So you paddle off once more, and find a larger patch of land. This starter island (you could ignore it and go elsewhere first, and indeed switch off the tutorial altogether) is small, and will need to be abandoned straight away if you're going to survive.
It'll have you craft some necessities, and get your first fire and shelter built, then leave you to it with the concept in your grips. First, there's a tutorial that talks you through a few of the game's ideas. The massive improvements appear from the start. Swimming up to a life raft, you paddle your way to a little nearby island, and begin that now so familiar routine of foraging and crafting to survive. Like The Forest (I forget who is accused of copying who) you begin in a wibbly-wobbly plane crash, but in this instance land in the sea. And yet at the same time, while it's fixed so many of its issues, still doesn't feel like it knows where it wants to go. And now it's two years old, it's finally shaping up into something solid and compelling. That's how long it's been since I last wrote about Stranded Deep - a game I've returned to during its lengthy Early Access development despite its many problems.
What a difference a year and a half makes.
