Stranded 2 is a free to play 3D game that challenges you to survive by yourself on an island as you explore and craft to improve your chances of survival. Building on the original Standard game by offering improved graphics, larger islands, additional items and higher levels of randomisation you’ll get plenty of more hours of Stranded gameplay with this sequel.
Allowing players to play either through the story mode that gives you goals and objectives to achieve over four islands or the sandbox mode that lets you run wild there is a game mode for all tastes as you try to survive in the harsh environments. With this adventure supported through text diary entries and conversations with the natives of the islands it feels comparable to the paid titles in this genre. Each island also offers a unique theme with a colourful mini game, tower defence and a raptor hunting challenge. Combined with the random generation of each island map there is plenty of replay value in Stranded 2 with each game presenting a different challenge so there is replay potential to be had.
Central to your survival Stranded 2 aims to be fairly realistic as you manage your exhaustion, hunger and dehydration that each require careful management and have their own distinct methods to recover. If any of these reach their max levels you’ll begin to take damage and eventually die if not addressed in the short term. Like most survival games this results in a gameplay loop of managing these needs alongside your broader resource management. Resources can all be farmed from the environment be it wood, stone, leaves, food or other items which are all vital to your survival.
Using these basic resources you’ll be able to build a home for yourself, campfire and eventually a thriving settlement or craft tools to defend yourself. When it all combines together Stranded 2 has over 100 item options when you include the different quality levels of some items with most serving the purpose of protection against the various island threats.
Players will find that there is a good variety in these threats from the lions that roam the land to the sharks in the water and even the deadly raptors that draw from all eras and locations. You’ll also find that your island is populated by many peaceful creatures and natives as well making your island feel alive as you explore. Adding to this sense of a real world you’ve got a day-night cycle and a decent array of weather effects through the use of lighting and fog mechanics.
Stranded 2 also supports an island editor where you can create your own island challenges and comes with an in built scripting system used to create the main island adventures to ensure you have the appropriate tools to modify your adventure before sharing the results with other players. Packing more content then you would expect to see in a free to play survival experience that is both simple and incredibly fun you can’t look past at trying Stranded 2.
Summary:
- Free to play survival game that challenges you to survive island environments.
- Build and craft to help your survival chances.
- Plenty of friendly and hostile creatures combine with a day night cycle to create a living island.
- Story and sandbox modes along with an editor to design your own island adventures.
- Similar adventure to the original Stranded title with enhanced content and mechanics.
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Review Platform: PC
Ryder
This game starts off amazingly good… it’s well balanced. The graphics are poor by today’s standards, but they are effective. You soon get past that.
Then suddenly the game takes an odd turn, and you are no longer a stranded survivor of a shipwreck… and you lose everything you built…
Imagine SimCity… making something worth being proud of… and then it just plops you down somewhere else, and you have to start again.
TOTAL FRUSTRATION.
If you built a town, wouldn’t you want to keep it?
Of course you would.
It was going great, right up till then.
But hey, it’s free…