Premature Evaluation is the weekly column in which Steve Hogarty explores the wilds of early access. This week, he’s sailing away on the crest of a wave in splishy splashy ocean survival sim Raft.
Developer: Redbeet Interactive
Publisher: Axolot Games
Release: Out now
On: Windows
From: Steam
For: 15, $19.50, 18
You ll have heard of Raft. It s the best open world survival crafting there is, for the singular reason that rather than having to run around to discover and excavate resources, they re all swept towards you on a never-ending tide of stuff. Plastic, wood, leaves, potatoes. All you have to do is catch the detritus with a hook on a string and then yank it towards you, so that it becomes part of your raft and your raft can grow larger and more elaborate.
Minecraft, for all its supposed complexity, is hamstrung by a rude insistence on making you walk around on foot like an idiot, checking under leaves for magic rocks or whatever the hell that game is about. Raft is a survival crafting game for the brilliant, but chronically lethargic creative mind, who would rather sit and let content wash over them than head out in search of it.