Raft Requested/January poll/Early Access Review

introduction 
What would you do if you are on an open ocean with only a plastic hook and some garbage? In Raft we are going to explore what your character would do but the best answer is: build a huge boat with plastic and wood if you are creative enough. If you think the ocean is safe, you might want to rethink that because Bruce the shark is going to hunt you down. Raft is a survival game with a huge twist, you are going to face the troubles of steering your raft and dealing with thirst and hunger. There is also a story in Raft but is not yet complete as the game is in early access.

This game will give you great joy but also great fear because if you die you will lose all your items. You can ask a friend with the game to drag you to a bed after joining but after I died, I found out the game has multiple errors with connecting. I died due to a bug getting stuck underwater in a stone but everybody that tried to join my game got errors. I lost a lot of stuff that I could have replaced but I did lose my will to continue the game after the second time this happened to me. You can also play on easy to keep your items but that is not fun for me. When Raft has some new updates, I hope that the connection errors get fixed, my wife had the same connection issues when I tried to save her from a pufferfish that swam through a wall to explode in her face. We both ragequitted Raft until new updates are aired that might solve some connection errors.

What Did I think of Raft before playing?
My wife started playing Raft before I did and the game looked amazing, so amazing that I wanted to play as well.
I also put this game in the poll option to see if Raft was also something that my readers would like to see reviewed.
Raft made the second spot but nonetheless here is Raft, I think this game tells you exactly what you would expect before playing on the Steam page.
This game is in early access, this means that Raft is not yet complete, and many more things will be added in the future, we started when a new chapter was added.

My wife made an amazing raft and was just exploring islands and fighting Bruce, if you see someone playing this game you will be sold quickly!
I wanted to play together but sadly we could not, we tried to connect through Steam but it was impossible, many errors, greeted us and the connection is lost errors.
Thus I started this game alone with a small raft and a plastic hook, before I knew it Bruce attacked me, he only ate a piece of my Raft though.

I rate Raft before playing with a 7.0
I want to rate Raft higher before playing but due to my wife and I not being able to connect and play together I lowered the rating.

Story
You wake up with no clue where you are how you got on the Raft, there is only one thing to do. Survive and find more people, you will need to find a radio tower while surviving to see where everyone is. Can you survive while fighting Bruce and look for people?

I am not going to rate the story yet because the story is not yet complete.

Gameplay
Raft takes on the normal gameplay of survival elements and applies them to living on a raft, you will find small islands in the beginning but later on, you can find bigger islands. When you start out you have only a small raft but you can expand your raft by gathering plastic and wood. Bruce might eat pieces of your raft but you can scare Bruce away with a spear and maybe even kill him, don’t worry his son will return to avenge his father. This is an infinite family cycle. When you have more place on your raft you can start to maintain your thirst and hunger. Whatever you do, don’t go swimming in the water or Bruce will take a bite out of you! To get freshwater you will need a water purifier, when you have made the water purifier you can put saltwater in the water purifier to get fresh water. Drinking saltwater is not good for you, you can find random potatoes or red beets but these vegetables won’t do much for your hunger unless cooked. You need to make a small grill to cook the vegetables. You can also make a fishing rod to catch fish to cook, some fish cannot fit on the grill. Later in the game, you can make a bigger grill. Don’t forget to build an anchor otherwise, your raft will go, poof, when you explore an island. Some fish can be used to make shark bait to distract Bruce.

When you are able to maintain your hunger and thirst, you can try to expand your raft to add a research table. When you put items in the research table you can learn new items to craft. Some items like copper and metal ore need to be smelted in a furnace. Ore can be found underwater, be careful, Bruce(junior) might be around! There are loads of items that you can craft to make your life better but you need blueprints to learn these new items. You can find new blueprints as you follow the storyline. To build a radio receiver you will need a second floor on your raft, this allows you to put in codes to find story islands. When you have visited your first location you will be able to find bigger islands. There are many things to do in Raft and it works quite addictive but catching animals was weird. My biggest problem was that the animals need crops to be fed, these crops need to be watered many times. If you have too many crops they will die because the animals cannot find the crops they want to eat. Luckily you can automate the process of watering with sprinklers and batteries but I was having trouble with learning how to automate the process the best way. I started a new raft and just did it manually, I have yet to add sprinklers on my latest raft.

If you want to navigate your raft you will need a sail and a streamer to find out how the wind blows. If you go the wrong way you will not find new islands and flotsam will stop spawning. You can also put collection nets on your raft to automatically collect flotsam. Later in the game, you can learn how to use engines but they can be high maintenance if you are using planks. You might want to learn how to make biofuel when you have found the right blueprints, you are going to need a garden with beehives to make the biofuel. Every engine can carry up to 100 foundations before going into a slow mode. After 110 foundations your engine will stop, thus you need might multiple engines. There is a max speed that your raft can go, otherwise, you fly away with 500 engines on your raft, that is if if you could keep the engines fueled.

I rate the gameplay of Raft with a 9.0
The gameplay in Raft is addictive and there are many things to do. I love that many items have different tiers but I hope there will be more tiers in the future. You can also go treasure hunting and much more but I did not get to this part before rage-quitting due to connection errors. When there are new updates and the connection errors are fixed, I am diving back into Raft. I did put in over 50 hours easily in Raft, time goes very fast when you are playing Raft.

Sound and Graphics
I like the graphics of Raft, the islands can vanish into thin air though if you don’t use an anchor. Don’t ask me how I know this though. There are also many different animals, friendly and not friendly.
There are some clipping errors, a few major ones. One of them even spelled my demise as I got stuck underwater on the side of a story island. There was no escape and no one could connect with me to put me in my hammock.
Otherwise, I do love the design of the enemies and Bruce, the story islands are crafted well and the random islands do not look too much alike.

The sound of Raft is good but you will need to adjust how fast Raft switches to another track otherwise you will be greeted with much silence. I do like the sound effects in Raft.

I rate the sound and graphics with a 6.5
Why this low rating even though there is nothing to complain about how good the graphics and sound are? A graphical clipping issue killed me twice, that is why.

What did I think of Raft after playing?
Even though a graphical clipping killed me, twice might I add. I did not know that if you clipped wrong on an island Bruce would become a Sharknado and eat me.
I love the idea of getting resurrected by someone but how can I use this function if it does not work properly for me? My wife had the same issue, as did some other people but most people did not.
It might be something in our router I have no clue but nonetheless, I did have a boatload of fun building two different rafts and killing Bruce over and over.

The story seems good so far but I don’t think I can rate it yet. I hope newer items get added and there will be some bug fixes. Did I tell you my wife got killed by a pufferfish that swam through a wall? I believe it is fixed now though.
I am curious as to where the story will take me with upcoming updates that add new chapters and might fix some bugs. When these updates launch, I also hope to go treasure hunting.
I never caught a goat, that is also on my to-do list when I start up again with a new raft. Raft is an emotional rollercoaster that takes you to epic highs and extreme lows.

I rate Raft with a 7.7 after playing.
Raft is an emotional rollercoaster, are you ready to take this ride?

My personal rating of Raft
I am still angry at those graphical clipping issues, I hate them, they hate me. Someday I will get my payback, I need revenge. One day I will act out my revenge on Bruce and the pufferfishes once again.

My personal rating of Raft is all over the place but I think an 8.7 is a fair rating with how much fun I had with Raft even with me rage-quitting

Pros
– Raft will take you on an emotional rollercoaster of ups and downs.
– Raft has many ways that you can build your own raft.
– This game is currently in early access and there is already a lot to do in Raft.
– The sound and sound effects are great for Raft.
– Collect flotsam for fun to make useful rooms like a garden.
– You can steer your raft with engines when you have played enough of the story.
– Many different islands with different biomes as you continue through the story.
– There is a cooking pot which you can use to make many different meals like shark dinner!

Cons
– Graphical issues can kill you if you have bad luck.
– Connection errors while trying to play together.
– Seagulls, they are just pure evil, kill them all!

Even though Raft has killed me a few times with weird issues I had a lot of fun with this game and I would definitively recommend this game even when it is in early access.
The final rating of Raft is…Drumroll…

7.6

Let me know what you think of Raft in the comments.
I hope that you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!