Animal Shelter 2

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Animal Shelter 2 is a single player and multiplayer open world management game. It was developed by Games Incubator and was released on July 23, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

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83%Audience ScoreBased on 762 reviews

gameplay23 positive mentions

stability88 negative mentions

Animal Shelter 2 offers a cozy and detailed animal care simulation with a variety of dog and cat breeds and ages, including puppies and kittens in the base game.
The game features an immersive shelter management experience with upgrades, decorations, staff hiring, and community interactions such as rescue missions and adoption events.
Multiplayer co-op mode, when functioning properly, adds an enjoyable dimension to playing with friends, enhancing the overall experience.

The game is currently riddled with numerous bugs, glitches, and stability issues, including frequent crashes, animals and staff getting stuck, disappearing objects, and save/load problems.
Multiplayer mode suffers from severe technical problems such as blackscreen loading, desync, and missing achievements for joining players, making it frustrating or unplayable for many users.
Certain gameplay elements and mechanics, like staff AI, animal behavior, the vet clinic system, and the adoption process, can be clunky, repetitive, or underdeveloped, leading to some frustration and loss of immersion.

stability
90 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
98%
The game suffers from numerous bugs, glitches, freezes, and frequent crashes, especially in multiplayer mode, causing issues like stuck animals, visual errors, lost saves, and lag spikes. While these stability problems significantly hinder gameplay, many players still find the core experience enjoyable and hope ongoing updates will improve performance. Overall, stability is a major concern that currently impacts the game's reliability and user experience.
- “Lots of bugs and glitches: stuff gets stuck, animals get stuck and run in place, or the game freezes and there are lots of random FPS drops from playing at 90fps.”
- “Not only is there lag and frequent glitches, but within 20 minutes of my playtime I started receiving error messages every time the game attempted to save.”
- “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 were 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 you're the host.”
gameplay
81 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
28%
52%
20%
Animal Shelter 2 offers an engaging and cozy gameplay loop focused on animal care, shelter management, and adoption, with deeper mechanics and improved visuals compared to its predecessor. However, it suffers from numerous gameplay-affecting bugs, clunky AI, repetitive tasks, and some oversimplified systems that can disrupt immersion and frustrate players. Despite these issues, the game remains enjoyable for fans of simulation and animal-themed games, especially if they value charm and depth in pet care mechanics.
- “Animal Shelter 2 builds on the first game with improved visuals, smoother gameplay, and more features to enjoy.”
- “The management mechanics are deeper and more refined than in the first game, giving you more freedom to expand, design, and personalize your shelter.”
- “The gameplay is well-balanced, combining day-to-day animal care—such as feeding, grooming, and medical attention—with shelter management tasks like organizing adoptions and expanding facilities.”
- “The tutorial forces you through slow, tedious gameplay one animal at a time and one task at a time.”
- “It even runs out of the box on Proton 9/Debian 13 and performs well 1080p@60fps, but the bugs are gameplay-level; animals don't actually need beds, but if you put one on their cage, they'll get stuck infinitely running on the spot, unable to get to food, water, or bathroom, and their quality of life decreases over a whole day until you manually move them, rinse and repeat. This is just one example.”
- “The AI for both animals and staff and adoptees is the game's biggest weakness, breaking core gameplay loops.”
graphics
53 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
34%
60%
6%
The graphics are widely praised as a significant improvement over the first game, featuring detailed, charming visuals with realistic animal models and multiple dog and cat breeds. While some users note occasional lag or crashes, especially with many photos, most appreciate the warm, inviting art style and smooth performance on capable systems. Though not groundbreaking, the visuals effectively enhance immersion and contribute positively to the overall experience.
- “What stands out immediately is the game’s charming and detailed graphics, which bring the animals and environment to life in a warm and inviting way.”
- “A definite upgrade from the first game, with new breeds, new ways to interact with the animals, etc. Don’t even get me started on the amazing graphics!”
- “It improves on everything—graphics, animal models, gameplay systems, and overall charm.”
- “While Animal Shelter 2 looks warm and inviting, the visuals fall short of what the engine is capable of.”
- “They took feedback with some of the visuals including putting in actual breeds for the animals, though the graphics could still be improved.”
- “The graphics are pretty okay, too, but nothing groundbreaking.”
story
40 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
84%
8%
The story in this game is centered around animal shelter management with various missions and rescue quests that add depth and emotional engagement; however, it is hampered by restrictive, linear quest progression that can easily lead to softlocks if players advance out of order. While the rescue missions and animal interactions are praised for their variety and charm, technical issues like mission sync problems in multiplayer and confusing quest prompts detract from the experience. Overall, the narrative offers potential but is limited by design flaws and a lack of plot variety.
- “I love all the animal personalities, breeds and rescue missions.”
- “While not explicitly designed for roleplay, the structure of Animal Shelter 2 naturally encourages emotional storytelling.”
- “There is more than just adopting out pets, there are different adventure quests and different things the animals need before they can be adopted.”
- “There is a legitimate way to softlock your entire playthrough if you do not follow the missions exactly in the beginning and adopt an animal before the mission tells you to.”
- “I got ahead of the mission; I gave my second pet to one of the adopters while I had the paint mission on my screen. So I painted my establishment, completed the mission, and then it asked me to take my pet on a walk.”
- “At no point does the game make an effort to give you another animal, nor does the game inform you the very next quest will be about taking your pet to the park.”
emotional
34 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Animal Shelter 2 is widely praised for its cozy, wholesome, and heartwarming atmosphere that deeply resonates with animal lovers. The game creates strong emotional connections through authentic pet personalities and meaningful care interactions, delivering a rewarding and immersive simulation experience. Players often describe it as both relaxing and emotionally engaging, making it ideal for those seeking a touching and comforting gameplay experience.
- “Animal shelter 2 is a a charming and heartfelt simulation game that blends management, creativity, and animal care into an experience that’s both relaxing and deeply rewarding.”
- “Each pet has its own personality and needs, making the care and management feel authentic and emotionally engaging.”
- “Warning: you will get emotionally attached to every single animal that comes in.”
optimization
23 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
48%
26%
Optimization reviews for the game are mixed, with many users reporting significant performance issues such as stuttering, lag, slow loading times, and multiplayer lag despite having high-end systems. While some players experience smooth gameplay and responsive controls, others feel the game still suffers from bugs and feels rough around the edges, indicating it may still be in early access. Overall, improving optimization and fixing persistent performance bugs remain a top priority for enhancing the player experience.
- “Animal shelter 2 runs smoothly on most systems. Controls feel responsive, and overall optimization makes it easy to get lost in the routine of caring for animals without technical issues pulling you out.”
- “As far as the graphics/performance are concerned I have a Ryzen 5 7600X and an RTX 4060 Ti, the game runs as smooth as butter.”
- “Very minor things though, so far the tasks and graphics have been optimized and great and I know it won't be long before all the bugs are flattened out.”
- “I would recommend the game but its current status with bugs and performance needs to be the priority instead of releasing micro DLCs.”
- “The game's loading time (optimization) is extremely slow, making it very uncomfortable to play.”
- “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.”
grinding
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is characterized by slow, repetitive tasks like manually handling animals and tedious achievement requirements, which some players find draining and time-consuming. However, the option to hire staff to automate chores alleviates some of the grind, allowing players to focus more on decorating and animal interactions. While the game retains some tedious mechanics, it offers a grindy experience appealing to fans of such gameplay.
- “The achievements are too grindy for my liking. I finished the game (came first on the international leaderboard) but there were still many adoptions and tasks needed for 100% achievements.”
- “The player is forced to manually carry each animal out, which is tedious.”
- “Matching visitor preferences manually by memorizing traits is tedious, time-consuming, and mentally draining, leading to visitors leaving.”
music
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
Users generally find the music in the game enjoyable, describing it as soothing, upbeat, and fitting the game's vibe, with positive remarks on its ability to set the tone. However, some mention issues with the music not turning off properly at times. Overall, the music contributes positively to the gaming experience.
- “Also, I love the main menu and game music, omggg, it's such a vibe!”
- “The graphics are nice, the music is relaxing, and most importantly, the game teaches responsibility and kindness.”
- “The music is nice, upbeat and sets a nice tone to the game.”
- “No matter how many times you keep turning off the terrible music, when you walk through a door it comes back on again.”
- “Some minor bugs, like the beagle's ears always staying up, the notification bubbles randomly blowing up in size, and the music keeps playing at the start of the next day even after I turn it off.”
- “The visuals are cute, and the music is soothing.”
humor
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor largely stems from its humorous glitches and quirky character movements, which players find entertaining rather than frustrating. These funny bugs add charm and enjoyment to the simulation experience, enhancing the overall delight and making multiplayer interactions particularly enjoyable.
- “Played some multiplayer as well, and while there were quite a few glitches, it actually made the game pretty funny instead of being annoying.”
- “Animal Shelter 2 takes the original’s charm, adds actual depth and realism, and layers it with hilarious bugs, immersive shelter simulation mechanics, and the joy of adopting out creatures you accidentally traumatized.”
- “I love experiencing new funny glitches with my friend.”
monetization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users feel the game is leaning towards a cash grab, particularly criticizing the need to purchase dog breeds instead of including them in the base game. Despite this, they still enjoy the gameplay but urge the developers to prioritize fixing multiplayer bugs before adding monetization.
- “Cash grab game.”
- “I still love this game but making us buy dog breeds is a little ridiculous; it should be part of the base game or at the very least after you fix multiplayer. This is me mostly asking the devs to fix more bugs before anything else. I would hate to watch this game get ruined and turn into a cash grab. 7/2 out of 10.”
- “It's going in a cash grabby direction.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere is praised for its peaceful and heartwarming vibe, enhanced by detailed, charming animals and relaxing gameplay, with sound design perfectly complementing the overall mood.
- “The sound design supports the peaceful atmosphere perfectly.”
- “The animals are so detailed and cute, the gameplay is relaxing, and the atmosphere is super heartwarming.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Animal Shelter 2 features expanded systems and additional species that contribute to strong replayability, providing excellent value for players.
- “With expanded systems, added species, and strong replayability, Animal Shelter 2 offers excellent value for its price.”