The Robinson Crusoe/Tom
Hanks Simulator
Prequel –
Here I am, sitting on a plane to my important overseas business meeting, enjoying a nice cocktail that I made myself through the crafting introduction tutorial when all of a sudden a large chunk of the plane suddenly explodes and I find myself taking a salty bath on the ocean. Swimming out of the burning wreckage, I climb into an inflatable raft just as one of the engines explodes, knocking me unconscious.
Day 1 –
I awake to find it is morning and I am adrift in the ocean. All
I have on me is my lighter, pocket knife and a bottle of water. I see an island
in the distance, so I grab the paddle and make my way towards it. I push my
raft ashore and explore my new surroundings. There are some bits of barrel and
other debris around, not much I can use, but there are plenty of rocks and
sticks. I smash one of the rocks against a tree until it breaks, splintering
into some useful sharpened rock shards. Using one of these I hack some Yucca
plants to use their leaves as useful binding. Together, with some sticks and
shards, I fashion a crude axe and chop down some of the palm trees on my new
home. Not only can I then chop the tree up into sticks, but it drops coconuts which
are a good source of both food and water. My survival watch, which I wear on
all my overseas business trips, tells me I’m getting hungry and the coconut isn’t
satisfying. I search the island thoroughly and collect all the rocks I can find
and build a campfire with a cooking spit. I rip up a potato plant and am
rewarded with three juicy potatoes. I stick them over the fire and enjoy some baked
potatoes for dinner.
Day 2 –
I find a shipwreck near my island that looks like it has
been there a long time. I dive down and search it, only finding a soggy roll of
duct tape. When I surface, however, I realise I’m not alone. A particularly
hungry looking tiger shark is circling around me. I swim as fast as I can,
narrowly avoiding a set of hungry jaws. Seeing islands in the distance, I get
in my raft and paddle for some time before reaching the new island. It was much
further than I thought and it’s already getting late in the day. There is lots
of wreckage on this island. I find a pair of binoculars, an oxygen tank, a part
for a boat engine and another pocket knife. I load up on rocks until I can’t
carry any more and start the long paddle home. The full moon begins to rise over
the horizon, it’s reflection beautiful in the calm ocean.
Day 3 –
Starting to feel starved, I fashion a spear and hunt some
crabs that I share my home with. I cook them over the fire, but they’re not
very filling. I go swimming and find some sardines that aren’t much better, but
swimming out a bit further I find some beautiful blue tropical fish, an
Angelfish I think they’re called. I cook the Angelfish over the fire and
happily chow down its much larger portion. A few moments later, I feel very
unwell, and promptly start vomiting everything I had eaten. Perhaps Angelfish
aren’t so good for eating. Ill
with fever, I try to build a shelter so I have somewhere to rest. Using my
crude hammer and all the sticks I’ve got, I build a foundation, some walls and
a bed. I use the last remaining coconuts to try and replace the fluids I lost
in my last vomit before going to bed for the night.
Day 4 –
I feel even worse today then yesterday. Horrible blisters
are all over my skin and my survival watch says I’m not looking so good. I need
more wood to finish my house, but my supplies are low. I paddle to another
island I can see in the distance and collect as much wood as I can carry. An overturned
ship has a fuel can inside, which isn’t much good to me. Unfortunately, while I’m
here a heavy fog rolls in and I can no longer see the way home. Stuck here, I
set up another camp and a quick shelter. I’m disappointed that all my tools are
back home except for my axe, which I brought to cut down some trees. I have to
make everything from scratch again.
Day 5 –
I can barely move I’m so ill. Survival watch tells me I’m in
dire straits and that I need medicine. The fog has cleared, so I begin the long
trek home. It seems to take forever, but half way there, a storm rolls in and
the rain falls hard. My island disappears from view and I’m lost in the middle
of the ocean. I can see two sharks swimming around, knocking my raft in an
attempt to knock me out of it. I keep paddling in the direction I think my
island is and it finally appears through the rain. I use the supplies I
collected to put a roof on my hut and I boil a bucket of water to make it
drinkable. I lay down at night to try and sleep off the illness, but it doesn’t
look good.
Day 6 –
I wake up feeling awful. I take a few steps before my heart
gives out and I collapse. I die alone on a desert island somewhere in the
Pacific, all because of some bad fish.
Death by Angelfish.
Stranded Deep is available for Early Access on Steam for
$14.99 USD. It’s a well developed survival game that challenges and punishes
you. There is a lot of trial and error to it, as you might have realised from
my fishing exploits. There are antibiotics in the game to cure poison, but I
hadn’t found any by that point. At the moment, there is no ‘winning’ the game,
just surviving is challenging enough. Also, killing a shark is the crowning achievement
for any survivor. So far I’m 0 for 2.