I Am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival Preview

I Am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival is a mix of the cosy and survival genres in which you will take control of an amnesiac man that wakes up six years after cryogenic sleep in a destroyed world. With no humans around, a few robots, and a lot of rubble in your surroundings, he'll need to survive with what he has in store and find others to understand what truly happened.

Developer Mandragora may be no stranger to the survival genre, but this new spin promises to create a unique experience in which you will be able to enjoy a survival title with cosy elements, a combination that is unheard of. The title starts off from the cryogenic sleep chamber and the string of events that leads to our protagonist's awakening, taking complete control of your character thenceforth.

I Am Future has done a great job at amalgamating two genres together that should otherwise have no business working, as the survival elements make the title feel more like a survival-lite with simulation elements. On your rooftop, your goal will be to survive, but going about that isn't difficult, as instead, you have a lot of resources at your disposal to thrive early on. Rather than survive and worry about resources throughout your experience, you'll partake in simulator-like elements in the likes of House Flipper or PowerWash Simulator, in which you will be cleaning up the world one item at a time and using that to progress by creating new and superior tools, making a very crafting-heavy gameplay loop of typical open world survival craft titles.

Food will seldom be a problem with an infinite source being offered pretty much instantaneously, with not only the fishing spot that can give sustenance in the form of fish by the dozens but also the garden beds you learn to craft early on, which ensure that you can start using your seeds to create nutritious meals. I Am Future takes the approach of making the survival genre "cosy" by making the elements of survival relatively simple but still present enough to deserve the label. While this may be disappointing for the veterans of the genre, newcomers will find it delightful, and even those who enjoy simulators will find something to love here.

At the side of your screen, you will have the collapsable taskbar, which works as a quest log that ensures you know what your next goal is without having to keep it in mind. You can also take advantage of the capability to pin the recipes you want, making I Am Future accessible as the ever-growing complex materials might become difficult for those who don't remember what items you need to craft a Matrix or Pump.

The gameplay loop stops being centred around survival and instead focuses on advancing your structures to unlock more building areas or items to scavenge for. From upgrading your tools to various workstations that give you access to different items, your primary purpose will be to work towards your next schematic, get the new upgrade, and then unlock a slew of items. Even though nighttime is supposed to be a hazard, the bugs that present themselves often don't go out of their way to attack your structures if you give them enough space, and you can also build torches to hold them back for a few nights, so I found that I was able to sleep through it all, especially whenever I was waiting for something to craft.

There is a bit of a story that you can uncover as well whilst you interact with some of the NPCs scattered around the world. With enjoyable dialogue and silly characters, you won't get much more than a couple of lines (considering that the main purpose of this title is gameplay), but the dialogue present is enjoyable nonetheless.

The state of its early access currently gave me 12 hours to complete most of what was available aside from some minor things — that said, I did spend a lot of my time just enjoying the gameplay as well, so those that focus on the objectives will likely get less. You have a spacious rooftop and an additional one that you have to build a bridge across to that will allow you to clean up and prepare for the future, but considering this is an Early Access release, you won't see everything come to fruition. You'll find that as you explore, you reach various "COMING SOON" barriers that stop you in your tracks from advancing further in that specific area until, eventually, your entire progression is blocked by these.

Considering its an early build, I encountered very few bugs (aside from the enemies... get it?) and few desires as well. The cumbersome inventory system may be a bit of a bother early, but considering that I Am Future is a progression-based survival, this quickly stops. In general, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that the game is ready to release; Mandragora is taking the game in the right direction, and that's always a great way to feel after finishing an Early Access preview.

I Am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival is set to be in Early Access for an indeterminate amount of time, as the developers want to include the community further into its development, focusing on an "underpromise and overdeliver" approach. Currently, it plays a lot like a progression-based survival with simulator elements for collecting and cleaning up the world, though we are expecting further sandbox elements, including further furniture and decorations, according to its roadmap.