Last Oasis Series X|S - What We Know So Far

The nomadic survival massively-multiplayer online game Last Oasis was released in March 2020 on Steam as an Early Access game. Designed to help indie developers, the Early Access designation allows small companies and individuals to sell the game while it's still being developed, to build an audience and "set context for prospective customers," as Steam says. Since then, Last Oasis has garnered a majority positive rating and its developers, Donkey Crew, are getting ready for bigger things. 

 After a somewhat catastrophic launch, the game has been steadily gaining buzz. It's now available on Steam for $29.99, and continues to be updated several times a month. In fact, Season 2 dropped in late Nov. 2020, complete with a bunch of fixes, improvements, and balance changes to many parts of the game. Last Oasis has an expected Early Access time of one to two years, but it is receiving improvements and enhancements all the time. Not only that, but there is a port of the game on the way for the Xbox Series X and Series S. Here's what to know about this in-progress title.

If you're willing to play something that's unfinished, you can get in on the action now. However, Donkey Crew announced in mid-November that the game is coming to Xbox in the first quarter of 2021. So, if you're looking for something a bit more complete than the Steam version, or prefer playing on your console and television, you'll have that to look forward to. 

If you're interested in making the switch from PCs to the Xbox, you should have no issues, though you'll have to buy a new version. In an announcement from Donkey Crew, the developer explained that Last Oasis will support cross-play from day one on both official and private servers, with "fully-synchronized updates across the board." As the Xbox release date comes closer, expect further updates.

In a frequently updated FAQ for the game, Donkey Crew explained that it had always hoped to bring the game to consoles, even before Steam, because the oases within the game are interconnected and benefit from as many players as possible. It is aiming for a PlayStation release as well, but said Xbox's Game Preview has been easier for them to work with.

In Last Oasis, players enter a world where the sun is so brutal that people must move through oases in vast deserts, surviving by riding huge wooden walkers that act as mobile bases. They trade, scavenge, raid, harvest, and join up with clans to claim territory. It's an open-world sandbox that is meant to support many different play-styles. 

Donkey Crew has been busy with different enhancements, such as making travel more important, giving solo players and small groups the tools to defend themselves, providing more resources that come faster, and binding spawns to one walker so that "clown-car" attacks are no longer possible. Two new Walkers become stone bases with "solid" armor, and the Walkers have become easier to build. The game also has new tools and weapons, performance improvements, an overhauled in-game economy, a cap of 50 members in clans, and quality of life improvements. 

If it seems like a lot, it is: developers noted on its Season 2 event page that the game needed "a complete overhaul and radical changes." Time will tell whether or not these alterations make the overall gaming experience better.

Donkey Crew has been pretty good about keeping players apprised of new happenings through gameplay trailers, Q&As, AMAs, developer's logs, and more. An entire library of official Last Oasis videos exists on YouTube for the perusal of interested fans. For instance, there is a quick teaser about Season 2. Some other recent videos spotlight new Walkers, as well as the Xbox release. The Steam announcement trailer from January 2019 shows a number of aspects of the game, including hand-to-hand combat, crafting, battles between Walkers, and the overall look and feel of the title.

The developers have also been honest about the trials and the unexpected problems encountered during the process of making Last Oasis. In one developer's log, producer Lucas Stannis called the infrastructure problems the game faced at launch a "trial by fire" that exhausted the team for a bit and caused staff members to go quiet for a few months. Donkey Crew has been churning out plenty of content in the months since, however, and if Last Oasis is going to be ready for a Q1 Xbox launch, the team is not going to be stopping anytime soon.