Animal Shelter Simulator 2 Review (PC)

I thought it would be as simple as sipping a warm macchiato with whipped cream whilst the world did it all for me — but it wasn’t anything like that, as I came to learn rather quickly after tending to the first batch of four-legged friends and their future foster parents. In my mind, I thought it would be a simple affair—a laid-back gig that wouldn’t require much more than a few rubber plants, a litter box, and the frequent brush cleaning of any matted fur. But again, I quickly came to the realization that managing an adoption center in Animal Shelter Simulator 2 was surprisingly tough. To my honest surprise, it had a lot of hurdles for me to propel myself through, including financial curveballs, managerial decisions, animal traits and welfare, and facility cleanliness, to list just a handful of things.

Animal Shelter 2 isn’t like your typical cozy cat café; it doesn’t provide you with breathing room to sit back and sip your morning brew whilst the world bends over backwards to satisfy your demands. No, here, you have your work cut out for you — and not just in the art of grooming and catering to cats and dogs, but in the rather demanding adoption process that requires a lot of patience and commitment to conquer. And then there are other duties that come with the job—tasks that involve bossing colleagues around, applying certain upgrades to boost the environment, and hosting communal meetings with fledgling household pets and their future keepers. Sadly, I’m only just about nibbling at the tip of the iceberg here, too.

To answer the question of whether or not Animal Shelter 2 is better than its predecessor, we’ll need to unbox it a little more. Care to join us? Then let’s jump in.

Back to the Shelter

If you’ve played through the first chapter in the series, then good news: the second chapter isn’t massively different. What’s new here, though, is the multiplayer mode—an added feature that allows you the chance to invite friends to your center and sift through the same journey as a ragtag band of feline-loving colleagues. Aside from that, Animal Shelter 2 flows in an almost identical fashion as its predecessor, with the core gameplay loop requiring the player to build an adoption center for pets from the ground up, and follow a series of fairly repetitive tasks—routine goals that mostly involve tending to animals’ needs, finding appropriate owners, and using an in-game currency to invest in better business upgrades, decor, and perks for the in-house community.

With all of the above said, there are still several things that could do with a bit of extra time in the oven here. For example, the staff AI; the fact that the colleagues are annoyingly incompetent and unable to complete basic tasks without sullying your progression is a bit of a headache. There’s also the case of dealing with the grammatical errors in the text, too. And to add insult to injury, the game also employs a worrying amount of graphical bugs—so many, in fact, that most objects that you grasp in the game often have a habit of vanishing or getting a sincere case of the jitters. A lot to unpack here. That said, with any luck, these issues will be ironed over in the near future. Fingers crossed, anyway.

No Fluff

In spite of all of the above, Animal Shelter 2 still has a solid foundation to work with. Again, the gameplay loop is quite repetitive—to the point where you spend most of your time rinsing and repeating the same three or four tasks in exchange for small but seemingly useful rewards. Even still, there is a silver lining here, and that is the fact that, from a visual standpoint, the game itself has a lot of charming qualities — the animals themselves contributing a huge amount to that notion. Moreover, if you exclude the occasional litter of bugs that we mentioned, the rest of the game is surprisingly solid, as are the menus and catalogs of customizable features and what have you.

Unfortunately, if you haven’t already played through the first sequence in the timeline, you might struggle to bond with the sequel. Rather disappointingly, the second installment doesn’t foster any useful tutorials or provide you with much of a push in the right direction to help you progress through your career. And I’ll admit, with so much to see and do, it can be a bit of a headache to get your foot on the ladder and start enjoying the swathes of positive qualities that the game keeps tucked away in the latter portions of the campaign. A tedious roadblock, to say the least — but one that can be overcome with a lot of patience, at least.

Verdict

Animal Shelter Simulator 2 delivers an authentic business and animal welfare simulation experience that will no doubt appeal to anyone with a deep love of furry companions and pets from all walks of life. Although it can be a relatively tough cookie to crack, more so given that it utilizes an in-depth managerial style and fosters a lot of options for you to consider, the actual process of elevating a small cubby of a shelter to a monolithic beacon of communal joy and warmth is incredibly satisfying. Like a lot of rags-to-riches business sims, the best things tend to come from strenuous work and rigorous training. If you can handle all of that, as well as stick around long enough to reap the fruits of your labor, then you might just find an endgame that’s worth holding out for here.

To answer the question of whether or not the sequel is better than the original — yes, it is, but that doesn’t mean that it’s completely without faults. Sadly, I could list a number of graphical and technical problems that dampen the overall experience here, which would no doubt stain an otherwise great image of the game’s most popular features. If you can bypass all of that, and if you can accept the fact that not everything will work as it should, then it’s highly likely that you will enjoy laying the foundations for yet another adoption center in this fluffy sandbox of a sequel.