"Do not be afraid to die." That's the advice of Haemimont Games' CEO Bisser Dyankov when it comes to playing their new open world survival sim Stranded: Alien Dawn. Having launched into early access in mid-October, the latest game from the Surviving Mars devs has just recently doubled in size to include a brand-new desert biome in its Dunes And Moons update, adding harsh temperature extremes to deal with, new alien lifeforms to observe, and, you know, just the odd Chaos Moon to endure while you're at it.
The world of Desertum is certainly a marked change from Stranded's initial mountainous forest planet, Sobrius, but after a few weeks of trying (and inevitably failing) to stay alive in them, I do feel like I've settled on a couple of vital dos and don'ts now. For example, Do: invest in defences early on. Don't: eat that weird alien zebra camel until you know whether it's going to give you gut rot. The list goes on, and has only grown larger with the addition of Desertum, which was deliberately designed to "challenge players to plan better and not rely on their previous knowledge," Dyankov tells me. "Our aim here has been to find a balance between the familiar and unfamiliar within the Desertum Biome, to ensure it's a challenging place to build your base, but is also enjoyable." I'll try to remember that the next time horned dinosaurs are gnawing my survivors' legs off.