Aloft

I don't understand the amount of complaints about performance. I'm using a mid-range machine and it's playing AMAZING. I'll come back after I get some more in game time :)

EDIT: Realized I never talked about the gameplay. It's still good! It's just bad performance keeps me from enjoying it and takes me out of the experience. Let's hope the performance update (which is the next early access update as far as I know) fixes these issues. I've been following this game for a long time and just decided to pick it up again on a whim. Performance has always been an issue with this game: - models aren't loaded in at game start, and the loading is not asynchronous so the game will freeze for however long it takes to load the new-to-session model, so if it's on a hard drive, that's on the order of several frames, seconds if there's lots of new-to-session models - if lots of buildables are present in an area, the game chugs a bit However, since I played last, performance is significantly worse: - if a corrupted or wasteland island is present in the render distance, regular islands textures(at least, I think it's the textures) will flicker to black for a frame or two and then turn back to normal. My drivers are updated. - in general the framerate is just a lot worse no matter where I am in game. I don't have hard numbers on this as I didn't see the need to test back then.

Great, but the complaints you may have seen on other reviews on performance are very much real. This game in the current state (early access circa June 2026) melts computers. I can maybe get 30fps @1080p with dynamic resolution at the suggested "high" preset. I see tons of potential! Just... maybe allow computers to run it better.

Having only a thumbs up or thumbs down, I'm not going to give Aloft a thumbs down, but I'm not necessarily recommending it either. It's okay at best I think? There's definite potential, but you have to question if it'll ever get realized. I was a late addition to the party and left underwhelmed. Flying is cool enough. Turning an island into a makeshift airship base is strange but different. There's a handful of things that set it apart and some in fun ways, but at its heart the core gameplay loop gets old pretty fast. Travel to a cluster of islands, fight a couple things to cleanse it, repeat a couple times, hit another island for an upgrade, start the cycle over. The islands all look roughly the same, and despite some temples increasing in size I just couldn't find much that kept the exploration side interesting. That goes for the story also, where I had to ask myself a moment ago--wait, *was* there a story? There was, turns out, just not one that grabbed me. I saw folks compare this game to Raft a couple times, and I've got to push back on that. Raft is a masterpiece in the survival space. To its credit, I think Aloft has plenty of room to build on its cozy vibes in fun ways, but nah--as it stands its nowhere close to Raft. Worth it if the gameplay looks fun to you maybe, but I'd wait for a deep discount.

I adore this game. If you like survival crafting, you'll like this one. It's not exactly breaking new ground in the genre, but everything works and the aesthetic and setting are what sell it for me. Flying to different islands and cleansing them feels so cool and very unique. There are also enough fresh ideas to set it apart from other games like it I've played, such as using sketch books to record building pieces you find or little timing mini games while crafting to make it go faster. I have to mention the optimization, though. I play on Steam Deck and even on the lowest possible graphics settings, the game runs at like 20 fps with a lot of stuttering all while chewing through my battery life. The fact that I still play the game under those conditions is a testament to how much I like it. It is still in early access at the time of this review, so hopefully these issues get addressed in the future.

The game is beautiful and relaxing. I am really enjoying it. The crafting is a fresh take, the mining mechanics and so on all add a lot of interaction that make resource gathering less mindless and more fun, so from that standpoint its great! I recommend this game, but only if you can live with some performance issues. I'd say my PC is pretty strong, but even so this game barely runs at 60 FPS when you're on a bigger island (measured at mid to high graphics). I really think the game could do with a performance upgrade.

Steam needs to add a "Meh" recommendation option for games like this. The game is what it tries to be, but that's all it is...a basic run of the mill exploration game with no rime or reason to it other then to "be" those genre tags. The TLDR, if you are looking for something interesting to play, this isn't it. You build to build, you farm to farm, and you explore to achieve those 2 goals. That is it (from what I have seen). To start with, the game doesn't really explain much of anything. Why are you here? What happened to everything/everyone? Why are you doing what you are doing? Who knows lol. Things just are. You are slapped into the game with no explanation of anything and that doesn't just apply to the world environment either, it applies to game mechanics and resource collecting as well. Some stuff is explained with tooltips or popup icons when you look at a resource, but not everything. It took me 8 hours before I realized you need to use the "dorkips" tool to get "tuff" by stabbing the ground -_- lol The exploration is mainly resource and knowledge stone hunting, very little exists outside of that. Because of that, most islands are generic resource fillers with one or two interesting places to check out with maybe a puzzle or two to solve in each map section. I've explored through the main 4 sections of the first zone and there is nothing to motivate me to continue. The game has no storyline, no fun/exciting/cool things to unlock...and if it does it does a poor job presenting that to you. The puzzles are nice but in some cases it's just too much work for such a small reward. All in all, it feels like a crafting recipe unlock simulator and everything it tries to be is merely just a means to accomplish that. The game is indeed a cozy sim with exploration and farming/building. But in order to do most of it, you have to spend tens, if not hundreds of hours to unlock recipes and explore in order to make anything worthwhile and by the time you reach the point where you got a decent amount of things unlocked to build and decorate with...you have no reason to even play the game anymore because once you build what you like...there is literally nothing else to do. The game is neat, but I can't recommend it for anyone who want's something more then a basic building simulator.

A great survival crafter for anyone not too interested in combat but more for the exploration and building perspective. Perfect for Family or Couples game time. The sound design is exemplary. Gives such a sense of freedom and cozy puzzle solving, the wind theme is great for anyone who needs to get past some cabin fever. I cant wait to see it in 1.0

Dermaßen langweilig, selten ein Spiel gehabt mit so wenig Substanz

I don't know why more people are not talking about this game! I continue to be impressed and excited by its possibilities and gameplay!