Animal Shelter Simulator Review (Xbox One)

STAFF REVIEW of Animal Shelter Simulator (Xbox One)

Thursday, December 8, 2022.
by Kirsten Naughton

Anyone who has known me for an extended amount of time knows I absolutely love animals, dogs in particular. I’m not a cat person. When I got the opportunity to review Animal Shelter Simulator I was excited and thrilled to finally be able to rescue animals and have a bunch of furry friends, even if they were in the virtual world. With my dreams and aspirations of what Animal Shelter Simulator could be, or what I would have wanted it to be, after the first time I played it I soon discovered my expectations were terribly high for what was presented to me. Let me take you into the world that UltimateGames has created.

I have never adopted an animal, but I’ve been with family and friends when they have adopted their dogs/cats/other pets, so I’m somewhat familiar with the process. Animal Shelter Simulator is a simulator where you intake dogs or cats and find new homes and owners for them. In an overall concept, it’s quite appealing and I’m down for games that have this basis. I’ve played House Flipper for an un-godly amount of hours that I guarantee no gamer has before and I also enjoy renovation/simulation games, as it relaxes me and brings me happiness and joy, so I had high hopes here.

Now, my banter aside, when you begin your time in Animal Shelter Simulator the graphics seem to be a definite afterthought. I’m not sure if this was a deliberate decision by UltimateGames but I found the graphics, among other things that I’ll get into, very unfinished. This upset me because I didn’t expect top tier AAA graphical experience, but the bland backgrounds, the dullness of the space you’re put in, and the overall feel of your beloved shelter that you house animals temporarily feels cold and in desperate need of some love.

The basics of the gameplay is through your computer and in the actual dog kennel, but the computer is where you’ll conduct most of your business. Do you want to intake a dog or cat? Use the computer. Do you want to buy your dog or cat food? Use the computer. Do you want to view your potential people to adopt your animals? Use the computer. Send an employee to their house for... an investigation? Use the computer. Put an ad on the world wide web to reach other people wanting to adopt? Want to match a person with an animal? The computer. Use the computer. I think you can see my point.

With the time I was allotted in Animal Shelter Simulator I used the computer a handful of times. The computer is very mismanaged. The button layout and the user experience while performing tasks on the computer is not a simple and straightforward task. Many of the steps cause you to press several buttons and directions on the D-Pad a few times to make anything work, and that’s even if you get it to work for you. On the page where you can compare the dog and the potential person, you have to constantly go back and forth from both pages and individually click the dog and person separately. I found this infuriating because the button layout does not allow you to do this process quickly and easily.

If you can get through the computer process and all the fun button maneuvering and haven’t thrown your controller at your television as of yet, congratulations! You’ve hopefully selected a dog or cat. Now, you get to take care of your animal. After you take out your animal from the van at the front, you pick your animal up and put them in their kennel. You feed them with the food you’ve hopefully gotten from the store in the computer along with some water that you’ll find in the store as well. They will not leave the kennel unless you pick them up and take them out, even when you leave the kennel door open to the play area. I found it cool that when I did put my animal into the play area, I could play catch with it or play frisbee.

The overall animations for the animals to be lackluster at best. Now, with the graphics I stated above, I wasn’t shocked that the animals didn’t look as good as I feel they should have, but the animals in “Animal Shelter Simulator” really should look like a million dollars. The whole concept is about animals. If the area you’re in and the background is subpar, the animals should be the focal point. Carrying my animal was very choppy and lacked animation from the dog itself. I also found myself asking "What happens if I leave the kennel open? Will the dog run out of the kennel? What happens if I don’t feed my dog, will it die, will it get sick?". I never got to find out because of one deal breaker that sealed the deal for me and not in a good way.

Here’s my biggest problem, and the main reason why I only played for a short amount of time. I had gotten to the point where after I sent my two dogs off to their new homes, I was tasked with going into the build menu, rearranging the buildings in my area that I was given, expanding the space with the choice of three outside areas and to 'Buy a Washing Station'. Where do you find the washing station? I’m still asking that question. It’s not in the computer in any of the stores options. It’s not in the computer at all. It’s not in the build menu. Even after you expand the site with an expansion ticket. So, I can’t move forward with gameplay. I can’t figure out for the life of me where the washing station is. I went to the build menu and there were options for furniture, decorations and such. Nothing was there to select that I needed. At this point, Animal Shelter Simulator was unplayable and I had hopes that maybe it was just me not realizing it was right there all along.

As for a recommendation, I can’t give you one as I wouldn’t buy Animal Shelter Simulator after experiencing it. I would give it another try if they worked on the user experience more, fixed the bugs and seemingly big glitches that make it unplayable. I feel like they missed the mark on this one and it’s disappointing. This concept I could see gamers of all ages enjoying, and I personally love this genre for their relaxed vibes. I was looking forward to matching animals with people, sending them off to their new homes and expanding my shelter to be a mega shelter, but I think I’m going to lock this one up and move on with my next venture.

**Animal Shelter Simulator was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series S**

Overall: 4.0 / 10
Gameplay: 3.0 / 10
Visuals: 1.0 / 10
Sound: 1.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Animal Shelter Simulator (Xbox One)

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