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My Game Rating: 7. 5 / 10 ...
With the much anticipated news delivered at the E3 showcase some weeks back in relation to Fallout 4, players and fans of the franchise did not expect BETHESDA to throw in an extra surprise!
Despite BETHESDA having it's hands full with the developments and publications of Dishonoured 2 and Fallout 4, fans were delighted to hear a game was to be released prior to the November launch of Fallout 4. To make things even better, the mini game was to be published to the general public after the Fallout showcase - for free. And with no internet connection required.
The hypnosis of which is simple: you are the Vault Overseer. It is your job to run the vault and construct rooms for your residences while making sure that everyone is happy and healthy. As you can imagine - not everything can go smoothly! Others duties also include: fighting off raiders, controlling fire outbreaks, fighting Radroach infestations, sending vault dwellers into the Wasteland, getting your vault dwellers to pop-create and then name them once they're born! These coatic events can happen depending on how you run the vault. Three bars are displayed at the top of the screen, each representing the basic and most important requirements for everyone to survive. These are power, food and water. The rooms you construct contribute to these factors. However!
Overal production widely depends on the stats of each vault dweller and which room that you assign them to. The more productive each room is, the faster you will receive supplies for one of your basic requirements. By paying attention to your dweller's stats, you will easily able to identify what they're not so good at. Thankfully, the game includes extra rooms where you can train your dwellers. Remember these extra rooms only train your resident's on a specific trait e.g. gym for endurance, classroom for intelligence and the bar for Charisma. Once you start meeting the requirements and complete mini missions, you will be rewarded with lunch boxes which offer random loot such as bottle caps, weapons, armour, unique vault/Wasteland dwellers and so on. These will enable you to upgrade you vault, it's rooms and those who are assigned to each room. Once again weapons and armours come with their own stats so be wise as to which Vault dweller you assign them to!
Mechanics and story wise - they're simple. BUT effective and addictive to say the least. The whole package is a breath of fresh air compared to most games out there today. Being able to look inside each room, observing my dwellers performance and checking stats and armours etc were a fun edition and makes the experience more organised. In a sense naturally preparing your for future calamities within the game. A good edition was having your performance reviewed every so often to which adds to the business theme and provides sufficient feedback to the player.
The gameplay for me was very enjoyable. The design work, sound effects, lighting, animations all came together very well. To me the game has an "every action has consequences" sort of mechanic to which as I've said previously was a welcomed part. (If you rush a room for supplies, there's a risk of either fire or infestations, that's why it's essential to assign the right vault dweller to a room!) Having the option of buying extra lunch boxes for extra loot was a pretty neat idea too! Although it made gameplay less challenging and satisfied the need to hoard! And lastly, being able to track your exploring Vault dwellers in the Wasteland further made the experience for me more in-depth and realistic. Player feedback throughout was sufficient as well as engaging.
For a simple yet fun and in-depth game, I would like to rate with a high score. However there were issues that I need to raise. The first, more room types! Secondly, I feel if there were mini missions or situations to solve for when your dwellers ventured into the Wasteland, I believe this would have made gameplay more unpredictable and rewarding. I would also like to see more enemy types (raids) such as Super Mutants, Deathclaws, Cannibals, the Enclave etc. This would enable the player to asses weaponry and armours more efficiently and with care. To support this recommendation - a trading room where you can exchange a number of items that you don't want for better loot (frees space in your armoury room) but your can only use this room for a certain number of times to avoid over use and easier gameplay.
Lastly, the most annoying and troublesome issue for myself was the running of the game. Glitches and constant freezing made this game quite frustrating to play. Many times, you couldn't get past the loading screen for the main menu! And when you eventually get into the game, it crashes after 2 minutes. For a well thought out game - this is devastating. An update was released mid July which didn't do much good sadly. I will keep an eye out for any improvements/ technical updates and will let you guys know if they improve the gameplay somewhat.
But what do you guys think? Are you having the same issues as I am? Did you like the review? And what will you be looking forward to the most for the november release of Fallout 4?
Please note that the Pip boy editions are sold out on GAME - I shall let you know if I hear re-orders of stock or other editions. Please leave a like or comment if you like and have a great summer!
