.
Sheltered 2 is an in-depth survival simulation and colony management game developed by Unicube and published by Team17. Similar to Fallout Shelter, players must build a functioning survival base in a post-apocalyptic world and then maintain the base to ensure the survival of their faction. While many of the changes made to the gameplay from its 2015 predecessor results in a more complex and challenging experience, the number of tasks that must be juggled can make keeping track of each aspect of a player’s colony difficult.
In the original Sheltered, players were tasked with keeping a small family and any recruited outside NPCs alive during the apocalypse. Using side-scrolling graphics similar to Fallout Shelter and This Little War of Mine, players could build a spacious underground base with numerous rooms meant for different tasks like crafting and sleeping. Sheltered boasted a whimsical pixel art style that helps it to stand out among other similar colony survival games, with enough customization options to make interesting family units in each playthrough. However, many of these features have been switched out in Sheltered 2, creating a different tone for the game entirely.
Sheltered 2 has changed out pixelated graphics for 3D character models and backgrounds that provide a less fantastical apocalypse setting. With darker lightning, grungier textures, and character models that lack detail, the game’s design has a retro feel similar to survival-horror games of the PlayStation 2. Like in Sheltered, players have the ability to customize their “Faction Leader” and two subsequent faction members. However, the 3D models all look similar, despite having several options to toggle appearance for clothing and features at the start of the game. Because 3D character customization has become a staple of many survival games, offering more color variations and sharpening features on the character models through a patch could make the customization feel more worth the time.
Characters in Sheltered 2 won’t simply be bodies performing tasks. Each character has a list of basic needs including hunger, thirst, and health, as well as the ability to accumulate mental and physical injuries during expeditions across the map for supplies. All characters can build relationships with each other, causing emotional trauma when a death occurs either on base or during combat and exploration. This trauma can accumulate and negatively impact the character’s ability to serve the faction.
To counter this, characters also have a long list of skills and traits that can either be useful or a hindrance depending on the situation. For example, a character who has a higher intelligence score is better at crafting items needed for survival, while a character with a trait for good social skills can build relationships more quickly. This creates an in-depth social element similar to more upbeat games like The Sims. However, managing the needs of each character can quickly become overwhelming, especially among the many other tasks needed to ensure the base continues to function.
One of the biggest improvements of Sheltered 2 is the expedition map, which will need to be created by players who must then risk the lives of characters to obtain crafting supplies, food, and other important items. Unlike open-world survival titles like Rust, the expeditions are planned out on a map that is made up of hexagonal tiles. Each tile presents a challenge, like a barren wasteland or other explorable locations. Players will be able to investigate abandoned homes or cities with a chance of running into other NPCs trying to survive the apocalypse. These NPCs can include other survivors, as well as fanatic members of post-apocalyptic cults. The encounters prevent exploration from becoming repetitive and create an immersive world that is more than a supply farm filled with zombie attacks.
Sheltered 2 is a great pick for fans of hardcore survival simulation games, or those who enjoy post-apocalyptic survival titles with emotional weight. The complex combination of social elements and individual character needs, mixed with the survival genre mechanics of exploration, crafting, and base-building, create a brutal survival setting. However, due to the number of elements players will be juggling, those who prefer single-character survival titles may find Sheltered 2’s gameplay to be overwhelming. Despite this, Sheltered 2 offers a rewarding challenge for fans of apocalyptic survival games and is a nice change from survival titles focused on combat and base looting.
Sheltered 2 is available on September 21, 2021 on PC via Steam. A digital code was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.
