Hot on the heels of last week's release window teaser, the team over at Three One Zero has released another new gameplay trailer for Adr1ft, and it's quite a bit more substantial than the last video.
That being said, these longer, slower-paced trailers are far more appropriate for Adr1ft than anything else: simply put, it's hard to explain a game such as this via text without making it sound boring, as most gamers probably wouldn't care much about a floating-through-space simulator. A two-minute trailer isn't a perfect solution. either, they just don't do the sense of atmosphere and isolation justice—a soundtrack would ruin the loneliness, quick cuts would eliminate the sense of floating through a true void.
With 9 minutes, however, it's easy to see why so many people are talking about Adr1ft—it's beautiful, true, but it's the sense of unease, the sense of being in an environment that's never truly safe that's really hooked people in. Three One Zero realized that gamers don't need explosions, giant monsters or pitch-black hallways to be scared—all you really need is a small warning light and the infinite vastness of space.
To be fair, this latest look at Adr1ft isn't all that different from the game's other, similarly paced trailers. There's a lot of floating through space, a lot of debris, and a lot of eerie silence.
It's easy to see that this will be a game that people have to play to get the full experience: sure, you could watch some YouTuber play through the whole thing, but that would take away from the experience that Adr1ft is trying to convey. You're supposed to feel lonely, you're supposed to feel vulnerable—and in an industry where "horror" usually means "too many jump scares," it's nice to see a game that's trying for something a bit more subtle.
Sadly, there's still a bit of wait left before fans can see what it's like to be abandoned in space: Adr1ft is set for release sometime next spring.
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