Aloft Preview

I got the chance to check out a co-op survival game named Aloft before its Early Access release. Developed by Astrolabe Interactive Inc. and published by Funcom, the game is a high-flying adventure through the skies as you sail the stratosphere, exploring various sky islands to fight the corruption infecting them and heal it to unlock resources and technology to further fight the corruption… and maybe get yourself a nice chair. So let’s check it out.

When I started the game, there was no intro cutscene, but the loading screen indicated that I had been caught in some sort of storm and ended up being stranded on an island with nothing but the clothes on my back. Not to worry though, after gathering some wood and stone, I was able to craft some rudimentary stone tools and started making my way out of the cave and into the great unknown. The island I had found myself on was pretty big but lifeless, with only the remnants of a past civilisation and other survivors littering the area. There were these engraved stones that taught me crafting recipes too, although you can learn some recipes on your own depending on the items you have on hand, which is nice.

However, Aloft truly began to open up when I reached the top of a mountain and obtained the ability to craft myself a glider, allowing me to fly off the floating rock and onto other floating landmasses. The glider was actually quite easy to use to travel long distances decently fast and survey places from an aerial view. It’s nice, but it wouldn’t take me across the entire world. I needed a place to call home and actual transportation. Upon seeing various abandoned settlements with abandoned sails and empty huts, I knew that eventually, I’d learn how to create my own airship… just not in the way I was expecting.

You don't exactly make an airship from scratch. Rather, you designate an appropriately sized floating island as your home, slap a few sails, rudders, and floaters on it, add a steering wheel and bam! You got yourself a flying home base. Going in blind, I was stunned that I could just do that. You can have several of these at once and even spawn one of them in other players’ worlds. It’s an impressive feat to do such a thing, and piloting my island airship was pretty damn cool. I can even let my ship drive itself while I take care of other things around the base, such as farming, animal husbandry, cooking, or even taking a nap.

Despite the spirit of adventure and cosiness the game is going for, there are still dangers lurking in the darkest corners, so you might want to equip yourself with some weapons. Swords, spears, and even your tools will do in a pinch. You can also improve your survivability by eating proper meals, sharpening your weapons or coating them in special antidotes. As you fight, you learn new moves which can make encounters much more manageable, turning a lowly human doing basic combos into a warrior who can single-handedly take on armies.

As stated before, various islands around the map have been infected by fungal corruption, spawning monsters and destroying the local ecosystem. Luckily, by destroying the cores, you can purify the island and get rid of the monsters, but your job isn’t quite finished yet. At times, you’ll need to repair the ecosystem yourself by introducing diversity into the environment, putting down new flora and fauna, and taking care of the lingering effects. Once you do that, you’re free to loot the place of its resources, learn new recipes, discover secrets, or even take the island as a new ship in your fleet.

This isn’t all for nothing, by the way, as you do have an end goal in the form of reaching the corrupted Leviathan, creating an antidote, and curing it. It’s not going to be an easy task. Discounting the corruption, you need to worry about the weather and strong winds that can ruin an ill-prepared adventurer. It’ll be quite the journey, but you don’t have to go at it alone, as the game supports up to eight players in one world. Reportedly. It’ll take around 20-30 hours to beat, but has the potential for infinite playtime with the amount of stuff you can do and create.

From what I played from Aloft, I was impressed by the level of ambition on display. I thought I would be sick of the survival sandbox but this renewed my interest and I want to see what else there is in store. Right now, there’s a lack of variety in enemy types and biomes (only three each), and I did encounter some crashes, but that’s why it’s in Early Access. I can’t wait to see what lies amongst the skies.