I am a huge fan of games that allow for a fusion of crafting, cooking and adventure. If you then throw pirates into the mix then you’ve really got me interested. Stranded Sails is this, an amazing adventure game full of crafting, farming, cooking and mysteries for players to explore.
Stranded Sails revolves around your quest to create a survivor camp on a deserted island as a result of your recent shipwrecking. You and your crew are pretty attached to being alive, so they quickly start setting up a way for everyone to live quite comfortable on this island, even if the end goal is to escape. As your father, the ship’s captain, was injured during the crash it has fallen on you to lead this new ragtag survival effort.
The first portion of the game is simply setting up this island; learning to farm, to cook recipes for longer adventures on the island, understanding how to gather resources. When it comes to solo exploring, you need to remember your crew back at the base area of the island. If your crew are not fed and grow unhappy, they won’t be very beneficial to you. A fed and happy crew, however, can give you shortcuts in the camp as well as upgrades that can help you along the way. Soon, they even start presenting you with treasure maps that they’ve found.
As time passes you start finding yourself collecting artifacts and facing off against ghost pirates, all while still trying to keep everyone in your crew happy and healthy. Quests are dotted around, which can help out your crew and make things easier at camp, but a lot of the island is pretty dangerous and also quite cursed. The only way back home is to figure out the secrets that are hidden within this mysterious island.
While at Gamescom, I ran into a contingent of the development team, all dressed like pirates — it was here that they steered me toward their demo. Stranded Sails looks exactly like my kind of game and I did take the time to play through a substantial part of it. Discovering new recipes is what I spent most of my time on the demo on — as well as running around the island. After my session with it on the event floor, I’m really looking forward to spending more time with it.
Stranded Sails is coming out this October on PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. You can find more information on their website.
