual side of the line.    … Expand
  9. CenkAlp
    Jan 3, 2018
    7
    Hikaye = -
    Oynanış = -
    Grafikler = -
    Sesler = -
    Keyif = -
    Atmosfer = -
    Süre = -
  10. Tango123456789
    Oct 3, 2015
    5
    I HATE FREE TO PLAY MOBILE GAMES but for some reason i like fallout shelter, I've never played a fallout game before (yes i know i have not lived) so it can't be a likeness for fallout, i just like the game. The point of the game is to build up your vault and keep your dwellers happy while increasing their numbers. There's no story but it doesn't need one, the game-play is just like mostI HATE FREE TO PLAY MOBILE GAMES but for some reason i like fallout shelter, I've never played a fallout game before (yes i know i have not lived) so it can't be a likeness for fallout, i just like the game. The point of the game is to build up your vault and keep your dwellers happy while increasing their numbers. There's no story but it doesn't need one, the game-play is just like most free to play games click on the screen for a few seconds then done for half an hour, there nothing to do after that, sure you could build some new rooms (if you have the caps) but that will last for a few minutes, sure you could send someone out to the wilderness to collect resources but all you have to do is drag a guy out of the vault (which is really hard to do on a mobile due to the small screen so best to play this on a iPad) and then look at the screen for a new notification to come saying that's he's sad or that he found 15 caps, which is just boring, like most mobile games there no interaction if your vault if low on resources all you can do is wait or press the rush button (which make the room you choose to rush make resources faster) which most of the time fails and kill 15 dwellers, also when your vault is low on resources it looks like is does nothing, the dwellers health goes down slightly then that's it, it doesn't kill them from what I've seen, so whats the point if the one thing to do in the game does nothing. Most free to play mobile games have a some kind point to playing the base/single player game like total conquest the point to playing the base/single player game was so you could destroy other players while defending your town but fallout shelter doesn't have that, you just play the game to keep your dweller alive (there's no multiplayer) there's nothing to keep you playing.
    The art style in fallout shelter is brilliant everyone is design like the vault boy, its just looks great and the art style is most likely why i like the game.
    I recommend this game to anyone who needs to kill 30 seconds a few times a day or to anyone who like the art style of the game or likes fallout.    … Expand
  11. muzmuz
    Aug 12, 2016
    7
    A few days into the game and it has been terrific so far. Fallout Shelter is definitely enjoyable, especially from the start, but is consisted of issues that can't simply be overlooked.
  12. holiday_hawk
    Nov 3, 2015
    5
    Fallout Shelter starts out being a fun game, but that changes really fast. The game does have a nice interface, and the game runs smoothly enough. It has never crashed on me. The graphics are also very appealing, and stays true to the Fallout art style. The first several hours are fun, and that's where this game really shines. Setting up your shelter requires a balance of all threeFallout Shelter starts out being a fun game, but that changes really fast. The game does have a nice interface, and the game runs smoothly enough. It has never crashed on me. The graphics are also very appealing, and stays true to the Fallout art style. The first several hours are fun, and that's where this game really shines. Setting up your shelter requires a balance of all three resources, and reaching this balance is fun. Once you reach it, however, the fun begins to wane. My first complaint is the speed of the game. It can be painfully slow like most F2P phone games, you'll find yourself waiting and waiting to get more caps. The problem is caps are very slow to get. You either have to get lucky and get a few when you collect resources, or you get a tiny bit when a dweller levels up. The only other free way to get them is to send a dweller out to the waste, but it takes at least 12 hours (8 hours exploring and 4 coming back) before the loot is even worth mentioning, and it's still not impressive at 12 hours. This is complicated by the fact that the game kinda pauses while you're not playing it. Some stuff will still happen, but other stuff will go to standby while you're not. This means that large portions of the game are not happening when you're away. Unlike in Tiny Village or Star Wars Commander, you can't collect your resources and then come back 5 hours later to collect large sums of them again. With this game you need to check your phone every 7 minutes or so to get a paltry sum of resources and then do it again. Once resource rooms reach their max storage, which isn't very large, they simply stop functioning until collect them. This means that you will find yourself waiting forever to build new rooms. The game can be as excruciatingly slow as any other phone game, but unlike them wants you to pay close and constant attention to it. Another problem is the controls are horrible. You move dwellers around via touch screen, but you have to be very precise with whom you want to drag. It can be very frustrating trying to select a character in a room with works and several children walking around. The last major issue I have with the game is how quickly the fun and challenge plateau. As I said earlier, the early game is you trying to find a balance of having enough of every resource, and not over-expanding. After not too long (many reviewers said around 50 dwellers, but I found it happening to me around 30) the game stops having any form of difficulty. You'll have plenty of resource rooms fully occupied and you'll never run into any problems. You'll only be expanding downwards because you want something to do, not out of need. As long as you keep plenty of workers on the other resource rooms, it will be nearly impossible to over expand, once your shelter is large enough. This problem is only exacerbated by the fact that there are only a few quest which are repeated over and over again, with the only difference being that this time you need to do it in a larger amount. After equipping X number of dwellers with a weapon for the 5th time, the game just becomes too monotonous, especially since by this point it's easy to keep up plenty of resources. Overall, this game has a lot of potential to be one of the best mobile games in a long time and show that mobile games deserve more attention, but unfortunately in the end all of these good ideas were implemented in a very shallow way.… Expand
  13. getrwuegyweh
    Sep 6, 2016
    7
    Mixed game. It's really fun but it just constantly crashes now and overheats my phone. Goes really slow too. Also gets repetitive after time but it's fun to play.
  14. danei
    May 25, 2016
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game was fun at beginning, but get boring quickly:
    1) You have to stare at your screen just to collect resource. Food and water are fine, but power naturally drains fast and slow to accumulate. Every time you close the game, have raider attack, or most seriously, mole rate attack (~1000 power each time), your power is drained, and you have to stay there for half an hour just to recover your stupid power.
    2) Most of the loots are just garbage, but you cannot set criteria like "recycle all non-legendary items", instead, you have to click every single type of items to do that. When your loot team is powerful, everyone will return with 100 items and only ~3 of them to keep, and you can have 25 dwellers outside, and you imagine. Also there's stupid cap limit of 999,999 so the only purpose of selling items is to get some room for your storage. It's not rewarding experience.
    3) The lunchbox doesn't give good enough reward. I have opened 30+ lunchboxes (all by goals, not by cash, and I strongly suggest you don't spend any money on this game) and the only useful thing is a legendary dweller who gets useless once I can build training rooms. All the others are just totally useless caps and junk weapon and scrap, that only get me feel like a donkey than any sense of being rewarded.
    4) Most of the items are useless, especially power armors, they do not give you any defensive bonus and since only 1 special is required for each task (like boosting room), a normal +5 or +7 suit is much more useful. A suit of +1 endurance and +4/+6 luck might be useful in wasteland but such suit doesn't exist.
    5) Some important information is hidden and cannot be remedied. Like the effect of endurance on HP, every time you level up, your endurance is added to HP, so when I realized this I have to suicide all original, non-perfect dwellers and get new ones trained with maximum endurance at level 1 and get +5/+7 endurance suit and only change role after level 50. This kills all the fun of growing up a dweller because you have to go through the same boring and lengthy process for everyone.
    6) The game is not challenging enoug. I was a bit worry of deathclaws before 35 dwellers but they turn out really easy to kill and never cause any casualties and seldom make themselves to the second floor. Mole rats are annoying because they drain a lot of power not because they are deadly. Roaches and fires and raiders are just something keep you clicking busy but no real trouble caused.
    Most of time in this game is spent on selling/recycling loots, collecting resource, and giving dwellers stimpaks after incidents, all of them are just repetitive.    … Expand
  15. INU4SH4
    Aug 13, 2020
    5
    Fallout Shelter is a decent app to get hooked for a few hours and occasionally play for a few minutes every day for a while but it will grow old quite fast. It doesn't really offer much in terms of Fallout craziness but it is an okay sand-box experience. It got a bunch of needed additional content over the years which made the game a bit more fun but it is still a game you'll play for aFallout Shelter is a decent app to get hooked for a few hours and occasionally play for a few minutes every day for a while but it will grow old quite fast. It doesn't really offer much in terms of Fallout craziness but it is an okay sand-box experience. It got a bunch of needed additional content over the years which made the game a bit more fun but it is still a game you'll play for a while and almost immediately forget.… Expand
  16. HydrophobikFish
    Jun 9, 2023
    6
    Its a dull and forgettable microtransaction farm mobile game. It has a fallout skin which is fun and I like, but there's little of substance and is an extremely passive idle game. It may be for some but it isn't for me.

Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Most Discussed iOS Game of 2015
56
#56 Most Shared iOS Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 39 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 39
  3. Negative: 1 out of 39
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    Sep 1, 2015
    85
    Fallout Shelter is a decent free-to-play title, as it never begs for money and you can play it relatively easily without spending a dime. It's also a prime example of marketing. By releasing the game just after the announcement of Fallout 4, Bethesda made an excellent example of capitalizing the IP. [Aug 2015]
  2. Attack of the Fanboy
    Aug 23, 2015
    70
    Fallout Shelter is an enjoyable but ultimately shallow experience. It’s set apart from others of its ilk by making its transactions truly and completely optional — though sorely tempting.
    Read full review
  3. TheAppzine
    Aug 20, 2015
    70
    Thankfully, Fallout Shelter's nostalgic aesthetics (which imitate signs and other written materials seen in Fallout 3 and New Vegas) mostly outshine the issues of the game's shallow nature.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »