Developers The Mandragora sure like to make games in the post-apocalypse. However, with I Am Future, they have taken a slightly different tone. Rather than a depressing tone, this one’s a colourful, cheery take on a survival game. Future Earth is flooded and you wake up alone on a roof filled with scrap. And you’ll have to farm, fish and most importantly, chill out as you get your needs sorted and discover what truly happened here.
I Am Future sure does deliver that promise of a chill survival game. It’s full of activities to keep you busy, but in this Early Access launch, there are plenty of noticeable bugs that’ll put a damper on that chill vibe at times.
In I Am Future, you play as a specific character. There are story reasons why you are not a player-created avatar apparently, but if you don’t like our hipster hero’s getup there are some cosmetic customisation options to change the way he looks.
I Am Future has you control your character directly with WASD and the world is viewed from a top-down perspective, although you can really zoom in close to see the surroundings. The world is a mess full of junk and scrap in your way, but you’ll soon be discovering tools to clear out for you to build out your base of operations. Clearing out the scrap will see you disassembling stuff, with a variety of different steps with each one requiring a different input.
So you’ll find yourself drilling, then sawing, then disassembling, then drilling again on the same item as you slowly take each piece apart one by one. In practice, it sort of feels therapeutic doing the little different inputs as you break the item down into crafting material. And you will be able to clear out not only piles of junk but also unlock new areas blocked by said junk.
The disassembly therapy goes further as you can also disassemble specific appliances like kettles and microwaves. This will have you rotate a 3D model and find screws to unscrew, pieces of plastic to tug and remove, and other more prized components like electronics and lightbulbs to collect.
All the parts you gather can then be used to further craft other items in a workshop. From tool upgrades to other specific components required for story progression. This game will have you go to-and-fro collecting the right amount of stuff to be later turned into other stuff to be used for other stuff. And running out of inventory space all the time. It’s that kind of game.
If you find that tedium rather tiring, the good news is you can also craft bots to help you out and automate things like carrying pieces of planks and metal sheets. The bad news is that the AI pathfinding for the bots is not as smart as I kept seeing them being stuck in geometry doing nothing, unless it was fixed in a more recent update prior to the Early Access release.
This is a survival game, but the only need needs taking care of is hunger. From time to time you’ll need to feed yourself food and it does take time before you can start crafting filling food. But even when food is scarce you’re never really in danger. It is a chill game.
There is supposed to be some threat in the form of those glow-in-the-dark bugs that’ll come and eat your crops, but they tend to be more of a slight hassle than a real threat needed extra attention. Supposedly, to protect your crops you should build barricades and then repair them as they will be taking damage. But the repair kit used to repair these is a bit busted and not working as intended when I was playing. Again, it could be fixed now.
The most important aspect of I Am Future has to be fishing. You’ll get a fishing rod early on, and you’ll be spending a lot of time doing this. Not only is it a source of infinite materials- you can get plastic and scrap metal, the building blocks of all the craftable items- really easy here. But fish is the easiest source of food in the early game. The fishing mini-game is simple- just click a couple of times at the right time and you’ll reel it in. I do like the little “yeh” your character lets out after each catch, I find that charming.
Fish needs to be prepared, you can find new recipes by combining food items, and you can start off your own farm, for food and cryptocurrency. Is that why the world’s all flooded? Because this is a post-crypto future?
As the story unfolds further, you’ll later find a way to control a drone and explore beyond your rooftops in the form of expeditions. There is one cool exploration bit where you uncover someone, or something, in a crashed aeroplane where it involves a bit of clue hunting. I wish there was more things like that, but in this Early Access release, that’s the only one.
The game loop of I Am Future will keep you busy. Busy doing attainable things that’ll reward you when you’ve made progress. I did find myself stuck from time to time, only to discover that the thing I needed to progress is craftable. It always is. You just need the right materials. Once I understood that, it became smooth sailing.
Closing Thoughts
I Am Future’s Early Access release build here does have some issues, at least during the time when I was playing it. I’ve mentioned the AI pathfinding for bots, and the unthreatening threat to your garden. But there are other problems. Items can sometimes not drop on the floor when crafting with a full inventory on all storage. Items can be dropped on stairs only for them to disappear. There are still missing texts. And worse, the text doesn’t match. I have two instances of upgrades not matching the name. The game says I need a Printer blueprint when what I am supposed to do is upgrade the Printer to an Advance Printer. And prompts say that I should craft a Reinforced Hammer to break a piece of junk out when on the crafting bench it says Fortified Hammer.
Once those kinks are ironed out, I think I Am Future has a bright future ahead of it. The many things you do will keep you busy in the right way, as you progress slowly to make the rooftop your own cosy abode. The world is doomed and you might be the sole survivor with a human body, might as well make the best of it and live the best life.
Played on PC. Review code provided by the publisher.