Stranded Deep - Preview

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.