Sheltered

 PC
User Score
5.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 48 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 24 out of 48
  3. Negative: 16 out of 48

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  1. MoreBokeh
    Apr 18, 2016
    6
    There is very little player agency in this game, it feels like you're just in for the ride. Sometimes you'll get lucky, sometimes you won't, and it seems like the game keeps chugging along regardless, like with rain occurring coincidentally every X days. Most of the time you'll just be watching boring things happen, like an extremely lengthy repair of an oxygen filter, or extremely longThere is very little player agency in this game, it feels like you're just in for the ride. Sometimes you'll get lucky, sometimes you won't, and it seems like the game keeps chugging along regardless, like with rain occurring coincidentally every X days. Most of the time you'll just be watching boring things happen, like an extremely lengthy repair of an oxygen filter, or extremely long and mundane combat. One interesting pro is the ability to character create children (which are often missing in survival games), but ultimately they don't matter too much to the gameplay or story. There are many better survival / personal base management sims out there, skip this if you haven't tried any others yet.… Expand
  2. ChiefdruidRVnge
    Nov 14, 2016
    0
    Pretty boring game without any real challenges. Everything regenerates if you take everything out of one building you can just go back to that one over an over every few days and get new fully regenerated supplies. The combat leaves a lot to be desired and it pretty much in your favor the entire game if you know what you are doing. They are trying to make a difficulty mod for it but itPretty boring game without any real challenges. Everything regenerates if you take everything out of one building you can just go back to that one over an over every few days and get new fully regenerated supplies. The combat leaves a lot to be desired and it pretty much in your favor the entire game if you know what you are doing. They are trying to make a difficulty mod for it but it won't change things as the same tactics can still be applied all the difficulty mod will do is delay time but won't change the outcome if you know the secrets and exploits. It's fun the first time you play it because you don't know what to expect, but, once you learn then you know how easy it is from level to level. The dog shiits all over the place too.… Expand
  3. Dal_ReviewedDat
    Mar 17, 2016
    6
    Sitting somewhere between This War of Mine and Fallout Shelter, Sheltered is a playable but flawed game.

    I like the art style graphics personally, but it screams out indie game, and there's not a great deal of sound impact. If there were different levels of commitment on Sheltered, it would probably feel more playable. However, it feels pedantic on detail. Literally everything    Sitting somewhere between This War of Mine and Fallout Shelter, Sheltered is a playable but flawed game.

    I like the art style graphics personally, but it screams out indie game, and there's not a great deal of sound impact.

    If there were different levels of commitment on Sheltered, it would probably feel more playable. However, it feels pedantic on detail. Literally everything feels like it needs micro-managing and whilst in some titles this can be a benefit, here it really does feel like a chore. Crafting seems illogical at times and it becomes frustrating more than enjoyable pretty fast. Enemies can be really frustrating also.

    I can't recommend this over it's influences. Fallout Shelter feels more polished and as an app, it works really well, whilst This War of Mine feels like the more weighty game.    … Expand
  4. honestabe
    Nov 14, 2016
    0
    Glad I didn't pay very much for this game. I would have felt cheated. Even $5 is too much for it really but there is some fun in the early game. No so much afterwards.
  5. Voyou
    Apr 2, 2018
    2
    When I was young, I've babysit smarter toddlers. From the tutorial, you learn that you have to select every character individually and manually make them drink at the fountain standing 1 metre away. Not teach them, tell them every single time, as they don't learn anything. Ugh !

    Since I'm not much into holding vegetable hands, I took one and made her craft a snare to place outside. She    When I was young, I've babysit smarter toddlers. From the tutorial, you learn that you have to select every character individually and manually make them drink at the fountain standing 1 metre away. Not teach them, tell them every single time, as they don't learn anything. Ugh !

    Since I'm not much into holding vegetable hands, I took one and made her craft a snare to place outside. She did, opened the doors and passed the stranger who was frantically ringing the intercom. He didn't notice her either. She then stepped outside and got irradiated. Do I need to make her wear the hazmat suit before crafting ? I'm out of here.

    Thing is, if one proposes a nanomanagement game such as Sheltered, one needs to offer a great interface. Here we've got one of the worst I've ever seen. With no help from the rotten graphics, I've got no idea who I have currently selected, what they can do, what the desperation icons above their heads mean… There is text to read, but no pause to read while the retards die in real time. And without free save, the most basic requirement of any non-arcade game, things cannot be tried and fun cannot be had.

    All the ingredients that one finds at the bottom of the barrel of game design.    … Expand
  6. iseeall
    May 14, 2016
    5
    A pretty average game close to This War of Mine, Fallout Shelter, Craft the World, Sims. It gets pretty boring more or less after you've learnt how to play it.

    The Good: - its gameplay is generally like in This War of Mine and others mentioned above: you manage a group of survivors, build and craft stuff, go out with small groups to explore and scavenge nearby locations, barter and    A pretty average game close to This War of Mine, Fallout Shelter, Craft the World, Sims. It gets pretty boring more or less after you've learnt how to play it.

    The Good:
    - its gameplay is generally like in This War of Mine and others mentioned above: you manage a group of survivors, build and craft stuff, go out with small groups to explore and scavenge nearby locations, barter and fight
    - the music is fine
    - characters have stats, 1 perk and 1 disadvantage each, characters train in missions or from special crafted objects

    The So-so:
    - pixelated graphics. Some will say it's ugly but I found it fine. There is even a decent selection of characters' appearances, e.g. haircuts, and each haircut is made from ~25 brown pixels.
    - despite the somewhat too 80s-like graphics, it still has some post-apocalyptic atmosphere, though the characters feel pretty anonymous (no biographies, no clear portraits, just stats)
    - characters can be transferred to partial AI's control, and they will attempt to fulfill their needs by themselves (like in Sims), but they don't do that well, and they won't guess to repair things. So, e.g. if your shower breaks down, they will stand around it with "shower" bubble above their heads instead of repairing it.

    The Bad:
    - poor controls. The game would need a panel with characters' portraits, a-la Jagged Alliance 2 or Baldur's Gate. Clicking on characters in the game world to select them isn't always precise enough and instead gives movement order to another character you had previously selected
    - multiple design errors. E.g. if you are out of water, you can't go out to get any water (sending scavengers costs water), and all you can do is simply wait for rain and watch your characters get angry from thirst. Or: the tool to recycle useless items needs lvl 4 workbench, and you will only get that late in the game. Meaning that you will stockpile garbage items for most of the game to finally recycle them when you are swimming in mats anyway. The freezer for meat you get much later than you can make a trap to catch animals (which gives meat). Or: loot in sectors restocks pretty fast, so there is no real need to go too far or explore the world at all; you can just circle around the few nearest points of interest almost daily, gathering loot until you build everything
    - tons of micromanagement because the equipment breaks very fast and you need to repair it. You can't queue more than 2 orders (in Sims 1 you could queue at least 10 orders), and you can't make a production queue at the workbench, so you will need to craft every sack of cement and every gas mask individually
    - clumsy and too simplistic combat, with ugly graphics and unclear rules (a small girl with strength 1 does roughly the same melee damage as a bear?)

    Judging by the sheer number of features the game has and the complexity of the simulation, I see that the authors wanted to make it all realistic, atmospheric and interesting. However, it all doesn't really work well and results mostly in a tedious routine. Probably they haven't tested the game much. When I think of it, even Rebuild, a flash game about fighting off zombies and capturing sectors was more fun.    … Expand
  7. PrincessRose
    Mar 3, 2022
    0
    Besides looking terrible, I just don't enjoy the game at all. Seems really boring. Just can't get into it and doesn't feel worth playing at all. The game is described as deep and emotional. Which it does not seem. The only emotion I am feeling when playing is boredom. Not an enjoyable game or interesting in anyway.
  8. yosa1
    Sep 24, 2018
    0
    This game is an apocalypse shelter survival style in which you scavenge, craft and recruit other survivors, and holy god this game is such crap.

    Here are the things that piss me off the most. Repairing-everything in your base has durability and they break fast;by the time you fully repair one thing several others are in need of more repair and you repair rate is slow.    This game is an apocalypse shelter survival style in which you scavenge, craft and recruit other survivors, and holy god this game is such crap.

    Here are the things that piss me off the most.

    Repairing-everything in your base has durability and they break fast;by the time you fully repair one thing several others are in need of more repair and you repair rate is slow.

    scavenging-its a crap shoot what you may find, don't expect to search a farm and find food.scavenging takes water, and to get water you are at the mercy of if it decides to rain so its quite possible to hit a dry spell and be without the means to scavenge which ends you game fast as you cant get food otherwise.

    Tasks-all tasks take to long, having a shower could take a night,fixing things could take 2 days, you could rest your character before repairing the water filter only to have to rest your character agin afterwards to find the water filter is falling into disrepair again, its retarded.

    Food-good luck trying to find food, first 10 days in game and 8 locations searched including a farm yielded 4 cans of food which got used up immediately.

    Some of the other annoyances include, bad UI,lack of too tips, no elective save mode(auto save at the start of each day only),pitiful character carry capacity, the reliance on random rain fall for water.    … Expand
  9. NationFusion
    May 18, 2016
    5
    We’ve been surviving in games for a long time. Perhaps it was a virus set to destroy the world, or maybe another zombie outbreak. In many games it was just hunger that had to be survived. In this case we must again survive after a nuclear apocalypse by fighting away all of the harm that the new, twisted world provides. Sheltered is initially quite fun. The first couple of hours of the gameWe’ve been surviving in games for a long time. Perhaps it was a virus set to destroy the world, or maybe another zombie outbreak. In many games it was just hunger that had to be survived. In this case we must again survive after a nuclear apocalypse by fighting away all of the harm that the new, twisted world provides. Sheltered is initially quite fun. The first couple of hours of the game are spent explaining systems, exploring, and helping this family and their dog survive the harsh new reality...but all of the fun very quickly dies off and it becomes repetitive and uninteresting once you’ve spent quite a bit of time with it. Graphically, Sheltered is just boring. The characters lack personality. Everything is rendered in an old school style that doesn’t interest me. While the style works and it well put together for the game, it didn’t draw me in at all. On an audio level, I believe this game is excellent. The sound effects and the creepy mood music really set the tone to create a great atmosphere, but the systems in the game are a chore.
    I feel more than any other survival type game you micromanage constantly to the point that unless you really enjoy micromanaging, the joy is just taken away and turned into a chore. In my opinion, video games are meant to be fun, not full of chores. While I understand that in the real apocalypse life would be pretty mundane and you’d need a strong discipline to survive, it just doesn’t translate well to a fun video game. Although the atmosphere and music are eerie and exciting, there are just simply better “Shelter” experiences out there. You cannot help but compare this game to Fallout Shelter or perhaps This War of Mine which harnesses much more charm and in the case of Fallout Shelter, more joy for the player than this game can.    … Expand
  10. bolachaa
    Jul 8, 2018
    10
    The game is pretty fun if you like the style, and how another user said:

    "If you buy the game, play on hardcore mode. It is currently the most challenging. The game does lack endgame content and is currently in development but for the price you can buy it right now its worth a try. You can also move to a new shelter after you have beaten' the current area, and by doing so get another    The game is pretty fun if you like the style, and how another user said:

    "If you buy the game, play on hardcore mode. It is currently the most challenging. The game does lack endgame content and is currently in development but for the price you can buy it right now its worth a try. You can also move to a new shelter after you have beaten' the current area, and by doing so get another family member and a bigger possible shelter. You can do this over and over again."    … Expand
  11. SethEvandor
    Dec 27, 2016
    5
    Cute survival game. Unfortunately comes with some serious flaws.

    There is a large assortment of items obtainable in the game, along with a plethora of craftables. The loot is RNG, what traders have is RNG and that is a good thing. You have to craft stuff to gain more from expeditions, in order to craft more stuff... Except any challenge this game presents can end very early on. Survival    Cute survival game. Unfortunately comes with some serious flaws.

    There is a large assortment of items obtainable in the game, along with a plethora of craftables. The loot is RNG, what traders have is RNG and that is a good thing. You have to craft stuff to gain more from expeditions, in order to craft more stuff... Except any challenge this game presents can end very early on. Survival becomes incredibly easy and fights from the start can be incredibly easy with the right pet (RIP bears).

    For some reason, during encounters on expeditions, the game seems to randomly select 1 of the 2 characters to interact - meaning you basically want 2 characters with all high stats. If my high charisma character is not engaging in conversation with a stranger, then it just doesn't make sense since I cannot choose so.

    Despite a character joining my shelter and having no stress, within a few real-time minutes they said they were too stressed out and leaving, so they set fire to something. This bizarre occurrence made me not want new characters because I was doing just fine and you cannot take the auto-mode off them (their loyalty needs time to increase). Yes, they consume your precious resources... unless you manually set them tasks.

    Gas masks. Your characters will get radiation poisoning if you don't equip them with gas masks for expeditions, but each of these requires 2 plastic, meaning if you run out of plastic, you are stuck to broadcasting for traders and the game is pretty boring with no ongoing expeditions. This wouldn't be a big problem if you didn't need a lot of plastic to build certain items... Such as the recycling machine. And when you do make it and start recycling... It tells you to wait 30+ real-time minutes. When you spent over two hours just waiting to make this and get told that, it's pretty ****

    The game does some things right, but even after 40 days, I still wasn't getting attacked and didn't need to build any defences in my shelter... If all these things I listed were fixed then maybe I would play longer but it barely holds your attention and quickly gets repetitive.    … Expand
  12. Tomle1202
    Sep 15, 2021
    6
    Sheltered's problems begin to surface as you begin to explore its many aspects of gameplay.
  13. Kristoff_PL
    Mar 5, 2022
    3
    Hi

    Super duper complicated WORK LIKE GAME... what is the point to spend time of work to WORK ,instead of having fun .... ???
  14. TomCat86
    Dec 4, 2017
    8
    If you buy the game, play on hardcore mode. It is currently the most challenging. The game does lack endgame content and is currently in development but for the price you can buy it right now its worth a try. You can also move to a new shelter after you have beaten' the current area, and by doing so get another family member and a bigger possible shelter. You can do this over and over again.
  15. MrMuffin16
    May 17, 2018
    6
    For some reason team 17 decided to keep the game play nearly exactly the same from the game jam that it was made in i believe, and leave it with no endgame and nothing but grinding. this made it nothing more than just an OK game with no excitement whatsoever apart from the rare occasion where you'll see someone try to break into your shelter only to see them get killed, or to have themFor some reason team 17 decided to keep the game play nearly exactly the same from the game jam that it was made in i believe, and leave it with no endgame and nothing but grinding. this made it nothing more than just an OK game with no excitement whatsoever apart from the rare occasion where you'll see someone try to break into your shelter only to see them get killed, or to have them just walk away. this game could of been much more but it sadly just isn't… Expand
  16. MadMaxZero
    Aug 13, 2020
    0
    They need 3 hours to take a dump. Everything breaks after using it like 20 times. Like how cheap is that sleeping bag! To dumb to drink alone, you need to manually command them to drink. And they are tired after 5 hours and need to sleep 6 hours. Honestly, I always believed there's no 0 or 10 rating games. Till I found this one.
  17. kyzaghan
    May 19, 2019
    7
    Resource management is successful. Stasis and Surrounded modes are nice. Minimal design is successful. BUT I had a hard time connecting emotionally to the characters. There are some shortcomings in the controls. The game does not add innovation to the genre. AS A RESULT,
    Players who are interested in post-apocalyptic stories, shelter construction and raw material management can experience    Resource management is successful. Stasis and Surrounded modes are nice. Minimal design is successful. BUT I had a hard time connecting emotionally to the characters. There are some shortcomings in the controls. The game does not add innovation to the genre. AS A RESULT,
    Players who are interested in post-apocalyptic stories, shelter construction and raw material management can experience the game.    … Expand
  18. Erik31
    May 22, 2019
    5
    This game has an interesting concept but sadly it fades really quick. As soon as you discover how to play it the right way and manage to get the essentials items you find yourself without any challenge.

    Some of the negatives aspects I've found in this game are: -Weapons are really expensive (like 200 market value) and you can find them anywhere if you have a lock pick -Some fights    This game has an interesting concept but sadly it fades really quick. As soon as you discover how to play it the right way and manage to get the essentials items you find yourself without any challenge.

    Some of the negatives aspects I've found in this game are:

    -Weapons are really expensive (like 200 market value) and you can find them anywhere if you have a lock pick

    -Some fights don´t make any sense at all. I had one guy armed against one unarmed, the fight started with him so he subdued me with his fists, taking all my stuff.

    -Characters don´t have any personality at all. you can´t really care if some of your people die because they all act the same. They don´t interact with each other, and don´t bring any lore when they join, so there is no immersion at all. You can clearly compare it with This War of Mine which makes you care and suffer when you lose a member.

    -As said in other reviews the damage system is ridiculous. My dog can kill all the enemies without any need of help, a kid trained can do the same damage as a bear, and so on.

    -Trauma works in a funny way. The game doesn't recognize who you killed so your members can get trauma for killing a bear/wolf, and in the diary will appear like you killed someone.

    -trade system is the outside is bizarre. you can pick some material she/he has and give him/her the same one, and your trade will succeed gaining charisma points.

    There are many more things to add but I think other reviews have already done that, so it´s not necessary to write them.    … Expand
  19. Dracoblack
    Dec 8, 2020
    7
    For me this is a small indie pearl, the graphic isn't really something that gets people interested, it has the right mood for the game. What really makes this game shine it's his addiction! Once you start if you love 2D games and the survival genre this game will provide a good amount of fun.
    I give only 7 because I think it's a good game, with a lot of fun mechanics, but once you get how    For me this is a small indie pearl, the graphic isn't really something that gets people interested, it has the right mood for the game. What really makes this game shine it's his addiction! Once you start if you love 2D games and the survival genre this game will provide a good amount of fun.
    I give only 7 because I think it's a good game, with a lot of fun mechanics, but once you get how they work it becomes easy. Also, the expedition events are not so much so after a while you get used to what will happen.
    They did a good job adding some scenarios, custom stories, and there is also the free endless mode. Too bad they didn't expanded on it making more of them or adding more events during the expeditions.    … Expand
  20. YigidOx2
    Mar 16, 2021
    7
    It is a lot of fun, although it does not over-repeat like many indie games. The pixel art is nice, the post apocalyptic world is beautiful, and it's really nice to build the base. However, after a while, all you do is collect loot and keep the base alive forever.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
62

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 10
  3. Negative: 1 out of 10
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    Jun 14, 2016
    75
    Sheltered is a PC version of Bethesda's Fallout Shelter, which demonstrated, that maintaining your own bunker can be almost as fun as exploring the wasteland. Family-oriented game design fails to deliver solid content for lengthy gaming sessions, but in little bits and pieces surviving the apocalypse with the good ol' missus and kids is quite addicting. [June/July 2016]
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    May 18, 2016
    40
    If you're a) an apocalyptic junkie enjoying the real fallout shelter plans, b) someone excited by problems, such as getting rid of a corpse; Sheltered with its never-ending nonsense will enrage you rather than entertain. [Issue#263]
  3. Eurogamer Italy
    May 9, 2016
    70
    Sheltered offers a solid experience that all fans of the genre will surely love. Unfortunately a certain repetitiveness in the difficulties to deal with, mortify the ambitions of a game that is still fun and challenging.
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