When comparing Shelter vs Thomas Was Alone, the Slant community recommends Thomas Was Alone for most people. In the question“What are the best indie games on Steam?” Thomas Was Alone is ranked 22nd while Shelter is ranked 79th. The most important reason people chose Thomas Was Alone is:
What really drives the well crafted story home is the wonderful narration done by British filmmaker, comedian, writer, actor, and presenter of radio and television, Danny Wallace. Not many indie small budget games receive the polish this game has in their voice acting, which really adds to the experience when playing the game.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Sense of loss and failure
By tugging at the players heartstrings when a child is lost due to elements in the game, the player ultimately feels a sense of loss and failure.
Pro Interesting use of design to communicate danger
A shadow of a looming bird or the sound and look of rushing water signals looming danger for the mother badger and her young offspring.
Pro Suspenseful
Knowing your children may be taken at any time gives you a sense of danger/suspense not typically found in non-military games.
Pro Absolutely fantastic and original art style
Hands down one of the most original and interesting graphic art styles used in a modern game.
Pro Enjoyable professional narration
What really drives the well crafted story home is the wonderful narration done by British filmmaker, comedian, writer, actor, and presenter of radio and television, Danny Wallace. Not many indie small budget games receive the polish this game has in their voice acting, which really adds to the experience when playing the game.
Pro Great story
For what is a pretty simplistic looking game, Thomas Was Alone offers a truly great story that actually gets the player to care about what are basically squares and rectangles.
Pro Polished ethereal soundtrack
Haunting guitar strums mixed with beautiful piano chords and bits of chiptune creates a very fitting soundtrack that allows for an experience of polish not often found.
Pro SImple, peaceful gameplay
Gameplay is introduced at a relaxed rate, and is never frustrating or off-putting. It's not big on challenge, but does require some thinking. Everything is solvable, new techniques are introduced as they are needed for the story, and the whole thing just radiates relaxation and love.
Cons
Con Food is too plentiful
As long as the player takes advantage of every piece of food they run across there will be no feeling of impending urgency to feed the cubs.
Con Short
The full game is only about 90 minutes long.
Con Short
The gameplay only lasts about 3 or 4 hours.
Con Some puzzles can be difficult
Here an there are a few really tough puzzles in the game which can be frustrating, luckily they are few and far between as the gameplay does not tend to repeat itself too often.