/>I've restarted this level at least five times now. It always ends the same way, on the same barren stretch of land between the comforting cover of the underbrush and the inviting darkness of the tunnel that marks what I think is the end of the level. The eagle strikes as we're halfway across; too far to return to the underbrush, but not close enough to reach the tunnel without the feathered git making off with at least one of my cubs. This is my last shot at the level. I've come to accept that I have to lose one of my children to proceed - that the game won't let me reach its finale without at least a taste of loss - but I'm already composing an angry email to the developers in my head. You can't just betray the player's trust like this; narrative be damned.
A rush of displaced wind and a terrified squeak lets me know I can open eyes and see which one of my cubs didn't make it. The one with three stripes. He was my favorite. I scrap the angry email idea and elect to send them a live badger by airmail, that'll teach them.
Then something amazing happens. There's a noise; one I haven't heard before. I turn, and the missing cub saunters through the tunnel entrance, apparently unperturbed by his brush with mortality. Is this a scripted event or a random occurrence? I have no idea, but at that moment it's irrelevant. My cub has escaped certain death, and I am elated.
Such is the sole real triumph of Might and Delight's Shelter. For all its failings, and there really are quite a lot of them for such a small game, it did make me care.
Continue reading Shelter review: Badger over troubled water
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