If you want to go faster than the speed the sail has to offer, you can also craft a boat engine or even a gyrocopter, but I find the fuel consumption to be rather high, so I personally stick to using a sail. Just use your anchor not too far out when approaching an island and you'll be good. Also there are big rocks in the shallows where your raft can get stuck on and that's even more annoying. Otherwise you always have to drag it back into the water and position the nose away from the land, which can be a hassle. The raft will stay in place in the water and you can easily take off again. A tip for when using the raft: make sure to attach an anchor to it so that you can lower it just off the beach in the shallow parts instead of sailing onto the beach itself. The map is a 5x5 grid with 21 islands, 3 boss areas and one area where you need to go for the ending part. When you've built a raft you can go and explore the other islands. Beware though of sharks that can appear at any time. Around every island you can spot sunken wrecks where you can dive to and collect different materials. For food you can catch fish, crabs, birds, you can kill boars, snakes etc. The former is the better choice as these leaves reproduce after a day or two. I read comments on how people say the water still does not produce water, but it needs fibrous leaves or palm fronds to work. For instance, crafting a water still will be one of the first things you'll be wanting to do, as you cannot rely on coconuts too much, not for drinking nor for eating. After that you rely on your crafting menu to give you your sense of direction. When the game begins, you are guided by a tutorial to get you going. In my opinion, Stranded Deep is an enjoyable and relaxing title that is certainly worth a try if you're into this kind of game.
Metacritic is just full of frustrated people who refuse to take the time to stick with a game to see what it has to offer, but instead exaggerate what is wrong with it and slap a zero on it after only a few hours of play. This survival game could do with a little polish and there's the occasional glitch (spastic boars anyone?), but it's nowhere near as This survival game could do with a little polish and there's the occasional glitch (spastic boars anyone?), but it's nowhere near as disastrous as some reviewers here would like us to believe.
In summary this is a passable survival game that doesn't have a problem letting you figure out how to manage resources properly or die and does a decent job of simulating the loneliness and material hardship of being stranded in a Pacific archipelago, which I believe to have been the goal. It isn't difficult to see why some simply wouldn't enjoy this game as it is not the most polished thing out there and the learning curve is steep, but I would submit that as it was made by 2 people it really isn't as bad as Ive seen some claim (my opinion anyway). There are certainly some bugs that thankfully the devs appear to have been working on and look to be continuing that trend of live improvement.
The initial tutorial is a bit spartan but I feel adds to the immersion (unless you are Bear Grylls crashing on an island you wont know much more than how to lash a rock to a stick and maybe lay some leaves across a shelter frame), and the investigation angle is a nice display of trial and error learning (again unless you expect everything to be laid bare so you don't have to experiment and learn). I would note that if you need games to hold your hand through every aspect of gameplay, you may find this is too difficult for you.
I would note that if you need games to hold your hand Not the greatest game in history or anything but very fun if you are into survival sims. Not the greatest game in history or anything but very fun if you are into survival sims.