Back during one of the Next Fests I had downloaded and tried the “cozy” survivalbox game Aloft. Now, I don’t know if it was a “Me Thing” or if the demo was a point in time in development, but I had a hell of a time engaging with the game. The starting steps didn’t deviate from traditional survival games so I knew I had to go out and get rocks and sticks, but couldn’t find rocks and sticks. I didn’t have any way to make tools to get rocks and sticks, either, because my journal was empty. Without rocks and sticks, and without blueprints on how to make the most basic tools, what was I supposed to do? I quickly bounced from this demo on account of my inability to figure things out, and had more or less decided to ignore this game until I saw yesterday that Astrolabe had dropped a massive update for the early access title, and Augmented Steam was telling me that Fanatical had a coupon (FANATIC15) that brought the game down to about $20. Since I am in one of my “inability to commit to a single thing” phase, I thought “what the hell”.

Too often people make up their minds about relatively inconsequential things, writing them off after initial impressions don’t stick the landing, and while sometimes there’s something to be said for doing so, there’s just as good a chance that being stubborn is self defeating. Exhibit A: Aloft.

The premise is that you’re a ship pilot, and during a nasty storm your ship is wrecked. Waking up, you find yourself on an island, but not just any island: a floating island. The game starts off as survivalbox games do, with tasks to build some basic stuff which this time worked perfectly well for me and I swear it wasn’t like this in the demo, but I digress. In short order you’re asked to create a glider, and from here on in you are no longer tethered to a single island. The glider allows you to fly between the various islands (I have heard that there are over 300 currently) to explore and uncover the mystery of what appears to be your new home.

But wait! Shortly after a few more tasks doled out by the system, you get to make a new ship! But not just any ship, because the tasks have you placing a helm, sails, rudders, and a map console on one of the floating islands.

Your ship is an island. You fly an island. Any island. Almost any island; some are too large to fly, but you get to choose a home island and, if you like, make that island mobile.

Along the way you will need to visit other islands to gather materials (what you can’t get from your own, regenerating ship-island, as resources seem to be biome-based), and occasionally unlock blueprints, but crafting discovery is done by combining known materials to reveal new items.

I think that was a system I didn’t grasp during the demo, but I didn’t have any items so it was a moot point anyway.

Combat is present, as part of your mission is to seek out instances of “corruption” which takes the form of giant fungi that infect entire islands. These singular stalks are guarded by mycotic warriors who have a knockback on every hit, so combat is a light dodge-and-engage as well as a block-with-your-weapon kind of affair. After defeating the infestation, the island clears and you can interact with it.

With the recent critter update, I believe that the game took a turn into a conservationist neighborhood which reminded me a bit of ECO. One of the crafted items is a nature journal, and throughout your travels you can complete this by finding bugs, animals, and plants, and you can attract certain animals by planting items from biomes that they favor.

I’m not sure what the ultimate point of this is, but I know there’s animals larger than bugs, and the release video shows some crafted items that you can build for animal (and bug) husbandry. The game is still in Early Access, so I expect more to come.

Overall, though, the game is unhurried despite the ominous presence of this “corruption”. Last night I sailed my island into a ring of other islands which appeared to be infested, and got my ass kicked by the shrooms that lived there, so I decided to head back to the starting zone and work on unlocking recipes and building my HQ which just so happens to also be my main mode of transportation.

I don’t know why I find it so damn cool that my vehicle is also my home; I claimed one of the tutorial islands mainly because of an elevated section I chose for the helm, and there are a lot of trees and rocks that I can harvest. The island is pretty sizable, which gives me plenty of room to expand, but I also need to add more sails and rudders because the number of these needed is related to both the size and subsequently the speed of the island. This is not a small island, and while I move at a comfortable clip, the map shows that I have a lot of ground to cover and could probably stand to do so faster.

I cannot recommend this game enough to folks who like survivalbox games, but are tired of the “basic” approach that a lot of them take. I feel that devs feel this as well since many of the newer sandbox games like Nightingale, Aloft, Islands Adrift (three I have now played) all sport some kind of angle beyond just collect, craft, and survive. I’m also glad that the aesthetic has that soft, semi-real feel to it. Wind whips across islands, moving trees and grasses and plants, and wind speed and direction does matter when sailing. The music is extremely chill and reminds me of Raccoon Lagoon, one of the best VR games I have had the pleasure to play. In fact, I think this would make a very good VR game, but that’s getting ahead of anything else Astrolabe plans to bring to the table.

There is also a co-op mode, but I haven’t had the opportunity to try that. While you can own your own “home” island, you can also share an island with other players for a more communal island experience.

There’s one more feature that I haven’t played with because the game itself says that it’s missing features, but before dropping into the game we have the option to build our own islands and import them into the game. Aloft has Steam Workshop support so you can also download other people’s creations if you’re not feeling up to the task of creating your own island.