Who cares for The Last Caretaker? Channel 37, that's who! The Finnish developer— cofounded by the creators of the Trials series—has been diligently maintaining its oddball survival sim since it splashed into Steam early access last year.
The game, which sees you play as a robot tasked with saving the human race by artificially growing people and launching them into space, received its first major update in December. This added a forklift truck, unlocked a giant warehouse for players to explore, introduced new systems like composting, and added a basketball minigame.
Arriving earlier this week, The Last Caretaker's second major patch is similarly expansive. The chief addition is another new vehicle—the CS-17 Courier Skimmer. This is a jet ski that offers a faster travel alternative to your main boat (which also serves as your base). Handy if you want to do a quick run to a location without bringing your whole-ass base.
To help you test out the jet ski, the update also adds two new locations to explore. The rocky islands is a biome of treacherous stone spikes that stab through the ocean's surface, while the Maze is a set location that Channel 37 describes as "Easy to reach, easy to get lost in." Both locations come with specific questlines to pursue.
Other additions include a new sonar module with which you can scan beneath the ocean surface for resources, boat customisation that lets you trick out your hull with 37 different paint styles, in-game buttons that can now be pressed by physical impacts (i.e. throwing something at one, which sounds like it'll unlock some fun play opportunities), and a "mystery phone" with a mystery caller on the other end—sounds mysterious!
The update also brings a wide array of bugfixes and "major performance optimisations across core systems, physics, buoyancy, UI and more". The latter is something The Last Caretaker definitely needed. Most of the complaints about the game in Steam reviews relate to its hefty performance requirements.
Even so, it should be noted that negative reviews are vastly in the minority for TLC. The survival sim is currently riding the wave of a 84% 'Very Positive' rating on Steam. It also appears to have been a commercial success for Channel 37, having sold 100,000 copies in its first month since launch.
