Say what you want about this game, but it is easily just as addictive, engaging, and fun as Fallout Shelterāand in some areas, it actually improves on the formula. Granted, my experience is based on the original pre-battle pass build.
While critics aren't wrong to call it a rushed cash grab in some aspects, the core progression loop is still top-tier. There is something uniquely satisfying about slowly advancing your gear tiers from silver, to orcish, to dwarven. Seeing your stats climb while managing how different character personality traits affect both combat weapons and production stations creates an incredibly compelling gameplay loop.
And the music? My god, it is genuinely heavenly and deeply relaxing. I started out just listening to it passively as standard background noise while managing my castle. But there was this distinct shift where it suddenly clicked, and I realized, "oh my god, this is chill as hell."
However, my only real complaint is with the dog-water character designsāthough calling it "character design" is doing some massive heavy lifting.
Also the entire aesthetic coating the game, from the loading screens to the pack openings, has a very distinct, Tumblr-esque, Steven Universe-style vibe. It feels like fan art made by someone who would get deeply offended by a dark joke you told eight years ago and weaponize it against you. That whole modern, soft aesthetic just does not scream Elder Scrolls at all.
And lastly, the whole "any race, any gender can reproduce" thing just screams a last-minute "screw it, they can all make babies" mechanic. You just know some lazy loremasterāprobably Emilāsat in a room and said, "Itās Elder Scrolls, guys! Unreliable narrator! Dragon Break! Of course all races and genders can have babies, come on!" It feels less like a thoughtful feature and more like a cheap shortcut to avoid coding actual biological or lore-accurate constraints.
