Loneliness is also a major problem in the early stages, and the game has some amusing ways of satiating this need. You could, if you fancy, build a friend from sand and fruit. You can chat to your inanimate pal, even argue with them. If you want to go where even Tom Hanks feared to tread, you can even get romantic with it. Better still, the island is populated by three chimps who can be won over with bananas. You can name them (I formed a very close bond with one called Heston) and should you become close friends with them, they'll help you out with sporadic gifts of resources culled from around the island. Goals are supplied by books and journals that are conveniently left at the start of new locations, while successful play grants you access to more plans for things to build. Soon enough you're able to craft larger shelters, wooden beds and chairs and more effective tools. Spears enable you to catch fish - if you can get the timing right - while stone axes and hammers open up the ability to harvest soft and hard wood, and even tough shards of obsidian for even stronger implements.
Later developments include farming tools (in a nice recycling touch, you use the accumulated ash from your fires to create fertile soil), and the option of catching and rearing chickens. The more you explore, the more ripped your clothes get.
You can weave new ones from leaves and twine. There are actually three islands in all, and the aim of the game is to explore all of them thoroughly and reunite with your stranded pals. Then you can decide whether you want to try and find all the objects necessary for rescue, or forge a sustainable life in your new tropical home. To an old Sims veteran like myself, it's all rather refreshing. Although the mechanics of the game are clearly Sim in origin, the hands-on control and emphasis on finding and using objects means it really plays a lot more like an adventure game. The early stages of exploration are the best, with a wealth of foodstuffs to find (higher cooking skills mean you can combine ingredients and rustle up such castaway classics as, er, yellowfin tuna with ginger and lime). There are also lots of fun hints at buried treasure and ancient mysteries to be solved and, if you're so inclined, you can put your escape plans on hold to dig deeper.
Sadly, the whole doesn't quite live up to the sum of its parts though. The game engine is fussy and clunky, more akin to the original Sims than the more sophisticated Sims 2. It's 2007, and we really shouldn't have game characters that are unable to get past such fearsome obstacles as a pile of feathers on the ground. The graphics seem drawn from a similar vintage, with crude character models, stiff animation and jerky scrolling, which makes accurately placing structures and items a right fiddle.
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