This means if you’re unhappy with your lunchboxes and don’t want to spend money, you’re never more than an hour away from a second chance. Second, three free lunchboxes can be obtained at the very start of the game. Legendary characters and weapons are most useful at the beginning of the game, making the player feel great when a familiar face shows up at their vault door. The first is opening a lunchbox (usually) feels rewarding.

First Lunchbox: This is the high point of the game for two reasons.

Let’s briefly deconstruct each of the 13 points. After the mid-point, gameplay is comprised of long term goals, goals that may take over a week to accomplish.

Up to the mid-point, the game gives just enough to keep players engaged. If we accept this graph, we see a huge valley right at the mid-point of the unlock schedule. To better explain how Fallout: Shelter wavers in player interaction, I’ve made the following graph: Some provide the player far more satisfaction than others. That having been said, not all unlocked rooms are equal. Although unlocking a new room feels interactive, it is really just the beginning of a new timer. Because new rooms are built instantly and there’s an emphasis on collecting better equipment, players feel like they’re doing more than they are.

What separates Fallout: Shelter from similar time-lapsing mobile games is the illusion of agency.

You send people out into the wasteland and you wait. You put dwellers into the right room and you wait. The majority of Fallout: Shelter is built upon waiting. Rather than providing a consistent curve of player interaction, Fallout: Shelter suffers from peaks and valleys. Although this game does a lot right, it also takes a few missteps. The art direction has a lot of charm, the gameplay is smooth and can be picked up in a few minutes, and it feels great to do whatever is necessary to earn a lunchbox. If you follow The Rad-Lands on Twitter, you might know I’ve been playing a lot of Fallout: Shelter recently.

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