These stunning Shelter 2 screenshots (just about) make up for the game's slight delay

I'm not entirely sure it's legal for a game to look this good. I mean, just look at it. Outside of the original teaser trailer and a particularly impressive gif , we haven't seen much of Shelter 2 in motion yet, but if it looks even half as beautifully stylised as this new set of images, we're going to be in for a visual treat. If you can tear yourself away from the left side of Might and Delight's July newsletter , there's a cruel sentence on the right announcing that the animal-based survival game is going to miss its August release date and slip further into Autumn/Fall. In the words of the judge from Futurama, I'm going to allow this, but only if they use the time to curb the elements many people found frustrating about the first game.

That slight delay is down to optimisation and pathfinding issues that have cropped up as a result of the sequel's larger world. As Might and Delight explain, "pathfinding is sometimes problematic as animals sometimes forget to run away from you as you hunt them, or decide to just run towards you and get eaten". I've known some stupid animals in my time, but that takes the cake.

Thankfully, there's good news. Shelter 2 will now feature all four of your favourite seasons: Spring, Autumn, Winter and TooHot, with the world around you changing to reflect the time of year. Hunting will go through "phases" depending on the season, though these phases haven't been detailed yet.

OK, enough teasing: here are those screenshots. Remember: Shelter 2 puts you in the role of a mother Lynx, trying her darndest to keep her adorable cubs alive. The images look a little flat at this small size for some reason, so be sure to embiggen them first.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.