The Stranger

The Stranger is a totally chill first-person adventure game that places you on a tropical island and leaves you to explore it. You are the stranger but you won’t be friendless because the game features some pretty whimsical and interesting characters which you will meet along the way.

The Stranger uses low-poly graphics for the world and character designs and honestly, it couldn't have been better. That’s not true, it could have, but it doesn’t need to because as you play, you just sink into the upbeat atmosphere and groove to the excellent soundtrack.

After a while, you won’t really care about anything else except exploring and finding out more about the island. That’s kind of the whole point of the game, it leaves you with no information as to who you are or why you're there so you have to make the best of it by snooping around. It’s the classic setup for an adventure/exploration game and luckily this is a really nice one.

The Stranger might not seem like much at first but that’s because it’s not focused on the clutter and intricacies you’ve seen a million times. It purposely keeps thing simple so you can better enjoy the music, what the characters have to say but it also throws a few intuitive and clever puzzles. They’re not brutal brain mashers but they do add a lot of charm to the game.

Moreover, gameplay mechanics are well polished and as you dig deeper into the depths of the island new means of exploration are uncovered. Why jump or climb when you can use a grappling hook you ‘borrowed’ from a robot that got smashed by a comet. He didn’t have use for it anyway.

On a closing note, The Stranger is a really good indie game. It has tons of charm, plenty of humor, gameplay is solid and even Wilson from Cast Away makes a guest appearance.