Animal Shelter 2 Review: A Beautiful, Bug-Infested, Heartwarming Mess

Animal Shelter 2 is like a beautiful, brand-new sports car that looks incredible and has a powerful engine, but every time you turn the key, you have no idea if it will start, backfire, or simply phase through the garage floor. There is a genuinely wonderful, heartwarming, and dangerously addictive game here. It's a game about saving sad, fluffy creatures and finding them homes, and it’s a concept so wholesome it could make a diamond-hard cynic like me crack a smile. The problem is that this wonderfully ambitious game was clearly shoved out the door before the engine was bolted down.

The Shelter of My Dreams

When the game decides to behave, it’s a massive and impressive leap forward from its predecessor. The simulation has more depth, the world is bigger, and the emotional hooks are sharper. This isn’t just a simple pet-washing simulator; it’s a full-blown management game with real ambition.

More Than Just a Kennel

You’re not just cooped up in one building this time. There’s a whole town map with districts where you go on rescue missions to save a cat stuck in a fence or a dog tied to a tree. You hire employees who, bless their hearts, try their best to walk around and help with the workload. Potential adopters physically come to the shelter, and you get to grill them to make sure they’re worthy. These are fantastic ideas that make the world feel more alive and your job feel more meaningful.

Pixelated Puppies and Jiggle Physics

Let’s be honest, the real draw is the animals. They are painfully cute. The variety of breeds is a welcome addition, and the developers knew exactly what they were doing when they perfected the jiggle physics on a beagle's ears. I found myself getting genuinely attached to these little digital fluffballs. I rescued a potato-shaped mutt, cleaned him up, taught him not to be a jerk, and felt a real pang of sadness when I sent him off to his forever home. The core emotional loop of this game is incredibly effective.

A Kennel Full of Gremlins

That heartwarming feeling, however, is usually punctuated by the game’s rampant poltergeist problem. This place is haunted by bugs, ranging from the hilarious to the genuinely game-breaking. It’s a level of jank that suggests the game escaped Early Access a few months too soon.

Anarchy in the Aether

My time in the shelter has been a cavalcade of weirdness. I’ve seen kittens mysteriously teleport into adjacent, locked kennels. I’ve watched dogs, spooked by thunderstorms, rubberband across the room and clip halfway into the floor as if they’re auditioning for a role in a digital horror movie. My staff, bless them, seem to have the collective IQ of a doorknob, often getting stuck in doorways or simply leaving every single cage open, precipitating a mass escape that I have to clean up.

The Multiplayer Mess

The headlining co-op feature, while a brilliant idea, is where things truly go off the rails. If you aren't the host, prepare for a bizarre experience. My friend, trying to help out, found that doors would take a full minute to open for him. The animals he saw would often slide across the floor in a static pose, and items he tried to pick up would simply vanish from existence. It’s a fantastic concept that is, at launch, just not ready for prime time.

The Diamond in the Rough

Here’s the frustrating part: despite the absolute mess, I kept wanting to play. The core loop of rescuing, nurturing, and rehoming these animals is just that good. There is a powerful, compelling game buried under all this jank. The developers seem to be aware of the chaos, as they’re actively patching the game and engaging with players, which gives me a sliver of hope. This feels less like a cynical cash grab and more like a passion project that just needed more time in the oven.

The Verdict

I’m genuinely torn on Animal Shelter 2. I want to love it. On paper, it’s everything I could want from a cozy sim. In practice, it’s a beautiful, ambitious game that is constantly at war with itself. It’s impossible to recommend without a dozen warnings. However, if you have an extremely high tolerance for bugs and are willing to save every five minutes, the charm might just win you over. For everyone else, put this on your wishlist and check back in a few months. There’s a gem here, but it needs a hell of a lot more polishing.

Score: 6.5/10 - A game with a heart of gold and a skeleton held together by hope and hotfixes.

We at NLM received a key for this game for free, this however didn't impact our review in any way.