Dark Blue Games' Infected Shelter is a randomly generated rogue-lite set in a post-apocalyptic setting. The game is an action-RPG shooter and dungeon brawler. Defeat enemies to loot more than 150 different blueprints of permanent improvements and other goodies like outfits, pets, and relics. Infected Shelter can be played either solo or with up to 3 other players.
Infected Shelter: Early Access Preview
Genre: 2D Rogue-lite, Dungeon Brawler
Developed by: Dark Blue Games Ltd.
Published by: Dark Blue Games Ltd.
Release date: August 08, 2025 in Early Access on Steam for PC; Q4 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One
Platforms: Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Website:http://infectedshelter.com/
Price:Early Access version $9.99 / EUR 9.99 with a 10% discount on the first week of release
Infected Shelter Features
Story & Setting
Walk in the shoes of a member of a group surviving a post-apocalyptic world. One pivotal morning the shelter is raided and your fellow people are kidnapped for reasons unbeknown. It’s up to you to leave the shelter and face the harsh infected wild lands, aiming to save those who were captured. Your journey will consist of infected animals, humans, even technology, challenging to get back your friends and won’t be easy.
Infected Shelter takes its inspiration from a combination of titles which includes Mortal Kombat,Dead Cellsand Castle Crashers. Bringing you a beat ‘em dungeon crawler with RPG and rogue-like elements. Letting players take on the post-apocalyptic world on their own, or with a friend in local co-op.
Gameplay is fairly straightforward with players choosing 1 character out of the 4 available. Infected Shelter then presents 3 versions of each character which receives random gear, skills, traits, and more. The early access build currently allows you to choose between 2 of those characters. Players must defeat a boss before traits become available.
Each run consists of a checkpoint for reaching 50% of the way and one right before the boss. This allows the player to purchase upgrades with their infected sample currency and the ability to heal for up to 60 HP. Those willing to explore, can find side rooms that will contain goodies but beware as these rooms may contain environmental traps to impair your progress.
Every run is different because of the randomly generated content affecting every part of the game. By defeating enemies players can loot more than 150 different blueprints of permanent improvements, this will improve your chances to extend your run. This, and the multiplayer aspect is a key to Infected Shelter’s replayability. In the beginning you want to learn the basics of the game and figure out what character suits your playstyle while unlocking improvements. This will make each run slightly easier as long as the RNG complies.
Characters
Each character has their own set of attributes depending which you will pick:
Guitarist Girl
Grandpa & Granddaughter
Big Biceps Builder
Smiling Soldier
In Early Access players get to test their mettle against three available bosses which include a crazed helicopter type boss, a bull ready to charge you down and a droid. Each boss brings its own types of attacks letting the chaos ensue.
The shelter starts off empty but as you continue your runs continue you will find your fellow shelter-mates trapped in cages. Hitting the cage enough times grants them freedom and you’ll see them back at the shelter. They will assist you in future runs as each person is in charge of certain randomized wares. These wares consist of:
Audio & Visuals
The game’s visual are completely comprised of 2D images, simple yet eye catching. You’ll see a geometric designed cactus and instantly you will know what you are seeing, so no problem identifying objects. Runs can be either take place during the daytime or night, which adds to the mayhem as venturing out at night makes it more difficult to see enemies. The colorful minimalist art-style suits the game as well as it puts more emphasis on the gameplay. As you can expect for a zombie filled post-apocalyptic game, there’s plenty of hack ‘n’ slash visuals drawing on its Mortal Kombat influence.
The audio suits the title as you have each weapon with their its very own sound effect and most of the music playing during your run is subtle, allowing you to focus on the enemies attacking. I really enjoyed it when it rained in the game as it adds a relaxing atmosphere to the hectic world. I wish my RNG for rainfall was higher as it didn’t happen as often as I would have liked. Hopefully Blue Games will add more environmental audio as it really helps to add to the atmosphere.
Final Thoughts
For an early access game the price is pretty good for what you get. At the time of writing this the game build has 3 bosses to fight, if you manage to defeat them in a single run, players will reach an enclosed area with a “Work in Progress” sign. Several elite enemies will spawn and attempt to defeat you as I believe the developers planned on the enemies being quite difficult to take down, adding a surprise challenge towards the end which may lead to your demise.
However, if you manage to defeat them, you will be stuck and need to return to the main menu to start a new run. This build also only had 2 of the 4 characters playable as well as only local coop that I get to try. This will be a great game to play with friends to unwind after a long day. At the time of writing I accumulated 5 hours on this build and haven’t obtained more than about 60% of the blueprints, so while players can beat the game in a short time, it should take them longer to obtain everything in the game opening up more upgrades and ways to play.
The only issue I found was that if the screen has too many enemies and they all die at once, the drops tend to slow down the frames. It could be my hardware but at the least its should be stated. Sometimes its easy to lose your character in the frenzy of fighting but this can be remedied by rolling to a safe spot to recover. Finally, while the executions are cool to witness, the zoom in camera focus tends to strain my eyes, hopefully they give further options for camera control.
To watch this game in action see:
Infected Shelterreleases on August 04, 2025 in Early Access on Steam for PC; Q4 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One
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