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0 Welcome to my review of To The Rescue! which is available on Steam on 2nd November 2021. This game is developed by Little Rock Games (Galactic Scoundrels, Lineage: 1434) and published by Freedom Games (One Lonely Outpost, Slaughter League). It is a dog shelter simulation game where you must help dogs of all breeds find new homes. Can I help keep them fed, watered, clean, and disease-free? continue reading to find out.
Save The Doggos In To The Rescue!
If you would like to check out a previous game review of mine, you can read about Farming Life here. If you would like to follow our socials you can do so at the bottom of this article.
Gameplay
We start off To The Rescue! with creating our character, we get to choose from a fair few characters to use in the game, I went for the one with the beard, naturally. Once you’ve named your character you can start your adventure in the game. We soon learn that there is a stray dog hanging around outside our property, we take the dog in for the night. The next day we take the dog to Quinn who is our friend at the local dog shelter. Quinn then offers us a job at the shelter to help look after the dogs and to find them new homes.
Soon enough we’re basically running the shelter by ourselves, ordering in new food, products for the dogs, playing with them in the massive play area, and more. There’s also a little bathing area so we can keep the more smelly dogs, not so smelly. Speaking of smelly, as you can see below they certainly like chocolate mousse! Whilst looking after the dogs we must keep an eye out and make sure they have a good supply of food and water else they will eventually become neglected. You also need to ensure that you provide the correct type of food for the correct breed of dog otherwise this can result in upset in that dog having an upset stomach.
We have a variety of different tools to hand in To The Rescue! such as the poop scoop, a brush that helps for bathing the dogs, and the bucket.
I do quite like how the game provides us with information on each dog at the tap of a key. This makes things a hell of a lot easier especially when someone comes into the shelter looking for a particular breed or type of dog to adopt. We can individually check each dog, or we can check the Dog Log on the main shelter computer to compare all of the current dogs residing in the kennels in the shelter. It is little quality of life improvements like this that make games more enjoyable and leaves them feeling like less of a chore.
The adoption process is rather simple, we can take up to five dogs to an area that is separated from all the other dogs. This way the person looking for a pooch can then only see the (up to) five dogs that match their requirements. This helps them save time which can result in you making more money each day. Once you get the hang of this game it becomes rather fun, so stick with it.
Graphics & Audio
The graphics in this game are very bright and colourful, they certainly help with making sure how charming the game is. The textures in the game are rather basic, but, they’re meant to be. They fit the graphics style of the game so well. I do like the various little effects such as when one of the dogs needs a bath and some stinky lines raise up from it.
Sound effects in To The Rescue! are also pretty good. It’s all rather quite peaceful and calm. The only issue I have is the main song that plays in the game. It appears to loop fairly quickly which then becomes rather annoying after a while. Unfortunately, this resulted in me turning the in-game music down a bit just so I could concentrate more on the gameplay itself.
Longevity
With this being a sim/management game, it can last you literally as long as you want. There is the story mode, but there’s also a sandbox mode which gives you a huge amount of replayability. At present, there are no Steam achievements in the game.
Final Thoughts
To The Rescue! is an adorable little game that has some nice little touches that help you just relax whilst playing. I love the fact you can turn certain real-life situations off, such as euthanasia. This is a great touch from the developers. This helps keep the charm in the game and helps keep it a little more kid friendly. I give To The Rescue! the Thumb Culture Silver Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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