The Last Caretaker Preview: Subnautica Exploration With Wall-E Vibes

The sky was overcast on Friday morning of PAX East 2025 as I rode the elevator up to the top of Boston’s Omni Hotel. Located in the heart of the Seaport district, the Omni is a towering structure overlooking the city’s harbor and ships. But I wasn’t there for the view; my seafaring adventures were yet to come.

Knocking on the door of a hotel suite, I walked into a pristine room disturbed only by a few novelties. A laptop on a table, complete with capture equipment. A television with a PowerPoint presentation preloaded onto the screen. Various bits of merchandise that hinted at the world I was about to explore. And, of course, the developer who would walk me through it: Antti Ilvessuo, Co-Founder of Channel37.

After exchanging pleasantries, we sat down to talk about the indie studio’s inaugural game, The Last Caretaker. With a name evocative of Fumito Ueda’s The Last Guardian, I must admit I came into the preview with some preconceived notions of what to expect. Yet, as Ilvessuo walked me through the vision for the game, I realized what I was about to play had far more ambitious stories to tell.

One Final Initiative

The Last Caretaker is a first-person survival game that blends exploration, resource management, crafting, shooting, and environmental storytelling all into one package. As a robot once created to care for humans, you are now the species’ last hope. Humanity as we know it has gone extinct, with the last remnants surviving as “seeds” in vaults strewn about a flooding land.

As the titular Last Caretaker, you must travel the Earth’s surface, searching for Seed Vaults so you can then send these humans off into space to live on. To accomplish this feat, you’ll pilot a massive barge from outpost to outpost, fueling it with resources you manage to scavenge. All the while, you’ll encounter organic and synthetic creatures that pose a threat to you and to humanity’s future.

The Last Caretaker doesn’t shy away from painting a bleak picture. The idea of a compassionate robot navigating a desolate land feels like a page straight from Pixar’s Wall-E, except in this instance, you’ll be experiencing that solitude for hours on end.

That isn’t to say there isn’t hope, however. As demonstrated by the game’s February 2025 announcement trailer, it’s clear the development team is aiming to strike a balance between darkness and moments of genuine beauty. Look no further than the Caretaker’s attire: an orange scarf (which Ilvessuo gifted me as I walked in). An allusion to your robot’s past profession, this scarf offers a hint of color in a world now dominated by blues, browns, and grays.

A Robot and Its Boat

The Last Caretaker is aimed at those who love exploration-based games like Subnautica, No Man’s Sky, and Breath of the Wild. Those inspirations rang true during my hands-on time with the game, which lasted about 20 minutes.

My demo began at the very onset of the game, with the Caretaker awaking from a deep slumber. Leaving the sanctity of a tiny bedroom, I worked to bring power back to an abandoned station. Along the way, I encountered a defective robot, picked up and tossed inanimate objects a la Half-Life, and even listened to a cheeky showtune — all while being guided along by the voice of the Caretaker’s creator.

After a few minutes, I reached the facility’s docking hanger and discovered that a rundown barge was there, waiting for me to take it out onto the open seas. During this section, Ilvessuo — aided by Channel37’s Community Manager, Jack Pattillo — walked me through The Last Caretaker’s many different systems. By linking various cables, I could transfer electricity and fuel from the facility to my ship. In another room, they showed me a machine I could use to break down useless junk into raw materials like copper — crucial for making repairs to my vessel.

A little more handiwork, and my ship was ready to depart. I made a beeline for the bridge, grabbed the wheel, and took off. In a welcome change of perspective, The Last Caretaker zoomed out to third-person so I could admire my ship, the Caretaker, and the surrounding waters. According to Ilvessuo and Pattillo, the team is hard at work to ensure every inch of the world — from the highest rafters in a facility to the ladders on a maintenance tower — is explorable. No detail is left to waste.

Scratching the Surface

There was so much left to see when my demo came to an end. From firefights with Death Stranding-esque globs of goo, to scraps of lore tucked in various crannies of the world, The Last Caretaker looks to pack a lot of game into a relatively focused package. (Ilvessuo promised me the game isn’t going for an endlessly long campaign, but rather a tighter narrative that doesn’t overstay its welcome.)

The Last Caretaker might not be a hundred-hour open world, but make no mistake: The scale is impressive. Before wrapping up our time together, Ilvessuo showed me the development team’s “World Bible,” a massive Miro board packed with information on all the various biology, technology, and theology you’ll encounter while exploring. As a UX writer who fancies a nice Miro board, I’ve never seen one of such magnitude.

If The Last Caretaker can translate the richness of storytelling from jam board to real, tangible moments, players could be in for something special.

---

The Last Caretaker, developed and published by Channel37 Ltd, is set to release in early access on PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store) later in 2025.