Recently, I was given the chance to get an early look at ‘Stranded: Alien Dawn‘, a brand new survival base-building game which officially launched into “Early Access” on Steam this week.
Published by Frontier (‘Jurassic World: Evolution 1 & 2’, ‘Planet Zoo’, ‘Planet Coaster’), and developed by Haemimont Games (‘Surviving Mars’, ‘Tropico’ series), ‘Stranded: Alien Dawn’ has a solid pedigree behind it, and I was excited to get stuck into this new game. Despite ‘Stranded: Alien Dawn’ only being in “Early Access”, I was not disappointed.
The planet survival sim places the fate of a small marooned group in your hands. Crashing onto an alien world, you are responsible for keeping these survivors alive by building them somewhere to shelter, finding food to eat, clothes to wear, and protecting them from the hostile creatures that roam the potentially deadly environment, along with the hostile environment itself.
Unlike Haemimont’s previous games, where you’re just managing the colony overall, here it is something closer to ‘RimWorld’ where you’re managing the individual people as well. With that in mind, it’s time to dive in and pick who will be the “lucky” four to set off on this adventure.
Setting Up
For those of you who have played other survival sims, there are some elements here you will recognise. Much like Haemimont’s ‘Surviving Mars’, when you begin the game, will be able to pick from various scenarios, regions (biomes), game difficulties, procedural seeds and rules, although some of these options (scenarios and regions) are currently limited in the “Early Access” release. From there you choose four crew members from a wider selection, all with various skill traits and personality quirks, similar to the set-up for ‘Oxygen Not Included’. Some have crafting skills, some are better at combat. Some can cook and build, while others refuse to eat meat or fight. It’s your job to figure out a team with the best balance of skills that you think will give you the strongest chance to survive on the planet. Once you have your group it’s time to head down to the planet… or rather, crash…
Getting Started
My four intrepid survivors consisted of Quin, Jack, Jayla, and Laara. I watch as their ship smacks into the planet’s surface, followed by Quin, my crafting and construction specialist, immediately having a meltdown… Which, on balance, is probably not an unreasonable reaction given they are now stranded on an alien world! Surrounded by debris, I set about getting my gang to gather up what supplies they can, and breaking down the remains of their ship to build a shelter. We soon have a campfire, basic sleeping area, table, chairs, and storage set up. Quin has managed to pull himself together enough to help. They even held a little party around the campfire to celebrate not dying in the crash!
The next step is to check out this alien world and see what they can find to help them live. One interesting little mechanic in ‘Stranded: Alien Dawn’ is the ability to “study” the various fauna and flora. Spending some time to check if eating the local planet-life is going to poison you seems like a sensible precaution, so I send Quin to check out the nearby berry bushes. Thankfully, they’re edible, so Laara harvests the fruit, and can now also plant a field of them to keep the supplies coming. I also get Layla to cook up some of the emergency rations on the fire. No reason to eat cold food when we have the technology!
The next task is to put my gang’s minds to work on research. That requires a Research Desk, so Jack whips one up out of scrap metal, and then sets about unlocking the secrets of refining that scrap we’ve been gathering from the crash. As I look into the distance, I spot some cow-looking animals. They might be docile, but probably best to research some weapons next, just in case! After that, I look into researching some better building options so we can get out of these rickety shelters. The berries we gathered earlier have also unlocked the option to research wine-making… We might be stuck on this rock, but no reason we can’t have a civilised glass of pinot with dinner to help with the group’s mood! Things are looking up!
Disaster…
…Or maybe not… As winter came around, I wasn’t fast enough to set up clothing crafting. That led to some common colds as some of the group were without jackets. Whilst colds are not a huge issue, the game also has “disaster events”, in this case, a cold snap. This led to an outbreak of Pneumonia, and as I didn’t manage to scavenge any medical kits or research antibiotics yet, things only got worse for my group, and Jack becomes the first to die! When the survivors get ill, they take to their beds and wait for treatment. You can force them up to work, but by the time I had researched antibiotics, it was the middle of winter, and I didn’t have enough of the right crop to make the drugs they needed. Jayla also succumbs to her illness and, having already having lost half the group, things get worse as a swarm of giant alien bugs takes the opportunity to overrun the encampment! Normally, you can take direct control and “draft” your survivors to defend themselves, but Jack and Jayla’s deaths have pushed the mood of the last two members of the group into meltdown. As Quin punches a table in anger, and Laara binge drinks her way through the oncoming swarm, I decided to leave them to their fate…
Early Research Tips and Tricks
Before I start again with four new souls, I thought I’d pass on a few valuable lessons I learnt from my first attempt:
1. Make sure you go and find “Graincob” plants (they look like corn plants) early and plant a field. Then research and make antibiotics. This will really help come winter if your survivors get Pneumonia. Also, make some additional bandages.
2. Find “Clothblossom” plants next (plants with fluffy white tops), as a field of those will give you a ridiculous amount of cloth. Research Tailoring, which will allow you to make hats, shirts and coats to keep your gang warm in the winter.
3. Research Weaponsmithing. Whilst the early attacks from the local wildlife aren’t too hard to deal with, your group will may only have scavenged one or two laser pistols, so arming everyone with spears and bows can be really useful early on!
4. Research Metal Refinement, then Long Distance Travel. Building the Hot Air Balloon allows you to go on Expeditions which have a chance of finding additional survivors. This can be really useful as you have more and more things to do as the game progresses.
The research tree is somewhat similar to ‘Surviving Mars’, in that there are main areas such as “Resources”, “Power”, “Defense”, and “Construction”, but there is also a “Breakthroughs” tree. This has a few things in it already, but Expeditions and finding certain plants and resources can add additional breakthroughs as the game progresses. Some of these are more useful than others but worth looking out for.
Second Times The Charm
This time around, I pick a new group and a new procedural seed. I take Carter, Kana and Ken (who are brother and sister, which gives them a happiness boost), and Laara. They crash land in an open field surrounded by trees (wood), bushes (sticks), rocks (stone), cotton plants (cloth) and mushrooms (food/medicine), so should serve as a reasonable starting area.
Carter heads off to check out the local plants, which allows Laara to set up farms to provide food and resources. I’ve also got the rest of the group crafting clothes, food, and gathering supplies from crashed parts of the spaceship. Pretty soon we have an abundance of cloth, thanks to a bumper cotton plant harvest, so I also research “Long Distance Travel” which opens up “Expeditions” via a hot air balloon. This lets the survivors head further out to investigate “pop-up” events such as a distant smoke column, or a strange signal.
After a few weeks, we have a decent functioning camp, with enough clothes and medicine to see them through the winter. I instruct the group to research and build wooden fortifications around the camp, followed by a solid wooden hut and an electricity grid. At this point, a lady called Vivien wanders into camp – another survivor! Helpfully, she is an excellent cook, so I set her to work.
In a system familiar to ‘Oxygen Not Included’ players, you can set each survivor to prioritise various activities on a scale of 1-5. I set Vivien’s cooking to 1, meaning she will now churn out food for the group. On a shiny new electric stove, she can cook up a much wider variety of recipes than she could over a campfire. I also research and build fridges and freezers, which help to preserve the abundance of food coming in from the crop harvest.
With the balloon now built, I send Ken out to investigate a flare which was spotted in the distance. It turned out to be Rita, who is about to be eaten by a rather large insect! Thankfully, Ken has decent combat skills, so I let him help her slay the beast and get her to join our merry band of people.
With the wooden hut finished, good food, some alcohol brewing in vats, and even musical instruments built for entertainment, the group are pretty happy. Some are even falling in love, as I get a notification that Laara and Carter are now an item… Awww… Sure, the local wildlife can be a bit of a pain sometimes, but some strategically placed automated turrets help keep them at bay. This time, things really are looking up.
Final Thoughts
I’ve now been playing ‘Stranded: Alien Dawn’ for around 40 hours, and really enjoying it. Despite being in “Early Access” there is a lot to play with, and this is only the beginning. Haemimont has built a really solid foundation to grow from. Graphically, it looks great, and I have yet to experience any crashes or bugs. If you’re a fan of ‘Rimworld’, ‘Surviving Mars’, ‘Oxygen Not Included’, or base-building survival games in general, I highly recommend giving ‘Stranded: Alien Dawn’ a try.
‘Stranded: Alien Dawn‘ is available right now on Steam for PC at £24.99. You can find more about the game on their website.
