Raft is a game that has been talked about in the Steam community for years. It was officially released in 2018, but was available in beta for a few years before that. The story involves players being stranded on a raft in the middle of the ocean, but details have been kept secret.

A recent new update has revealed another piece of the puzzle: Raft is set in a world that has become submerged underwater due to rising sea levels. The player lives a solitary life and attempts to sail to civilization while building his own raft. Along the way, he encounters a sunken, abandoned raft and a deserted island (possibly the top of an ancient mountain covered by water).
One of the new settlements added in the
update is Caravan Town. When the player first arrives, he is greeted by shipping containers stacked on a cliff. The whole place looks like it was assembled with duct tape and scrap metal, just like the local rafts. Any hopes of discovering any kind of civilization are quickly dashed by the presence of a large white Screecher. The place is deserted and desolate. Caravan Town was a slum cobbled together by refugees fleeing the flood. Throughout the settlement, the player finds notes that explain how the village was built and what ultimately happened to it. The city had farmers, engineers, and even a doctor, but that wasn’t enough to survive. Those who ate the infected pigs fell ill. Those who didn’t die left Caravan Town to the Mudhog.

Caravan Town, in contrast to Tangaroa, is a domed town on water. It was funded by the rich and famous and built to house those who could afford it. Unlike the poorer cities, Tangaroa is full of glass and light, with skyscrapers, penthouses and burger bars. Robot butlers roam the streets and golf carts charge by, despite the lack of humans around. Tangaroa is deserted, just like Caravan Town. Whereas Caravan Town was ravaged by physical ills, Tangaroa was ravaged by social ills. That’s why before his downfall, the streets were riotous, underpopulated and littered everywhere. At the end of the chapter, the player liberates Tangaroa’s bridge. The fact that the bridge was given the ability to open from the city indicates that the builders had a way to fail the wealthy of the city from the start (just as the wealthy failed and the flooded world left).

With rising tides, civil unrest and new illnesses, it is becoming obvious that Raft is a game about the consequences of global warming. While a whole world surrounded by water is a little farfetched, rising tides will push many people out of their homes. Both new Raft settlements were supposed to be life savors for humanity once the floods hit, and both failed. The first was about the community. The people of Caravan Town worked together to make everything work. They even developed a memorial for those that passed on. The people of Tangaroa were the opposite. They paid for the right to be on their floating island and were still unhappy in the lap of luxury. If people don’t act to prevent the symptoms of global warming, it will be bad for rich and poor alike.