Review: I am Future Could Use More Motivation

When it comes to cozy life sims, you need a really strong pull to keep playing. The game needs to be fun to play and soothing, especially since you’ll repeat the same tasks over and over. There needs to be a way to make virtual connections that help you get immersed in that world. An interesting premise helps too. While I am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival’s idea of making a living on former building rooftops in a flooded world is novel, the narrative isn’t as compelling and it can all feel like a lot of busywork once you get a few hours into it.

I am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival begins with our avatar awaking from a stasis chamber of sorts. They’re all alone and an amnesiac, of course. There are no humans anywhere in the city of Cosmopolis, only some robots. The way they talk about you suggests they know you and that you were a prominent figure at a company called UNICORP. However, it’s only after you start to clean up, rebuild, and explore the roofs of buildings around you that you can start to find answers. As you do, you also can make friends with robotic beings like Earl the fridge who can help you out and become your friends.

I am Future: Cozy Apocalypse’s gameplay loop isn’t all that different from ones in My Time at Sandrock and Stardew Valley. We use tools to break down junk or get necessary materials to unlock space and new areas. We grow food, which we need to eat to keep from getting hungry and have the strength to lift things. We discourage leeches from coming around via sprays and towers. We build up facilities to help make crafting or necessary item production easier. It’s even possible to build robots to handle certain tasks, building hot tub-shaped charging stations. 

One of things about I am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival that sets it apart is the way crafting works. Cooking is fairly typical, involving the correct ingredients to make a dish. Fishing also involves a timing minigame where you click at the correct times. But for crafting, we need to go through disassembly processes to get things like microchips, cables, screws, nails, and similar components. That means tapping specific spots and examining to find anything we can use. It’s novel the first few times, but a lot when it repeats. 

I do think that perhaps I am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival might be better on platforms other than the Switch. It isn’t that it doesn’t run well. It’s generally fine. It’s just that handheld mode feels like the ideal option, but the layout and UI makes it really difficult to play it that way. The font size is incredibly small, something that is even an issue when playing docked. It can be difficult to tell what’s in the inventory bar at a glance. I found it hard to keep track of my bots because of the perspective and way they could get caught on the tiniest things. Some of the minigames for tasks could get cumbersome, such as disassembling, since we need to exactly hit certain parts and that’s difficult without a mouse. 

The loading is also quite tedious in the Switch version of I am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival. Expect to wait a lot to get things done. 

But there’s one thing that kept me from really enjoying I am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival, and it isn’t limited to the Switch release. In similar sorts of games like Story of Seasons, Rune Factory, and Stardew Valley, there can feel like more of a story and sense of purpose. Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar involves revitalizing a town’s weekly market, expand a farm, and get married. Stardew Valley features more places to unlock, more buildings and recipes to acquire, and building up a community. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma tasked us with restoring the lands. I am Future doesn’t feel fulfilling in the same way. The restoration is fine, but gets tedious. Robot companions are okay, but lack the same sense of connection as human NPCs. There’s the idea of finding out who you are and what happened, but I felt the conclusion was a little unemotional and anticlimactic. Especially when it came to the robot “friends.” Perhaps if there had been more NPCs to connect with and make the experience feel less lonely, it’d be more interesting. But instead, I came away feeling like everyone sort of loses a sense of personality and just idolized my avatar.

I am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival isn’t bad, but it can get tedious and sometimes frustrating to play on the Switch. Not to mention it can feel quite lonely. I loved the idea of a bright, colorful apocalypse! The concept is great. However, the daily routine and tasks are more annoying than comforting, and I didn’t connect with the robot NPC “neighbors.” I also feel like the narrative could have been handled better, rather than occasional exposition dumps. It’s a life sim that will connect with some, but not everyone.

I am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival is available for the Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.