ADR1FT Reviews
Adr1ft is a gorgeous game with a moving personal story, but its systems clash against one another, creating tedium and boredom throughout.
Adr1ft hits an uncomfortable balance between visual novel and video game; it has too many video game elements and too dry a story to make a good first-person experience, and it lacks enough fun to make for a good game.
The refusal to accept ADR1FT being part of the "walking sim" crowd has, weirdly, made it less of an easy recommendation, but a recommendation nonetheless, because although it can be frustrating, it's hauntingly beautiful, and a sensational example of how a well crafted environment can be enough to pull you across the finish line.
Like riding a bike in zero gravity, Adr1ft takes some getting used to and offers an interesting, fresh and beautiful presentation. Sure, it has some rough corners but it has several more bright spots.
Possibly the most impressive aspect of Adr1ft is its graphics… A destroyed space station has never looked so good – especially not one that you can float around in
Getting by on strong atmosphere (no pun intended), scenic views, and an intuitive means of controlling full three-dimensional movement, Adr1ft's repetitive fix-it missions make its second half a chore to get through. Some strong pieces of voice acting would've been put to better use if the story weren't so vague.
The sense of awe only lasts for so long and eventually gives way to the tedium that comes from padding the length of a campaign through relatively repetitive missions and challenges. It is hard to shake the feeling that this could have been something special, at least in concept, that ultimately failed executing on its overall promise. Unless you have a VR headset that you are looking to justify, you may want to skip this rescue mission.
Visually stunning, Adr1ft is hindered by shallow core mechanics and a serious lack of interactivity.
As a simulation of being marooned in space, Adrift is peerless. The sense of weightlessness, the sense of scale, just being in the world are all astonishing. But it's impossible to divorce the immersion from its mechanical failures, which sours what otherwise could have been a new high bar for narrative-centric games.
Beautiful as you could ask for, especially in VR, but exhaustingly repetitive.
Adr1ft is a game in love with space. It finds seduction in the void, and inside the debris of a botched reach for the unknown. I've never before seen space above Earth portrayed by such convincing beauty in a game. Alas, it is at the service of an unbefitting journey mired by clumsy movement and contrivances more heavy-handed than the story behind the disaster.
A perfect experience to live with Oculus Rift, but also with a normal PC doesn't go unnoticed. Too bad the gameplay is weak and quite boring.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Unlike Gravity, which spaced out its most fraught scenarios between moments of calm, it's in a constant state of panic.
ADR1FT is a game torn right down the middle. It places the player in a position of imminent danger, but invites them to relax and enjoy the scenery. It gives you a fun way to jet around in 3D space, then gives you nothing to do with it but navigate corridors. It wrote and recorded an extensive backstory, but presents you little reason to care about it.
Adr1ft is a short, narrative experience that follows the lead of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Dear Esther and other so called "walking simulators". The first part of the game has a more elaborate gameplay (asking the player to manage the oxygen reserves), but in the end all that matters is the compelling atmosphere.
Review in Italian | Read full review
ADR1FT uses simple mechanics to create a subdued and freeform space journey that is worth experiencing.
Adr1ft trembles on the line between poetry and tedium
Adr1ft is an absolutely stunning visual experience. It looks amazing and feels great to be in nearly at all times. That is until you progress to the point when you realize you're doing the exact same thing in a new sector of the ship, not even with different objectives or quick time moments to try to mask the fact that you're hitting enter to make yet another core and plug it in. The whole experience is relatively short, and while it's something to behold visually and feels good while in it, it might not be something for everyone.
But I keep thinking back to that jump I made, to all the times I saw the lights down on Earth. I think back to that feeling of weightlessness, and how it's finally given me the space game I wasn't getting anywhere else. For all it's lacking as a traditional "game," that alone makes Adr1ft's short excursion into the unknown one worth taking.