The Last Caretaker

I sunk dozens of hours into The Last Caretaker because its mix of slow-burn exploration, boat-as-base gameplay and the weirdly touching task of reviving humans hooked me. If you like Subnautica’s wonder, The Long Dark’s pacing and a dash of Death Stranding-esque delivery, this one’s for your backlog—just expect Early Access bumps.

You play as a reawakened machine roaming a flooded Earth in a customizable mobile base-boat. Core loop: explore POIs, scrap and craft components, balance limited power and fuel, and use cables and pipelines to reactivate ancient infrastructure. The Lazarus Complex is the narrative hub—incubating human seeds requires managing temperature, nutrient flow and memory integration, which adds an unexpectedly emotional layer to the survival loop. Defenses, automated turrets and tactical countermeasures matter when storms or rogue machines attack, and eventually you’re hunting launch codes and rebuilding the MOSES systems to get humans into orbit. I loved the tactile physics—throwing junk into grinders, wrestling with cables and watching your ship bob in storms feels lively. Combat can feel underbaked (hit feedback and enemy variety aren’t always satisfying) and inventory/carry limits force a lot of back-and-forth, which will either be “fun micromanagement” or “annoying grind” depending on your patience. Important note: it’s Early Access—expect crashes, optimization hiccups and balancing tweaks while the devs iterate.

The Last Caretaker is a haunting, tactile survival game with a rare emotional core and a great foundation. Buy it for the loop and setting, but treat it like a work-in-progress—performance and combat need polish before it reaches its full potential.