I adopted a virtual potato with legs that barks and now I cry when it sneezes. 10/10 would emotionally bond with pixels again.

Game is fun, but WAY too many bugs to justify buying it right now. Multiplayer feels like a fever dream with pets flying through walls or teleporting, and desync issues across clients. The overall game loop is fun but it is WAY too buggy to enjoy. To put into perspective how unfinished this game feels, changing keybinds isn't even working. Trying to change them will do magic that I don't even know how you code in. Not to mention the game feels terribly optimized, playing on a 5800x, 5070, and 32gb of ram at 1440p, turning your camera at all or entering another room causes MASSIVE stutters. Fun game, but right now don't buy it. I'll change my review once its in a playable state.

Thank you devs for making my girlfriend happy again, she’s been waiting for this to release and when I said it’s out she was jumping around from happiness, absolutely worth it! - Good upgrade from the original, minor bugs here and there but it’s really good!

This game is adorable and I love the premise..however IT IS HORRENDOUSLY BUGGY I was playing multiplayer and all of us besides the host was having massive bugs, doors not opening until literally a whole minute after you try opening them, animals sliding on the ground, objects disappearing when you hold them, you basically can’t do anything unless your the host, etc. This game was released way before it was ready and is not worth the purchase right now.

From the original Animal Shelter 1, Animal Shelter 2 is improved and adorable!

Happy to see that there are improvements to Animal Shelter 2 as a player who came from and loved Animal Shelter 1. Everything seems much more interactive and fun. You start off by cleaning up an abandoned and mistreated shelter building and you slowly progress from here, upgrading your stats, all while bringing in cute animals to find them forever loving homes. Everything is all situated within one building in comparison to AS1 where buildings such as the vet, photo studio, and office were all separate. I do like how AS2 has it now so there is a lot less running around and not having to go from building to building. Even the workers you hire show up to do their assigned jobs. I did not like how they were just doing it remotely in AS1 lol. The adopters also show up and get to see the animal that they want to adopt as well, nice improvement over the original game. As far as the graphics/performance are concerned I have a Ryzen 5 7600x and a RTX 4060 ti, the game runs as smooth as butter. On my past system and my current one here AS1 didn’t run very well. So, im glad to see from my experience there are improvements here. I can run my graphics all on the highest and everything looks great. I especially like the night-time environment as everything looks beautiful all lit up at night, and especially in the new park area, which is well done. I also did try the multiplayer as of patch 1.0.18 and have to say, I had little to no issues with lag or anything connecting to a friend’s server as well. The customization options and what you can do from painting the shelter building to customizing the animals cages are a welcome edition too. It seems like there’s a lot more options to do this in comparison to AS1. All the animal details on both the cats and dogs are a vast improvement over AS1. The animals look miles better in my opinion. Even me being able to run everything on max settings I can just see the details and its just better in my opinion. Theres also different breeds of dogs and cats this time around as well. I do like the side quests and how your able to go out in the community/districts to clean up trash and go to the park to rescue abandoned pets and address giving stray animals food & water. In my opinion these are great. Overall, my experience has been positive with AS2. While yes, there are some bugs like animals going into other cages, clipping in and out of walls etc just as AS1 I am confident the developer team will continue listening to the community and making AS2 great. If you love taking care of pets or even played AS1 I wholeheartedly recommend giving this game a go!

Very fun.....until its not..... co-op is borderline unplayable. Cats glitching into walls,food bowls vanishing into the ether causing my animals to starve, stool samples disappearing causing me not to diagnose a dog in time before he was taken away and Employee NPC's staring at walls all day are just some of the bugs that have caused grey hairs to form on my head at a faster rate than normal. The games just a buggy mess right now. I am hoping and praying these bugs are fixed soon cause me and my wife were having an absolute blast with it (Before it all went downhill). R.I.P ZEUS :( (The dog that was taken away)

its like if the dog petting mechanic of rdr2 was an entire game #GameOfTheYear

got it today played ti for 9 hours in one day

Lovely concept and adorable animals but there's just so many bugs! Makes you wonder if they ever tried to play their own game.

There are quite a lot of bugs and quality of life features that seem to be missing...Game feels uncompleted and needs some work. NPC's dont have different dialog and walk slow, cats often get suck in an animation or bug out. The lighting outside is pretty but inside everything feels too bright. As the game currently is, I dont find it very fun. Its not much of an upgrade from the 1st game.

Animal Shelter 2 takes the original’s charm, adds actual depth and realism, and layers it with hilarious bugs, immersive shelter sim mechanics, and the joy of adopting out creatures you accidentally traumatized. THE GOOD: 🐶 Massively upgraded from the first game — no more lone road in the forest to look at. You now have a sprawling shelter, fancy parking lot, a PARK you can visit with your animal and a better looking, immersive world. 🧽 Cleaning is oddly satisfying — click once and drag the brush around, things sparkle. 📋 Shelter management goes DEEP — employees, districts, adoption interviews, custom paint jobs, and even pet whim systems. Your cat doesn’t just need food—it wants emotional support and playtime. It’s a full-blown therapy session. 🐾 Adoption process is legit — potential adopters have preferences, and they’ll walk away if your cat is a blind, dog-hating diva. One adopter named Kinga came in wearing pink shoes and demanded a “sleepyhead” cat. I delivered. 🎮 Ear jiggle physics — no further comment needed. THE GLITCHY / FUNNY STUFF: 🛑 Performance hiccups — expect 1-second freezes when entering rooms. I like to think it’s the shelter's ghost buffering. 🚗 Drone deliveries are loud enough to summon Cthulhu — and they drop pet food like they’re delivering top-secret documents. 🐢 Why was my default avatar a snail? Fixed it to a turtle because I like speed. And irony. 🐕 Felix the cat was listed as a dog. I only found out when I picked him up. False advertising? Probably. Did I still adopt him out? You bet. 💀 Accidentally blinded Felix with a laser pointer in the park (don’t worry, he got adopted by a woman who doesn’t want a high-energy pet, so… win-win?). 🎨 Painting the shelter is a confusing fever dream — I think I painted the inside, then outside, then my soul. 🐱 Lastly, the animals look derpy. Their physical models just seem off. I think its the hair. Over all, I like it. It has definitely improved from the first. I really hope the devs put in the time and effort moving forward and fix, improve and add a whole lot more content. If you enjoyed the first, I'd say get it. If you are on the fence, I'd say, wait a month and see how much the game changes and how involved are the devs. If you found this helpful or want to watch the gameplay, please watch my video or visit my channel. You small actions make a big difference for my tiny channel: https://youtu.be/lz3Z97OonEE?si=FQ7-lqsnitySfWG1

Leuk spel! heb deel 1 ook al gedaan en deze als demo. Nu is hij eindelijk uit! wel soms wat rare dingen zoals je hond die dorst houd en niet wilt drinken. Maar dan google je het en vind je snel oplossingen.

I have been watching and waiting for this game for over a year and it has FINALLY released! The delays in release were well worth it! They have checked all the boxes, dotted all their I's and crossed ALL the T's !!! Attention to detail is unmatched! Amazing AMAZING AMAZING! If you're looking for a cozy, fun, adorable game - this is it! Animal Shelter 1 was great.. but they have taken it to a whole new level! WELL WORTH EVERY PENNY!

Manage your own pet shelter solo or alongside a friend as you play, feed, dress and love the animals while getting them ready for adoption.

The Story & Gameplay

Manage and run your own animal shelter by providing animals with food, shelter, attention and love. Hire employees that will help you run the place and find the animals their forever homes. You can also upgrade your tools and decorate your shelter. The first thing you encounter upon startup is setting up your character with a bit of light customization. Then you get to name your shelter. The tutorial will guide you through bringing in your first pet, buying a cage, some food and water. At the start you clean your shelter and surrounding yard by going around and just hitting the left mouse button to automatically clean the rubbish. The shelter is already partially furnished, painted and has nice flooring. So do not expect to spend a lot of time on the actual structure of the shelter (the priority is on the animals and care primarily but upgrading your shelter is also part of it with decor, furniture and better equipment). ✨ All upgrades are locked behind progression and a helpful tutorial guides you along the way as new mechanics are introduced into the game.

Settings & Extras

Settings & extras include; there are plenty of settings for graphics, movement sensitivity, audio controls, control settings and difficulty.

Things to note

🔹 The game does auto save but you can also manual save at any time 🔹 If you hear what sounds like bees buzzing loudly it is the drone dropping off your purchases outside 🔹 No need to throw out boxes, just open the box, take all and the box disappears once empty. 🔹 Talk to your employees to assign/un-assign them a specific task 🔹 Employees will take any water, food or litter you leave on shelving in the room with the animals

The Visuals & Audio

Visually the game looks great and feels great moving around, whether you run or walk. There are plenty of graphical settings to tweak your system's needs. The music is nice, upbeat and sets a nice tone to the game. The npc’s and animals are well animated and sound good as well as the ambient sounds in the environment.

Overall Experience

I have not played the first game so I cannot make a comparison between the two and what works better or has been improved upon. The animations for both the animals and the npc’s are well done, progression to unlock decor and upgrades feels good and movement itself feels really good like running or walking around. You can also take your pets to the park for some playtime and take in some new scenery. I do think playing this with a friend would be a really good time. One person could focus on the medical needs and adoption and one on the walking, feeding and bathing. Or one takes care of the cats and the other the dogs (however you would like to break it up). I am still playing but once I adopt my own first pet I will take some screen captures. I have not unlocked the ability to self-adopt yet. Looking forward to having my own in-game cat companion. I give this game two paws up! 🐾

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IndieGems wishes to thank Games Incubator & PlayWay for providing a review copy for this game.

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Oh I love this game, the grafics could be better and it is almost not management for 1 player to do everything, because the staff is not doing much. But I love the idear of the game and what you need to do to help the animals get a new home.

best game ever played amazing game

This game is AMAZING. THE DOGS ARE SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love them so much! Such an improvement on AS1. I'll be updating this review later with more details.