Aloft

Embark on a breathtaking journey among the clouds in Aloft, a captivating co-op sandbox survival game set in a whimsical world of floating islands. Developed by Astrolabe Interactive and published by Funcom, Aloft invites players to master the skies, build their own airborne sanctuaries, and restore a shattered ecosystem. Released in Early Access in early 2025, Aloft blends crafting, exploration, and base-building with unique aerial mechanics, offering a fresh take on the survival genre.

Setting and Premise

In Aloft, players find themselves stranded on a mysterious floating island after a crash landing. The world is fragmented, with islands scattered across the sky, each holding unique resources, hidden treasures, and secrets waiting to be uncovered. However, a fungal corruption threatens to devour all life3, and it's up to you to cure it.

Gameplay and Features

The core gameplay of Aloft revolves around flying between islands, gathering resources, crafting tools and structures, and ultimately transforming any island into a skyship. Unlike traditional survival games, where players traverse vast landscapes on foot, Aloft emphasizes aerial exploration and island-to-island survival.

Flying Mechanics: Players have two primary means of aerial locomotion: gliders and airships. Gliding offers a smooth and simple entry point, allowing players to soar through the skies with ease. Airships, on the other hand, introduce more complex piloting challenges. Managing elevation, direction, and speed requires practice, but mastering these airborne behemoths brings significant rewards.

Base Building: Each floating island serves as a potential outpost, farm, or home base. Players can construct windmills, pulley systems, and other contraptions to automate resource gathering and create efficient pathways through the clouds.

Crafting System: Aloft features an engaging crafting system that encourages experimentation. Instead of explicitly listing all possible recipes, the game presents question marks for undiscovered combinations, turning crafting into a fun guessing game of trial and error.

Co-op Gameplay: Aloft shines as a cooperative experience, allowing up to eight players to team up and build their skyborne empires together. Friends can bring their customized airships into each other's games, forming mobile villages that traverse the clouds.

Restoring the Ecosystem: Beyond survival, players must work to cure the fungal corruption that plagues the world. This involves uncovering lost knowledge, brewing powerful antidotes, enriching biodiversity, and restoring balance to the airborne ecosystem.

With its captivating aerial mechanics, engaging crafting system, and emphasis on cooperative gameplay, Aloft offers a breath of fresh air in the survival genre. As you transform floating islands into skyships, explore a shattered world, and fight to restore the ecosystem, Aloft promises a skybound adventure unlike any other.