


Vastly more interesting than both of these cases is Vault 43, which was populated with 20 men, 10 women, and a panther. In the former there was only one woman present out of 1000 vault subjects, while in the latter there was only one man. In any list of Fallout vaults (and between now and November there will be plenty) you’ll probably hear about Vaults 68 and 69. Imagine a Blu-ray collection consisting of nothing but the collected works of Ray Romano and a communal entertainment space and you might understand why the tape-free Vault 55 was expected to fare much better. But meanwhile over in Vault 56, all entertainment tapes had been removed with the exception of those featuring a particularly annoying comedian. Presumably they still had the books, magazines and other assorted items that players often discover scattered throughout a vault, so that alone doesn’t seem too bad. In Vault 55, residents were deprived of entertainment tapes. That’s a shame, because the premise is absolute gold. Precious little is actually known about these twin experiments because they’ve only ever been mentioned in passing. Okay, so maybe “best” isn’t the right word, but these are at least among the most interesting. We may not be able to fully reproduce the authentic Vault-Tec vault experience in Fallout Shelter, but it does provide a good opportunity to look back on some of the best vaults in the series to date. Their experiments were intended to provide insight into human behavior that would be beneficial to rebuilding society, though more than a couple were just downright mean. That makes for a pretty entertaining way to pass time on the bus or at the dentist’s office, but it doesn’t exactly make for the best social experiments-and that’s kind of Vault-Tec’s whole deal. Fallout Shelter puts players in the role of Overseer for a vault of their choice, but unlike the Vault-Tec vaults established in Fallout lore, they’ll be starting almost completely from scratch and building rooms and facilities as they go. Announced (and released) last month at E3, Fallout Shelter is a deceptively cute mobile game that’s helping fans of the retro-futuristic, post-apocalyptic series keep their cool until Fallout 4 comes out later this year.
