Sheltered 2 – Review

OUR SCORE: 7/10

Team17 and Unicube have finally given us the sequel to their survival and post-apocalyptic resource management game, Sheltered. Sheltered 2 brings quite a few changes and new additions to the game, changes that I feel fans of the original will appreciate.

The game is far more complex and challenging than its predecessor. There’s a lot more happening at once which means you’ll have to divide your attention between multiple tasks at once. It’ll keep you on your toes constantly so prepare yourself.

The Look of Despair

One of the biggest changes that you’ll notice immediately is the change in art style. The game now features 3D character models and objects, unlike the previous game. The change to 3D is very welcome as it looks much better and cleaner. It also helps make the game feel so much grittier and dark. So it fits quite well with the feel and themes of the game.

The models aren’t hyper-realistic but geared more towards the low-poly look. The world itself is quite grim, grungy, and cold so this low-poly look just adds to push that feeling onto the player. Makes the game more immersive and gives you a good taste of what the people in the world might feel like.

Sheltered 2 Gameplay

Sheltered 2 is all about surviving in this post-apocalyptic world. And surviving here isn’t easy. The easiest way to describe the game is to liken it to Fallout Shelter. But this game is way more in-depth and complex.

One of the newest additions to the game is the introduction of Factions. You have the ability to interact with other factions out in the world which can be quite intriguing.

You control a faction of survivors in this game. And the folks of this faction aren’t just nameless stats. They’re folks with personalities, traits, desires, and a ton of skills that can be very useful to your faction. Alongside these characters, there’s also the Faction Leader.

The Faction Leader can be customized and has their own unique traits that tend to be way more powerful than your regular traits. The Faction Leader is super vital to the game and if they die, the game is over then and there. While there are quite a few visual customization options for your Faction Leader, I wish there were more. Hopefully, this is something that can be added in a future patch.

And to survive in the wasteland, you need supplies and food among other things. To gather these you will have to go on expeditions. And these expeditions are filled with surprises. Who knows what you’ll find. Maybe some food, or maybe some survivors. Or how about some raving lunatics who attack you.

If you do get attacked, you will need to defend your survivors in combat. You will use whatever weaponry you can find to help you in these fights. Combat is turn-based and you’ll have to be very cautious to not lose any of your survivors.

 Final Conclusion

If you’re a fan of survival games, especially those set in the post-apocalyptic world then you’re going to enjoy this. There’s tonnes of resource management to do here and so much variety in gameplay that even if you do fail, every playthrough feels fresh.

Sheltered 2 takes everything that made Sheltered such a fan favourite and builds on that. It not only improves things but also adds in some fantastic new features like the Factions element which changes things up and makes the game more exciting.