Castaway Paradise – Review
Follow Genre: Life Simulation
Developer: Stolen Couch Games
Publisher: Stolen Couch Games
Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC, IOS, Android
Tested on: PS4

Castaway Paradise – Review

Site Score
5.6
Good: It is very relaxing!
Bad: Maybe a little too basic.
User Score
6.0
(7 votes)
Click to vote
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 6.0/10 (7 votes cast)

Have you ever been so bored that you wished you could just change your life completely? What if you ever ended up on a faraway island? You can start building a hideout, get a tan, scavenge your own food and become the Tarzan or Jane of the 21st century? You will get the instant vacation feeling when you accidentally arrive on this quirky Island. Stolen Couch Games gave us the opportunity to relive this fun and carefree game on PS4 and we could not wait to try it out!

Story

When we look at our story it ends pretty quickly, the game begins with you stranded on an island. You are barely alive when you wash up on a sandy shore, before you gain full consciousness a strange creature approaches. She looks like Mrs Piggy in much more formal clothes. The first time she looks at you she is scared as you are covered in dirt and seaweed and you look a bit like a monster from a local swamp. Luckily things never get heated and she realizes monsters are make-believe, and thus she calms down. When she starts talking, she welcomes you on the once beautiful island and afterwards asks you for help with the rebuilding of the island, which also received a lot of damage from the storm you were caught in with your boat. In exchange, she will grants you access to a house of your own. You accept and start out by helping the locals and rebuild the island to your liking.

Graphics

Graphically Castaway Paradise leaves us with mixed feelings. On the one hand the game has fairly cute graphics, but on the other hand, they are not very polished and become a bit bland when playing the game for longer periods of time. You’ll be treated to a fairly ‘voxel-based’ style, much akin to Minecraft, but at the same time, it could also be because many polygons are showing and that the animations are fairly crude. Another point is that the developers clearly took their inspiration from Animal Crossing, as the world is fairly similar to Nintendo’s hit game, not only in story but also in its appearance. Other than that, it would have been nice to have a bigger variety of textures, as this would have clearly spiced up the game, as it is now a bit of a hot mess.

Sound

Sounds in this game are very simplistic. Every action you execute has its own noise. For example, the way you water plants, cutting trees or catching fish. Besides that, there isn’t much sound except for the song that is constantly repeating in the background of the game. Also, the same song can be heard when you open or navigate the menu or quest log.

Gameplay

Castaways Paradise is an Animal Crossing clone, which means that it’s somewhat of a life simulation game. This means that you’ll find yourself in a village that is in dire need of your help. You’ll be performing small and trivial tasks from start to finish, all for the betterment of the village, making it the nice place it once was. This all will result in a better bond with the villagers, as well as a pretty penny in your pocket to upgrade the house that was given to you in exchange for your help in aiding the village.

The quests in game are very self-explanatory and very basic. You just need to do little tasks like catching a bug, growing a crop of corn, repairing a fence and much more. They can be easily done in a few minutes. You just get an objective and need to reach that goal before you can continue.

When you first reach the Island, the mayor grants you a house and in return, you’ll need to help the villagers. When you reach level fifteen and the VIP status, you‘ll unlock two more rooms to decorate in your own house. By doing tasks or quest you’ll earn money, this you can spend in the shop on a whole catalogue of stuff, from furniture to wallpapers and flooring. Besides the house decorations you can buy there, you’ll also find clothes, items and a new hairdo. All this to fully make your character your own.

Conclusion

Castaway Paradise is a nice alternative to the Animal Crossings series that is available for different platforms, which means that it’s a great alternative for gamers who don’t want to get a Switch or 3DS to play the Animal Crossing games. Sadly the graphics leave us wanting more, the sound design is mediocre, but the gameplay feels very similar to the source material. Nonetheless, the game feels a bit like a cheaper knockoff but it still does the trick if you’re looking for a relaxing evening, doing repetitive chores and build up your own little house on a faraway island.

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 6.0/10 (7 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)
Castaway Paradise - Review, 6.0 out of 10 based on 7 ratings

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