Screenshots & trailers
What players say
Why the number is what it is: aspect mentions counted across 302 sampled Steam reviews (181 positive / 121 negative), recent and most-helpful. Plain keyword counting, fully reproducible; nothing here is written by a machine.
What positive reviews talk about
- Bugs & crashes10% mention it
- Multiplayer & servers6% mention it
- World & exploration5% mention it
- Story & writing4% mention it
What negative reviews complain about
- Bugs & crashes44% mention it
- Multiplayer & servers22% mention it
- Controls & UI16% mention it
- Visuals & art10% mention it
Satisfaction by hours played
Same score, different games: see how sentiment holds up the longer people play.
Under 5h
43%
100 reviews
5-15h
62%
77 reviews
15-40h
65%
65 reviews
40-100h
78%
40 reviews
100h+
85%
20 reviews
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 64 | 14 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 74% | 70 | 1000 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 49 | 45 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 70% | 67 | 3000 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: since the last significant patch (Sep 20, 2023) · 300 reviews sampled · 7428 total reviews in window · weighted 156.3 up / 53.2 down · computed 2h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (18)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 64
“I've pretty much always had a love/hate relationship with the survival genre, though it may not be what you think...”
read full review ↗ - 30
“If you persevere, there may be some small enjoyment to be found in Stranded Deep. After all, it is (mostly) functionally playable. But most, including myself, won’t be in a hurry to load it up again after their first few hours.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“If you have enough spare time and patience, Stranded Deep can guarantee you that your time will not be wasted, and you will not have to spend too much money or space on the hard drive either.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“The game absolutely shines when it comes to its core feature of crafting… It’s a welcome challenge with solid and addictive gameplay”
read full review ↗ - 65
“Stranded Deep is a recommended crafting game that unfortunately muds with its ugliness and its mistakes an evolution system that is fun and engaging.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“Stranded Deep is a fun, engaging, challenging title with heaps of potential. If you enjoy the more realistic create and craft genre, heavy with resource management and land/sea exploration, you will have a whale of a time exploring and surviving every inch of the tropical map.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Stranded Deep is a pretty chill survival game. I enjoyed the setting and my early hours with the game. It had a few high points such as building my raft and my first boss encounter. My enthusiasm didn’t last long, however, as the lack of variety and surprise combined with the game’s problems and inconsistencies wore me down.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Despite its questionable development status, Stranded Deep has a lot to offer. I’d welcome further development, but even in its current incarnation, this compelling survival sim is more than worth diving into.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Stranded Deep is a beautifully crafted and engaging experience for anyone who is a fan of survival games. It may not provide the same amount of replayability that games like Rust have, but the crafting and exploring mechanics are solid and fun to use. The first time that players climb out of their raft to step onto their new island home or fight off a group of hungry sharks, they will be shown how intense and rewarding Stranded Deep truly is.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“To sum up, Stranded Deep is an absolutely fantastic game. It looks great, it sounds great, and it plays great. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves survival games or sims, anyone who loves crafting, and anyone who needs something either immersive-enough or peaceful-enough to help them through lockdown or quarantine. If you love the ocean, you are bound to love Stranded Deep. I’ve been passionate about the sea and everything in it since I was tiny, and this game does not disappoint. I was horribly disappointed with Sea of Thieves because of the sheer lack of anything to see or find underwater, but Stranded Deep does not fall into this trap at all. I was overwhelmed with the attention to detail on things like a shark, you can even see the markings on their skin. For an indie game, it’s astonishing that so much time and money has been spent on their oceans. A lot of devs would have cut corners here, but Beam Team Games didn’t. Check out more fantastic game reviews at OpenCritic.com or have a look at our recent articleslike us looking back at The Last Of Us. How do you feel about Stranded Deep? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter @thecognetwork. As always, thanks for reading COG!”
read full review ↗ - 50
“There are as many things that reward you as there are things that will burden your experience with Stranded Deep. It has the potential to be a really enjoyable game, but poor mechanics shoot itself in the foot. If you are a fan of this genre then this is another game for you. On the other hand, if you have interest in getting into survival games then do not start with this. I had a good time with Stranded Deep. I spent a good amount of time with it. Thinking about all the pros and cons together, my opinion on this game is mixed.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“Though not quite stellar, Stranded Deep does a decent enough job of enabling the player to live out their castaway fantasies. It's just something of a shame that the occasionally clumsy UI and lack of multiplayer functionality make the game a little less compelling than it needs to be. Nonetheless, those looking for island bound thrills of escaping deadly shark attacks, delving down into forgotten wrecks and living the life of an island castaway will find much to love in Stranded Deep on PS4.”
read full review ↗
Nindie Spotlight
Downtime Bros
Enternity.gr
JumpCut PLAY
GaminGuardian
GBAtemp
GideonsGaming
GameSpew
Screen Rant
Culture of Gaming
Digital Chumps
PlayStation Universe…and 6 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- Update 1.0.38.0Jan 24, 2024
- Update 1.0.31.0Sep 20, 2023significant · resets scoring window
- Update 1.0.17.0Dec 28, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Update 1.0.13.0Nov 25, 2022
- Stranded Deep 1.0 Release!Aug 11, 2022
- Update 0.90.11Jan 11, 2022
- Update 0.90.08Nov 26, 2021
- Update 0.90.04!Nov 23, 2021significant · resets scoring window
- Update 0.80.01May 27, 2021significant · resets scoring window
- Update 0.80.00! New Item Piles and Storage Improvements!May 18, 2021significant · resets scoring window
- 0.79.01 Experimental Update.May 13, 2021
- 0.79.00 Experimental Update. New Item Piles!May 12, 2021significant · resets scoring window
- 0.78.03 Experimental Update.Apr 14, 2021
- 0.78.02 Experimental Update.Mar 5, 2021significant · resets scoring window
- 0.78.01 Experimental Update.Feb 16, 2021
- 0.78.00 Experimental Update.Feb 11, 2021significant · resets scoring window
- Update 0.76.00. Save Slots, Bug Fixes and more!Dec 22, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- 0.75.01 Experimental Update.Dec 10, 2020
- 0.75.00 Experimental Update. Save Slots, Bug Fixes and more!Dec 3, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- 0.74.00 Update. New Big World and End Game!Oct 5, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- Save Game RequestsAug 14, 2020
- 0.72.01 Experimental Update.Jul 31, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- 0.72.00 Experimental Update. New Big World!Jul 16, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- 0.71.00 Experimental Update. New End Game!May 15, 2020
- Available Now on Console!Apr 22, 2020
- 0.70.02 Stable Hotfix.Mar 30, 2020
- 0.70.01 Stable Hotfix.Feb 10, 2020
- 0.70.00 Stable Update! Workshop, Community Maps, FIGS and Russian Localizations!Feb 7, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- 0.68.01 Experimental Update.Feb 4, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- 0.68.00 Experimental Update.Jan 30, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- 0.67.00 Experimental Update.Jan 6, 2020
- 0.66.01 Experimental Update.Dec 5, 2019significant · resets scoring window
- 0.65.06 Stable Hotfix.Dec 1, 2019
- 0.65.05 Stable Hotfix.Nov 26, 2019
- 0.65.04 Stable Hotfix.Nov 24, 2019
- 0.65.03 Stable Hotfix.Nov 24, 2019
- 0.65.02 Stable Hotfix.Nov 22, 2019
- 0.65.01 Stable Hotfix.Nov 21, 2019
- 0.65.00 Stable Update! New Achievements, Leaderboards, Hog, Giant Crab and more!Nov 20, 2019significant · resets scoring window
…and 51 earlier patch announcements.