After many months of waiting for a new update for Raft, Redbeet Interactive has announced The Renovation Update to be released on June 21st. The response from fans of the game has been welcoming, although questions are being asked about the release of Chapter 3 which was the next expected update.
For those that haven’t played it, Raft is a brilliant little game involving individuals or small groups of friends floating on a small wooden raft through the ocean. As you go you will collect flotsam from the waves and build up your raft. You will need to develop ways of purifying water, finding or growing food, cooking, and then onwards with power generation and steering so you can explore the ocean.
The game has a larger storyline in that you are following the trail of your family members through several different locations. Chapter One introduced the receiver in December 2019 and allowed you to follow the signal to Vasagatan, an abandoned cruise ship, and then onwards to Balboa Island. At each location you find more blueprints to craft more equipment, and more clues to follow. Chapter Two was released in October 2020 and took the player to Caravan Island and then to Tangaroa, a large floating sphere with a city of skyscrapers inside.
The storyline currently ends at Tangaroa, with a code to follow but leading nowhere. There is still plenty to do for the creative type on their raft, however. Parts of the tech tree may easily have been missed and there are features to be explored such as animal farming and metal detecting which don’t play much of a part in the storyline. Automation on board the raft is another feature to play with, so the game hasn’t really ended.
The announcement today shows a whole ‘raft’ of new furniture and household items to find and build. There are sofas, tables, chairs, beds, sets of drawers, and loads of other items. You look to be able to decorate your sails, paint every item, and generally make your raft your home. What it doesn’t show are any kind of gameplay features. Regardless of Chapter Three (which is really what we are all waiting for), where are the extra crop plants, developments into further automation, new materials to discover, new ways of crafting or cooking, and additional features such as multiple rafts or mapping? While nobody is condemning the new furniture, it is really time for something to reinvigorate the gameplay, not just the interior design. The gap between Chapters One and Two was 10 months. Chapter Two was 10 months ago, so where is Chapter Three?
Perhaps the video doesn’t include the whole content? Either way, we’ll still be playing on June 21st.