I Am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival Reviews

I completed the game today. The ending wasn't very satisfying since it was super abrupt...you don't seem to resolve the over all issue of the bugs. I used alot of the cozy settings added after launch so I'm reviewing from that POV. I didn't need to garden or really eat if I didn't want to and had less of the bugs. I had fun going around and gathering resources to upgrade my equipment/devices. You never go inside any of the buildings. I think it would have been nice if there was more to explore...the world felt very small. Maybe they might add a DLC at some point in the future. I kinda think the game could have done without the bugs or realistically have them have died out after humanity left because they would have leeched all the life and energy from the planet...but somehow that didn't end up happening. So you get to deal with them. I never felt like there was any time to just relax, there was always something to do. You never get to the point where the resources kind of run themselves. I think the minions were supposed to help with that but they were completely useless for anything but refueling the energy stations, and even that they failed often. Not sure I'd replay this game again as nothing really is going to change...maybe I could be a bit more efficient about doing certain things or routing my energy production better.

This is a wonderful game with a few little gameplay hiccups. I *love* the feeling of being a disassembler/engineer as opposed to a gardener or miner, like so many others in the cozy genre do. I also liked the little bit of story, the music, the serene but alone atmosphere, and that I could largely just zone out deconstructing and organizing so much stuff. That's the real highlight of this game--finding treasure (broken appliances) and making order out of chaos. xD When I first played this game, it lacked the cozy feeling--I was spending ALL my time dealing with making myself food and having to stop everything and run to deal with parasites every few minutes (and the automated items for dealing with parasites weren't adequate/were too much hassle)--but they patched it recently to where you can adjust the baddies AND food. There's NO REASON not to adjust the cozy settings! It makes the game way, way more fun, so I highly recommend it to new players! I would recommend this game to anyone, with two caveats: 1. Finding your tool upgrade components is not intuitive--you never know what they're locked behind. Is it narrative? Is it a location? etc. You'll probably be searching the discussions or their wiki. That goes for building upgrades, too; sometimes stuff is weirdly difficult to unlock or you have no idea if upgrades will even be helpful or not (you don't always know what they do 'til you upgrade). Thankfully... time doesn't matter, so it's not a huge loss or anything, just kind of annoying for a minute. 2. If you're an achievement hunter, please read the achievements before you play. Turn on cozy settings ASAP so you don't pass out and don't eat any biomatter 'til halfway through the game--or else you'll have to restart, since there aren't manual save states. There are a few terribly tedious achievements, too, that aren't even easy at endgame... just so, so much farming, making 300 drinking water, etc. smh Though there's no reason for replay, I had 33 hours of relaxing fun :3 Definitely worth it for me.

No cozy. Much busy work. Yawn. Evolution.. hahaha. This studio needs Jesus.

This review is not about whether I liked this game or not – I did like it. ... Sort of. This review is about: 'Would I [b]recommend[/b] it?' Spoiler alert: no, I wouldn't – because 'I am future' is the epitome of 'great idea, poor execution': in there, 'cozy' unfortunately just means 'slow and tedious'. The good: - The core idea feels somewhat innovative; - The world-building has some consistency; - The AD is simple – but not simplistic. It conveys exactly what it needs to make the player feel relaxed; - The music score changes at strategic moments (dawn, midday, dusk, sunset), allowing you to keep track of in-game time without having to think about it; - I liked the 'story', and I liked the NPCs; - I also liked the NPCs mini-games, especially that each has been designed relevantly for the NPC you get to play with; - Minions are really cute!; - The 'spraying' mechanic is well-made and feels really comfortable to use ; - Just enough variety was provided with the appliances you get to dismantle (as well as just the right amount of them); - Being able to paint the storage containers so we can color-code them – and seeing the chosen color showing next to the name of the container in the list when accessing the storage meta-network - is a great design choice; - I liked that the tools at our disposal are so various; - English translation is on point. The bad (in no particular order): - World-building really could have used more consistency ([spoiler]Are we a clone or an android? Please make up your mind... that's not the same at all[/spoiler] – [spoiler]Kindred spirit with Earl after what he pulled, with no narrative transition whatsoever?[/spoiler] – [spoiler]A machine selling food while there are no humans left on the planet?[/spoiler]); - While music was used the right way, the uninspired musical score gets annoying real fast (forget about the cool music from the ad, you won't ever hear it in-game) ; - It's really easy to get soft-locked: you get access to new areas and can clean them up almost entirely [b]before[/b] the story leads you there. You end up using materials that you have in limited supply, unaware of their rarity – and that you absolutely need them to unlock the next step in the story... Of course, you can demolish structures to get said materials back, so it's not a game-breaker. Still... - Yes, there's a 'demolishing structure' option – but it is only accessible via a very discrete button at the bottom left of your construction panel (not intuitive); - While you get to fish, the QTE becomes boring really fast; - While you can connect all your storage containers together via the storage meta-network, navigating said meta-network is a real pain; - The mechanic of picking up/dropping off large resources (metal sheets/planks/plexiglass) is really clunky: 1/ a mere pixel off when you're clicking to pick something up and you drop everything (also works when you unintentionally click somewhere you shouldn't); 2/ using the directional arrows while maintaining the right-button of your mouse clicked (so you can move the camera) often ends up in you unintentionally dropping off what you are carrying too; - Large resources storages can't be upgraded, so you can't have storages containing more than 10 units of metal sheets/planks/plexiglass; - Large resources storages are not connected to the storage meta-network, therefore can't be accessed from the manufacturing devices ; - You can build solar generators and a power grid... but your kitchen will only use planks (wood) to work – forever; - You get to discover recipes for many different dishes... but there's absolutely no use for them whatsoever in the long run; - You get to fix the roof – but someone forgot to 'activate' tiles within some fixable roof patches; - Someone also forgot to 'activate' dismantling for some items, so you get stuck with some pesky piles of paper and wooden structures on the ground... forever; - Most of your structures will need power to work, so you get to build an electrical grid. To ease the connecting process between structures, you can build electrical poles. But their connecting radius is so low that you end up having to build way more than feels necessary; - Moreover, electrical poles' 'connect mode' is automatically cancelled when you get too far – and the radius being so low, it's often impossible to connect poles located at different levels: you end up automatically exiting the 'connect mode' because you have to make a detour to take stairs; - You will need water for your crops and for cooking, and the most convenient way to get some is from water pumps. But you can't freely place water pumps... And you don't get one on every roof, while having no way of transporting water from one point to another other than by hand (... with a bucket, three units at a time...) – so forget the idea of building a farm just anywhere; - You get to pilot a drone to explore points of interest over the map, in what's called 'expedition mode'. But there's no indicator of the drone's battery level outside of 'expedition mode'. Can't remember how much battery left your drone has? Endure another loading screen to access 'expedition mode' again; - You can tear down just about anything... but can only recycle a selected handful of items; - You get a nano transporter to move structures around, but only one structure at a time. Try and move your entire farm(s), one garden bed at a time – then pray for an upgrade allowing players to transport multiple units of the same structure (that will never come: the nano transporter can't be upgraded like other tools can); - You can customize minions, but the available colors are not saturated enough – making most of them barely distinguishable from one another once applied. The ugly: - Sometimes, the game camera randomly enters 'ecstasy-addict mode' – it starts to frantically spin around your character for a couple seconds, for no particular reason (... if at least there was disco music playing when it does that, that could have been funny but... nope, there ain't) ; - We have access to a nano transporter. Although... we also have to manually pick up large resources and can only transport 6 units max at any given time ; - Said nano transporter can pick up bushes and trees, no problem – but moving a wild lettuce plant? Nope, can't do that... – there really should have had upgrades for the nano transporter ; - While you do have to provide power to a lot of structures for them to work, elevators do not need nor use power... they're magical! - Since elevators don't need nor use power, you can't connect them to any existing power grid – meaning if you want to start expanding to an area accessible only by elevator, you need to build a whole new power grid there; - Since minions can't use elevators nor teleporters... same point as above ; - Speaking of minions: they're a useless hindrance – slow, stupid, and they get stuck everywhere – I had written more about them, but Steam keeps pestering me my review is too long -_- (they're really cute though!); - The sprinklers watering radius is so low that once you've packed together your 24 garden beds (+ the cables to connect them together) within the sprinkler's area of effect, you end up unable to see anything at all (and close to unable to efficiently click on anything too) ; - Teleporters really feel like a late, not very well-thought addition. A quick band-aid to address a 'bigger than planned for' map. Bonus: they don't need electricity either... Conclusion: I spent a lot of time moving everything around – and testing everything that came to mind – so you wouldn't have to. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't buy the game again. So, as announced: no, I can't recommend it. If you like this vibe, get yourself 'No place like home' instead. (Yes, I realize this is a passion project coming from an indie studio. That's why there are more things I could have listed, but ultimately have chosen not to.)

It is exactly what the title says : Cozy Apocalypse Survival. If you are looking for stress go play Green Hell. This game is as chill as they come. That said, it lacks nothing. The visuals are great, the game mechanics work smooth as butter, gameplay itself is very enjoyable. It is a little bit grindy at some point but if you a survival games freak and a completionist you get used to manufacturing 1000 floor plates to get the "Repair all the floors" Achievement. If you are not, you will enjoy a smooth sailing of an experience through your world with minimum push back and 100% enjoyment.

Very slow and repetitive game with the longest loading screens I have seen in a while. The automation is inefficient too, which adds to the slow movement speed and overall progression. However, if you are fine with this, I can recommend this base builder/survival game without combat. Use the coziness modifiers before you get frustrated with certain game mechanics. The graphics are nice and the diversity of items feels about right. Progression is slow, but steady. The robots and interactions are ok, just like the overall story. There are a few bugs and farming is a nuisance, just like your weak minions. If these things get fixed, you are in for a more optimized and cozy experience!

Good harmless fairly mindless fun. If you are looking for distraction where there is a story and some direction but with with some interesting things to do this is a good choice.

Its hard to recommend this game without knowing what the person is looking for, but for my time I think I would prefer a lot of other cozy-type games. This one gets tedious real fast, and after the mid-point it gets even more tedious with automation being half-baked and kinda pointless. It boils down to endless breaking down the same radio, microwave, and TV set to buy upgrades, feed yourself, or defend your base. The game desperately needs some kind of long-term goal, other than the story which is boilerplate. NPCs flesh out the world a little, but they're kinda all boring and generic too. I would have liked to see more decoration options, an easier resource curve, more engaging minigames....something. Its just too many half-finished ideas and not enough addictive gameplay to glue it all together.

this game was very fun, but then i just stopped playing (got bored very quickly) i recently replayed it and did a new save and got softlocked twice, i cant make the generator since im forced to use one item i need for it for other things, i spent a few days just trying to get that item and actually cannot find one, also when you get to a certain point its kinda just meh, its eh ngl (UPDATE: ive unsoftlocked myself but theres still so many issues, like it just makes new items that have zero purpose but to make like 1 thing, also after a while the difficulty curve is insane, it goes from full inventory and items to being empty handed, also the drone ai is really bad lol, i have to retell it what to do, like refilling the generator, which in most cases takes LONGER than doing it myself.)

I normally write massive structured essays to share my opinion of a game, but "I'm tired, boss", so this will have to do. I want to like this game, I really do. The core premise is right up my alley - but the gameplay itself is just so damn tedious. I played it to scratch the itch left by Dysmantle. And while fundamentally I am Future is very similar - there are several misses in gameplay design that make it irritating rather than satisfying, from constantly running from one end of a perpetually expanding territory broken up by loading screens (elevators) to another, to one object requiring different items to construct depending on where you are on the map, just to make things more "challenging"; from a blueprint that "connects all your storage chests in a single network" - but leaves out the storage areas for large building materials and the ones associated with workshops, to access to areas one can explore and loot with a drone being limited both by the drone's battery AND the day of the week. Ah, yes, a park that keeps business hours in the post-apocalypse. Sounds like the company where a friend of mine works. As you can see, I sunk 24 hours into this game. It DID suck me in at first, I'll give it that. But while running to my workbench for the umpteenth time because I was missing one lousy microchip and that is the only place you can craft it, I simply stopped, said "I don't want to do this anymore", closed and uninstalled. If you want a mindless post-apocalypse crafting game - skip this and play "Dysmantle". It has its flaws, and some major QOL is paywalled behid the DLCs, but it's definitely nowhere as irritating as this. If you want a cozy crafting game with some brains to it, the publisher who released this game (TinyBuild) also released "Graveyard Keeper". Which, to be fair, also involves a lot of running back and forth, and key NPCs can only be approached on one day of the week, but automation is much simpler, and, once you unlock the speed potion, you'll just be zooming around the map. The ability to put a moustache and cat ears on a robot is nice, though, thumbs up for that.