The new survival MMO Last Oasis has been in Early Access on Steam for a few days now. While it has some fans, many players are complaining about a particular feature. The reviews are generally getting worse – for two reasons.
Update on March 30: The situation has escalated further due to ongoing server issues. The Steam hit Last Oasis goes offline for at least a week shortly after release, offers refunds.
What is the problem? It concerns the hardcore PvP that Last Oasis explicitly stands for. In the survival MMO, it’s about securing the last oases after the Earth has stopped rotating and the sun burns everything away.
The resources are correspondingly scarce, and players fight for every bit of water they can find. To express this accurately, Last Oasis relies on a PvP system where anyone can continuously fight anyone.
This decision is not going down well. In a review by LeSpatula on Steam it says: “Only griefers around. It’s not fun.” Other players also report that they are often attacked when they are just starting.
Some players report that Last Oasis is simply unplayable solo, contrary to the developers’ claims. You are immediately attacked by several players and get nowhere.
The reviews on Steam have now dropped from about 70% at the beginning to 44% (as of March 29). Here is the Steam page of Last Oasis.
Genre fans warned: It doesn’t work
This is what fans say: Prior to the release, many fans of survival games warned against focusing Last Oasis on PvP. MeinMMO reader Belpherus writes about hardcore PvP: “Oh yes, because that always works so great. How’s Darkfall doing?” Graf Zahl simply stated: “Flop incoming.”
Now this opinion is also reflected on Steam. Steam user Schnuddldusl puts it into words: “One would think survival developers would have learned from past games’ mistakes. But they haven’t.”
Last Oasis mocked the MMORPG New World just before release because it responded to fans’ demands and removed forced PvP. The original focus on PvP in New World was replaced by Open World.
Many others agree with this view. MeinMMO reader Tronic48 says: “New World is going to be really good, Last Oasis will fail, period. The end developers of Last Oasis will painfully learn this.”
Why did Last Oasis do it anyway? The developers of Last Oasis were still convinced that their idea works. One of the reasons is that they have expertise in PvP.
Before Last Oasis, they worked on an MMO mod for Mount&Blade: Warband, which was also known for its PvP and combat system. In an interview, they revealed: “We want to make a great game and we are good at it.”
They emphasized that their fans would want it that way – at least among the testers. There was a lot of support for the system there.
“Early Access without Access”
However, PvP is not the only issue and may not even be the biggest problem. Since the Early Access release of Last Oasis on March 26 hardly anyone can play. The servers are rarely accessible and the developers are working feverishly on solutions.
Some players on Steam would like to give positive reviews as soon as they can play it. But until then, they would not recommend it.
However, even from the positive reviews, it is clear that Last Oasis is more suitable for groups than for solo players. The PvP is simply too harsh for players who want to travel through the world alone.
While you wait to be allowed onto the servers to see for yourself, check out our 5 games we recommend for April 2020. Maybe you will find something interesting.
