Recent reviews by DrNewbious

For a free-to-play game, this delivers more than most expensive AAA titles these days. It’s an interesting mashup of looter-shooter, Pokémon, survival-horror, and single-player storytelling—all within an MMO ecosystem.

Story: The story is the typical from-zero-to-hero savior of the world, though a bit convoluted and exaggerated (as is often the case with Asian games).
Gameplay: The gunplay feels solid, and the addition of small minigames and puzzles brings the charm of an adventure game.
Base Building: The base-building mechanics are well-designed and highly satisfying.
Bosses & Challenges: Elden Ring-sized bosses and well-placed jumpscares add excitement and tension.
Music: The soundtrack is enjoyable and complements the gameplay nicely.
The "server wipe" system is implemented quite successfully. Starting a new scenario or tackling a harder mode after completing the previous one feels rewarding, as you retain most of your progression. While some grinding is needed to find new blueprints and upgrade existing ones, this helps keep the difficulty curve engaging and ensures a sense of growth.

With the recent Winter-themed update, it seems like they’re planning to introduce more stories and scenarios, so there’s potential for the game to stay fresh and interesting for a long time.

Final Verdict: 7.5/10. Just try it, it's free! :)

Poor mans Skyrim, only better! ;)

When there are so many similar games out there, your game should have something new to offer.
Well, Stranded Deep has nothing new to offer...

* Poor graphics quality
* Generic movement
* Poor terrain design
* Annoying sound effects when inventory is full

Even in the Into scene, when the plane explodes (with no apparent reason...), the suitcases just float in mid air! In fact, one suitcase stays floating just in front of the hole on the fuselage! So you get a hint about the bad physics and design you are going to get in the game, right from the start!
Gameplay is very generic.
And don't get me started with the online co-op....The only reason I got this game was because a friend of mine really liked it (???) and wanted to play online....The UI is so badly designed it is actually impossible to connect to a private game.

Just as other users have commented, after 6 years in early access the game should have been in a better state. Unfortunately, it is more like in late-alpha, rather than close to release.

If you have to read a whole book of Player Guides to play an Idle Game, then something is wrong....

The game itself is quite nice as a concept. It has typical idle/clicker mechanics. Premium currency is rather expensive, but I think F2P is doable, IF you follow the advice from experienced players.
The 8-bit graphics are OK, but nothing to write home about.
Needs great polishing and UI/QoL improvements. For instance, you can't preview the next skill in the skill tree, unless you invest the skill points to unlock it. Instead, you have to rely on experienced players' guides.


At the end of the day, I think this game is suitable for hardcore min/maxers who really like spending their time calculating percentages and diminishing returns, rather than playing the game. (and Achievement Collectors)

You can try it to see if it is your thing, but I wouldn't recommend it, at least for now.

Copy-paste version of "The Cycle", just in a snowy environment.
"Survival" is just superficial.
Loot is useless since your Hero's weapon is way better.
Way toooo grindy, and nothing new or exciting to add to the oversaturated BR genre.

Go play XCOM Long War...

I love how much I suck at this game!!

I've played (almost) every single Slay-The-Spire clone available on Google Play, I have even backed the Kickstarter project "Roguebook"....nothing got me SO HOOKED as Monster Train did.
Crazy concept, great mechanics. If you are into this genre, you should stop reading the reviews and just jump on the Snowpiercer...eeeh I mean the Monster Train!!!

Co-op fun-fest!

The game gets better every year!

Great potential, amazing graphics (If you manage to bypass the strangely-complex registration system), but the game is not for the average player.

Toooo much (unnecessary, in my opinion) "realism" and complex controls take away all the enjoyment. You have to actually scoop chunks of rock while mining by aligning your ship with the floating chunk....Not to mention the manual docking to the stations....

Try this only if you are an experienced and really dedicated flight simulator gamer. I got it on sale and probably won't refund it, but I don't suppose I will be playing it a lot. Maybe when I get a VR system, I might check out the amazing environment, but that's all...