Hey there fellow gamers!
(and for those who might be worried about the title, no - the player DEEP on this server is NOT stranded!!! - it's just the new game title!)
I've discovered the survival game "Stranded Deep" that I am really liking, except with sharks instead of zombies as the main "enemy"!
It is also an Alpha game in the very early stages of development, so there are some glitches, of course, but there is a lot to like about it and I am looking forward to watching this develop. I thought I would take this opportunity to run through a bit of the gameplay, and what I like and what I don't like (read: things I hope they fix).
GAMEPLAY:
Okay, so the beginning is sort of what you would expect. You start out on the inside of a small private jet - and (after a short, EXTREMELY BASIC "tutorial" on crafting - which does not really teach you everything, just the basics), as you probably guessed, there is a mechanical catastrophe due to turbulence and it crashes into the ocean at night. You find your way to the liferaft, and after one final explosion and an apparent "blackout" you awake in the raft during the day and fairly close to an island. There is a paddle in the liferaft which you obviously take and row to it.
Your inventory is slim to start out with (and backpack holds very little inventory), and your best friends at this point are your pocketknife and Zippo lighter. I run around the island and try to find at least nine rocks, nine sticks, and several lashings. (The lashings are acquired by hacking at a Yucca plant with your pocketknife - and I have always found at least one Yucca plant on every 'starter' island) Crafting is unique as you just throw all the stuff you collect in a pile somewhere in the sand, then hover over the pile and click on the crafting icon that shows up next to the name. The first thing to craft is a crude axe, as you will probably not find enough sticks from the get go. So from here you chop down palm trees until you have enough sticks to create a campfire. I suggest creating a campfire as soon as possible, get six of your eight remaining rocks (one is used for the axe) - place it next to the campfire and upgrade to a firepit. Next, get three sticks and some lashings and place that next to the firepit and upgrade to a firespit. This makes cooking crabs a LOT easier, trust me on this one. At this point you can go whack some crabs with your axe or pocketknife and start cooking them on the fire. You will also want to look for potato plants and harvest the potatoes. The Yucca and potatoes also regenerate themselves, so you can go back and harvest these several times.
You also want to collect coconuts, as this is your main hydration source until you find a bucket you can boil sea water in. You can collect them by climbing the tree (be careful - it is easy to fall from this technique and you don't want to break any bones this early in the game before finding any medical - this CAN happen!) or you can collect them by chopping the tree down. The only downside to this is sometimes they can roll into the ocean and may possibly become unretrievable. At this time you want to get another stick, another lashing and your final two rocks and make a crude hammer. You have to have a crude hammer equipped in order to build.
Now you have your pocketknife, your axe and your hammer. Take your axe and chop down more palm trees, collecting the sticks and the palm fronds. Go get some more lashings from the Yucca if you don't have any and pile all this stuff into your pile. Before equipping the hammer, craft a bed and place it on the island somewhere (I placed mine fairly close to my fire). Next, equip the hammer, make a foundation for your hut and place it somewhere. Then get four sticks, put them next to the foundation, and using the hammer, make four supports - place them - and then lastly create the roof and place it. You can also make walls, but I usually wait until later to do this as you only really need a roof at this point - someplace to get in out of the rain.
The last and final thing at this point that I do is make a raft. (If you dont have enough sticks or lashings, then go get some.) The reason I have for this is two fold. 1) It is faster than the rubber raft and 2) I read on a forum that eventually the rubber raft will pop and be unusable, so I go ahead and get this step out of the way. To make a raft, you simply create another building foundation with your hammer, but instead of placing it on land you go to the water's edge and place it in the water - the game knows to make it a raft at this point. However, you MUST remember to pull it back onto land after you create it, so as not to take the chance of it floating away. I also read (and have found out for myself) that the raft is much more stable on the open water if you flip it over first. (RMB click and hold while moving is the way to drag things around in the game.)
By this point I have several crabs cooked, and lots of potatoes and coconuts, so food and hydration are not usually a problem. You check your health, hunger and hydration by looking at your watch ('F' key), and clicking the LMB to toggle between mode 1 (time, day, temp) and mode 2 (health, hunger and hydration bar).
This is where I consider myself (somewhat) "established" and try to make it to another island on the raft. You will need more rocks at this point - for two reasons. 1) Your axe will lose "health" as you use it, and I have not figured out whether it is repairable or not. You will eventually need another one. 2) In order to make a spear (to get fish) you need to break a rock into "rock shards". This is the point where I find myself HAVING to go to another island in order to get rocks. I am usually still good on sticks and other mats.
I still have not spent a LOT of time in the game yet, but there are all kind of shipwrecks to explore and get goodies - ranging in simple rusty metal or rotten wood frames near the beach with one or two items in them (I have found binoculars, duct tape and an air tank) to larger vessels underwater with a lot more and better loot. (I have yet to venture into the water much - still trying to figure out the swimming mechanics and breathing limits)
But that is basically it for gameplay (at least for me....so far)
WHAT I LIKE:
1. The graphics. Omg...what can I say. The graphics are just beyond words. (Which is why I included a screenshot below)
2. The sounds are very good. The waves, the rain, even the chopping sounds are well done. Sure they could use some work, but for an alpha game right out of the gate (basically) they are pretty damn good.
WHAT I DON'T LIKE (and hope they get fixed):
1. The fact that some things (like water bottles and coconuts) will roll "through" some rocks and some tree roots.
2. No creatable "chests" or any other typ of box storage. Not sure this will happen due to the unique crafting feature, but it sure would make organization a lot easier.
3. WHALES THAT SWIM THROUGH YOUR ISLAND! Lol - yeah, this is something apparently more folks than me have encountered, and even though it is a bit hilarious at first, it becomes frustrating. I had a humpback whale that was swimming through my island - and that in itself is not so bad, and I could have lived with it EXCEPT....every time it made a "pass" through the island, it's movement was scattering all the sticks, rocks, lashings, palm fronds I had in a pile to all over the island and in some cases - into the water. I finally had to restart the game, as saving, exiting and entering back in did not seem to fix it.
Well, that is about it really. Even though there are some problems (which I expected, due to the Alpha status), I think it is really setting up to be a fun and interesting game. I hope they have MMO sometime - would be fun to play with multiple players.
I also discovered that if you don't like the island you start out on? Just restart the game, and hit "Z" to skip the intro.
There are also a couple of good wikis out there that I use for reference (and has really helped considerably)
http://stranded-deep.wikia.com/wiki/Stranded_Deep_Wikihttp://strandeddeep.gamepedia.com/Stranded_Deep_WikiIf anyone else is playing this atm - let me know your thoughts!
tl;dr -
Pretty awesome game for being Alpha 0.something, and not a bad deal for $14.99. Graphics are stunning. There are glitches, but nothing you can't really live with at this point, except for the whales swimming through the island. At that point, the best bet is to start the game over or find another island as a base of operations.
The graphic below is my initial "home" camp at nighttime. Crabs cooking on the fire, moon shining through the trees. (This was before the whale swam through, so I have a different camp now.)
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