Review Shelter 3

LifeisXbox’s Shelter 3 review | Yes, you read that right; there is another Shelter game! Developed and published by Might and Delight, this is, of course, the third title in a series. However, it’s the first one that lets you play as a group of elephants! You are the herd leader and need to bring that herd to a better place, with other elephants. When I saw screenshots of this game, I got so hyped for it, but was the game worthy of the hype?

We played Shelter 3 for 3 hours on PC. This game is only available on PC.

What we liked!

• Visuals | Shelter 3 is a very unique-looking game. This is also what made me pick this review. It looks beautiful. Every new place looks a little different, like jungle or desert. There are bushes and special trees, all looking fancy in their own way. And then of course the elephants you play with and all the other animals, they all look so unique. I’ve never seen a style like this and it made me really curious about the game.

Somewhere between

• Nothing here.

What we disliked

• Story | Shelter 3’s story really disappointed me. You, as leader of a group of elephants, need to get to a new promised land with another herd of elephants. This is all. There is no more story. No side things, walk from A to B. There are some things different along the way, but it really doesn’t add a lot to the game.
• Enemies | Meanwhile, there are some enemies along the way. Apparently, those are easily avoidable. I didn’t know how to avoid crocodiles, so I lost 2 elephants there. I didn’t really mind, though, since you feel no connection to them at all. And believe me, if they put effort into it, I can even cry because there is a pet rock missing. I get attached really easily but felt nothing with this game. There are also big cats hunting you, like twice, in Shelter 3. But I didn’t have anything to lose anymore, so yeah…
• Unintuitive | I lost my whole herd on the way, and I think if you are new to the series, that is what will happen unless you read reviews beforehand. You need to stop and group your herd to avoid crocodiles and the big cats you come across. I didn’t figure out how to do this since I lost two elephants on the first crocodiles and the rest out of hunger ’cause I got lost in a desert with no food or water. After playing for two hours, I realized I need to press the middle mouse button to see where to go. I thought it just showed me where food was. I might sound stupid, but I think I’ve seen enough National Geographic to know that when a member of a herd is in danger, especially a little elephant, the mom will run at the enemies to protect her little one. So I tried this, and …yeah, it didn’t help. I mean one little cat or crocodile versus an entire herd of elephants. Three huge elephants would win that, no?
• Friendly animals | Yay, there are other animals! Yeah.. about that. They walk in a straight line and stop at the end of that straight line. They walk straight through you if you try to interact. Sometimes they hover across, just like one of my elephants (named him Dumbo in my head, cause he kept flying).
• One time only | I completed Shelter 3 in 3 hours. That is with me being lost for quite a while. The time is.. okay, it’s what the other games also had, but I see absolutely no reason to play this again. I got all my achievements the first time around. The story is… disappointing and doesn’t change with your decisions. And the most important for me, Yes, the game looks pretty the first time you load in, but after walking for 2 hours, it gets boring anyway. You also can’t explore extra for more points or anything. It’s just an incredibly boring elephant walking game.

CONCLUSION

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