Ever since I wrote my previous game review, I had been flipping ideas back and forth on which game I should review next. With over one hundred games on Steam alone, it was certainly no easy task to decide. However, when Lord Corwin sent me the trailer to Don’t Starve’s new DLC: Shipwrecked, all cards were cast. Being such a big fan of the original game, Shipwrecked only remained in my wish list for one day before I caved in and purchased it.

Before we can even begin to delve into Shipwrecked, one important question needs to be answered first. What even is Don’t Starve? Don’t Starve is an indie survival game which throws the player off in the wilderness with only 20 days before winter. The most assistance you receive is from looking at the title of the game. Your job is to not starve. One of the common misconceptions I see from people unfamiliar to the game, or to indie games in general, is that there appears to be a belief that the game will be easy or whimsical simply because of the cartoon art style. As Don’t Starve players will assure you, the game is far from easy. A simple task like chopping down wood can turn into a disaster as one tree transformers into a Treegaurd which murders you. Finding a giant blue egg which is sure to heal loads of hunger will result in you being chased for miles and miles by the mother. Hunting for food too much could result in a Krampus stealing your items. Even simply being in particular season can force a boss to casually stomp through your base, destroying all of your chests, machinery, and finally yourself. This all being said, the game is not impossible either. There’s a great deal of strategy and resource management involved.

Shipwrecked builds upon the original gameplay, tweaks it, and brings loads of new features to the table. New seasons will force you to adapt your strategies, new monsters are out to kill and surprise you, debuffs such as poison will slowly whittle away your health, new characters which are still a work in progress, and best of all, sailing. In the normal game, the ocean acts as a natural barrier for the player, forcing you to go in a different direction. The more you deviate from the center of the map, the more you will see how this can often lead to a linear land mass. You may want to get to a forest but first you have to cut across a plains biome with no alternative route, and so on. However, in Shipwrecked the ocean becomes traversable via rafts early game and eventually larger boats. Rather than wandering through a forest, you awaken to an island paradise. You’ll find yourself bouncing from island to island in search of resources which aren’t available on the island you made your base on. If you don’t reach land before nightfall and also lack a sail or boat lantern, you’ll be stuck out in the ocean, holding a torch, and praying the crashing waves don’t sink your boat. The oceans also aren’t a safe spot from the dogs or other monsters. If you’re stuck out on the ocean when dogs would normally spawn, they become sea hounds which are more difficult to deal with early game because they’ll likely sink your boat if you don’t run away. Other monsters such as swordfish and stink rays can also attack you or your boat.

If you’ve been playing Don’t Starve for a while now and have laid down a set of standard tactics for yourself, don’t expect them to remain the same in Shipwrecked. The change from winter to hurricane season alone is sure to throw the average player off. If you don’t read the wiki, experienced players will find themselves unprepared in every season except the calm season. Food is no longer as great as a problem here as it was in the original game. Rather than risking starvation every day and dying in attempts to prevent it, I often found that food was more common. The player can easily survive by collecting limpets off of rocks, catching crabs on the beach (which are easier to catch than rabbits), or even just eating seaweed scattered on the shores of the island. On the other hand, resources you need to survive the upcoming season are more scarce and the environment is more deadly which can often lead to death during exploration. Keep in mind, the DLC is still early access so there could be a lot of changes from the time I write this review to when it’s fully released.

Despite the many differences between the vanilla game play and the latest DLC, Shipwrecked manages to still feel like it belongs in Don’t Starve. The new game mode is sure to be fun for both new players and experienced players alike. Changing the setting from a spooky forest to a tropical paradise in no way detracts from the fear of danger and failure found in the original game. In fact, many of the original features remain the same. Common items and mobs acquire more tropical oriented textures such as beefalo becoming water beefalo. If anything, I found the DLC to be more enjoyable than the original game due to the more open world available.