Survival games have become incredibly popular on PC in recent years due to their satisfying world designs, mixture of cooperative and competitive gameplay mechanics, and deep combat, exploration, and crafting systems. The latest survival title to come around is Last Oasis, a game built by Donkey Crew: an experienced team of survival game players and modders who aim to combine the best aspects of various survival titles into one cohesive experience, all while incorporating some of their own unique ideas with a little help from their community along the way. Last Oasis is a nomadic-style mmo survival game that features an emphasis on mobility as players work together — or against each other — to scavenge, craft, and battle their way to safety and prosperity. Here’s everything you need to know about Last Oasis, and why you need to go and check it out.
Setting: Avoid the scorching sun
Last Oasis takes place on a future, devolved version of Earth where a cataclysmic disaster halted the planet’s rotation. This caused the western half of the planet to become a superheated, burning wasteland, while the eastern half became dangerously icy and devoid of any life. Between these extremes lies a region of relative safety, and here, humanity has managed to carve out new life. This habitable strip of land moves as the Earth orbits around the Sun, however, so to continue surviving, humans must mobilize and shift with the passing oases so that they avoid death by merciless, scorching sunlight from the west. To solve this problem, Walkers were designed — mobile bases that simultaneously act as both our vehicles and our homes. The largest of these is a massive walking city known as the Flotilla.
Gameplay: Explore, scavenge, trade, and more
In Last Oasis, your goal is to survive by constantly moving away from the encroaching Sun. To do this, you’ll need to venture out into the world and find resources such as water, wood, stone, and more. With thousands of different areas active at once, and each individual area sized at around 100 square kilometers, there are plenty of resources out there to find…provided you don’t mind traveling to find them. On top of sustaining you, these resources can also be used to upgrade and maintain your Walker base. Walkers can be built to suit any need; whether you want to simply travel as fast as you can, transport large amounts of goods, or ward off pirates with powerful weapons, your Walker will be up for the task and there are already 13 for you to choose from.
Sometimes, though, the resources you want will also be desired by another. If violence is unavoidable, draw your weapon and participate in Last Oasis’ fluid, skill-based directional melee combat to eliminate the competition. There are countless weapons to choose from, ranging from large two-handed swords to one-handed maces and everything between — in addition to being useful against hostile players, these weapons will also come in handy when encountering dangerous wildlife. If you like to keep your foes at a distance, your Walker will be the best place to fight from since you can customize it with ballistas, gigantic slingshots, scattershot guns, and more.
If cooler heads prevail in your encounters with others, you can initiate trades and be a part of Last Oasis’ massive player-driven economy, complete with supply and demand systems that help sellers identify what items on the market are hot. Be wary of intruding on another group’s operation, though, lest you intrude and hinder their business.
Finally, when you decide you’re finished playing for the day, you don’t need to worry about being raided offline like you do in most other survival games. This is because in Last Oasis, special areas between oases exist known as no-man’s-land. Players normally use this to quickly move between different oases while playing, but you can also safely log out from no-man’s-land areas, too, keeping your Walker — and your valuables — hidden from potential thieves.
Community features: A place for every player
Whether you like playing with others or prefer to stick to yourself, there’s a place for you in Last Oasis’ expansive world. Social players can become members of large clans (or create their own) and establish control over a region, allowing them to govern the area and control economic operations. If another clan decides they want your territory, all-out war can break out, during which massive battles between dozens of combat Walkers will ensue. Clans are also well-suited for taking on the deadly sandworms and many other mysterious creatures that roam the transient oases, which reward players with premium loot when killed.
If you prefer to play by yourself or with a smaller group of friends, Last Oasis also has several different opportunities for you to thrive as well. While clans will stop you from controlling land, you can still make a name for yourself as a solo player by being a valued trader, providing valuable resources to others by hunting, offering your services as a skilled mercenary, or even ambushing vulnerable players as a pirate, stealing their loot and ending their life. While many large-scale opportunities can’t be enjoyed by solo players, the impact they have on the world of Last Oasis is massive nonetheless.
Last Oasis is available to play now, so why not jump in?
Last Oasis is available to play in Early Access on Steam right now, so get in there and start exploring, crafting, trading, and more. If you’re looking for players to enjoy the game with or you just want to stay in the know regarding future updates, make sure to join the Last Oasis Discord and follow the Last Oasis Twitter account. The game also has Twitch, Mixer and YouTube channels, too.
