Stranded Deep is an open world survival game where you play the role of a plane crash victim who’s crashed landed somewhere in the pacific and stranded on a small desert island. Developed by Beam Team, a relatively small development team, based in Australia. Stranded Deep is an Indie game that offers a lot of intrigue and many playable hours of quest, survival and exploration. The game has been in early access for PC players via Steam, for years, and last month it got released on console, making it a good time to check it out.
You begin your journey inside a plane flying over the pacific, only to very abruptly crash into the ocean. Once you flee the wreckage, you find yourself floating in the water with only a blow up raft to help you and a nearby island to paddle to. Once you’re there, it’s up to you to keep yourself alive through exploring the terrain and crafting food, water and shelter.
There isn’t much of a story campaign, you get a little tutorial guide at the start giving you the basics of the crafting mechanics. After that, it’s up to you to find your way around and make your own choices on what to do next. There is more to the campaign later on, but you have to go out and find it.
Exploration
You soon find all the resources on your island are quickly being depleted. But if you gaze across the ocean, you’ll notice a myriad of other islands, just rife with supplies. And that’s where a lot of the depth of this game comes from. There a number of islands for exploration, each with its own set of sunken ships, that you must dive into in search of what you need. It’s this constant loop of exploration and gathering that keeps you busy and interested.
Staying Alive
It’s the name of the game. Survival is top priority and it’s these aspects of the game that keeps you constantly on you toes. Needing to continually keep yourself fed and watered, and you can even get tired too and need rest or suffer from sun stroke. As well as keeping fed, the game introduces you to a range of different status effects that can ultimately lead to your untimely death. Some of which are more straight forward than others. If you’re suffering from too much heat, go somewhere cool and chill out. But if you are poisoned from a snake bite, you’ll need to find ingredients to craft an antidote.
You also need to watch out for sharks! One of many hazards you may face while out at sea. In the beginning you only have your blow up raft to travel with, which isn’t very stable. It will capsize often, giving free reign for nearby sharks to take a bite. So watch out!
Fear & Atmosphere
One thing that stranded deep does very well is immerse you in the deserted island life. The blissful sandy beaches and deep blue oceans are a great setting for a survival game. The game may not win any awards for its graphics, but it’s a nice game to look at. And what it adds on top of that is a great sound track for mood and atmosphere. There’s nice mellow music when you’re lofting about your home island, scavenging and crafting. But once you set sail in your raft and a shark approaches, you know all about it, as ‘jaws-like’ music sets cue to let you know you are in danger. This gives you a great feeling of excitement and terror! You know at any moment your little blow up raft can tip over and you could be ‘swimming with the fishes’.
Risk & Reward
It’s apparent fairly early, you’ll need to explore to survive. The other islands hold much of the resources you need. But it’s also apparent from the sharks on your way there and the snakes you might encounter when on a neighbouring island, that you do so at your own peril. And it’s that risk and reward set up that keeps the game interesting.
It’s a system that keeps you constantly busy and wary of how you spend your time. Your character needs food and water on the regular, meaning there’s never a second to waste. Do you create a means of water on this island that you’re exploring? Or do you wait until you get back to your main one? How are my stats? Which island do I go to next? What do I craft next? All questions you’ll be asking yourself as you brave through the choices brought before you.
Game Progression
There’s a nice progression system that when crafting something, that unlocks further crafting options and the more physical activity you do, the stronger you get at it. Like swimming for example. There is a sort of end game. You must fight 3 sea creatures, which each drop a part for a plane. You fix the plane up and fill it with supplies, and use it to make an escape to civilization. But you don’t really have any of this explained to you. And some of the crafting recipes are vague in their description. Apart from the short tutorial at the beginning, you don’t really know much of what’s going on. Depending on whether you’re a hardcore or not to the survival genre, you may love or hate this. I myself prefer a bit more instruction. Maybe this is something that could be added as an option.
I found myself pausing the game a lot and searching the web for answers. I do know that many people who love the genre like the idea of being left to their own devices and work it out on their own. But for me, this was a part of the game that highlighted an area that could be developed further in the future.
Handy Little Wrist-watch
In a day and age of technology and smart phones, where would a stranded survivor be without their Fitbit? Your character has their own smart watch that performs as a handy way of keeping track of your health and attributes. If you’re hungry, thirsty, tired, whatever is ailing you, the watch will let you know with a little beep. It keeps a record of your current stats, and also lets you know of any status effects you may be feeling. On my first play-through I was bitten by a snake and received the poisoned status effect. The beep of the watch sped up the closer I got to my impending doom, until I died. Which was a good touch.
Inventory Management & Menus
I found the inventory management to be a bit clunky. You fill your pack up quite quickly, making it hard to access tools. Although you can craft a tool belt, which you can upgrade to hold more tools. Which makes a great improvement, but I didn’t come across the items to do so right away. After a raid on another island, it’s hard to organize everything you picked up. You have to drop a lot of stuff on the ground at your base camp, making it difficult to find things.
The menus are a little basic looking, but they’re ok. Although some crafting recipes and items could do with a bit more explanation. For example, I lost a lot of health from shark bites etc… There’s no explanation that I could see on how to heal myself. Or it wasn’t clear to me. It took me searching for a while on google to find out. Turns out, if I got my food and water up to max. That would initiate a ‘healthy’ status effect that healed me. Not rocket science, but with the way crafting works and antidotes, I was expecting there to be something in the crafting menu I could have made to provide healing. Maybe there is? Anyway, I couldn’t find it. I stumbled with this type of issue more than once.
Keeps You Busy
Stranded deep does a good job of keeping you entertained through a clever island system, crafting mechanics and having to stay alive. You’re continually thinking about food and water, all while deciding where to make your next voyage in search of supplies.
I found in the beginning, I was spending way too much time gathering food and water, and not enough time exploring and crafting shelters and rafts. Without much direction from the game, I got a little frustrated with how to better spend my time. But with practice and learning the mechanics, I soon realized how to be more efficient, especially once I unlocked more crafting items. And especially once I made my first raft. It’s a GAME CHANGER. A wooden raft with a sail is so much quicker and safer than your dingy. So I’d recommend making one as soon as possible! After that, you will see your efforts rewarded much faster by being able to explore and scavenge much more efficiently.
Multiplayer / CO-OP
I bought the PS4 version. It was the release on console last month that got me interested in trying the game out. Seeing that it was finally being released on console, that gave me the impression that it was a more ‘finished’ game. Although there is no option to play with a friend, which is a shame. Especially considering you can play online multiplayer or spilt screen co-op on PC. I think it would add a lot more depth being able to split duties and share the experience with a friend. Hopefully that will come in a later update!
Price
At the time of writing this, the price on console was around $20 in the US and £16 in the UK. For an indie game with some things that I’d question whether they needed to be developed further or not, that’s a fair price.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Stranded Deep does a decent job of offering a castaway, deserted island survival game experience, with intrigue and exploration. One that keeps you busy and entertained for many hours. For the price tag I think it’s definitely worth a mention and if you’re a fan of that genre I’d recommend checking it out. There are some things I’d like to see in the future, such as a more developed campaign experience and multiplayer on console. But other wise a decent game, giving you an interesting survival experience that’s worth checking out.
