The Xbox Game Pass decided to surprise fans by randomly dropping Stranded Deep, a plane crash survival game that launched in early access nearly a decade ago. The full release rolled out in August 2022. Stranded Deep is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Here’s the big announcement from Xbox Game Pass’ feed:
Developed by Beamteam Games, Stranded Deep has been through a lot of changes over the years, and eventually came to support co-op multiplayer. Although removing the sense of isolation probably disappointed some, many games in the survival genre benefit from cooperative goofing off in the open world.
Stranded Deep has received mixed reviews on Steam lately, partly due to technical issues. And there are definitely plenty of alternatives in this genre, which has really blown up since the game entered early access in 2015.
However, Stranded Deep’s procedural generation, vehicle construction, and bosses definitely set it apart from the majority of its competitors. That includes the many games that followed. It’s very replayable, and boasts split-screen cooperative play, which is perhaps one of the rarest features in the industry today.
Further, players have access to an island editor, and they can share their original creations. Indie games have given players more freedom in this regard lately, but it remains pretty unique. Any kind of level editor imbues titles with a stronger community.
Overall, Stranded Deep had the perfect assembly of features to build an audience and retain interest all these years.
Still, Xbox’s announcement was certainly odd. Stranded Deep is a single title, and the other Xbox Game Pass releases for January haven’t been completely unveiled yet. Ultimately, many fans have been more amused than annoyed, and patiently await a proper reveal.
You can read more about the Xbox Game Pass, and other hit survival games, by checking out the rest of our news section!
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