Recent reviews by Red Dagger

My experience so far, a little spoilery if you wish to experience it yourself...
-cub dies by fire in thunderstorm
-kill and eat eagle after getting flashbacks to the eagle sequences in Shelter 1
-fall in water a lot when messing around on ice
-see a large herd of "deer" in the distance mysteriously highlighted further than animals normally get highlighted
-realise a tad too late that they are, in fact, wolves
-high-tail it to the exit of that area, hear cub getting killed by wolf just as I reach it

Man I love calm, relaxing games.

While definitely rather different to Shelter 1's linear prey PoV gameplay, the open-world direction of Shelter 2 compliments the predator gameplay well, although a quickly looping rabbit kill-a-thon loses a little charm in comparison. It does feel a little cheap constantly scooping up small animals, getting a little close to grinding without a clear goal; however, the variation in environments and the variation within the same environments as time passes does wonders to the game. The design and animations are as lovely as ever, and I'm not sure why but I personally find the complete lack of anything involving humans (going so far as to use symbols for a lot of things) a very good touch that the game would feel wrong without. Oh, and the music is very well done to tie it all together.

That said, I find the special vision a little too...abusable and it lessens the experience somewhat.

Still, a few minor complaints don't terribly dent such a good game. If you're wanting a (fairly) relaxing foray into nature through a stylistic indie game, this is definitely the one.

Edit: turns out I was only a couple minutes from the ending, and it was beautifully done. A very worthwhile experience that will have replayability to those that enjoyed it.

There's a review I read for this that put my general thoughts on it very well; paraphrased, it said that when the game works, when all the different parts fit together and there's no glitchy stuff happening, the game is pretty amazing. What's unfortunate is that this isn't very consistent, mostly because all the parts are fairly clunky - pathing, detection, stuff happening through walls, desync, balancing, performance, etc. It's not enough to cancel out the fun the game offers, but it's not exactly a formula for an instant recommendation, plus the way the game has evolved over the years is...less than stellar. I initially bought it on release for the 360, I was following everything about the game since it was announced well over 3 years ago, and it's been an interesting ride, for example safehouse customisation was only released a month or so ago.

That said, in its current state, the game is still worthwhile and still pretty damn fun. DLC's only really worth it on sale, which is often enough, but hey.

Great for casual play, great for competitive play, great characters 'n humour, mostly well-balanced, and still updated (somewhat) consistently.

Not to mention arguably the best monetary system in a F2P game.

Single player: great, actually. In a vacuum the game is highly polished and feels heavily streamlined, which can be a welcome improvement to the obvious comparison of GTA IV's comparatively clunky movement and such. It runs well, it looks great, it has more than enough depth to justify buying at full price even years after release. The writing is eh, the characters are alright, but that doesn't really matter here. Unfortunately it juust misses that little magical spark needed for open-world games - after hundreds of hours it all feels a little...flat in places, like it's all a little too clearly just a fake approximation of LA, and there isn't really one thing that sticks out as a cause; everything is a little too sparse, everything is roads, the peds are talkative with little to say, the buildings don't feel properly used, etc. Of course, it's a big ask to make a world that's already as impressive as GTA V's have all the pointless detail necessary to make it click even after a lot of scrutiny, so...it works.

However, GTA:O doesn't. It just...doesn't, really. You can put time into it, but it's all...eh.

That said, the SP is still one of the best experiences available, so y'know.