Stranded: Alien Dawn is a fantastic spin on a colony survival game. My favorite of the scenarios is easily the Hope mission. This scenario combined the best aspects of the previous, while giving a better overall goal that was more fulfilling.

My experience in the game was problem free, without and with mods, though I took to the mods early on with the community fix mod, I believe called SAD. Shortly into my second scenario, I found how easy it was to mod this game and made a few for myself as well, though simple and more quality of life. Inventory management can become burdensome.

In short, Stranded is an easy to recommend game that I will likely visit again, even though I already accomplished all of the achievements. Easily one of my favorite colony survival games.

Stranded: Alien Dawn throws you into a tense survival strategy experience where you lead a group of crash-landed colonists struggling to survive on a dangerous alien planet. Combining base-building, resource management, and tactical decision-making, this game challenges your ability to adapt and thrive in an unpredictable environment.

Your job is to manage your survivors, gather resources, build shelter, and research technologies to improve your chances of survival. The alien world is full of threats—harsh weather, dangerous wildlife, and mysterious phenomena—that force you to carefully plan your actions. Each colonist has unique traits and needs, making it essential to balance their skills, morale, and health.

The game shines in its deep survival systems and dynamic events that keep you on your toes. From crafting tools to defending your base against alien creatures, every choice matters. The story unfolds through your decisions, creating a personalized narrative of survival and discovery.

The visuals are detailed and atmospheric, bringing the alien landscape to life with lush environments and haunting wildlife designs. The sound design adds tension and immersion, with ambient sounds that heighten the feeling of isolation and danger.

What Could Be Better:
-Some management systems can feel overwhelming at first, with a steep learning curve.
-The pacing can slow down during quieter moments, making survival feel repetitive at times.
-AI behavior sometimes lacks consistency, which can affect the challenge.

Stranded: Alien Dawn is a compelling survival strategy game for players who enjoy thoughtful resource management and storytelling. Its mix of tense moments and rewarding progression makes it a solid choice for fans of the genre looking for a fresh, immersive experience on an alien world.

Rating: 8/10

I love this genre, but this specific game is meh. It could have been good with:

- Quality of life. There is some prioritization of tasks, but it is incomparable to, for example, what Oxygen not Included showed as possible quite some time ago. Storage management is cumbersome - why can't I send easily to a specific storage only items that would expire without refrigeration or freezing? There are also multiple less glaring things.

- Kinda also a QoL thing. "Delivery" task includes transportation of items and also handling of devices. Why? I can build a transport drone that takes away the pain of deliveries, but if I tell my survivors not to bother with the deliveries - they won't operate the machines like 3D printers. And if I allow the deliveries - then they still insist of dragging their feet around carrying some stuff that the transport drone can do in a blink of an eye.

- Bug fixes. For example, it is impossible to build a ceiling or a roof over a staircase. But if you build a ceiling or a roof first - you can build a staircase under it without a problem. According to Reddit, the bug has been around for about 2 years.

- Better balance. It looks like it is impossible to craft power cells without discovering a specific plant. That doesn't seem to be on the map, at least haven't encountered it in the desert. So it means no power cells other than from scavenging in the survivor scenario. Unless you have Rita that randomly discovers one of all possible plants and animals when sent on an expedition. You have Rita (or the other character with the same trait) - you have the cells. If not - good luck. Also it feels like the game has certain badly balanced bottlenecks - like electronics.

- Either turning off most of the map or providing exploration capabilities. It is infeasible to go more than 1-2 screens from your base. Travelling takes too long, the survivors do not carry enough stuff with them to satisfy their needs. Plus there is a danger of getting attacked by the enemy waves. So it feels like 90% of the map doesn't mean a thing, as you stick to one tiny piece.

- More interesting AI for enemies. Sorry, but an enemy wave spawning *inside* of my defence perimeter is just dumb. The game has bug nests on the map, it could have spawned the waves there. But nests do not do anything real. On one map I had a nest 2 screens away. Not a single bug came to me from it, so it was just a possible source of carbon for me later. Or the game could have reduced the map size and spawn the waves outside of the map - like They are Billions does.