Chris InglisThe Last Caretaker is an early access survival crafting game developed by Channel37 Ltd and is launching on Steam early access on November 6, 2025. You play as a robot on a huge mission: making sure humanity can be reborn. Aside from the crafting and survival elements, playing as a robot reminded me of a recent point-and-click adventure called Life of Delta, only this time you are the last remnant of your kind.
You start in a dark room and learn to loot items as well as move things. It took me a few moments of walking from wall to wall before realising I can just physically open the door by holding down the mouse. You quickly learn you have a reliance on power, not only to power your robot self but to lay power cables between source and objects, like enabling electric doors to be opened and a radio that gives you titbits of story background.
The game is set in a huge, flooded world with scattered giant rusted buildings your guiding beacons as you progress the story. The developers have nailed the atmosphere of the game using dynamic lighting effects, reliance on a torch in parts, and a day/night cycle for the weather. This beauty quickly shifts to terror, though. Sunset is immediately followed by a sharp increase in enemy spawns, where relentless swarms of rogue machines force players to retreat to their base and wait for daylight.
After an initial sequence where you learn how to recycle scrap goods and create things like power and diesel cables and connectors, to solar panels and the like, you will eventually power up a ship and head to the seas. The ship moves quite slow, and initially this was ok as I was taking in the beauty of the sea around me, with sea creatures breaching in the distance and sea mines I had to dodge. Precision movement, especially docking next to a platform, is a challenging skill. You need to master using brief bursts of forward and reverse thrust to counter the ship’s momentum.
Combat is tough to master also. Initially relying on my trusty wrench swinging slowly but wildly, different weapons are effective against specific enemy types. You can find guns which need to be charged up by plugging them into yourself (but be mindful of draining your internal power) or by plugging them into a separate battery/power source. Swarms of organic enemies will spawn at night so be wary of being outside in the elements, despite the alure of the amazing sunset vistas.
The gameplay is built around a simple philosophy: Recycle, Reuse, Rebuild. Nearly every piece of debris and tech you find can be broken down into essential resources like iron, rubber and plastic. The survival loop is detailed, especially in energy management. It goes beyond simple fuel where solar panels are realistically affected by the sun and weather. You must constantly balance power generation to meet the demands of systems around you such as keeping your ship fueled and running between stations, building defensive structures and above all, managing the human “seeds,” controlling variables like temperature and nutrient flow.
While the foundation and premise are brilliant, this early access build comes with a significant warning label. The most frequent observation is the current need for significant performance optimisation. While the game generally ran smooth, there were occasional hitches, and I also experienced some glitches where the walls and floors disappeared, and I could see the full structure layout transparently. I had to reload to be able to progress, and in doing so lost significant game time due to the manual save system. Hopefully these issues can be addressed and resolved over this early access period.
The Last Caretaker is a meaningful and deep survival crafting experience that has some flaws but manages to encompass both the beauty and terror of isolation in a flooded world. There are no NPCs to give you directions, advice or instructions, so there is a cool exploratory gameplay loop in learning all the new systems and mechanisms as you discover them. The early access period will hopefully quash some of the problems I experienced and it’s definitely an easy recommend for survival and crafting enthusiasts.
This review utilised a key provided by Neohype and The Last Caretaker launches on Steam early access and Epic Games Store on November 6, 2025.
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