Raft

GENRE: Adventure

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: Dependent on the host’s hardware and internet speeds, but at least 4 players should be supported for everyone

RATING: N/A

PRICE: $19.99

AVAILABLE ON: Steam

SUMMARY:

Raft is a survival game where the player spawns in on a small two-by-two raft in the middle of the ocean. A variety of resources and trash litter the water which the player must collect in order to survive, build up their raft, and make better supplies. The world is almost entirely water due to a some catastrophic event that caused mass flooding. The only known pieces of land are small islands where certain natural resources can be found. Each island has a reef somewhere just off shore where they can collect even more supplies. However, be careful when exploring the water for the shark that follows your raft and will attack whenever you swim in the ocean. The shark can be killed using various weapons like spears and arrows which should give the player enough time to explore the water and gather supplies from the reefs before it respawns.

As you gather more supplies, you can build up and decorate your raft. Water purifiers, garden plots, fishing rods, and grills are some helpful ways to ensure your thirst and hunger stay full, both of which will decrease slowly over time. Other tools like sails and anchors will help you navigate from island to island. Eventually you can even install nets along your raft which will collect floating debris from the water for you. All of these tools and more are crafted by making a research table at which the player can research supplies they’ve collected along their journey in order to learn new useful crafting recipes.

The game starts out as a simple survival game, but eventually the player unlocks a complex story line. Once you start gathering and researching more materials, including blueprints, you will be able to craft antenna and transmission towers which are where the story begins. Radio equipment will help you locate and sail towards larger islands to explore. Some just serve as home to various animals you can either tame or fight, and others can be explored to further reveal the game’s story. On these islands the player will discover many different notes and pieces of evidence that will be stored in their journal and can be looked back on whenever needed.

Raft is still an early access game, meaning it is not yet complete. The story line will most likely continue to be built in later versions of the game and even the current version might change a little. Despite this, Raft is still a complete-feeling game with plenty of opportunity for adventure that will only get better.