Castaway Paradise Complete Edition Review

Created by Stolen Couch Games Castaway Paradise is a life simulation game that was originally launched on Facebook in 2014. I am happy that Castaway Paradise didn’t stay on Facebook. I have played my fair share of Facebook games and they didn’t hold a candle to Castaway Paradise. A year later the game was released to Android, iOS, and PC. In Castaway Paradise you get shipwrecked on an island. This island is filled with animal people similar to Animal Crossing. You take quests from them, you get your own place, and help them make their island beautiful.

You get to do whatever you want on Castaway Paradise just like in The Sims. You choose what your gender is, you choose what you want your place to look like, and whether you do quests or not. The quests start off easy such as delivering mail, picking up liter, going fishing, etc. Then the quests get more complex the more you do them. It is up to you though if you complete them or not. You don’t even have to complete them in order or right away. When you do complete the different tasks the villagers ask you to you get items, money, and XP. If you want to unlock more items to use on the island you need XP to level up your character. Once you get to level 15 you are considered VIP and get access to even more items and areas.

The higher level your character the more goodies get unlocked in the catalog for you to use. There are tons and tons of items you can buy with the in-game money. The great part is to get money to buy items all you have to do is quests. No real life money required to do so in the PC version because the game costs $14.99. In the mobile version you will have to use real cash if you want access to VIP status. You can buy wallpaper, furniture, seeds, trees, tools, etc in the game with gems. When you first land on the island your house is a tent. If you want to upgrade it, you will need to save your gems. As long as you got the gems you can make your house as fancy as you want. You can plant any kind crops you want. You can plant flowers, trees, and anything else.

In order to connect the surrounding islands to the mainland you need puzzle pieces. You can get them from doing quests or buying them with gems which is the in-game cash. Once you collect enough pieces you can build a bridge that will connect another island to the mainland. Just like with the main island the surrounding islands need work too. It is up to you to pick up the trash, weeds, rocks, and finish the buildings on each island. What makes this game addicting is that you make the island into what you want. In the PC version on Steam you don’t need to ask friends for in-game items either. That’s why I usually end up quitting any Facebook games because they always require you to bug the heck out of your friends for items you need in the games.

Most people I know hate getting Facebook game requests. As a result, they don’t answer the request and you don’t get the item you need to complete the task in the game. In Castaway Paradise PC version, you don’t deal with any of that. That takes the limits of what you can do in the game. Another aspect I loved about this game is the simplicity of the controls and menus. I have played other simulation games on Steam that were promising at first but made things more complicated than necessary. Everything is explained easily and the only controls you need are your mouse. You can either use the arrows on your keyboard or mouse to move around. To do anything else in the game just left-click on your mouse. If you want to see your inventory, buy items, or anything else either click the ESC button or the brief case icon on the screen.

What Castaway Paradise gets right that some games that are similar in nature don’t is that you can easily play for hours on end. Since you don’t have to wait to get rewards, or items it makes it easier to get into. The villagers are just as colorful and quirky as the graphics. Each villager has their own personality and may even make you laugh with what they say. Sometimes you even get a choice as to how to respond to what they say. I think the quirky style of the game and characters just adds to the fun atmosphere of the game. The characters have a block/cube look to them that make them look like they belong in Minecraft. There isn’t a lot of variety when it comes to the background music. You pretty much just hear the same song over and over.

Castaway Paradise is a very user-friendly. Anyone at any age can play this game. It is very easy to get into and play as little or as much as you want. I found myself playing for hours before I knew it.  I love that you don’t need to add friends in the game in order to get items. I also loved that I didn’t have to use real money to buy basic items. Sure the graphics aren’t super stylized or HD but they aren’t meant to be. I loved the quirky cartoon style of the characters and backgrounds. The quests themselves don’t require a bunch of steps to complete. The menus and controls were easy to understand. Castaway Paradise has a lot going for it. I can only see it growing in popularity and getting better with DLC.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.