If you’ve found Sheltered [official site] challenging up to now, you’ll likely find it even tougher thanks to the new ‘Danger Update‘ which brings the nuclear post-apocalypse, well, more danger. Now, nomads can break into your vault, ahem, underground bunker; unscrupulous factions storm the overground; house fires can destroy your equipment and resources; and bears and wolves are back, to name but some of the fresh perils. Bloody hell. The upshot of the update? Traps and horses.

Yes, the update brings with it a lovely horse that can be taken out on expeditions and doubles up as a vehicle, capable of carrying around all the shite you’re likely to accrue while out on supply runs. And to combat Shelter Breaching – the new ability afforded to travelling hostiles who’re out to steal your food, petrol, water, whatever – traps can be installed to protect your abode. Besides these relative ‘perks’, though, the rest of the update wants to break you. Here’s what the developers have to say about it:



To experience this #content, you will need to enable targeting cookies. Yes, we know. Sorry.

Manage cookie settings



So those big sturdy metal bunker doors you’re used to? Yeah, they’re out and replaced with easily breakable wooden ones until you upgrade them. Remember when newly recruited NPCs would simply join your family instantly? Yeah, now you need to pander to them, keeping an eye on their respective loyalty meters, until they decide you’re cool/you can fully trust them. You know how there were no fires before? Now there are loads, courtesy of malfunctioning machinery and/or treacherous tourists, so, yeah, watch that. And if you think filling your shelter with comrades will boost your chances of survival, you better be mindful of the new Oxygen Functionality system, lest you hold your breath the entire time you’re underground.

I’m yet to dive into Sheltered’s Danger Update myself, but it sounds great and seems like a comprehensive revision of what the previous iterations might’ve lacked. Designer Dean Foster reckons the update’s danger elements add a “big chunk to the game that was missing” before which is something, on the face of these tweaks and what I’ve played up to now, I’d have to agree with.

Sheltered lives on Early Access and costs £9.99.