‘Stranded: Alien Dawn’: “Sow and Sell” Update Review & Full Game PC/Console Launch Announcement
Frontier Foundry, the games label of Frontier Developments, and developer Haemimont Games, have made a couple of exciting announcements about their base-building game ‘Stranded: Alien Dawn‘. Firstly, there is the new “Sow and Sell” Update, which adds an interesting new scenario and a new end goal. Secondly, they have announced the game will officially launch out of Early Access Tuesday, 25th April 2023 on PC and console.
If you have yet to pick up the game, ‘Stranded: Alien Dawn’ offers players a liberating 3D world in which their every decision determines the fate of a small group of survivors. Beginning with nothing but the basics, you need to ensure the marooned survivors can work together to transform their crash site into a flourishing base, all while getting to grips with their beautiful yet unforgiving surroundings. From the vibrant mountain region of Sobrius to the harsh sands of Desertum, survivors must fend off alien wildlife attacks, acquire knowledge of strange new plants, and research new technologies to ensure they can truly thrive. From a simple shelter to a high-tech fortress, survivors must salvage, hunt, farm, and craft their way to establishing a prosperous base to reach their ultimate end goal.
The “Sow and Sell” Update
Up until now, there has only been one scenario available, which involves your group crash-landing on the planet, and building your base to survive until you’re rescued. The “Sow and Sell” Update changes this somewhat, by picking a group of people who have bought a one-way ticket to the uncharted territories of the Outer Worlds where they plan to set up a small trading outpost. Their mission? To build a thriving trading outpost in their unforgiving new surroundings and eventually buy the entire planet for themselves.
So, in this scenario, your group are not “survivors”, but farmers who intentionally landed on the planet in order to make their fortunes. This means that you actually have a working space capsule which is used to trade goods with ships that pass in orbit, such as traders or smugglers, each offering different goods, and prices.
You begin with three people, which can make things a little frantic when you’re trying to build up your base. One of the main changes here seems to be that you don’t get random additional people turning up at your base or via events (at least I haven’t in my playthrough). The only way to get additional people is by spending your hard-earned “Galacticoins” and hiring some extra help via the space capsule. You can hire people for different lengths of time, from six months to two years.
The new scenario comes with a few new options to help in the money-making venture. There is a new face added to the game called Vicente Santiago. This new character lost his family ranch to greedy banks, and he boasts a haggler’s mindset and high farming skills – ideal for helping a flourishing base to build profits from its growing resource stockpiles. There are also some new technologies – Hydroponic Racks, allowing you to cultivate crops in unfavourable conditions, along with dedicated Galacticoin storage and money-counterfeiting technology to maximise their trading exploits.
This brings you to the question of what you can sell. Plants are a reasonable money maker in the beginning, and they have added a couple of new options to play with. The sweet and syrupy Mulchtube, which produces Sweet syrup, and the mood-boosting Buzzshroom. That is on top of things such as Smokeleaf, Siliconleaf, and all the other plants you’ve been playing with already.
The “Sow and Sell” Update does add an interesting new dynamic to ‘Stranded: Alien Dawn’ as you build up your farming empire. However, there are a few things I would still like to see as the game expands. Haemimont Games, who were also the developers of ‘Surviving Mars’ and the later ‘Tropico’ games, are known for additional content post-release, along with supporting the modding community, and ‘Stranded: Alien Dawn’ will hopefully continue that trend. The maps are quite large, which is great, but could really do with some sort of transport option to allow you to cover distances more easily, especially given this sort of scenario, where you are not just there to wait and be rescued. I’d also love to see real automation added to the game. If I’m trying to make money, I’d love to see machines added which will mass-produce products, rather than crafting everything by hand. We will have to wait and see what more updates, and mod content, bring in the future.
The “Sow and Sell” Update will launch on PC via Steam Early Access from 28th March 2023
Stranded: Alien Dawn Launch On PC & Consoles
In addition to the update, Frontier Foundry and Haemimont Games have announced ‘Stranded: Alien Dawn’ will leave Early Access on 25th April 2023 and launch on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
This will include all the updates, such as the additional regions and expanded gameplay, from animal taming to impactful new moons, plus much more, and the “Sow and Sell” Trading Outpost scenario. All this and more will be available to players on all platforms at launch.
Players who pre-order or purchase the game from today until 9th May 2023 on all platforms, plus those who purchased the game in PC early access, can expand their bases further with an exclusive Emergency Landing Pod model and a new wooden plank construction material as part of an Early Adopter launch bonus.
Stranded: Alien Dawn launches on April 25 on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for a suggested retail price of £29.99/$34.99/€34.99 and is available to play in early access on PC via Steam now.
