Developer: Unicube, Team 17 Digital Ltd
Publisher: Team 17 Digital Ltd
Rrp: £9.99 (Steam, Gog.com and Humblebundle)
Released: 15th March 2016
Available on: Steam, Gog.com and Humblebundle
Played Using: Mouse and Keyboard
Approximate game length: 20 Hours +
What lengths would you go to to keep your family alive? Of course you would scavenge but would you steal food from other people? Would you kill? The outside world is a cruel and desolate place, you can’t keep them safe from that
forever. One day the wasteland will come knocking on your shelter door. The best you can door is try and prepare.
My father once told me that mankind is only three meals away from total destruction. At the time I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about let alone believe him. These days I get what he meant and its games like Shelter that really hammer that message home. Shelter is… well its a survival sim set in a 2D perspective. It’s up to you to ensure that the family you have survives as long as possible by scavenging, crafting and occasionally fighting.
The game starts with you getting to customise your family, in this screen you can change quite a few things such as a family members gender, trait, stat preset, body type and skin colour (along with a few other things). So if you fancy creating an all male family then you can totally go for it. I would have preferred that the game tell me exactly what the trait does as it doesn’t tell you anywhere, you just have to make an educated guess. The traits you give your family in the customisation screen aren’t the only ones they’ll have. The game will also assign some negative ones to go with them. So your optimistic father might also be unhygienic or a large eater as well.
I quite like that you also get to pick the family pet, and its not just some piece of fluff the pet actually has an affect on your family.
Every family has needs and this game gives you the opportunity to manage one that’s going through a bit of a crisis (what else could you call the end of the world?). From everyday things like keeping them fed through to fending off invaders it’s up to you to try and guide them through it all. The game allows you to automate this somewhat so that you don’t have to command each family member to eat, sleep and well… go to the toilet. However, this automation won’t do anything more complex than that. Anything like keeping the shelter tidy or maintaining the your equipment has to done by your order. Only two tasks at a time can be queued so you have to manage your shelter wisely.
As easy as it would be to just house up in the shelter and never come out your family wouldn’t survive long. Eventually you’ll run out of food, and the shelter you start with is very barebones, it doesn’t even have a toilet to start with. This is where scavenging comes in, a party of two people can be sent out from the shelter to explore the surrounding areas and, hopefully, bring back something useful. When you do this an screen will come up allowing you to choose what items they will take with them such as a gas mask, a weapon etc.
The items you scavenge can be put to good use, creating other things like beds, water-butts and showers. Some of it can also be used to upgrade the systems you have such as the air and water filtration systems, you can make them more efficient and less prone to breaking.
You’ll occasionally meet people out in the wastes. Sometimes they want to trade or join up with your group, others though want to take what little you have. Its not just people you meet of course, there is wildlife to contend with like bears and wolves, in those cases they aren’t really interested in talking or your stuff. They’re much more interested in how much of a morsel you’ll be.
As I mentioned previously you can recruit people into your shelter, but you have to be wary, some people are only trying to get into your shelter to take it over. At first anyone you recruit will only have limited usefulness to you, but over the course of seven days they’ll gradually become more loyal and can perform more tasks eventually being able to be sent out into the wastes to scavenge. Be wary though, more bodies means your resources will get used up even quicker than before. So think carefully before you invite someone to join you.
There’s also an RPG element to the game, all family members (and recruits) have stats. As you explore the wastes and build up your shelter they will gain experience points and sometimes have a stat increase relative to the task they were performing.
As much a I enjoy this games theme I do find myself getting frustrated by the level of luck required. A great example being that I got my family to twenty four days, they all had beds (actual beds not sleeping bags) and the shelter looked pretty good. Unfortunately all of this ended simply because the rain rarely appeared, so most of them died from dehydration. The ones that didn’t died from disease because I couldn’t keep them clean, which also requires water.
If you’re into micro management then this game may just be right up your alley, especially if you love post apocalyptia. However is that isn’t your thing (either the theme or micro management) then I would advise giving this game a wide birth.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
This War of Mine
Zafehouse Diaries
Rebuild 3: The Gangs of Deadsville
