Castaways on deserted islands have been popular since "Robinson Crusoe," but TV series such as "Gilligan's Island" and "Lost" have brought that theme to the forefront once more. Videogames, of course, are ready to follow the latest trend: Lost in Blue was the first example in this direction, even if it was criticized for its slowness and for the complete uselessness of its secondary character. The Sims series is now trying its hand at the desert island theme. But even in the switch from comfortable houses to inhospitable beaches, it's managed to keep its usual humor and love for the surreal. Spoofing every possible island-related theme, from crashed airplanes to ancient temples full of secrets, Castaway delivers a fresh and entertaining Sims experience.
At the beginning of the game, players can create up to six Sim characters, assigning them jobs such as ranger, mechanic, chef and doctor. The group is out on a boat trip when a sudden storm separates its members, stranding them on the shores of three small islands. Players are forced to start with one crew member only, trying at the same time to survive, find their friends and escape the islands. More than the characters themselves, the environments are the star of the game: there are so many different settings, with specific plants and animals, that exploring everything will take at least ten hours of gameplay. While the first island requires players to concentrate on surviving and finding basic resources, the second is all about social interaction with the other crew members and the last one revolves around solving ancient mysteries. Even though the basic actions are the same on every island, they are used to achieve completely different objectives.
The game guides players through various tasks in an easy and enjoyable way. There isn't much to do at the beginning apart from harvesting coconuts and eating them. Once survival is assured, more needs have to be satisfied: bamboo can be cut and used to create fishing spears and basic furniture, driftwood can be used to set a rudimentary fire pit and cook the fish, a conch shell may become a basic musical instrument, and so on. The "needs" meters, typical of the series, are not shown at the beginning of the game, but appear one by one, so that even inexperienced players can get used to them gradually. After all, the need for showering is not that important at the beginning, when there's nobody else around and the main focus is just avoiding to starve... The desire for cleanliness, social interactions and a better living environment become, however, strong motivations after a few hours of gameplay.
The crafting bench is the first step toward a better living: it allows characters to create their own tools, such as obsidian knives and fish traps, and some basic items. Once the road to evolution is set, players can start making their own furniture, starting from beds and going all the way to tables, loveseats, kitschy shell lamps and ukuleles. Roofs are extremely important in Castaway, as the game features a full weather cycle that alternates sun, light rain and scary tropical thunderstorms that can blow any shelter away. Crafting axes and hammers is a sure way to unlock better huts and even cabins. Once a decent dwelling is created, players can enjoy a Harvest Moon-lite farm mode that allows them to plant seeds, harvest cereal and vegetables and even build coops for captured chickens. The trademark humor of the series shows through little crazy touches: in order to collect eggs, characters have to serenade the chickens. Weird, but funny.