Dragon Shelter
Review
Fun, Yet Repetitive
by Alex Moretti
reviewed on PC
An Interesting take on games with a time limit.
The game starts up simply enough, you play as a youngling who has been gifted a plot of land by your grandfather. You will spend the next hour or so taking care of the land, and getting acquainted with the townsfolk. Every time you perform an action that requires strength such as cutting down trees or bushes, digging up patches in the ground to plant seeds, or mining ore from rocks you will use a certain amount of stamina that can be replenished by either eating or sleeping.
The game is on a timer, every second that goes by in real time is a minute in the game world. This is done to keep you on your feet, however at the 23 hour mark of each day, the clock stops. This allows you to spend more time attending to your garden area as all the townsfolk are in bed by then, so there is no way to interact with them at this time. This was an interesting take on the whole time limit gimmick. Since you have essentially as much time as you want at night to tend to your property, this does a great job of making you prioritize talking to townsfolk during the day, and working on your home at night.
About an hour into the game you will meet your first Dragon companion. He appears out of a lake and can assist you by tending to your garden, cooking with you, and doing just about everything that you can do. He has his own stamina bar, and you can even equip him with one of three tools used for different tasks. You can also put a leash on him and have him follow you like a pet. It is fun and all, and fans of casual games will most likely enjoy the atmosphere and fun factor of having a pet dragon, but after a few hours in, you've done pretty much everything there is to do.
HOW LONG IS THIS GOING TO DRAG..ON?
After about six to eight hours I had done pretty much everything that there was to do. There is no narrative progression, as the game just ends without any real resolve. I looked it up online, and apparently getting 100% of everything in this game can take up to 30 hours. While I can appreciate the developer wanting to make the game feel as though it was worth your money, I would have appreciated it more if the game focused more on giving me a compelling narrative to stay for that long. Still I was thoroughly entertained by the first roughly six hours of game time, and while it might not be very complex, casual games like this aren't really meant to be. Still, I would love to see this game's formula be improved upon if we ever get a sequel.
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7.2
fun score
Pros
Fun, cozy atmosphere
Cons
Lack of a narrative. Main goals are completed reletivily quickly
