Adr1ft is a short, narrative experience that follows the lead of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Dear Esther and other so called "walking simulators". The first part of the game has a more elaborate gameplay (asking the player to manage the oxygen reserves), but in the end all that matters is the compelling atmosphere.
Although its not meant to be a VR game, this was absolutely stunning. I almost felt like a real astronaut in open space floating above Earth! Thank you devs!
For what it is and what is meant to be - amazing. One of the most immersive games I have played, everything feels so real. Very high quality realistic graphics combined with demanding movement system that is keeping you engaged all the time recreates the situation of being left alone in space perfectly and is so believable that many things, like for example death, are making much bigger impression than they normally do in games and movies. Story may not be the best and you are thrown in the middle of action from the beginning **** and it may be a bit confusing, but game gets better and better along with progress. Very believable and impressive game. Score of 9 may be a bit high, but 8 feels a bit low for a game that managed things mentioned above, very few games can do that. 8 is my score for games that had great potential and generally were very hood but had too many flaws to be great. This game didn't really have any major flaws and it delivered what it was meant to in an impressive fashion.
The refusal to accept ADR1FT being part of the "walking sim" crowd has, weirdly, made it less of an easy recommendation, but a recommendation nonetheless, because although it can be frustrating, it's hauntingly beautiful, and a sensational example of how a well crafted environment can be enough to pull you across the finish line.
As a simulation of being marooned in space, Adrift is peerless. The sense of weightlessness, the sense of scale, just being in the world are all astonishing. But it's impossible to divorce the immersion from its mechanical failures, which sours what otherwise could have been a new high bar for narrative-centric games.
Adr1ft is an absolutely stunning visual experience. It looks amazing and feels great to be in nearly at all times. That is until you progress to the point when you realize you’re doing the exact same thing in a new sector of the ship, not even with different objectives or quick time moments to try to mask the fact that you’re hitting enter to make yet another core and plug it in. The whole experience is relatively short, and while it’s something to behold visually and feels good while in it, it might not be something for everyone.
Visually beautiful trip to the ruined space station, which unfortunately gets boring soon. You won´t be killed by lack of oxygen, but mainly by boredom and frustration from the lack of content. [Issue#263]
In terms of atmosphere and visual presentation Adr1ft is a winner. The game really hits all the right notes to ensure total immersion. The search for oxygen is tense and had me holding my breath. However, this becomes less of an issue after about a third of the game and in the end is a rather tedious affair, although admittedly it still creates tense moments when it is not quite clear where to go next and the search for the next way point ends in a spacewalk in the wrong direction.
Although Adr1ft features a HUD with a compass and arrows that point towards the next objective, I got lost several times, mainly because I floated past a small escape hatch or broken window that the game wanted me to squeeze through throwing the HUD arrow into a wild frenzy pointing in all kinds of directions. A few times my search for the next way point turned into a bit of frustration. But then again, one could argue that such is life on a wrecked space station.
The game is reasonably short - it took me about 5 hours to finish it - but it's not too short and did what it could with the rather limited, walking simulator-y game mechanics.
The sound design is excellent for most parts. Yet I had two major issues.
Firstly, for five hours I heard my character breath and wince when she bumped into some debris. But apart from names of her deceased crew mates she never utters a word. This strange silence seems a bit unnatural, especially after communications with mission control is re-established at some point. But, alas, she remains silent.
Secondly, and at the same time my biggest problem with the game, was the soundtrack. Don't get me wrong... Debussy perfectly sets the mood for a slow paced space game in the beginning. However, the majority of originally composed electronic music is highly repetitious, in some instances obnoxiously so. I had to turn down music volume several times during my play through because the score by Adam Orth drove me batty... and I love electronic music!
But these things aside, the game's visuals, atmosphere and overall fantastic immersion made it absolutely worth my while. If I ever get my hands on a VR headset, this might actually be the very first game I will try out.
I must state first that i did not play this game in VR which i do highly recommend as the game was immersive without so i imagine i would be even more with VR but the gameplay is so boring and gets so repetitive so fast also the tasks just seem meaningless as i wasn't really interested in the story but it did have a cool beginning as it throws in the deep end and does have a cool backstory to some of the characters but was disappointing overall.
Game looks pretty and the space atmosphere is well done, but damn if this isn't the most boring game ever made. You spend half of the entire time chasing after oxygen bottles because you're ALWAYS low on oxygen, and the other half floating veeeery veeery sloooowly from point A to point B to repair the same things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. I'm not overdoing it with those overs, that's literally how repetitive it gets. At times you can just leave your character floating until she hits the destination while you check your phone, do some squats and eat a sandwich. At one point I just gave up and used a trainer for unlimited oxygen. Otherwise I wouldn't have endured to the end.
The story is broken down into pieces you're supposed to put together by listening to audio logs, but after a while I stopped caring and just skipped every audio log so I could finish the game faster and be done with it.
It's a shame because it feels like the game had much potential, but was abandoned somewhere mid-production and released as an unfinished product because aside from looking nice it's empty and shallow.
waited FOREVER for the motion VR vive controller support to ccome out to play this game. and I can't say I have been as dissapointed in ANY game for VR yet as this one. you spend the ENTIRE time fighting the clumsy controls with slow response to chase down oxygen bottles, its horrible. Your entire experience of what should be an immersive VR game is spent fighting the UI and motion sickness as you roll around and bounce off things. VERY simple things like looking in a direction (which other games do by looking WHERE YOU ARE LOOKING with the headset) you have to control by lightly touching the touchpad. I dont think the people on this indy dev team who were supposed to impliment the Vive support ever even tried playing the game with it....I would fire them on the spot if they dropped this trash on my desk.
after only 40 mins of playtime Steam refuses to refund
SummaryAdrift is an immersive First Person Experience (FPX) that recounts the story of an astronaut in danger. Floating quietly within the wreckage of a destroyed space station with no memories and a critically damaged EVA suit, the lone survivor struggles to understand the cause of the catastrophic event that killed everyone on board. The play...