This is the latest in a string of questionable decisions DICE have been making over the past few years. Somehow the longtime Battlefield developer managed to completely miss the fact that gamers simply don't appreciate their big, triple-A shooters not having a single-player campaign, despite the backlash their first entry into the rebooted Battlefront series and EA's other significant FPS franchise Titanfall received for that very reason, so here we are with another multiplayer only title. This is coming right on the heels of their Battlefront II microtransaction controversy and them telling people if they didn't like the lack of historical accuracy in Battlefield V to not buy it, which ended up being advice everybody happily took (LOL!). That "half a game" mentality many are going to be walking into this with may just be the least of the studio's problems however, as those who do take the plunge will notice plenty of technical shortcomings and a shocking lack of anything innovative enough to truly justify the purchase over continuing to play one of the series' older entries instead.

I wasn't expecting to find the most polished version of the game here on what is now considered to be an outdated model of Xbox, but they still could have done a better job. On top of a plethora of weird visual anomalies and glitches, the graphics are dated with blurry textures that often struggle to load in. 2042 also runs into an issue similar to the one Call of Duty: Ghosts had when it tried to simultaneously create an experience that fully took advantage of the capabilities of next gen consoles, while also providing a lesser port that catered to the limitations of older hardware in an effort to cash in on as wide an audience as possible. Which is to say owners of the Series X or PS5 get to partake in massive 128 player battles, whereas those without are stuck in matches only half that size. This leads to some of the larger maps feeling barren at points, which can prove frustrating given how long it takes you to trek to where the action has moved when you don't have access to a vehicle. On the flip side though there are the locations where it seems like if anybody else joined everything would devolve into a giant clustermuck, so maybe neither option has the advantage.

While I've heard a lot of complaints about it, I personally loved the new UI. I have always complained in the past about how so many of Battlefield's important systems like loadout customization have been hidden in a mess of unattractive, obtuse menus. So the way all of this once difficult to decipher information is now presented in a manner that's easy to comprehend and allows me to swap out equipment and weapon attachments between respawns or even mid-combat with little to no trouble is a huge improvement in my eyes. It's a shame that's the sole area where the experience takes a step forward. The core action is undeniably familiar to a fault. There are two new modes, "Hazard Zone" and "Portal." The former of which plays out a lot like "Plunder" from Warzone and is ultimately skippable, while the latter actually shows a lot of potential with its ability for players to create matches with custom rulesets and content taken from fan favorite classics such as Bad Company 2. It's not enough to save the package, but is actually something I would like to see come back expanded in the inevitable next sequel.

As nice as the upgraded, streamlined interface and nostalgia-laden user creation mechanics are, 2042 doesn't offer the necessary amount of original ideas to legitimately validate its existence as worthy of your time over any of its predecessors. I think it's telling that the most fun I had with it was playing with the reused material from 1942. What's worse is that it feels like this is only the case because it was rushed out in an incomplete state before anything substantial could come from it in order to fulfill some bogus regular release requirements or to compete/keep up with the latest Call of Duty. This would explain the lack of expected features (campaign) and highlights how milking a property long after the inventiveness of its creators has run out leads to mediocre products that ultimately drive away the audience it once profited on.

5/10

One of the most satisfying open-world power fantasies I've ever played. It doesn't waste any time letting you off the leash either. After a relatively brief opening and quickly customizing your character, you're set free to take out the highest-ranking members of a cult however and in any order you see fit to draw out their leader. The structure is very similar to the Just Cause series in that pulling your targets out of hiding requires you to destabilize their presence in a region by completing missions and destroying their property, among other things.

The whole process is a joy thanks to how great shooting feels and the amount of flexibility you're given in your approach to tackling objectives. There's also a healthy feeling of growth as completing challenges, a lot of which you'll do naturally without even trying, rewards you with "Perk Points" you can use to buy a variety of beneficial abilities and any cash found can be spent at shops on attachments for your arsenal of weapons. All of which have the potential to turn you into a nigh unstoppable killing machine. You can even bring a buddy along for the ride on top of being able to recruit a diverse assortment of AI companions with their own unique skills.

By far the biggest reason this is so much fun though has got to be the map. The Montana countryside setting leads to a lot of distinctive scenery you can't find anywhere else and the world is brought to life by a believable ecosystem that allows for a wide range of naturalistic animal and human NPC behavior for you to notice. It's also a blast to traverse to the point where I often forsook vehicles entirely in favor of reaching my next destination on foot. Did I mention the plethora of activities littered about it to boot?

Not everything is perfect however. Vehicular combat is a drag because driving in first-person is loose and aiming while behind the wheel is unreliable at best. Particularly in anything that leaves the ground. The load times are fairly lengthy as well and you can't skip the splash screens at the startup before the main menu which is annoying.

There is an online component called "Arcade" where you can try out player-created solo experiences and deathmatch arenas, or make your own. The actual multiplayer side of it is dead though. Next to nobody is online anymore so unless you just want to build stuff that's unlikely to be seen by anyone else you can safely ignore this portion of the game.

Based solely on the strength of its single-player (or cooperative) offering alone however, this is still a worthy purchase. It's a massive sandbox filled with enough content to keep you busy for quite a long time and all the toys you'll need to turn it into your very own playground of destruction, that happened to garner a lot of controversy for its story. Which is weird given what a largely inconsequential feature that ended up being. The cutscenes are little more than a minor nuisance that slow you down from getting back to trying to murder the twisted villains talking at you rather than anything to get worked up over. As a result, an interest has been sparked in me for this franchise that I've been entirely content to let pass me by until now. Far Cry 5's commitment to freedom and transforming you into an undeniable force to be reckoned with led to some of the most enjoyable escapist thrills I've found this side of Saint's Row: The Third and IV. I can't recommend it highly enough.

8.5/10

There's something a tad depressing about reaching a 100% completion rate in a really good single-player game. The sense of accomplishment is great, but also bittersweet because it means you've reached the point where all that title you were enjoying so much has left to offer is a nostalgic replay in a few years down the line. Such was the case for me with Maneater, an open-(water)world RPG that had me craving more even after I unlocked that platinum trophy by tackling every objective on the map. Thankfully, this DLC was made to help satiate some of that hunger.

This could accurately be described as more of the same. There is a new location to explore, a collection of challenging bosses to overcome, and even another added evolution set with its own unique abilities. However, the only significant gameplay change outside of its more challenging combat encounters are the time trial side-missions that see you swimming through rings to beat the clock. It's nothing innovative, but the main course was already so tasty that I had a hard time turning my gills up at this second helping. The only real complaints I have are that the overall package doesn't seem to run quite as smoothly anymore and that the new story theme has led to less funny narration.

Truth Quest gave me a reason to pick up what was probably my personal favorite gaming experience of 2020 again, and for that I couldn't be happier. You can tell the devs definitely ran into some trouble with the scope of their vision, as it isn't long before you leave its new locale and return to the well-scoured seas of the base game to finish your quest of returning to the top of the aquatic food chain, but things like the increased difficulty still provided enough variety by forcing me to do things like reevaluate my shark's build. Plus, it allowed me to squeeze a few more hours out of something I loved in a manner that hearkened back the the DLC structure of the 360/PS3 era, where you'd get to travel to an area off-map and have a cool adventure centered around a creatively kooky concept.

9/10

After getting too ambitious with the first follow-up to his 2014 indie horror smash hit, it's nice to see Scott Cawthon take a step back with this third entry and reduce the scale again. Now instead of having to fend off an assortment of varied threats across a rather sprawling pizzeria establishment, you're largely keeping track of a single animatronic through a small handful of locations. Yet, while this means it's able to avoid 2’s biggest mistake of having had too much going on to get balanced properly in such a short time period between releases, the new structure exposes the flaws inherent in the very design of the franchise that simply weren't noticeable in the original due to its more focused, tight, and well executed vision.

A big way Cawthon has increased the amount on time people spend playing these 5 to 6 level experiences is by throwing players into the action without so much as a tutorial pop-up to help get their bearings, forcing them to figure out what they need to do to survive on their own. In the past the basics have been easy to grasp, with the more intricate nuances requiring a bit of experimentation and a hint of trial-and-error to learn. Here though the setup is so vague it's difficult to decipher what the bare minimum expected of you is, leading to a lot of frustration right at the very beginning.

While this feeling is somewhat alleviated when you finally gain an understanding of the mechanics, it never goes away entirely due to the RNG at the heart of the series and a few other cheap tricks. This is certainly far more forgiving than its most direct predecessor outside of the bonus 6th "Nightmare" stage as a result of the lesser number of factors at play. However, you'll still fall prey to random bullcrap at inopportune moments by complete chance that can severely ruin your run. This is a stumbling block the inceptive title managed to avoid by providing mechanics that made it possible to stay on top of and counteract the randomness if you were skilled enough. So it was always easy to interpret how you failed and why. The lack of that same reliability in favor of an underlying system with a higher degree of uncontrollable probability is what's really hurt the first two of its sequels. Then there are the extra problems 3 has holding it back...

The entire gameplay concept of this one is centered around directing your robotic pursuer away from the security office you're hiding in by triggering sound cues in nearby rooms to draw its attention there. All while various mechanical failures occur in the building that if unaddressed for too long will set off an alarm that'll cause the murderous mascot to set its sights back on you. It's a compelling idea, but ends up being not all that engaging or truly exciting to actually play, on top of being brought down by a pretty egregious case of artificial difficulty.

Considering how the action primarily consists of trying to uncover your foe's location via cameras, it's blatantly unfair how he's been intentionally placed in the darkest nooks and crannies of most areas (occasionally even behind the mini-map in the corner of the screen) that you're already viewing through a grainy video feed plagued with static, rendering him nearly invisible. This is an obstacle that can be somewhat avoided if you manage to corral the nuisance into a few key positions where the blindspots aren't so absurd, but every second you have to stop and go fix something runs the risk of him slipping into the darkness and becoming virtually undetectable again, until it's too late. FNaF 3’s biggest problem though might just be that it's not really scary. The new sound effects that accompany the jump scares are definitely easier on the ears, but lack the necessary impact to produce the intended fearful reaction.

Despite all my complaining though, there is a silver lining. Hiding underneath the expected main horror offering is a rather enormous puzzle that upon completion will unlock the "Good Ending" and expand upon the property's mythos. This is a multilayered brainteaser with cryptic hints hidden in the Atari-style segues between nights and tasks that must be done throughout the entire work week this takes place over. It's a genuinely complex, clever process that shows more inventiveness and effort than the actual product encasing it does, while also being a total blast to solve. So in the end this is partially redeemed from its mediocrity and faults by an immensely satisfying meta-game that I'd say is worth experiencing for fans.

Yet, although I enjoyed this more than the last outing, I've still been left wanting a true successor to the legitimate gem that started it all. What we've received so far hasn't been terrible, but has shown how the core tenets the cult classic was founded on are unable to sustain a string of equally lovable continuations. At least not so long as their developer continues to change functions that turned out to be crucial to its success in order to try and appease the complaints of those whose boneheaded criticism saw to it that things like life-saving doors were removed. Some of that placation here was ultimately for the better as I no longer felt brutalized by a ridiculously high challenge. However, it's not a significant enough leap forward in quality to stave off the disappointment from the sneaking suspicion I'm getting that the Five Nights at Freddy's brand as a whole might only be a one-hit wonder.

6.5/10

Looking back on all the fighting games I've played, the vast majority of them have been tie-ins to anime franchises like Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and the rest of that ilk. Their connections to such long-running properties have allowed for things like elaborate story modes and massive character rosters, on top of the usually expected features. It's something that has actually caused me a lot of problems in the past when it came to enjoying titles not associated with a previously established brand. Traditional alternatives such as Skullgirls Encore or even this game's direct sequel Fate of Two Worlds have often left me wanting in the face of the bare essentials and little else they offer. So on paper the fact that this second home console release of the arcade classic doesn't really do anything to flesh out the experience with more content should have been a big issue for me. Yet, this bizarre crossover epic was still able to win me over via the strength of its rambunctious action, eclectic cast of familiar faces (as well as a few surprising deep cuts), and flashy presentation.

Outside of offline, two-player Versus, all you're really getting are Arcade and Time Attack. The former of which does come with a pretty nice improvement in that, since you no longer have to put in more money upon defeat, you can use the continue system to pick right back up from where you left off and even select an entirely new group of characters in the process with no penalty. It's not that much to play around with, especially when you consider how the tag team nature of battles (you'll always be playing with and against a group of three fighters) means there's only ever one ending no matter how many times you make it through the gauntlet of challenges. The thing that's supposed to keep you coming back, other than your own competitive urges, is the points you're constantly amassing that can be used to buy things like artwork or expansions to your assortment of playable heroes and villains. The store itself is kind of boneheaded in design however, displaying only a few items at a time meaning you'll likely be backing in and out of it until something you want finally shows up, which makes the whole process more tedious than it needs to be.

Because of all that, what hooked me was strictly how fun the combat is. No matter who you choose you'll find that everyone available has their own distinctive, franchise appropriate abilities. This has led to some complaints about the balancing as there are those who are easier to dominate with right away than others. It's a criticism I can't fully agree with though, because with enough practice they can all prove effective in trained hands and the proper pairings. Yet, whether you're all that skilled or not matches will still be a blast as even simple button mashing fills the screen with a flurry of exciting visual effects stemming from the variety of crazy special and support moves at your disposal. The graphics do show their age, looking dated even by the now obsolete standards of the PS2 hardware, but the hand-drawn sprites and their animations hold up as charming to this day.

While I'm not interested in adding this to my regular gaming rotation to consistently grind until I unlock everything, I can easily see myself breaking it out at a party or something. There are few properties out there more endearing than Marvel and the multimedia giant's stable of well-known names pairs surprisingly perfect with the eccentric assemblage of oddballs from Capcom. Mix that in with the chaotic displays of beautifully displayed powers this compilation puts at your disposal and you're basically guaranteed a great time passing the controller(s) back and forth between a gathering of friends. That's in addition to having the amount of depth suitable for hardcore competition. So while this may be a tad limited for those trying to go purely solo, I can't deny there's enough here to justify its deserved reputation as one of the very best in its established genre regardless.

9/10

Before you even officially start playing, the striking blood-red menu screen accompanied by a haunting score and artwork reminiscent of a particularly grim adult horror movie expertly establishes the bleaker tone you can expect from this fourth entry in the long-running Five Nights at Freddy's series. Stepping away from the pizzerias of the past, you're thrust into a child's creepy bedroom in the middle of the night to ward off the nightmarish manifestations of his fears. All while an increased emphasis on storytelling delivers a dark tale with a shocking ending that provides horrific new context for the entire scenario. These stylistic and thematic changes create what is easily the most inspired title in the franchise since the original thus far, but they aren't the only areas where improvements have been made. For the first time in FNaF's history brief pop-up tutorials are present to explain the mechanics to you. A great thing as the established gameplay formula has undergone a few fairly significant changes in this outing.

Audio cues have always been a big part of these experiences, but here you must rely almost exclusively on them to survive. Without any cameras to keep an eye on you'll be listening for the sounds of things like breathing or footsteps to decipher where your animatronic pursuers are, running back and forth to close doors on either side of the room should one get too close in-between checking on the foes you can see hiding in the closet or on the bed behind you. Minus the lessened visual component, it's a setup that vaguely hearkens back to the triumphant hit that started it all and is genuinely pretty fun. There are issues that keep it from reaching the same heights though.

For a game so centered around sussing out valuable information with your ears, you'd think they would have put a larger emphasis on ensuring there was a greater sense of aural clarity. An option window did appear that told me to turn up my volume until I could hear the chirping crickets it had playing, but even with it on max I couldn't make out a single, solitary noise until I craned my head right next to the speaker on my Switch Lite. A good pair of headphones naturally fixes this dilemma, however you run into another problem in that when you inevitably make a mistake and trigger one of those infamous jump scares you could very well burst an eardrum given how loud the shrieking that accompanies them is. Then there are the various fake outs such as the occasional inexplicably delayed reactions the enemies will sometimes have that can make you believe you're safe when you in fact actually aren't to think about, yet considering this seems to be a little bit of misdirection-based trickery more than anything I guess I can somewhat let it slide.

Scott Cawthon's willingness to take the brand in an unexpectedly harsh, tragic direction rather reinvigorates it after the prior pair of lackluster installments. The really, really unsettling vibe brought about by that decision brings back the tension and fear in a unique way with only a fraction of the frustration found in its two most direct predecessors. So while it may have taken a couple of attempts and there are still some irritating design choices, the third time was definitely the charm as Five Nights at Freddy's finally has a recommendable sequel.

7/10

After four fairly static entries, Sister Location marks the first real evolution for the franchise. Gone is the simple, single room survival scenario where the only thing that changes across each night is how tough it gets. Now each stage follows a linear series of objectives that offer a variety of unique scenarios and challenges. Cawthon also gave the property an added dose of personality with a more story-driven approach that includes cutscenes, a greater amount of voicework, and a large emphasis on satirical humor.

As interesting as this all is, the title is really held back by the brand's 5 level structure. The experience is over so quickly that it feels more like a compelling proof of concept than a full-fledged game. Mix that in with FNaF's always questionable difficulty balancing and the somewhat awkward controls of the console ports, and you're not getting the most fulfilling horror adventure.

SL does try to extend the life you can get out of it by including secret methods of unlocking alternative endings with extra gameplay segments. The reward for which is more "lore." However, even hardcore fans and completionists might find it hard to justify the task of uncovering everything given how the actual true ending is acquired simply by playing normally and that the overarching plot, which has always suffered from its creator's lack of a consistent narrative vision, makes absolutely no sense. Your animatronic enemies have gone from being malfunctioning machines, to mascots possessed by the vengeful spirits of dead children, and are now self-aware AI robots here. Plus, I'm not sure I could accurately tell you when in the timeline this takes place even if I still cared at this point.

Despite its faults though, the future of Five Nights at Freddy's has never looked brighter. The creative, varied tasks hint at more diverse offerings going forward. The small scale just means that it feels like a paid teaser rather than the next truly substantial installment it should have been, and the less randomized, unchanging nature of encounters makes it so this doesn't have the same replay value as its predecessors. What's here is certainly intriguing, but it seems its intention is to get you excited for what's coming next instead of completely satisfying you in the moment.

6/10

After years of PC exclusivity the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise has finally branched out onto home consoles and this "Core Collection" bundles the first 5 main entries together into one neat little package. It offers nothing for those who have already experienced these titles before as there aren't any extras, but for people like myself who have been wondering for years what all the fuss is about the ability to find out is now finally at our fingertips. So the only knock you could have against this compilation is the actual quality of the games themselves, which vary wildly.

The first is the only one I would say is a must-play, with the fourth being a pretty good follow-up. 2, 3, and Sister Location however left me wanting for a number of reasons, be it things like poor difficulty balancing or a decreased amount of scares, among others. Still, each installment is fascinating even at their worst if only for the fact that they were all made by a single person over a very short time span who was largely making it all up as he went.

Overall, this might not be the most consistently enjoyable conglomeration, but it succeeds at its goal of bringing the absolute pop culture phenomenon that is this property to a wider audience. Therefore, if you've ever been curious about it there's no better place to start than here. Save for a few inconsistencies, the porting jobs are genuinely pretty fantastic.

7/10

Odyssey more fully embraces the franchise's RPG turn following the success of Origins. An element of choice and consequence has been incorporated into the narrative allowing players to influence the story with their decisions. It's not as deep as something you'd get from BioWare on this front when it comes to being able to constantly define your male or female character's personality or radically change where a quest will take you, but you're given the ability to impact key events in meaningful ways and put your own personal touch on the journey.

This is a lot like Skyrim in that no matter where you go you'll always find something to do. The entire picture of what the main storyline is presenting is spread across three separate questlines, and that's in addition to the variety of side-stories and locations with their own checklist of objectives to complete that you'll encounter. There's a hierarchy of mercenaries you can climb through the ranks of, a secret web of cultists to uncover, and an entire ship with a crew to upgrade and collect resources for. There's a lot of flexibility in all of this too, like how you can stay on top of your gear either by upgrading your favorite pieces or ignore that option entirely in favor of just picking the next best choice out of the constant stream of newly acquired loot, and play in the immersive "Exploration mode" which removes waypoints forcing you to really pay attention to directions given by the NPCs. It's amazing how well all of these systems and really everything Odyssey does comes together. Everything except for the graphics that is...

This is far from the prettiest game on the market. That's somewhat understandable given what a MASSIVE world with an increased amount of foliage compared to the deserts of Egypt it's rendering, but it's disappointing how I was never able to be blown away by these sprawling wildernesses due to it all looking like it was made out of clay. I do have some other, more minor complaints. Such as how the romance options are almost exclusively women, uncomfortably playing into that old stereotype of all gamers being either straight dudes or lesbians and severely limiting the choices for gay men and hetero females. The biggest though has got to be the modern day portion of the series. On top of still finding the new characters unlikable, I continue to have no idea what Ubisoft is even doing with it since they killed off Desmond in III and very little actually happens in this entry at all. It looks as though the Fate of Atlantis DLC provides some much needed direction going forward on this front, but given that I couldn't bring myself to make it through the free chapter of it they were nice enough to give away it remains an aspect of the brand they could abandon altogether and I wouldn't care.

The ancient Greece segments which make up the vast majority of the experience however are fantastic. There might not be any mention of the assassin's or templars that along with the inclusion of mythological creatures has begun to make the overall AC lore kind of murky, yet I appreciate the route the property is taking from a gameplay perspective. So much content is here that even after 50+ hours of play there were still areas of the map I hadn't visited, and all of it is varied and interesting enough to justify doing for the many hours it will keep you busy. It makes for an epic adventure I would genuinely say is one of the best RPGs I've ever played and easily my new favorite Assassin's Creed.

9/10

I've been struggling with what to do with Hover for a while now. It's been an uncompleted member of my backlog and "currently playing" that's remained largely untouched while I've focused on other things over the past few months. I can't deny I think it's a FANTASTIC game with the best parkour mechanics since Mirror's Edge and a fun emphasis placed on cooperative multiplayer, but I currently lack the desire to actually finish it despite only having a few hours at most left to get through at this point, and the thought of continuing to leave it floating around on my to-do list until the urge finally does return while I attend to some of the other titles vying for my attention simply doesn't appeal to me. So after much internal debate I've decided to do something I typically wouldn't and move on from it entirely, but also still give it a review in the process.

Structured like an MMO, the (poorly told and lame) story takes you through a series of hub worlds filled with other players jumping about and NPCs offering a variety of side-activities. Just about every mission you'll encounter is of the on foot race, "Gameball" match (think basketball with more platforming), or "take this item here before the clock runs out" variety. All of which is usually set against a timer. To be honest that's probably why I'm stepping away from it. Being timed in a video game is a huge pet peeve of mine. This is something I do as a leisure activity, so while I'm not against difficulty altogether, the feeling of having to rush through challenges with little margin for error can be frustrating to me when I'd rather just work at a more relaxed pace with some room for flexibility. Especially since my hands aren't as accurate as I would like.

It's a design choice I can't fault too much though as it compliments the gameplay rather nicely. Fusty Game and Midgar Studio have created a really deep movement system and this approach forces you to master every subtle complexity of it in order to make the most out of your limited, yet rechargeable energy and pick the quickest path to your objectives. There is a skill chip-based upgrade tree that you can swap out to incrementally increase your stats that I'm sure can be used to create some insanely overpowered build, but the most effective way to power through this with as little effort as possible is to bring a few buddies along for the ride. Working together with pals can trivialize most quest types and it's made easy to do thanks to cross-play.

It's worth noting that without friends to team up with the whole online aspect feels rather superfluous as the setup doesn't really do a good job of encouraging randoms to play together. Everyone you encounter will be running around doing their own thing and the later sections of the game are almost totally devoid of life altogether. So this likely won't be the place you'll go to meet new people. I wouldn't say that's truly a serious problem however. In fact, despite my nit-picks, which are the result of personal preference more than anything, the only legitimate flaw here is it's tendency to crash every now and then. It's also reported that an achievement or two are bugged.

Honestly, the most fun I had in this was exploring each large, colorful map for collectibles as it allowed me to enjoy the exhilarating motion of its jumps, flips, and grinds without feeling pressured to perform under any sort of constraints. The devs have come up with a really great and original core concept that has the potential to hook a lot of people. I realize the fact that I'm abandoning the game before seeing it through to the end kind of makes my opinion and score both irrelevant and more than likely a little confusing ("he's giving it a 9, but couldn't bring himself to beat it?"), but dropping it completely without so much as a word after the amount of time I did put into it felt kind of wrong. I think Hover is actually something pretty special. I guess it's just not 100% my thing. At least not without a full crew of familiars to run with.

9/10

Raft is one of those survival-games you see on steam and think: do I need another iteration of this? Is there enough distinction to the billion other versions in this genre? But then you fall in love with the idea of building a house on the motherfucking ocean like it was nothing and you go for it.
Despite it's limitations in direct comparison with other more popular survival games, Raft has a lot going for it. The main differentiator for me, was the chill pace and atmosphere of the game. Much like why Valheim was such a pleasure to play, Raft is a getaway and doesn't really put a lot of pressure on you and is less punishing then we've come to expect from the genre. There are some game design decisions however, where I would have liked a similar approach as in Valheim - especially the amount of food and water you need to just survive. At some point in the game it doesn't really matter anymore, but up until then you are basically in a constant loop of providing food and water which artificially extends the time for you to do the real fun stuff in the game. That is building a fully furnitured multi-story raft that defies the laws of physics and also traversing the ocean to uncover a mystery that is nothing superb, but still gives enough incentive to spend roughly 25-30 hrs in the game.
I can recommend this game to anyone who doesn't get enough of survival games and wants to have some chill hang-out sessions with friends.