Shadow Shelter – Review

Shadow Shelter is the first Hidden Object Adventure game from Nevosoft since Dreamland, that is two and a half year! Shadow Shelter can be seen as a typical horror HOPA, following all the formulas; from dark graphics to abandoned house storyline – but for us, it has some kind of attractiveness that makes it so memorable.

In Shadow Shelter, you are an investigator in search to find the missing heir to an estate located in Scotland. You were expected to find an empty abandoned manor, however, as you went into it – you discovered dark secrets about this haunted manor as well as  encountered vengeful ghosts and spirits. The plot is nothing much unique here, and although it develops rather slowly, it sets up what to follow really well.

Shadow Shelter is definitely not the game for faint-hearted, its atmosphere is one of the moodiest, darkest and spookiest we have experienced in the HOPA genre for quite some time. We have noticed many complains regarding the dark-lighting of the game’s visuals even before we started playing the game, unexpectedly, we found ourselves totally immersed in this haunted-house adventure. Yes, the graphics are very dark, but in a good way. The uses of shadows, glows and special visual effects are extremely impressive and the art style is nothing like we have seen before. Furthermore, the game’s soundtracks are pretty significant as well and perfectly match the creepy atmosphere of the game.

The characters you got to visit in Shadow Shelter are mostly inhuman and they are well prepared to freak you out with good jump-scares and mood-building scenes. In fact, the game’s presentation is so horrifyingly fantastic that it reminded us of some Hollywood films like ‘Insidious’ and those alike.

Move on to the gameplay which is fairly well done. The Hidden Object scenes come with variations and the puzzles are nicely suited with the theme even though they could be more creative. The adventure part is mostly standard with a handful amount of Hidden Object scenes. The frustrating part of the game, for us, are the loading screens which pop up from times to times.