Sheltered for Windows

Sheltered is a Nuclear War Survival Simulator developed by Unicube and published by Team17. You have to make sorties to the surface, collect items for crafting and watch out for a group of survivors.

The Sheltered game has no backstory – the events that happened are reported through information from survivors and log entries. Before the start of the game, we are offered to customize a family of four. They change their appearance, clothes, exhibit a character trait and basic characteristics, including:

• intelligence;
• charisma;
• perception;
• agility;
• strength.

Before you start playing Sheltered, remember – do not make characters with the same characteristics. For example, a strong hero will fit for a showdown in the wasteland, a dexterous one will get tired more slowly from physical exertion, and so on. Over time, the characteristics of the characters grow, which is influenced by events during outings.

The Sheltered game guide will be incomplete without mentioning 5 pets (family members):

1. Cat – eats once every 2 days, catches rats, reduces stress.
2. Dog – eats daily, walks with its owners to the surface.
3. Snake – without a terrarium, attacks the tenants, sending them to the next world. Eliminates the appearance of rats, even when clogging the shelter.
4. Horse – eats 3 rations at a time, requires equipping a stall. It makes it easier to travel around the map, creating a saddle, the player gets additional loot cells.
5. Goldfish – lives in an aquarium, which needs to be cleaned periodically. Eats little, reduces stress.

Having finished with the initial settings, in the Sheltered game we are launched into the shelter. It consists of 1 floor and one room on level 2 with a crafting workbench. For living conditions, there is a gasoline electric generator, a barrel for filtered water, a supply store, a shelf with rations, a walkie-talkie and suits for working outside.

Sheltered Crafting & Loot

You will need to use crafting in Sheltered almost immediately to create:

• bucket toilet;
• shower;
• mop with bucket;
• sleeping bag;
• room.

For all of the above, consumables are in the inventory, but to update the workbench, improve the generator, water or air filter, you will need to arrange expeditions. Outings can be up to two people and consume water. The route of the group is determined by the player, pointing to as many points to visit.

Important! Access to the best items opens with the workbench update.

Traveling through open terrain in Sheltered on PC throws up random events related to inspecting buildings, hiring a random counter, or making a trade deal. The barter here is simple:

1. Each item has a nth value based on its survival benefit.
2. You can overpay for things at the auction, but you will not be able to take the required consumable if there are not enough “conventional units”.

To trade on an external map, before going on an expedition, you will need to prepare several things for sale, which will reduce the space for inventory found in the wastelands. It is more convenient when, during the passage of Sheltered, the traders appear in the shelter.

Weapons in Sheltered

To fend off aggressive survivors, Sheltered provides weapons. It is divided into: blunt, cold and firearms. The first is a pipe or boards suitable for repair. An ax and the like are referred to as cold. The firearm is represented by pistols, a shotgun and a sniper rifle, which need ammo.

Walkthrough Tips

The secrets of playing Sheltered are suitable for any project in the genre of survival:

1. Keep track of character stats. If the needs are not met for a long time, the characters will develop stress.
2. Treat the injured resident to restore their performance.
3. Don’t hire people if you don’t have enough supplies to feed your family.
4. Organize sorties by equipping explorers with inventory expanding items.
5. Build more barrels to store rainwater.
6. Look for spare parts for rebuilding a van on wheels. It makes it easier to travel around the map and collect resources.

For the review of the game, the PC version was taken, and Sheltered was also released on Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Unlike Alive In Shelter, here the pixel style is made with high quality, objects do not merge with the environment, and the characters look like people, albeit without faces. The musical accompaniment in the background is combined with what is happening on the screen, but it is not delayed in the head. Sheltered was published in Russian.

There was no nagging about the controls on the PC: we press LMB to select characters, RMB opens a menu for interacting with objects. Problems arise when two heroes are close – there are clicks on the wrong character.

Reviews for Sheltered are mixed. Of the positive features are:

• addictive gameplay;
• high complexity;
• unpredictable events.

The disadvantages include:

• low replayability due to bugs;
• mediocre view against the background of similar games;
• lack of support for mobile versions of the project.

Sheltered turned out to be a walk-through survival simulator that can drag on for several evenings, and then leave an unpleasant aftertaste due to bugs related to the extraction of inventory. The project is most interesting for inexperienced players who are ready to buy a project on Android and iOS in the region of 329 rubles, or to shell out about $ 9 on older platforms.