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Shelter 3 is the first game I’ve played in this series and, at first, I had no idea what I’m doing because I didn’t quite fully read the instructions originally, hence why the gameplay online is from my second playthrough (below).
You’re the leader of a herd of elephants (of course, I’ve heard of elephants!), and have to guide them all across six stretches of land to a final place where all the elephants ultimately wind up.
By pressing the middle button of the mouse, you’ll use ‘sense’, causing the screen to go dark and highlighting the herd instead of them blending into the patchwork quilt-style background. Turn around 360 degrees and you’ll also find which way you need to head to make it to the next checkpoint, at which point you’ll choose a path with a view to finding your way to safety, albeit sometimes coming across baddies like alligators and coyotes which can cause members of the herd to… well… die.
So, essentially, Shelter 3 is a walking simulator, going from A to B every single time. Because of the mammal that I am, I can’t exactly outrun certain prey, so in both of my playthroughs, I survived, but not everyone else did.
Part of the problem is that a small rockery cannot be overcome (a normal elephant would just step over it!), while at other times, I can just walk through huge rocks which are as tall as me(!) That’s really just a nonsense.
At times, this is quite sweet, but ultimately it’s unfulfilling, especially since for each run-through, it took less than an hour. You would have expected several games like this for the package, or at least include the previous games in the overall price of £11.39. Okay, so you can take different routes at each junction, so you’re seeing a number of other areas, but I hardly expect them to be much different if you wanted to 100% this game.
As for any elephants who died you could always sell them to an ivory dealer… yes, the desert is one huge elephant graveyard.
Still, you can also just listen to the music. I think it’s called The Elephant Song. I love that… reminds me of elephants.
Score: 4/10
Shelter 3 is out now on PC/Steam.
Important info:
- Developer: Might and Delight
- Publisher: Might and Delight
- Players: single-player
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.