Adr1ft review

Adr1ft belongs into the category of the survival and adventure games.

I've play it for a relative short time last year.
Short for the simple fact that this game is incredible short.
When buying it on Steam I was fully aware that this is not going to be a game that I would spend much time on but it was discounted so I gave it a try.

I have to say that despite the minimalistic storyline, the repetive gameplay and the already mentioned short playthrough... this game was an incredible experience.
Unlike other games which get deleted from my HDD once I am through, Adr1ft is allowed to stay just for the case that I want to jump back into the spacesuit and enjoy the beauty of this game.

You take control over a female character in the most beautiful space environment that you can imagine.
After a short tutorial that allows you to learn the basics of the game the main story throws you right into the game world.
You wake up in the middle of space and the first thing you hear is a friendly computer voice "survivor detected". All around you is debris... large station parts and tiny fragments fill your screen. The only thing that stops you from drifting into empty space is a cable that fortunatly wrapped around your leg.
This is the moment when you all of a sudden remember the movie "Gravity".
Yes, you are alone out there. You have the by far best view on Earth and the most frightened view on the destroyed space station.
Infront of you, one of the larger station modules. You remove the cable from your leg and try to pull yourself to that station module.
Your spacesuit is damaged, you are loosing oxygen.
Crap!
A small can of presurized oxygen is floating in space. Can you get?
First try... damn... missed it by 5 cm... drifting away... trying it again... every move depletes more of your oxygen... finally. The small can fits perfectly into the refill dock of your space suit.
You survived.... for a moment.

Task of the game is to find a way to return to earth.
The problem is... the only still functional escape pod can only leave the station if you manage to reboot the stations mainframe.
In order to do this you have to reboot all of the four computer cores and this only works if you manage to fabricate specific items.
Each of these items can be found in a different part of the destroyed station and requires you to enable subsystems again.
This comes with the benefit of upgrades to your spacesuit (repairing its damages) and the fact that bit by bit the station systems start working again... which later on allows you to use devices that can repair structural damages on your spacesuit or devices which allow you to fill your oxygen levels again.

This game really shows how tricky it is to move in empty space.
Every action costs you oxygen. You very often drift away or collide with something (which btw. also costs you oxygen). After half an hour I came to the conclusion that in space the most stupid thing you could do is to move fast. It costs you way too much oxygen.
This game is clearly about moving slow and carefully.
If it takes you 3 minutes to pass through a corridor then... enjoy the ride.

The slow movement does not cause boredom in this game. You have the most beautiful view on Earth you can imagine and also an incredible view on the damaged station (even damaged stations can look beautiful).
You even get an impression how dangerous space can be. At times it causes scary feelings when you look at the damages and dead bodies floating in space.

You are the only survivor... but what happened?
Well, you belong to the crew of this station... and something went wrong.
The crew was sent into space to research how to produce oxygen for a moonbase. They grow a specific plant on that station that can produce high levels of oxygen... but the research was stuck. A part of the crew wanted to return home... while another part wanted to stay in space.
While traveling through the partly destroyed station you come across computer terminals with emails and voice logs which tell you the stories of the crew members.
Eventually you also find out what happened that has lead to the destruction of the station.
I am not spoiling it here.
This is a story people will have to explore.

The game itself is extremely detailed.
It has a story mode and an EVA mode where you can freely discover the station without story elements.
It took me about 5 hours to complete the story mode... without hurry.
The end is a bit like "and thats it? I want more!".

I really like this game but in my eyes the developers could have put more effort in creating tasks on the space station... something would have added more to the story and eventually made this game a longer experience.
But since I got it for a discounted price I am not complaining.
There are 60€ games out there which also dont offer more story content compared to the price.

I decided to play it in the night... when everything around me is totally dark.
If you try that game... I advice you to do the same. Its great.
Adr1ft also VR support... so if you have the hardware thats the perfect game for you.