{"id":69955,"date":"2018-12-19T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/sheltered"},"modified":"2018-12-19T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T10:00:00","slug":"review-sheltered-the-last-of-us-meets-the-sims-in-this-tricky-game-of-resource-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/12\/19\/review-sheltered-the-last-of-us-meets-the-sims-in-this-tricky-game-of-resource-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Sheltered &#8211; The Last of Us Meets The Sims In This Tricky Game Of Resource Management"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/sheltered\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/sheltered\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"\">\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Sheltered Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/94316\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/94316\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Sheltered Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>It\u2019s always the way. You go to the trouble of having a family &#8211; then boom! &#8211; a nuclear holocaust comes along and forces you underground in an attempt to survive. Now the humdrum of daily life is replaced by a constant need to search the fallout-ridden surface for food and fuel while ensuring your loved ones don\u2019t fall ill or die of radiation poisoning. In other words, life post-apocalypse can be a real <em>drag<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>That is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/sheltered\"><strong>Sheltered<\/strong><\/a> in an irradiated nutshell. It\u2019s resource management, character caretaking and turn-based combat all in the same melting pot. Think a <strong>The Last of Us<\/strong>-themed expansion pack for <strong>The Sims<\/strong>. With four randomly generated survivors and a family pet &#8211; which you can customise right down to the key personality traits before each run begins &#8211; it\u2019s up to you to keep them all alive as long as possible. And you probably won\u2019t &#8211; it\u2019s <em>that<\/em> kind of game &#8211; so you\u2019ll have to make plenty of brutal decisions along the way.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Sheltered Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/94319\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/94319\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Sheltered Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Those decisions form the crux of the game\u2019s gameplay loop. There are no good choices to be made here, and every path comes with a sacrifice of its own. The generator that keeps your 2D pixel art shelter running needs fuel, but in order to gather enough to keep it ticking (and the parts to upgrade it) you\u2019ll need to task one or more of your survivors with an adventure on the outside. However, doing so will reduce the amount of water in your tank; you never know what you might find. Perhaps an abandoned warehouse with a can of petrol, or a wasteland filled with zombies. Everything is a trade.<\/p>\n<p>Combat, when encountered, is rudimentary at best, resolving itself to a simple turn-based affair that lacks much flair or personality. Other survivors may attack your shelter, and you\u2019re likely to encounter anything from bandits to bears out in the wilds, but it\u2019s easily one of Sheltered\u2019s weakest aspects. However, your real battle is with that ever looming need to risk resources in the hope of gathering more. But, considering the layout of the overworld is randomly generated with every new game (and the fact you can only travel so far due to the size of the water canister you carry around) you can sometimes end up in a wasteland void of anything worth salvaging. By which point your family has already died a painful death.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Sheltered Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/94318\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/94318\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Sheltered Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>That design flaw aside, there\u2019s a palpable sense of brutal reality to contend with should you be willing to invest. Each survivor needs to wash, sleep, eat and go to the toilet and leaving one of these requirements unmet could risk them deteriorating as a result. Take too long to treat a case of radiation poisoning contracted from an adventure on the surface and that family member will perish in a pool of their own fluids. It\u2019s a game that doesn\u2019t shy away from the nastiness of its concept, but it can sometimes do itself a disservice, too.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no dialogue exchanged between characters in the main Survival mode, and when coupled with the facelessness of their pixel art it becomes all too easy to lose that sense of attachment Sheltered clearly wants you to possess. Compared to the way <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/this_war_of_mine_complete_edition\"><strong>This War of Mine: Complete Edition<\/strong><\/a> &#8211; a game with a similar apocalyptic setting &#8211; deftly juggles many heartbreaking story beats, it can often feel like you\u2019re managing an ant farm rather than a living breathing shelter full of survivors. You can even recruit other people to your group as you expand and upgrade your shelter, creating a more ruthless version of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/fallout_shelter\"><strong>Fallout Shelter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Sheltered Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/94314\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/94314\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Sheltered Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Still, whether you grow close to your bedraggled nuclear family or not, there\u2019s still an addictive quality to its constant need to juggle systems. Your survivors will complete tasks you assign them, and you\u2019ll need to switch between searching for signals on the radio transmitter (which will lead you to a new survivor\/potential new occupant should you be willing to divide your water, oxygen and food further still), upgrading tool benches and shelter doors, and simply ensuring each survivor is well fed\/rested\/toileted.<\/p>\n<p>The control scheme is still an awkward fit for a controller &#8211; even a good two years after its initial PC release, it\u2019s no less obvious that Sheltered is best played with a mouse and keyboard. However, that doesn\u2019t mean developer Unicube hasn\u2019t made a decent effort to make it work, and having the ability to apply automation to each survivor by clicking the left stick and speeding up time with \u2018ZR\u2019 really helps you maintain some semblance of control. A more robust tutorial wouldn\u2019t have gone amiss, but its lack of real support is, at the very least, fitting for a game all about staving off an inevitable slow death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>If you like Fallout Shelter and you want something with a few less smiles and a few more painful deaths, Sheltered will tickle that morbid itch. Managing its multitude of interconnected systems requires a deft touch, and while its difficulty isn\u2019t for the faint of heart, there\u2019s a real sense of accomplishment in keeping your growing troupe of survivors alive for days on end. While not as effective as other forays into the well-trodden post-apocalypse, as well as being a victim of its own procedural generation at times, there\u2019s still a morbid curiosity to its pixel art survivalism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s always the way. You go to the trouble of having a family &#8211; then boom! &#8211; a nuclear holocaust comes along and forces you underground in an attempt to survive. Now the humdrum of daily life is replaced by a constant need to search the fallout-ridden surface for food and fuel while ensuring your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}