It’s early days, but OceanCraft could be the next great co-op survival game for Oculus Quest.
An early access version of OceanCraft hit SideQuest earlier this month, and developer FlodLab is also hoping to bring it to App Lab soon. For now, though, you can try the surprisingly robust pre-release version for free. In the game, you and up to seven other friends are tasked with surviving for as long as possible on a raft in the middle of the ocean.
As a lot of people pointed out to us during last week’s livestream, OceanCraft is a lot like Redbeet Interactive’s Raft in VR, just boiled down to the basics. Items for crafting float towards you and can be nabbed with a trusty hookshot. From there, you can build out new tools like fishing rods and water purifiers, expand your raft with new platforms and fish for food you’ll then chop up and cook. Make sure to keep a steady supply of food and water on the go or you’ll eventually keel over.
These are the basics of pretty much any survival game, but it’s impressive to see just how well OceanCraft has already got them down in VR, not to mention the ideas it’s added of its own. I really enjoyed the physicality of catching a fish, reeling it in and then chopping it up and cooking it before chomping down. Plus there’s a great satisfaction to building out the raft from initially cramped confines into a much more workable space.
I’d like to see the game lean further into VR, though. Right now, for example, crafting items is simply a case of choosing them from the menu and then placing them on deck with a pointer. It’d be great to mix a little DIY assembly in there to make everything feel a bit more like your own, or to use nets to scoop up nearby fish.
Right now FlodLab says the game has about an hour of content to it and that’s certainly true. By the end of our stream, myself and UploadVR Video Editor Zeena Al-Obaidi had created a pretty sustainable ecosystem that didn’t put up much fight (Zeena’s forgetfulness not withstanding), so I’m excited to see the ways FlodLab will expand on these promising foundations.
Will you be checking out OceanCraft? Let us know in the comments below!
