I’ve always enjoyed playing engaging base-building and survival games. Something about understanding how to build an automated system made my human heart happy. On the other hand, it might be upsetting to watch other players lose or die. I experienced both in this vast gaming world thanks to Stranded: Alien Dawn.
There were no shortcuts to learning the fundamentals; the course was extensive and explained everything properly. I discovered that my previous base-building and survival knowledge from games like Valheim or Minecraft translated nicely into this one as well. In this game, there were achievements (and secret achievements), which made the discoveries much more exciting. Learning to research and craft has always been a pleasant adventure.
The focus in Valheim and Minecraft was on looking after your health, whereas Stranded: Alien Dawn required me to handle many characters. The personalities were so meticulously micromanaged, even down to their particular states of mental and physical health and even their particular interests and pastimes. They included a few minor details that made me think of The Sims games combined with Frostpunk, State of Decay, and Cities: Skylines because they balanced allowing the characters to have fun with making sure they didn’t perish from enormous, man-eating insects. It unmistakably reminded me of RimWorld.
Let’s go back to Stranded: Alien Dawn’s gigantic, man-eating insects. The numerous alien insects were fierce, even though the opponent spawns were not as savage as those in tower-defence games like Age of Darkness: Final Stand or They Are Billions. I rapidly picked up on researching defence and weapons as I undertook numerous playthroughs. Then, figuring out how to automate the entire base with electricity was a new endgame beast altogether.
The game featured a lot of things to learn, as I already mentioned. To my relief, the tutorial did show me how to set up electrical grids and energy generation techniques so that I would be ready for the actual game. Surprisingly, I discovered that making my base run on electricity became easier the more I played.
I managed to complete two respectable runs; in the first, I lived for 39 days, and in the second, I am now celebrating the second year on the alien planet Sobrius with all of my survivors largely intact.
Due to my neglect in the first game’s preparation of winter clothing and heating in the spring and summer, my unfortunate survivors essentially perished from overheating.
Players are given the option to select four survivors from a comprehensive list of more than 20 individuals, each with a different set of talents, personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and diets, before starting the crash landing (sounds weird). The smaller aspects of the characters in this game were given equal attention. This choice reminded me of one in games like This War of Mine or Dungeon of the Endless, and I thought it was a terrific approach to have a different play style with each new game.
Because they enhanced the sense of intrigue that comes with being in an unfamiliar world, I especially loved the subtleties of all the randomly produced situations in Stranded: Alien Dawn. Every game had different elements from the starting location, where I had crashed, such as sporadic thunderstorms, meteor showers, and raindrops, as well as the appearance of new survivors at random. The need to keep playing and learning new things kept me playing this game for 14 hours nonstop, and I was unable to put it down.
Stranded: Alien Dawn gave a lot to explore and do for a game in early access. I thought it was great to see some of the research branches shown early on, and the UI was simple. It hinted at a lot of things I need to look into. Additionally, when it came to research branches, it reminded me a lot of Minecraft and Raft. When I saw “3-D Printed Meat,” the intriguing researchable methods and behaviours made me chuckle. You aren’t even interested in learning its composition.
In addition to the fascinating studies and items to find in the game, the beautifully coloured fauna and enormous insects on Sobrius kept me playing for 14 hours straight. Playing on Felucia from the Star Wars universe was like being in a spooky place with stunning surroundings and monsters. Stranded: Alien Dawn had stunning images.
The fact that so much of the animal’s lives and surroundings could be observed and studied was cool. Therefore, I started by labelling a bunch of things as “interesting rocks” or “long grass shrubs.” However, if I had given a highly intelligent person the task of observing these items, they would be able to distinguish them from ore or hay bushes.
With its modular base-building features, Stranded: Alien Dawn offered a deep, well-balanced gameplay experience at $33.99. Nothing was overly confusing or bug-ridden. I initially considered grain to be a difficult resource to locate, but again, playing that thrilling, engrossing 14 hours nonstop taught me to explore and observe more.
Even though the game is still in Early Access, there were lots of things to do and the gameplay was so flawless that it was simple to comprehend. It surprised me that despite the intricacy of the game and its early development stage, there were surprisingly few to no issues in any of my playthroughs or tutorials. There’s a good chance you’ll like this compelling work of art if you like a blend of realism and zaniness in some of the games I listed above.
Conclusion
Despite being in early access, Stranded: Alien Dawn was an incredibly well-made base-building and survival simulator game that I could not put down.
