Building & Simulation · 2022 · Redbeet Interactive · online
Raft
On a raft in the middle of the ocean, hook floating debris, build a floating home from it and stay clear of the shark.
What it is about
You drift on a few planks in the open sea, with a hook on a line. Everything floating past gets pulled in: planks, palm leaves, plastic, barrels. Piece by piece a larger raft takes shape.
On top of that come drinking water, food and a shark that keeps chewing at your moorings. Later you add a sail, an engine and a receiver that lets you steer for specific islands and stations.
That is where the story sits: abandoned places, recorded notes, and eventually an explanation for why the sea is so empty. With two it divides up quite naturally — one stays aboard and builds, one dives and loots.
Our verdict for couples
After twenty minutes you have divided the work without discussing it: one casts the hook and pulls planks out of the water, one builds the next storey out of them, and both take turns swearing at the same shark. There is no clock and no competition, the raft simply keeps growing, and at some point there is a kitchen on it. These days the story even has an ending, which gives all that building a destination. It will not work with a controller, though: the game still does not support one, and a sofa does not change that.
Pros
- A calm tone with real building progress
- The story now has an ending
- A creative mode removes the threats
Cons
- No controller support
- No local co-op
- The opening is a lot of busywork
Suitable from
Casual–Hobby
- Conflict potential
- Harmonious
- Cosiness
- Cosy
- When you can stop
- Any time
- How long it lasts
- 15–40 hours
What other co-op fans say
The community praises the mood above all: once the raft stands it gets very calm, and many describe the continued building as the real game. Alongside that, it is strikingly often said that it is considerably more pleasant with two, because doing the opening alone means constantly switching between water, food and the hook. The objections arrive in a bundle: too much busywork, a middle stretch that drags, and the missing controller support.
- “I truly enjoy being able to play this game with or without friends its whatever pace you want to make it.”
- “grindy at first, health/thirst and shark will be something you need to constantly watch”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
If you like this one
Runs on the same devices as this game.
Grounded
Shrunk to the size of an ant in your own back garden: the sprinkler is now a natural disaster.
Valheim
Make a Viking world habitable as a pair: fell trees, raise a hall, put out to sea.
Survive the next winter together. Nothing is explained, dying is frequent.
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North unreviewed
A Middle-earth role-playing game for three that finally gets a split screen on PC.