Raft
Redbeet Interactive · Survival, Open World, Base Building
Overview
Raft™ throws you and your friends into an epic oceanic adventure! Alone or together, players battle to survive a perilous voyage across a vast sea! Gather debris, scavenge reefs and build your own floating home, but be wary of the man-eating sharks!
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By yourself or with friends, your mission is to survive an epic oceanic adventure across
A perilous sea! Gather debris to survive, expand your raft and set sail towards forgotten and dangerous islands!
Trapped on a small raft with nothing but a hook made of old plastic, players awake on a vast,
Blue ocean totally alone and with no land in sight! With a dry throat and an empty stomach,
Survival will not be easy!
Raft™ throws you and your friends into an epic adventure out on the big open sea, with the
Objective to stay alive, gather resources and build yourself a floating home worthy of
Survival.
Resources are tough to come by at sea: Players will have to make sure to catch whatever debris floats by using their trusty hook and when possible, scavenge the reefs beneath the waves and the islands above.
However, thirst and hunger is not the only danger in the ocean… watch out for the man-
Eating shark determined to end your voyage!
Find the last parts of civilization still above water. Overcome the challenges therein, uncover the story of its previous inhabitants and find your way to the next destination!
Features:
- Multiplayer! Survive by yourself or with friends in online co-op!
- Hook! Use your hook to catch debris floating by.
- Craft! Build survival equipment, weapons, crop plots and more to help you stay alive!
- Build! Expand your raft from a simple wreckage to a buoyant mansion.
- Research! Learn new things to craft in the research table.
- Navigate! Sail your raft towards new destinations and overcome their challenges, uncover their story and find new items to help you on your journey!
- Dive! Drop anchor and explore the depths for more resources.
- Fight! Defend your raft from the dangers of the ocean and fight your way through perilous destinations.
- Farm and cook! Grow crops, catch and tend to animals, cook recipes and make tasty smoothies to keep your stomach happy.
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,999 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Reviewers describe Raft as a cozy, sometimes chaotic survival game about turning four planks into a floating home, at its best with friends. Co-op comes up in 40% of the longer reviews, usually as the reason the game works. The praise also covers building and upgrading the raft, a story that gives the drifting a destination, the calm of the open ocean and exploring islands. The shark divides people: some players name it and grow fond of it, others call it a constant nuisance.
The frustrations are about time lost to chores: grind and repetition, hunger and thirst that drain fast, tools that break quickly and a harsh death penalty, along with aggressive animals, clunky combat and a UI that newcomers fight with. Players who reach the end have their own list. They say the late story islands lean on fiddly puzzles and platforming, the ending falls flat, and the best gear arrives only after the story is over. A small cluster of 2026 reviews reports broken crossplay, world codes that fail to generate and a voice chat that takes over players' audio.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Playing it with friendsHigh
40% of the longer reviews mention friends, co-op, multiplayer or playing with a partner or family member, and some put it as plainly as "better with friends" or "more fun with friends". Players describe splitting jobs on the raft: "Assigning roles (one guy hooks junk, one cooks, one explores) makes the grind feel non-existent." Couples, siblings and parents playing with their kids all write in, and a few reviewers like that a full playthrough does not swallow months of a group's evenings: "it's at least refreshing that a coop survival game doesnt demand 100 hours of your time to complete and crossplay works great". Some players find solo play much weaker, and co-op connections broke for a group of 2026 reviewers; both are covered below.
Building the raft from four planks into a shipHigh
19% of the longer reviews talk about building, upgrading or crafting, and the tone is warm. The appeal is watching a scrap of floating debris become a multi-level home with farms, water purifiers, engines and decorations: "Watching along as you upgrade your raft is really satisfying." Players like the research table pacing, the automation that frees them from early chores, and the freedom to design a raft that looks how they want. The few critics of this part say the best building materials arrive too late (see the late-game section).
A story that gives the voyage a goalHigh
The story is mentioned in 31% of the longer reviews. 15% pair it with positive words ("great", "fun", "interesting") against 3% that call it weak, boring, rushed or an afterthought. Fans value that the story is optional and paced by the player, and that the story locations break up life at sea: "Top tier story and super fun to play with a friend". Others find it pleasant rather than memorable: "The story wasn't anything amazing, but it wasn't bad either." The problems with the final islands and the ending come from players who finished the game, and they sit with the split topics below.
A relaxing ocean moodMedium
In 13% of the longer reviews the game is relaxing, chill, calm, cozy or peaceful, and players credit the music, the waves and the slow drift between islands: "The music and the ocean atmosphere are S-tier for relaxing after a long day." Some add that the shark and the survival meters keep interrupting the calm.
Exploring islands and the sea floorMedium
Exploring, diving and underwater areas come up in 12% of the longer reviews. Small islands feed resources and blueprints, while the larger story locations offer new settings: "Discovering tropical islands, underwater reefs, abandoned structures, and mysterious story locations always gives me something exciting to look forward to." A few say the small islands start to blur together after a while.
Good value for the priceLow
Price comes up rarely and mostly favourably. 4% of the longer reviews say it is worth the money, full price or good value, against about 1% that call it not worth it or say to wait for a sale. One player put it this way: "For 14 bucks and getting over 30 hours of gameplay, I say this game is pretty good at what its meant to be." Some positive reviewers still suggest waiting for a sale.
Where players are split
The sharkHigh
The shark appears in 21% of the longer reviews. Some players treat it as a beloved menace, give it names (Bruce is the one that sticks) and write about it fondly: "You will learn to love Bruce, he is your companion throughout the game." 5% of the longer reviews tie it directly to words like annoying, constant or frustrating, and those players describe a repetitive interruption rather than a threat: "The shark that never leaves your raft just became annoying". Players reviewing within their first five hours mention the shark a little more often than later reviewers, probably because early on it is the main danger before the raft can be armoured.
Solo versus co-opMedium
13% of the longer reviews discuss playing solo or alone, and they do not agree. One group says the game falls apart without company: "This game is fun when you play with friends, but miserable when you play alone." Another group plays solo happily and calls it calmer: "It's the perfect mix of survival and story and it's great to play by yourself or with friends!" Solo players who struggle point to the survival meters and resource gathering, which one player has to handle alone, and a few say they play solo on easy or peaceful.
The late story islands and the endingMedium
7% of the longer reviews talk about puzzles, platforming, jumping sections, Utopia or the final area, and most of them come from players with 30+ hours. Some enjoy the change of pace that the story islands bring. Others say the late chapters drift away from what makes Raft fun: "when we got to the final location and faced ridiculous, frustrating jumping puzzles and a difficult battle we were not prepared for". Another wrote, "The last three or four story islands are awful." The ending draws criticism of its own from players who liked the lead-up: "the buildup is pretty great but the payoff is more or less a slideshow without any real stakes". Some of these critics still praise the story and the earlier islands.
Difficulty settings and peaceful modeLow
5% of the longer reviews mention difficulty modes. Players are glad that easy, peaceful and creative options exist, and some say switching to easy made solo play or the death penalty bearable. Others find the modes poorly balanced: normal feels harsh with a fresh group, while peaceful removes too much: "Combat was annoying, but turning it off with peaceful mode just felt dull."
The motion sickness settingLow
About 1% of the longer reviews mention motion sickness. Some say the dedicated setting works ("motion sickness mode that genuinely helps"), while others still felt sick with it on: "I find that the setting to turn motion sickness off doesnt really do anything."
What frustrates players
Grind and repetitionHigh
12% of the longer reviews call the game grindy, tedious or repetitive, and these words show up in 22% of the longer negative reviews. The complaint is that the time spent hooking debris, gathering metal and repairing gear outweighs the progress it buys: "The grinding is way too much, and the game barely rewards the time you put into it." Players with 30+ hours raise grind more often than players in their first hours. Some positive reviewers call the grind a staple of the genre or say friends make it go faster.
Survival chores: hunger, thirst, durability and deathMedium
Hunger and thirst come up in 7% of the longer reviews, mostly as meters that drain too fast and punish too hard: "Hunger and thirst drain pretty quickly, causing a very annoying status effect that makes you stop everything to find food or water." Players in their first hours raise them most. 3% complain about tool durability or the death penalty, which wipes two thirds of the inventory instead of dropping it: "When you die, you lose 2/3 of your inventory... And by lose, I mean straight up deletes it." Another player summed up the durability side: "Equipment breaks too quickly, making crafting feel pointless at times."
Hostile animals and clunky combatMedium
7% of the longer reviews mention the seagulls, stone-dropping birds, bears, boars and other island animals, and 6% discuss combat. Players describe the animals as constant harassment, especially on islands and right after respawning: "From the sharks to the boars to the stone dropping birds, there's more ways to die than being lost in the Australian outback." Combat itself is described as simple and exploitable, with no block or dodge and spear and bow fights that come down to trading hits or backpedalling: "Once you get the bow you will never die to an animal or boss ever if you just walk backwards."
Bugs and glitchesMedium
Bugs, glitches, crashes or desync come up in 7% of the longer reviews. Some positive reviewers call the bugs minor, while negative reviews describe co-op desync, items clipping through the raft or islands, and progress-blocking problems late in the story: "There are unavoidable sequences where I keep glitching through the floor and falling to my death." A few early-game reports describe the inventory not opening or the raft getting stuck against an island: "you can get stuck at an island for an hour".
Clunky UI, inventory and controlsMedium
5% of the longer reviews criticise the UI, inventory, menus or controls, and newer players raise it more than veterans. Complaints include overlapping menus, awkward item placement from the hotbar, crafting stations that destroy their contents when moved and keybinds that reset: "UI has overlapping menus and cannot be moved."
A thin late gameMedium
4% of the longer reviews say there is little to do after the story or ask for more content. A specific version of the complaint is that the top-tier gear and blueprints unlock only after the final boss: "it makes no sense that you get the titanium tools AFTER the last boss fight". Players who love the game feel this too: "a little bittersweet to leave our raft behind tho bc theres not much to do in endgame". About 2% ask for a sequel or more updates, almost all of them in positive reviews: "I just want a sequel with a new story."
No tutorial for the opening hoursLow
Players reviewing within their first five hours raise this one most. 4% of the longer reviews say the game explains too little or that they needed a wiki or YouTube guide: "it really should have a good built-in tutorial and it has nothing like that". The story's first steps (finding the radio tower, knowing where to sail) also confuse some newcomers.
Grindy and luck-based achievementsLow
4% of the longer reviews mention achievements, almost all from players with 30+ hours. The complaint is consistent: the last achievements depend on rare island spawns, random metal-detector finds or very long playtimes: "The late achievements are either rng or grindy so good luck."
Crossplay, world codes and voice chat in co-opLow
Only 2% of the longer reviews report co-op connection problems, most of them written in 2026, and they are blunt. Players describe world codes that would not generate, what they call a new social menu that failed, friends on PC and Xbox unable to join each other, and an in-game voice chat that could not be switched off and took over their audio devices: "They seriously messed up crossplay. Some strange social menu that doesn't work. Just give us the world codes back." Others reported the same audio problem: "Multiplayer completely destroys pc audio." and "unfortunately the devs decided to make open mic mandatory". Some of these reviewers say they otherwise like the game, and one says they will recommend it once crossplay is fixed.
3. The player conversation
The conversation is affectionate and playful. Three quarters of the reviews are one-liners, and the longer ones include comic stories about the shark eating a player's house, foundation or water filter.
Who raises what follows the game's arc. Players who wrote their review in the first five hours focus on the opening: the shark, the hunger and thirst meters, the missing tutorial, the UI and getting stuck against an island. Players with 30+ hours talk more about the story, the late islands and their puzzles, the ending, the thin post-story content and the achievement grind. Co-op is the common thread at every stage, mentioned more often the longer people played.
From November 2025 to October 2026 the weekly positive share stayed mostly between 85% and 93%, with a softer stretch around late June and early July 2026, the same weeks in which a burst of crossplay and voice chat complaints was written. Older reviews, from the early access years and from around the full release and its Final Chapter update (which reviewers date to 2022), make the same core points about co-op, building and the shark.
4. What the developers could do
- Cut grind and boost tool durability. Grind and repetition come up in 12% of the longer reviews, and players tie part of it to tools breaking quickly and resources arriving slowly.
- Slow down hunger and thirst drain and soften the death penalty on normal difficulty. New and solo players say the meters force them to drop everything, and a few single out the two-thirds inventory deletion on respawn.
- Fix crossplay joining, world codes and voice chat device handling. The 2026 reports describe friends unable to join each other, world codes that never appear and an in-game voice chat that hijacks or breaks system audio, and some of these players say they like the game otherwise.
- Move the top-tier blueprints and titanium gear before the final story chapter. Players who finish point out that the best equipment unlocks only after the last boss, which leaves little reason to keep building.
- Rework the final story islands' platforming and puzzles, or add hints. Late-game players describe precise jumping sections, a hard final fight and puzzles with no clues, out of step with the rest of the game.
- Add a short optional tutorial and clearer first steps for the story. Players reviewing in their first hours say they had no idea how to survive or progress without a wiki or YouTube guide.
- Tone down shark and bird harassment frequency, or let players adjust it. Players who dislike the shark and the stone-dropping birds describe repetitive interruptions more than danger, and a setting would leave the fans of the shark untouched.
- Clean up the UI and inventory. Overlapping menus, crafting stations that delete items when moved and keybinds that reset come up mostly from newer players.
