Game Review – Stranded

NAME: Stranded COMPANY: Glu PLATFORM: JAVA GENRE: Adventure SIZE: 453 KB TEST PHONE: LG U8630 RATING: 9/10 DEMO: Stranded Demo

Stranded by Glu – The simplest description of the game is that it is something like the Gilligan’s Island or the current LOST TV series.

The premise: You play as Mark one of the survivors of a shipping accident. In order to survive you have to do various tasks for the camp and for yourself. In addition there the mystery of the island to solve.

The game play is very simple with the direction buttons used to walk and the 5 or select button to do every other task. It’ very mobile phone friendly. Despite this ease of use and the quest story line there are many other tasks or mini games which you can perform. These include cutting down trees for wood and fruit, fishing, hunting wild boar and snakes, looking for lost children, cooking, trading with natives, growing vegetables and other fruit – and lots more. There is even some romance!

One of the most interesting features is the animal and plant list which I guess is a task in itself to complete. Thankfully it’s not a requirement to complete if you want to ‘finish’ the game.

Stranded the game has details like a night and day and high and low tide events, animated shore lines, moving trees, water falls, fruit falling off trees and even smoke trails left by rampaging boars. Some of the details is very good.

Sound is typical mobile phone game. Considering the graphic detail it would have been nice for some special effects. Especially for that easily freaked out lady doctor. (You’re in a forest girl you can’t expect complete silence.)

There are no major problems with Stranded. It even has an auto save feature.

I found that its pace was a bit slow at the start but after that it was very good – probably because you moved along at whatever pace you want. A compliment to the designers is that is reminds me of the old Apple ][ adventure games of the Eighties!

How to improve the game for a next version ? Extra sound effects, even more intricate graphic details, a run mode for the character, a quicker loading save feature, the doctor lady gets a name and freaks out at more things. A love issue between Mike and Mark. Sorry but the innuendo between Ian and Mark in this version is hilarious. Whether this is intentional or not I think is funny regardless. No children will not understand it.

Summary

We rate this game a 9.5/10.

Stranded by Glu is is very good little quest game. Technically it is a front runner and it has a story line that is engaging.

Despite all that tasks you can perform, as a mobile game it amazingly works very well. The tasks are not all that difficult to complete yet worth completing simply so that you can find out what happens to the characters.

This game is worth getting for the long run it can take up to an entire day if you wanted to and still not finish – due to the real time feature. The bonus is that you may complete the quest to get off the island but you don’t have to end it there as there are other tasks you can take up. Namely identifying and collecting all the various species of fruit and animals etc…

Definitely a must have or try even if you’re not into this sort of thing.  We gave it 9.5 and didn’t score 10 because we think that at least 2 more midi tracks and slightly better graphics would have made it perfect.  It’s a classic mobile phone game.

Need more convincing – I’m in the process of putting a walk through for the game!