Project Castaway

About

Project Castaway is a single player casual role playing game. It was developed by Mardonpol Inc. and was released on September 23, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

"Project Castaway is a survival crafting game set in the Pacific Ocean, where you are stranded on a deserted island. Gather resources, build shelters, and hunt for food while exploring picturesque landscapes and swimming in crystal-clear waters. Construct a base and upgrade your skills to ensure your survival in this beautiful yet unforgiving environment."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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73%

Audience ScoreBased on 828 reviews

graphics78 positive mentions

stability58 negative mentions

The game has beautiful graphics and a captivating atmosphere, making it enjoyable to explore.
It combines elements from popular survival games like Stranded Deep and Green Hell, offering a unique experience.
The developers are actively listening to community feedback and regularly releasing updates to improve the game.

The game is plagued with bugs, including crashes, glitches, and issues with saving progress, making it frustrating to play.
The hunger and energy mechanics are unbalanced, requiring constant eating and sleeping, which detracts from the overall gameplay experience.
The inventory and crafting systems are clunky and unintuitive, leading to confusion and difficulty in managing resources.

graphics
124 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
63%
35%
2%
The graphics of the game have received generally positive feedback, with many players praising their quality and immersive qualities, often comparing them favorably to other survival titles like "Stranded Deep." However, some users have reported bugs and performance issues, indicating that while the visuals are impressive, further optimization is needed for a smoother experience. Overall, the graphics are seen as a strong point, contributing significantly to the game's potential and enjoyment.
- “The graphics are absolutely gorgeous and the ambiance sound of the waves, seagulls, and rain storms do a great job of making you feel fully immersed as if you were on the island yourself.”
- “The game has stunning graphics, and the gameplay is very smooth.”
- “Fantastic graphics, it's great to have a story behind than just survival.”
- “I found the video graphics to be buggy, choppy, or laggy when I was playing.”
- “Graphics are worse than the 2022 title Stranded Deep.”
- “Graphically it looks decent but it needs a lot of work; the game crashed for me twice inside 20 minutes, the first time was because I died?!”
story
86 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
62%
7%
The story in the game is generally viewed as interesting and engaging, with players appreciating the meaningful lore and well-written quest notes. However, many users express frustration with the game's mechanics, which can detract from the storytelling experience, such as resource management issues and unclear quest objectives. Overall, while the narrative has potential and is unfolding well, players feel that improvements are needed to enhance their ability to explore and enjoy the story fully.
- “The storyline is unfolding fantastically, and the developers have been doing a great job at working out issues while bringing new content with each update.”
- “Also, the story behind it has meaning, which I appreciate because not all survival games do.”
- “The story in the notes for the quests is so well written!”
- “While there is a story, it just isn't engaging enough for me to explore past my beach hut.”
- “Really need to fix the hunger/tiredness situation as you cannot actually focus on the story; you just farm animals and drink coconut water and sleep. Literally, that’s all you do; the game does not allow you to do anything else.”
- “The intro and story are very bad as well.”
gameplay
83 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
57%
10%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with some players enjoying the fun and challenging mechanics, while others criticize the limited building options, basic combat, and frustrating survival elements that require constant attention. Many users appreciate the graphics and ambiance, but note that the game is still in development and suffers from bugs and clunky mechanics. Overall, while the gameplay offers interesting aspects and unique experiences, it requires significant improvements to be fully satisfying.
- “The mechanics are fun and challenging at the same time.”
- “The game looks very good graphically, it's fluid and I like the gameplay.”
- “I enjoy the crafting mechanics and general mystery/discovery the game presents players with.”
- “Wouldn't recommend it to any survival crafting fan out there, since it has extremely limited building options, the combat mechanic is very basic and boring, and the survival elements are dumb and require constant tending to (you get hungry very fast, even after eating steaks; you need both meat and fruits/vegetables in your diet, but hunger appears very fast even after eating a copious amount of food; you seem to get colds when the outside temperature is 36 degrees Celsius and other dumb stuff like that).”
- “Many of the mechanics systems are either very underdeveloped or just poorly designed, making many aspects of the game pointless.”
- “The storage mechanic is literally the worst I have ever seen in any game.”
stability
60 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
3%
97%
The game is experiencing significant stability issues, with numerous bugs, glitches, and long loading times reported by players. While some users have managed to play without major problems, the overall consensus is that the game is too buggy for a smooth experience, especially in its early access state. Many players express hope for future updates to address these issues, but caution others to wait until the game is more polished before diving in.
- “This game is way too buggy even for early access.”
- “It definitely needs a lot of work done to it; even as an early access title, it's super buggy and I couldn't even play for 30 minutes.”
- “If you can't handle lots of bugs, stuck moments, weird loading freezes requiring restarts, and other annoyances, then steer clear until later in early access or final release.”
optimization
44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
9%
46%
45%
Overall, the game's optimization is widely criticized, with many players experiencing significant stuttering, frame rate drops, and performance issues even on high-end systems. Reviewers note that the game feels poorly balanced and unplayable in its current state, emphasizing the need for substantial performance updates and fine-tuning. While some users suggest that system optimization may also play a role, the consensus is that the game requires urgent optimization improvements to enhance the overall experience.
- “Please note: I just bought Once Human, which truly has awesome graphics and it runs smoothly with no lagginess while playing.”
- “Good game, need some optimization and uncap the 60 fps.”
- “Other reviews have mentioned the high food drain, which I am mostly fine with, but it is the poor balance and poor optimization that makes the game unplayable right now, in my opinion.”
- “Also on an AMD 7800 3D with an RTX 4070 Super, there are FPS drops and stuttering, so I have no idea what the beta testers tested as the game is so poorly optimized.”
- “The game desperately needs optimization for a better experience...”
grinding
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16%
95%
The game is widely regarded as excessively grindy, requiring players to engage in repetitive activities like hunting and farming to manage their hunger, which depletes quickly. While the crafting and building systems offer depth, many players find the farming mechanics ineffective and the overall pace slow, leading to a sense of tedium. Despite these frustrations, some reviewers see potential in the game when not hindered by bugs.
- “Not too tedious, but not too easy either.”
- “The grind feels rewarding and keeps me engaged.”
- “I appreciate how the grinding system balances challenge and enjoyment.”
- “You'll end up hunting seagulls and farming potatoes, but you need like 20 of either to fill up, and your hunger bar will drain to 0 again in 20 minutes.”
- “You fill yourself to full, slept 8 hours, and after 10 minutes of farming and wandering around, I'm already tired, need sleep, and am hungry again.”
- “It's a 100% grindy game right now; everything is slow but not unbearable.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is a mixed bag; while players find certain elements, like the hopping bug, amusing, they also express frustration over losing progress due to gameplay mechanics, such as dying unexpectedly. Overall, the humor adds a lighthearted touch, but it is often overshadowed by the annoyance of setbacks.
- “Dying at 30°C is bologna, but the hopping bug is kinda funny.”
- “Funny as they may be, it sucks losing a lot of progress because you forgot to save.”
emotional
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players report a profound emotional impact from the game, likening its intensity to that of "The Last of Us" series. The experience evokes strong feelings, even in moments that seem distant or non-threatening, highlighting the game's ability to resonate deeply with its audience.
- “As a side note, there is only one other game that has made an emotional impact on me, The Last of Us 1 and 2.”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The music and ambient sounds in the game are highly praised, contributing significantly to the overall atmosphere and enjoyment, even from the perspective of casual gamers. Many players find the audio elements to be impressive and integral to the gaming experience.
- “The ambiance sounds and music are amazing. This is my personal and honest opinion, coming from a casual gamer. It works great for me and looks very pretty. The gameplay is good, of course, but it needs some fixing here and there; overall, it's enjoyable.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviews indicate that the monetization strategy of the game is perceived as exploitative, with players feeling it prioritizes profit over quality, leading to a sense of it being a cash grab. This sentiment is particularly notable given the presence of numerous bugs that detract from the overall experience.
- “I just have no idea how all these bugs were missed, and this is the first EA game I have played that actually feels like a cash grab.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere of the game is consistently praised as immersive and engaging, contributing to its overall appeal as a survival experience.
- “Nice, atmospheric survival game.”