Raft is one of those survival-games you see on steam and think: do I need another iteration of this? Is there enough distinction to the billion other versions in this genre? But then you fall in love with the idea of building a house on the motherfucking ocean like it was nothing and you go for it.
Despite it's limitations in direct comparison with other more popular survival games, Raft has a lot going for it. The main differentiator for me, was the chill pace and atmosphere of the game. Much like why Valheim was such a pleasure to play, Raft is a getaway and doesn't really put a lot of pressure on you and is less punishing then we've come to expect from the genre. There are some game design decisions however, where I would have liked a similar approach as in Valheim - especially the amount of food and water you need to just survive. At some point in the game it doesn't really matter anymore, but up until then you are basically in a constant loop of providing food and water which artificially extends the time for you to do the real fun stuff in the game. That is building a fully furnitured multi-story raft that defies the laws of physics and also traversing the ocean to uncover a mystery that is nothing superb, but still gives enough incentive to spend roughly 25-30 hrs in the game.
I can recommend this game to anyone who doesn't get enough of survival games and wants to have some chill hang-out sessions with friends.