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Elijah is a freelance news writer at Polygon. He was an associate editor at The A.V. Club and Paste, and has been featured in outlets like Game Informer, Fanbyte, Unwinnable, and more. He loves media in all forms, from fighting games and horror flicks to slow cinema and visual novels. He's from the Greater Boston area.
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Released in Early Access in 2015, the survival crafting game Stranded Deep has built a strong following over the years, with over 20K Steam reviews alone. If you’re a fan of the genre and are looking for something to play this weekend, now might be a good time to give this one a try: it's free to play on Steam until 1 p.m. ET Oct. 19.
Stranded Deep is an open-world multiplayer game where you play as a plane-crash survivor trapped on an island in the Pacific Ocean. You can chop down wood to build impressive huts and other structures. You can also craft spears, axes, bows, and (somehow) spearguns, making it easier to hunt fish and giant crabs. Your hunting, cooking, and crafting skills level up as you use them.
Unlike many survival games, Stranded Deep has a definitive ending. Players need to manage their health, hunger, and thirst and avoid sunstroke so they can survive long enough to be rescued.
While most players praised the game for its unique features and co-op, some recent reviews have criticized Stranded Deep for having more bugs now than at release, with one user claiming that two-player local co-op no longer works. The game has a Mostly Positive user score on Steam, with 74% of players leaving positive reviews. Critics were less kind. When the game originally launched on PS4 and Xbox One in 2020, it received at a mediocre average Metacritic score of 65. After debuting in Early Access in 2015, Stranded Deep officially launched on Steam in 2022.
Is Stranded Deep getting a sequel?
Last month, Beam Team Games announced Stranded Deep 2 with a reveal trailer featuring alligators and murderous hippos. While this sequel will be another open-world survival crafting experience, it's set in a desert wasteland instead of a remote tropical island. It will be based around an “endless river world” where players can uncover new canyons, dunes, and valleys by kayak. The game is set to release in Early Access on Steam in 2027.