Title: Stranded Deep
Developer: *Unknown*
Publisher: *Unknown*
Release Date(Early Access): January 23rd, 2015
Game Engine: *Unknown*
Number of Players: Single
Genre: 1st person Open World Survival
(Please note the content of this blog post will eventually be outdated, as this is an Early Access game)
Have you ever wished you could play a game that you can portray as a castaway, and had a Survival aspect to it? This game might be your answer. This is a Survival/Exploring game. Yet it isn’t without its “what the heck is this?” areas.
The biggest has to go to the map seed screen. As soon as the player hits the ‘MY GAME’ option(not sure why it was called this), they are prompted to enter a map seed. The player can pick the one the game has picked, or enter a row of numbers. The generation process can take around a minute and a half.
The player can then pick any tile they wish, yet that picked tile seems to not have a meaning to it. At first glance I assume that this is where the player starts. But once the world is loaded, the player finds themselves near an island while on a life raft. I assume this is currently an unimplemented feature, yet no note that it is.
Moving on after spawning in a small life raft, they can look down and see a paddle. Insistingly, the player would get the idea that the developers want the player to pick up the paddle and get to the island by using it. However, if the player was to look around, s/he could see there are other places to explore besides just the island infront of them. So the game gives the player a sense of choice of where to start.
So let’s assume the player decides to row to the island infront of them. Upon arriving, the player walks off the raft and onto the strange island. Here are several palm trees, indicating that the player could use these for his or her survival.
But how does the player survive, once they arrive? Currently, the developers provide no way of telling the player how and what they can craft. The player is forced to go online and use the wiki (link here).
Currently (as of the 0.07.H1 Hotfix update), the player can craft crude tools with poor durability. The Crude Spear is currently the player’s only tool for helping their Hunger level. Spear Fishing (the way it was done in our tribal past) is the player’s only option of keeping their hunger level in check.
To make the tools is somewhat straightforward. The player must find a stick or two(usually around the shoreline), some rocks(also around the shoreline), and some thatching. These can be collected by Yucca plants. The wiki provides a picture of what they look like. The thatching can be acquired by using the player’s pocket knife.
But before I get to that, there are also useful items that can be found. These can mainly be found in airtight chests inside shipwrecks, encouraging the player to explore away from the island they arrive on.
Here the player must access their inventory (Tab key by default) to acquire the knife. A few whacks of the tree and the thatching will fall to the ground. Then the player can hit C to open up their Crafting window, select the tool they wish to make, and if they have the required material, the ‘CRAFT’ button will not be grayed out.
Before I wrap this up and get to my main review, I want to explain Cooking. The only way to cook is a campfire. There are four versions, each more powerful than the last (but also costing more materials). A simple campfire requires one stick (and to find a Lighter, which is found from looking for those small chests I mentioned earlier).
Once a campfire has been created(right clicking), the player can then drop things like fish and crabs out of their inventory and drag them (right mouse) into the fire. A sizzling sound happens to let the player know the food is being cooked.
Once the food is cooked, a slight ‘ding’ sound will be heard (also the food will be renamed from ‘item to ‘cooked item’. There it is safe to eat.
And that’s about wraps it up. Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to hunt a shark with a spea– wait, what’s that? The crude axe is the only thing useful that can deal with a shark? .. The hell?!
Time for my review;
Good;
-It doesn’t crash.
Bad;
-The game forces new players to use the wiki. I understand there used to be an ‘intro tutorial’, but there’s not one now.
-Only developers(that respond) don’t fully answer my questions. They seem to not even care for new players.
-There’s no point (currently) to the world seed. The player spawns in the same area everytime.
-The moon is very, VERY bright. Unrealistically bright.
What I would like to see added;
-The crude spear be effective against sharks.
-The map seed window to have a purpose for its existence.
-An understanding from the developers that people want to try their game. $12 is a lot of money. Instead, they seem to only care for their existing playerbase.
.
Final Verdict: I have just asked for a refund from Steam for the first time since they implemented their refund policy. Don’t get this game if you expect a gameplay aspect. It’s just not there… yet. I will still be watching this game, as there is room for improvement. But I refuse to fund their development as of this moment.
As of now, just walk away from this game. What really tore it for me was the devs not wanting to answer all of my questions. Plus the way they interacted with other posts. They seem to dislike people who complain, when they have explained the reason for doing so.
If the developers continue to work on the game and release it with everything that is promised, I might come back to it and write a brand new (hopefully more positive) review.