I AM Future

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I AM Future review
Camrin Santchi

Review

Cut From Well Tread Cloth

A Historical Genre


Survival and crafting games have been around for a long time - and arguably the act itself of 'survival' is the goal of most games, typically coming from the act of making sure that your health bar doesn't reach zero. The act of avoiding bars reaching zero is what most people associate with survival games, and the number of bars is sometimes used to depict the amount of difficulty within the game. Besides health there is often hunger, thirst, energy, weight, or other factors besides those I've used as an example!

Into this well saturated market of game genre is I Am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival. The game opens atop a ruined building in a flooded, seemingly abandoned city, with the main character waking up from what appears to be a cryostasis pod that had been meant to prepare him for a trip to an appropriately named paradise called Eden. Unsure of what is happening, and a little fuzzy on even the details of his past, the protagonist must survive and thrive, not to mention perhaps find out what has happened to the city and its populace.

Some Mystery and Quirks


I Am Future operates on a day/night cycle, with night leading to dangers including power sucking leeches or odd poisonous plants. This means that players will need to keep track of time in order to make the most of the day, and be prepared for the night in case it disrupts their attempts at surviving.



An interesting facet of I Am Future that separates it from other games in the genre is a pretty reasonable excuse for limited space. The game takes place on rooftops within a flooded city, so the only way to expand your survival efforts is to create bridges or other paths between new rooftops that provide added space and resources. This allows players to get used to the environment without being overwhelmed by a massive amount of options or resources.

One more thing that is rather intriguing about I Am Future is the focus on robots, drones, and other technology. The first character that players meet besides technically their protagonist is a perky and odd fridge that is happy to fill in the player as best they can about the circumstances that they have found themselves in, once the player finds a battery so they can actually make use of him. As they progress, players get access to more and more ways to mechanize their survival, streamlining processes so that more time can be spent on exploring or other tasks once food and water supplies are made to produce practically on their own.

Ground Already Travelled


Unfortunately a primary issue with I Am Future is that the genre of survival and resource management games is a rather bloated one, and that this game doesn't really explore enough new territory to stand out against the many other games that are released in this genre almost constantly. That being said, I Am Future is a very mechanically sound game. While it doesn't add too much to the genre, it is easy to get into and makes sure that players who might be new to survival games shouldn’t be too overwhelmed. This makes it a very good entry point into the genre, but it may not do enough to set itself apart for people who spend a lot of time playing survival games.

I Am Future has been released in Early Access, with a content roadmap already planned out that will be consistently updating the game with many more things- new roofs to explore, new items to craft or disassemble, even additional story and side-quest content! As such, keep an eye on the game as it develops since the developers at Mandragora plan on supporting this game for quite some time.


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7.8

fun score

Pros

Mechanically Sound, Easy to Get Into

Cons

Not Much Sets it Apart from the Genre