The Last Caretaker

It is with a heavy heart that I leave a negative review. The game started off amazing, with the promise of exploring and repairing a broken, flooded world and discovering deep lore while managing logistics and bringing systems back to life. And for a time the game was exactly that, despite the engines lag and bugs. The devs took note of player complaints and addressed problems, and even added content to support emergent player styles like adding a placeable step when players used wall mounted chests to bypass jumping puzzles. Options and alternate routes and solutions were there awaiting explorers. Then the devs stopped listening. Reported bugs went unaddressed. New content was added to a shaky foundation. They added vehicles, the jetski and forklift, but those vehicles were optional. Until they added the gyrocopter. The controls are objectively bad and made even worse by the engines input lag. Complaints were ignored. Content that was only reachable via the gyro was added, and complaints were ignored. Where existing POIs had multiple approaches and only needed to be solved once for the rewards, two new POIs were added that force "thread the needle" flight challenges on the player, and forced them to repeat it every time for the resources there. No easy path to unlock from inside, no alternate paths, no options. On top of hate inducing controls and having to restart because the gyro would get itself stuck and destroyed. Complaints were made. Update 5.5 dropped. No mention of complaints, controls or performance, but proudly announcing even more content accessible only through the gyro. The game has abandoned it's original design and the style that drew in the early adopters. Amazing potential, killed by a dev team that cannot recognize criticism and double down on forcing a bad mechanic onto players.

Absolutely great game UNTIL you start the end-game of growing humans. then its just a random slot-machine of game of frustration, where you spend hours of time collecting 'memories' and food to grow humans, then the machine spits out a human with the wrong profession, so they're useless. If they fix the way humans are grown so its a skil-based game, then i'll change my review. becuase up until now, its been an absolutely amazing game.

The gameplay is above average, vibes are cool, but the writing is entirely generated by an LLM. I wouldn't care if not for how ungodly repetitive and annoying it is. Almost every line in the game contains "It's not ____, it's ____"... A load bearing staple of LLMs, and it infects almost every line in the game, I'm not kidding... Literally ruins the game. Wait until the devs rewrite (via human) / re-record all the dialogue. For the devs - when i said it's load bearing i wasn't kidding. All LLMs will drift into that structure, even when you tell it not too. Just redo all these lines, doesn't seem like there's that many.

I never leave reviews but figured since this game was a bit of a breath of fresh air for me it was worth doing. For an early access game there's a lot of content in the game. The game play loop is satisfying, and while it follows a similar loop for each new area, the in beginning it's exciting as you discover the world and what the goal is. The initial important areas that you find yourself returning to throughout the game are particularly fun and require a few hours for initial setup, which you find yourself having to expand to meet your production needs as you get deeper into the game and streamline automation. Having your boat as a hub to get you to different points with generic production needs and then having the main areas more suited for specific needs was satisfying and rewarding. While you may think the world is a bit bland being a massive ocean it manages to keep you hooked. When you're able to send your first off world payload you feel a great sense of accomplishment. With a rewarding cinematic playout which helps this sense of achievement feel more special. It's been a long time since I've played a game that's kept my attention so much. Unfortunately I lost interest in completing a lot of the other areas, but that's more of a problem with myself, and I can fully appreciate that there is a lot more that will keep more dedicated player entertained for many hours to come. Throughout the game there is consistently a lot of scavenging and recycling which somehow manages to stay fun. Would definitely recommend if you enjoy exploring and automation leading to a goal. With around 27 hours of gameplay that kept me hooked I'd say it is worth the price tag, especially with it being in early access with regular updates.

from what i see in the updates, devs dont fix things EVER, just release new things to help break the game further. constantly getting stuck in things, doorways, railings, the floor itself (all while being attacked by enemies that you cant see because theyre shooting you through walls/floors). ladders yeeting you to narnia when you try to jump off, fall damage that should only injure you, full on killing you. theyve managed to make the game very frustrating to play. not to mention laggy as hell at times (my pc spec can well handle the game), the weather doesnt help situations at all, every night you cant do ♥♥♥♥. i like the game its just it needs to be fixed, seriously fixed

Enjoyed playing it while i could. Now it crashed on boot every time. tried all the listed on line "fixes" but just doesnt work for me anymore.

Honestly, this is the first survival game in years that's truly scratched that itch for me. It feels genuinely unique in a genre that's become pretty repetitive. The atmosphere and setting is incredible, and the soundtrack deserves a special mention because it fits the world perfectly and elevates every moment, whether you're exploring, craftiing, upgrading your ship/tools or barely surviving. It strikes a great balance between challenge, progression, and discovery without ever feeling like a chore. It's one of those rare games that's hard to put down and keeps you thinking about what you'll do next long after you've logged off A masterpiece.

the great: I have to praise the female voice over. in no game that's not in Japanese or Chinese can you find a woman that sounds feminine and inspiring. this is literally the only game I can come up with in English that does it right. does not talk down to the player no handholding, challenging, feels rewarding the could be great: visuals, atmosphere, effects, background soundscape, shaders of objects, detail -- those are technically great, but it is used as an excuse almost.. it's the Star Citizen disease... no usability, no focus on fun gameplay but "REALISM" and the best visuals the horrific: as good as the game is, the stress it is causing me by having horrible usability is just too much and destroys my fun: 0a) the dismantler handheld device which you use nonstop has an unbelievably grating, irritating and unpleasant sound. because realism, bro... or something. do you want to work at a table saw grinding through metal pieces all day? do you like that sound? that's the real soundtrack of the game. 0) press-hold is what you do in this game for hours on end and it is extremely unhealthy. this needs to get an option for click - bind to your gravity gun thingy and click to release/ right click to throw. this game was not playtested by people who actually play the game like they had to succeed. no normal human being can do press-hold for hours on end when cleaning out an ocean settlement. I'm not talking about the far worse drag and drop here. just the idiotic press hold. the problem here is that press-hold morphs into similar movements like drag and drop when you hold something and navigate a corridor or ladder. it KILLS this game for me. 1) the constant juggling of E, Q, F and V when recharging things is a nightmare. I get a spike of stress hormones every time I need to do this. this is implemented in the worst possible way to cause the most amount of friction between what you want to do and what the game allows you to do -- and this is on purpose: to increase "realism" or some nonsense. I do not believe for a second anyone who designed this wanted to make it userfriendly. it is the equivalent of reprogramming a 90s entertainment device with illogical sequences. this has to go as it adds nothing but makes me want to stop playing. the step to connect to yourself or the item you want to charge is redundant and often interferes with what you want to do. simply have CHARGE, CHARGE (object), Charge (other object if that's a thing later) and CANCEL and let the game autoconnect. the game is purposefully and knowingly click intensive for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tasks and minigames. this speaks of a design philosophy that comes from people who never actually play games. it's from movies or for people who think it is funny to press left > right for 200 times in a row and in quick succession (YES, really!!!) to win a minigame. this stuff ruins people's hands and exacerbates hand conditions. what's next? cutting yourself in real life so you get to level up? 2) storage and inventory is yet another proof that the people who designed this game are not players. they seem enamored with "movie" tropes and cinematic feelz and ruining every fun you could have because the second to second gameplay is painful and click intensive. you NEED drag and drop to do inventory and storage interactions. you NEED drag and drop to open and close most doors. if you have a weapon in your hand, you will always shoot once or twice by accident and damage the ship which then needs to be repaired via more useless press-hold actions. press-hold while maneuvering the mouse in an unusual manner like when opening doors "cinematically" is THE WORST for hand conditions. about storage: you can not do clean transfers like in any other normal game, no, you have to drag & drop. ---- the game wore out my hands so I don't want to rephrase my forum post on this since it causes me even more pain... thanks, game... why can I play 2000h of factorio and path of exile and not get pain in my hands and no frustration but here, after just a few hours I feel stressed out and aggravated ... anyway... here is my forum post about just *some* of the idiocies in this game that all stem from the idea that a lack of usability equals immersion or something. it does in fact not. also: no normal save game possible. you have to do it like in some trash console game and get to the "save spot"... also the game's ingame phone calls are depressing the shi out of me. newsflash devs: people who want to build up and rescue are almost always not fans of depressing garbage tropes like post apoc trash. zomboid and such are played by destructive people who enjoy seeing everything in ruins. for them sad phonecalls is something to fap to. not for people who want to make a fictional world a better place. ------------ usability is a nightmare in this game why can't I deposit things in containers by hovering and pressing e.g. E ??? drag and drop gives me terrible pain while playing! it is the worst movement for my hand condition! why is melee not like in any other game? C ???????? how the ♥♥♥♥ can you move and press a keyboard button at the same time in a manner that makes you move and evade successfully? it is stupid! it should be left mouse! but you designed the game so I can hit and damage my own structures. WHY? why can I not set mouse wheel to rotate all items in my hand? this worked in Half Life in the 90s! and in pretty much any other game. please change that! the game is just so cumbersome to use moving items between storage and inventory has been solved many times over in factorio, path of exile and so on. why reinvent the wheel? empty space plus left click -> move all items over shift (or control) plus left click on an item moves all items of the same type. E or F or whatever moves the hovered-over item control (or shift or alt) + right click splits stacks in half and so on. make it all rebindable and people can use the version that most aligns with muscle memory it is extremely bad form to reinvent something worse than what is established. let me rebind things to key combinations, not just single keys! this is basic stuff! and I need to add: esc is NOT a default primary key for anything in a game with good usability . esc is the fallback when other options fail. that is why it is out of reach of other keys **any key that opens a menu should be used to close said menu** or in storage related things: tab could be used to close out of storage as well. but this is an exception. having esc tied to that makes the player lift his hands off wasd every time they interact with storage, producing more hand movements and frustration esc should never be used primarily for whatever task that is ingame. it can be used to get to a menu like exiting the game that you never want to press accidentally. THAT IS WHY it is out of reach without lifting off your hands and at the corner of the keyboard. if I build anything in factorio, it builds the necessary precursors by itself. not here. because friction is the goal. waste people's time until they quit without even having seen the good things the game has to offer. *************** the game is "otherwise" (as if that matters when it stresses you out so much) extremely high quality, well done and thought out. but most of the qualities are from "cinematic" stuff. not game design features. those are good, sometimes very good. a few of the ideas are extremely fun and immersive. this could be an overwhelmingly positive game otherwise, but as in countless other games I've tried, it does all the extremely hard to do things well, and then fails at the very basics even a cheap 1 man dev can pull off easily by simply catering to standards, common muscle memory and ways to do things. every one of my complaints has been solved in other games a thousand times over. that is so easy to fix, but the goal here was not to make it too usable as that would not be immersive it seems.