Shelter is by no means a long game, neither is it very deep on a gameplay or mechanical level. That said, Might and Delight have undoubtedly worked to their strengths to make a game that I won't forget. In Shelter you control a mother badger protecting her five cubs. While it's also a very linear game it never presents you with a goal. This is perfect, as the player I was always focusing on the task at hand, remaining in the present I tackled what faced me, rather than think about what was ahead. I found this to be very suited to a game where you control an animal, considering animals mostly think in the present. Unlike us humans.
Interestingly enough, for one of the first times in a game I hardly thought selfishly about my own character's safety. I was always worried about my little baby badgers, not thinking about myself, or my own safety, I didn't even consider if I could get hurt or hungry myself.
It's lucky you don't have to worry too much about your own safety, since caring for five badger cubs doesn't come easy. I won't ruin the ways in which you can lose them, but lets just say you probably won't get through Shelter without losing the majority of them. Each time I lost a badger cub was actually rather depressing. I was the one who felt like a monster, not the thing that took it away. However with each cub I lost, feeding the remaining ones became much easier, a guilty reminder I had failed them.
Feeding the cubs is a simple matter of uprooting a carrot, headbutting a tree to make apples fall or pouncing on a small rodent or fox. The cubs can't acquire the food themselves, so once you obtain the food you have the choice of which badger to give it to. A cub's hunger is determined by the tone of it's fur, when it's markings are more of a grey tone you know it needs to be fed. That said, this isn't very easy to tell nor does the game tell you this, so often you have to rely on your memory for which one to feed next. Obviously this works nicely as it adds to the pressure.
As a few final notes, Shelter doesn't look like a horror game, but in many ways it is. I haven't been so afraid and stressed in a video game for such a long time. I was obsessively counting how many cubs I had left, even jumping out of my skin at any sudden noises. This was definitely helped by the fact I played the game in one sitting without getting up. I was extremely absorbed, often forgetting I was was playing a game. It left me with a great new experience but not one I want to repeat any time soon. The most heartbreaking moment that comes to mind; I was hiding in a bush with my last two cubs. As we were moving around in the undergrowth I could swear I saw a third cub, for a second my heart leaped. Alas, on closer inspection there wasn't a third, I knew true and well he/she wasn't alive anymore.
So all in all, I highly recommend anyone anyone to give Shelter a try. Like I said earlier it isn't long, only clocking 88 minutes to finish it myself. The gameplay isn't very deep either, but it left me with an experience I will never forget. That experience alone certainly makes it worth full price to me. And I haven't even talked about how brilliant the game looks and sounds. However, if you don't want to take that risk be sure to pick it up in a sale. Remember to play it in one sitting, no interruptions, all the way to the end of the credits.
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