Fallout Shelter for iOS

Fallout Shelter is a post-apocalyptic building game that puts you in charge of rebuilding civilization in a vault. Eighteen years after its Windows debut, Fallout is finally available for iOS and coming soon to Android.

Pros

Simple yet immersive narrative: After a devastating nuclear war, much of the world is destroyed, and what's left is perilous. You're tasked with overseeing the construction of a new civilization in a state-of-the-art underground vault. You must maintain power for the facility and add, dress, feed, and placate workers to increase productivity, or increase procreation by putting men and women in the same room. If you're low on supplies like armor, weapons, or Caps (the game's currency), send workers out to collect.

Easy to pick up: Even if you're entirely unfamiliar with the Fallout series, you'll quickly get the hang of this game. Just click Create Vault, choose a vault number, and start building by clicking the green hammer.

Action: The game throws in random disasters -- fire, Radroach outbreaks, raider attacks -- to test your vault and keep you on your toes.

Retro graphics: The retrofuturistic graphics are reminiscent of 1950s, atomic-age civil-defense films and are very cool.

Help: Fallout Shelter gets you going with a thorough introduction and plenty of helpful hints.

Cons

No Portrait mode: You can play Fallout Shelter only in Landscape mode.

Sticky controls: We often found it difficult to drag and drop characters into the vault or from room to room.

Microtransactions are necessary: You can send your workers out to collect loot, but if you want the best weapons, armor, and dwellers, you'll have to pay for them by buying lunch boxes. You can win lunch boxes early in the game, but that opportunity is short-lived.

Bottom Line

Fallout Shelter immerses you in a dreary, desolate world that you won't want to leave.