Survival game Raft has reinstated its offline mode after a community outcry, but the developers warn it might be a buggy experience.
After years in Steam Early Access, Raft got its 1.0 update on June 20. The game rocketed up the Steam charts, and has remained among the platform's most-played games since. While one of the game's key features is its online co-op option, some players were disappointed to find that offline play was quietly removed in the final version.
Developer Redbeet Interactive reinstated offline play as of hotfix 1.03 on June 22. "In version 1.0," the developers explain, "we blocked players who were not connected to an internet connection from playing. This was due to certain technical issues that appeared when people were playing offline."
The devs do not explain exactly what those technical issues are, or if they'll be fixed in future updates. While you can once again enable offline mode, you will get a warning message "letting you know that some features might not work as expected, and bugs may occur, but it gives you the option to keep playing, instead of blocking you completely."
Even when playing in online mode, Raft allows you to play solo. But if you want to completely ditch the internet, you're likely to run into some issues.
In addition to (temporarily) removing offline mode, Raft's 1.0 update introduced The Final Chapter, completing the story and introducing a host of new features.
