Shelter

- The game is nothing like animal simulators from 90s, namely Wolf and Lion. Shelter is linear - there are several "chapters" where you find yourself in a dangerous situation (like night, fire, heavy rain) and you have to behave properly to protect your cubs and get to the next chapter. - In each chapter you have to feed your cubs. Digging up vegetables, shaking off apples, hunting... but it may get a bit tricky! If you do it carelessly one of them may gobble everything and the rest will starve. Fortunately they are not identical and sooner or later you will figure out which one is more hungry than the other. - In most cases cubs follow you obediently but you have to be careful not to let any of them get lost. If they see a vegetable they may run towards it and wait there until you dig it up. They may get scared and disperse in panic. Be careful when you are hunting because you are faster - they may get lost and even if they can see you sometimes they won't have any idea how to reach you. - It's more a piece of art than a game. Its purpose is to make you think about nature, the circle of life, being protective... If you are thinking you'll be playing as a badger hero who comes to save the day then this game is definitely not for you. It's not an action nor puzzle game. You won't ask yourself questions like "hmm... how to solve it? What should I do?" Everything will come naturally... I would say you are not supposed to play this game, you should rather experience it...

Firstly, I wanted to point out that another reviewer has mentioned this title in incompatible with gamepad control. This is incorrect. An XBox 360 controller works wonderfully and I highly recommend it, although the experience is just as fluid without. I love this game, don't mistake that for a second. I've got bad eyes and the game is really hard for me to play natively. Fortunately, someone tweaked a revision of an ENB shader to work with Shelter. It increases the contrast subtly while keeping extremely faithful to the aesthetic of the original. Without these shaders, I couldn't play the game at all. Would be a good idea for a mod spotlight, but the file is currently hosted on a dropbox account, so I would like to see something a little more consistent there. To find it, search for "ENB Graphic Mod for Shelter" on Google. Alternatively, if you can't find it there, I'll post a link to the download in the forum tree for this title. Were it not for the visibility issue, this game is easily 5 stars. The narrative is driven effortlessly and without a single word. As I proceeded through the environments, I became incredibly immersed in the story and when tragedy struck (and in this game, it invariably will) I found myself grappling with very real feelings of anxiety, remorse, and despair as I let go and moved on. The stylized environments are beautiful and the music fits the mood perfectly. Truly a modern masterpiece

Shelter is like an interactive piece of art, the aim of which is to make the player experience the essence of "motherly responsibilities" by giving him/her the control of a mother badger and the task to protect her cubs from natural hazards. I personally think it succeeds at getting it's message through, since if the player is capable of some degree of empathy, it is impossible not to develop a feeling of responsibility for the virtual cubs, and considering that the game is barely an hour long, I'd say that this is a very good achievement from the creators. Protecting the cubs is not that challenging, but as I've said Shelter is not about the gameplay or the challenge, but more about the atmosphere and about the feelings and thoughts it might evoke from the player, and as such it is definitely not everyone's cup of tea, and there's nothing wrong with that. All in all I would rate the game 3.5, mostly because it's really short and as far as gameplay is concerned it doesn't have much to offer, but since GOG doesn't allow half stars I opted for 4 stars because I do think it deserves more than a mediocre rating. If you're interested in the game and want to support the devs purchase it at fully price, if you don't want to spend 9.99 for a game that is about an hour long wait for a discount, and if you don't like "artsy" indie games then I would advise against purchasing it.

When i saw the description i was psyched. Mommy badger simulator you say? Count me in! Now, i was expecting pretty much from this game, based on how good reviews it got. But my expectations were shattered. First of all, my opinion is that Shelter it's not a game. It's similar with Dear Eshter and others. Your only necessary interaction is to guide the badger through the paths. That's all. All that thing with "feed the little badgers", "avoid the deadly bird" are not necessary. You can starve your siblings and let the mighty bird kill them all, you will have the same result in the end. I would call those kind of creations "interactive cinematic", it seems more appropriate. Now, the game design it's pretty poor. You have a lot of invisible walls, you can't climb on almost anything, you pretty much need to follow a path. That can be a hassle sometimes, as you don't have a mini map or some kind of guidance, as all looks pretty much the same, so you have that "well, i'll go back and try to find the exit" too. Now, why the game is mostly appreciate, it's due to artistic design. They opted for and polygonal look, but you also have some "modern" details. I'm fine with it, but i don't see how this can be such an important factor. And as i was saying before, everything looks pretty much the same anyway, so, what you see from print-screens, that's what you get and nothing else. Sounds again, are ok, they create an atmosphere. And i'm referring to actual sounds produced by the environment. The soundtrack it's nothing to write home about, not memorable, but it fits the "game". It took me a little over an hour to finish the game, and have in mind that i got "stucked" a lot due to poor level design, so it was an boring hour. If i would start over again, it should take me about 20-30 minutes. It's a poor "game", i understand the artsy approach, but that's poor too, as it's so repetitive and not so special once you saw the first few minutes of the game.