They do not make a difference in the game and they feel like strange bookmarks between the chapters. These sections just consist of walking up to the elder and choosing a path. Every time, you visit a cosmic place between space and time. Each checkpoint is marked with a new memory and some advice from the elder elephant. To unravel it, you must go from point A to point B. A bit more character would have been helpful to connect the player to the elephant family, beyond asking for milk or fruit. Maybe there could be one elephant who tends to walk off alone or another elephant who picks up every yellow flower it sees. I know I am playing the matriarch, but it would have been nice to have some personality and unique interactions with the herd.
As I lost some of my herd to unfortunate circumstances like starvation or tigers, I would be disheartened only because my numbers have dwindled, and that I might get a bad ending. While this mechanic was interesting, even with everything myself and the surviving herd went through, I felt no emotional connection with the rest of the elephants. Repetition sets in, just as it does on the technical side of things - one of the hidden virtues of the finale is that it wraps things up before the emotional weight of the story has a chance to evaporate.Despite its pretty exterior, the game’s story cuts deep. After you’ve figured out all of the mechanics, you’ve probably also seen most of the team’s artistic chops, and the assets at play don’t exactly match these. Image: Might and Delight via HGGĪdditionally - and somewhat less flatteringly - the ability of the game’s audiovisuals to keep evoking emotion degrades over time. is to imply that the harsh lessons learned by the herd and by Reva, prompted by death and suffering brought about by “misplays”, are somehow a detriment to the story. Trying to go back and “do better” - save more elephants, operate more efficiently, etc. It’s a dramatic statement, to be sure, but one befitting such a finale. Replaying the game so soon after its conclusion feels like a betrayal of all of these themes. Hope and heartbreak are in constant struggle with one another throughout the game, up to its finish. Without giving away too much, the finale of the game’s story ties these themes together in a perfectly satisfying way. Part of the game is processing that anger and heartbreak and then accepting that you won’t ever be able to make up for those mistakes nor replace those losses. However, as the game progressed, I realized that this was a significant part of what Shelter 3 was exploring thematically. I was initially quite frustrated with the game, inclined to rail against the mechanics as they punished me for seemingly inconsequential decisions. Two adults and a juvenile (an elephant never forgets) fell to tigers’ depredations and scorching desert sands.
#SHELTER 3 REVIEW HOW TO#
And you can choose how to carry on and how to carry the next generation with you.Īs I played, I lost several elephants to the perils of our journey. The story asks you to marshal the strength to give hope to the hopeless, to inherit and shoulder great responsibility, to nurture and protect and lead, all while knowing that you cannot be perfect and you cannot control death or fate or time, but you can choose to carry on. I’ve explained the mechanical reasons for this, but let’s delve into the storytelling at play here. And so problems arise when you’re reminded that you’re sitting in a chair tapping away at mouse and keyboard, not leading a herd in a perilous exodus across the savannah.Īs mentioned earlier, I don’t recommend replaying Shelter 3 immediately after finishing it. The life of a game like this depends on the ability of the mechanics to contribute to the emotional experience without announcing their presence and ripping players out of the story world. So long as tutorials are succinct and clear, and so long as the bar at the bottom of the screen is understandable and conveys the danger of your situation well enough, your brain can fold these mechanics into the story without concentrating on them as easily as it does for WASD. Agency and choice are most significant when they can seamlessly fit into the game’s larger emotional experience. When the herd begins crossing a stretch of desert in desperate search of food and water, even a slight detour could mean the death of an elephant. One of Shelter 3’s greatest strengths is its ability to immerse you in the narrative with its mechanics.
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