Stranded: Alien Dawn
An Incredible top down RPG, strategy, adventure game
Hello readers! This post was written before my last Linux post but had to wait due to me re-engineering my development system to produce products with full Linux support henceforth! This is an expansion on a review I posted for this game on Steam. I started writing it here but had to post the compressed Steam review first least it slipped my mind and I did the developers of this game an injustice. This review goes into more depth and is a super set of the Steam review.
In this installment I present to you a true gem of a game called “Stranded: Alien Dawn”. The premise is as simple as it is exciting. You and your crew crashed on an alien planet (technically a moon for me) with nothing except your wits and a couple items. From these simple beginnings you are supposed to lift yourself back to a technological level that makes you and your team’s lives worthwhile and keeps you alive!
You see, the fauna can be dangerous and the biosphere of the world is prone to what seems like a laundry list of disasters. Things from heat waves to solar storms can strike. Thankfully the game is well paced and while you are in the early stages you are not faced with any of these truly troublesome events.
This brings me to my next point, the game is very well programmed. It uses common sense techniques to subject you to the vagaries of fate. There doesn’t seem to be any concrete schedule for your development, you are fee to move at your own pace.
In fact I didn’t even fully realize the game was tracking my complete progress until my first New Year’s on the world! It was that engrossing. At this point I have 130+ hours in the game and I look forward to putting in more!
The top down view with 3D camera rotation is refreshing and not simple to achieve as smoothly as this game does. It allows you to get a good view of your surroundings. The game uses a type of “x-ray layer system” that allows you to see through each level of structure and make ceilings and roofs see through so you can see your crew moving about their daily activities.
The attention to character movement and operations in this game is incredible. It is on par if not better than the famous “Sim” games in my opinion. When your characters are told to do something, you see them do it every time. Actions have obviously been lovingly animated, from stirring a pot to climbing a ladder. A unique feature of this game is the ability to see your inventory in game. There are the usual menus that provide the information but you can control storage locations on shelves etc and you actually see the items being placed there. If you have enough space and organize things well enough you can see the INDIVIDUAL items being placed.
Items that have many units will be grouped together but items with smaller numbers (usually the most valuable ones) can be seen down to the unit! This creates a deep sense of immersion. The game WANTS you to take a “What You See if What You Get” approach to managing your crew and it works well.
One thing I found very shocking was how attached you can become to your characters! Each one has a unique personality and as you follow them so closely throughout the game you can’t help but become attached to them. There are RPG elements such as leveling up certain skills etc so this simply adds to the game immersion. The story arc in this game speaks of love of craft. I find myself watching human-tamed animal interaction and as a developer I see the care that was put in there. You even care about the pets in this game!
The character choices are also top notch in this game. An RPG should allow you to select exactly the characters you want to spend the next 100+ game hours with. Many games fall short here because while they have RPG in their descriptions and mechanics they miss what the genre is all about in its most pure form. ROLE playing, learning to love the NPCs you control like some deity.
There can of course be some blemishes on some character choices. You can select them for a challenge or for their other strengths if you want. I chose one not believing the backstory on the character. He had other strong benefits so I chose him anyway. Exactly how he was described was how he was in the play through and I feel part of my success in the game now is due to that character's strengths when I was just learning the innards of this game's systems and messing up a lot. Be warned, these developers like to speak the truth, which I love. Emotional hear strings being pulled creating deep feelings, even those of loss. They gave me one occasion every year to remember. Starfield tried for this feeling but that caused me to take a break and I have yet to return. These devs did it right. I can't say more without creating a spoiler.
All in all I am finding the game to be very well balanced. Arguably this is the most well balanced top down strategy RPG I’ve ever played! The problems being thrown at me have a solution but simple hard work can help me get the better of them. Nothing seems ridiculously difficult to figure out. My greatest testament to the game balance is I only had to use Google one time in my first 110+ hours. The crafting in the game has depth and as you progress up the technology tree you find that with great technology comes great effort!
I rarely replay games. This is partially because of the amount I go through for reviews, enjoyment, etc. However this game is one I would actually gladly play through again. At 130+ hours in I think I probably have another 25 hours again before I would call my adventure complete. While the game is touted as a survival game once you master the workings of it you realize it is as much strategy as survival and this is high compliments in a genre where every game feels the same. I did take my time in the later stages, savouring my settlement, tweaking it again and again. There is no rush for me and I appreciate the game NOT RUSHING me.
Playing at 4k on a very large display I can quite clearly see the finest details and great care has been made to give items and the environment excellent visual fidelity. The game is also not a system hog, given the relatively slow nature. Any gaming system that can play any modern FPS game should easily handle this game. I have also run my trademark “8-10 hour continuous play test” to test game stability. So far I have NOT HAD a SINGLE crash! There are only two bugs I have run upon thus far. At around 50 hours in one of my characters refused to find a path to something that was obviously in reach. Games like these are usually PLAGUED with this sort of issue but this was the very first time I noticed it in this game.
In all fairness I did construct off the beaten path the game designers may have had in mind but a simple reshuffle of the materials in question fixed the issue. This was good because it was in a vital commodity and my experience had been so good thus far. I really wanted to give a good review so I was pleased when this simple fix ironed this small but important issue out. The second minor bug is a screen that sometimes wants to keep moving when you want it to stop. It happens very rarely and is not a show stopper.
Two very minor bugs aside, the freedom in construction I am experiencing with this game now that I have become thoroughly familiar with its mechanics is truly awesome. Multi level structures, building things in ways the Devs probably didn’t think about and having them work in a top down strategy game was thrilling. You barely get time to be creative your first time through at medium level. You’re still learning the ropes as you try to get on top of the situations presented.
However the journey of learning the ins and outs of this game is truly rewarding. I don’t feel like a minute I spent doing something inefficiently was a wasted minute! In all honesty I can’t say that about any other game that I’ve ever played! There is just something about the way the game is put together and the alien setting that makes you feel you SHOULD make some mistakes. The game design is superb in that it doesn’t punish you too harshly for them.
At around $35 USD now on Steam this game is a sure buy if you like the style. I am already beginning to regret that my time with my stranded survivors on this alien moon is starting to wind down. I believe it may be “SIM effect” taking hold here. The visual details, the nuances of the characters and the control I have over them. My game survivors feel like characters I myself would have written in a novel dealing with this issue. In the truest RPG style I have taken their bios and created full life stories for each of them in my head. Life stories based on the way they have served me in my playthrough thus far! I have become attached to them in a way I didn’t think possible in a game like this.
I would strongly suggest you give this game a try if you watch videos about it and find you are interested. Rest assured you don’t need to tackle a problem the way your video reviewer did! I made this mistake where I was thrown onto the back foot by an alien animal attack early on and decided to replicate what I saw on the video. His solution worked very well for him but for me it was a complete waste!
It was at that point that I realized this game rewarded originality and was designed in a flexible enough way to allow me to be original. As an engineer/scientist I can come up with some quite original solutions!
This game impressed me so much I am hoping for an ending worthy of the journey so I can check out other titles from the developer. As I typed the last sentence I fired up Google and went to the game’s website that I didn’t even know existed!
https://www.strandedaliendawn.com/
The URL is listed above. I purchased the DLC using Steam for around $12.00. It was well worth it. You gain androids and some other nick nacks but the androids are the real treat in the expansion. You continue your exisiting game without a hiccup, the androids just become available to build after you buy the DLC!
My biggest complaint about this game is there are no direct competitors to it that give you this depth with such a small crew! There are no major cities or settlements here. You know EACH of your crew intimately, their desires, their fears, etc. This adds a level of character attachment that other games in the genre simply lack. When the only complaint you have on a game is that it is unique you know you have a winner on your hands.
I’ll close here. What more can be said about a game with relatively “simple” mechanics that has been executed brilliantly and with love? Nothing. The final product speaks for itself. I hope I play more games like this in the future. AAA studios eat your hearts out. Love of work and passion outpaces corporate greed any day of the week.
Personal Rating : 10/10
Story : 10
Game mechanics : 10
Game stability : 10
Optimization : 10
Final feelings : Original, creates a sub-genre all of its own.