Casting Away Reviews

by @SPIRITSRHIGH

I rarely write reviews but I’m writing one that I wish I had read before downloading and paying money for this. I gladly spent money to eliminate the ads since this game is relaxing and fun, for the first two days. Then like everyone else a glitch with the day three daily reward makes it unplayable. The daily reward constantly pops up. How many sinkers if everyone up to at this point? 140 for me. It gives you a few every time you try to tap the screen. Badly needs to be fixed. Still, I will keep an eye on this game in case the developers decide to release a patch. It was the best fishing game I ever played until it broke.

by Fr05ty33

Tried starting the game but could not get past some “allow optimal game ads”. Pop ups to allow tracking would come up, I would allow, then I could not do anything. I have the iPhone 14 pro max, so I know that’s not the issue. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling and it still did the same thing. Really disappointing, wish they would fix this.

by Seraph1101

Sooo they dont offer support when there is a problem with a transaction. I tried to remove the ads and it didnt work. Hard to contact. The game is glitching now and I cant even play it. Also they put ads for their own games in and force the full watch. No 5-6 second skip option at all. Its gold covered in trash.. such potential there

by Sci-fi Fanatic 4

Well, this game was extremely fun, but is currently unplayable. For the first few days, it worked really well. Then it broke and only half of the touch input works. It’s impossible to play in this state.

The game is quite fun at its core. When I first got it, I fished quite a bit, unlocked multiple upgrades, and even unlocked the second type of boat and shore to fish from. The core gameplay is a lot of fun, you cast a line out and then catch any fish that gets close to the bait. You can then use that fish as bait, which will allow you to catch bigger fish. Catching fish gives you experience and currency, and bigger fish are worth more, which facilitates more experience and currency, but in order to get those fish, your gear needs to be at a certain level, and these upgrades are facilitated by the currency you get from fishing. Fishing gets a bit tedious, as you catch anything near your bait regardless of what level it is, so you either have to spend the currency you earned on an expensive add on, or farm one area like crazy. Still, it’s a fun game and I really wish I could play it right now.

by Fauxgt4

So the game looks and feels really good. Kind of a zen/calm feel.

However, the gameplay is just poorly thought out, particularly the bait system. It doesn’t have a good progression, with competing factors like boat level, pole level, etc.

While progression early on is lighting fast, you hit a wall quickly. You can unlock areas that you can catch almost none of the fish in, you spend a lot of time getting a single good piece of bait only to have a bad cast ruin it completely.

It’s very unforgiving which goes against the zen look/feel. Unless you’re spending on micro transactions you’ll run out of currency quickly (because you essentially have to choose to sell a fish which means no bait for later casts, or use the fish as bait which means no money gained).

This game was designed by graphic designers, not gamers- and the only way to win is to spend on micro transactions.

Wish someone would take the graphical content from this game and actually put in on some compelling mechanics.

by CheslynK

The music is relaxing and the gameplay is fun and interesting. But the progress is soooo slow after alter lvl 8, I’m on lvl 9 and can’t upgrade buildings until 12 or 14. The fish are hard to catch because it requires a higher tier bait EVERY SINGLE CAST; example: to catch a 3*, a 2* bait is required. If you use the fish for bait, you don’t get the experience, if you make bait it costs runes AND wood. The experience is also laughably low. The food only gives 20-40% extra on 10-20 exp points currently. Make bait last over time instead of per use. There are too many fish around and have to do multiple casts to find what you’re looking for.

by Nerdy_Dragon

Imagine, you just catch the blue whale, you’re finally able to go to the next sea and just need to upgrade your fishing rod. But ohh…wait…you check the time and it’s 10:46pm. You remember quickly you have school the next day. So you head to bed, dreaming of the adventures and fish you’ll catch in the next sea. When you wake up, you make yourself some breakfast, take a shower, and get dressed. In a great mood to start the fishing day. But when you login you claim your daily gift and the game is…buggy now. You can’t buy anything, but if you had stuff to claim from your farm…you can do it and infinite amount of times. You realize, you’re stuck in the same day of the farm…stuck in an endless loop of reality, never able to progress any

by Thetgi

The title sums up most of my feelings about this game. The concept and look of the game are fine enough, but I very, very quickly lost interest in it. Here’s the long version:

Every detail of the game is locked through a linear experience point system. Very often you reach a point where you cannot progress at all without grinding experience point after experience point after experience point, with essentially no change of pace or alternative activities to keep your interest.

This system also regularly punishes the player for being skilled at the game; do too well too soon and the game will remove many of your hard-earned buffs and items instantly. Most games would reward skilled players, but this game punishes anyone that doesn’t give in to the most boring of grinds.

As with all free mobile games, ads are very prevalent here. However, one major gripe I have is that many aspects of the game are locked behind supposedly “optional” ads. Most games have the decency to let you just play the game without having to grind through ad after ad after ad, but this game straight up will not let you do certain things without clicking the “watch ad” button.

This game also takes inspiration from idle games. If that sounds like a complaint, it is; why would you lock aspects of an active game behind a timer? Is your goal to get me to stop playing the game?

Overall I think I’m being generous with my rating.

by Boofro

I’ve played this game for months now. Put hours in, bought bait and so forth. However, I have not seen 3-4 of the non-summon only fish at all and that seems to be a bit strange. If playing north of 2 hours per day on this isn’t enough to find all of the fish at this point then that’s just a waste. It seems that the game simply did not make all of the fish on the fish list actually into the game. Why list fish to catch and then not put them in the game?Starting to seem like a big ole waste of time. Which, to be clear, wasting my time on a game would be fine if it was a game that could be completed. Down to waste time on that; do it all the time. Just not trying to waste my time on something unbeatable due to poor design or perhaps lack of completion.

by Peterhshehe

1. You can get to the second Island but after that is IMPOSSIBLE to get to the third. You will have to fish level 2-3-4 fishes 1000’s times to upgrade all your fishing equipment to reach the length and depth to find the “gray whale” which unlocks level 3.

2. You must spend at least $2.99 to $5.999 to be able to play and have a chance to get to the second Island.

3. Needs major updates: fish tanks are useless.

4. In addition to the runes (which you get when you catch a fish) you need supplies (wood, iron, nails), you can get them little by little when fishing or you can watch Ads to double, triple the amount. It’s a bad experience

5. Don’t want Ads? You have to pay for it.

6. Upgrading buildings is highly expensive

7. If you want to catch big fish that provides more runes, you need to acquire sinkers, minows, and other items. The runes you end up getting from fish level 3-4-5 doesn’t pay the cost of the extra equipment you need to buy.

Good things: beautifully designed (minimalist), calming music, great potential to become a 5-star app, but without these fixes it’s a 2/5. I will stop playing after two weeks and wait for an update…

by EchoZuluFoxtrot

Its an ok game fun for a time and you need to make atleast the one purchase to remove the ads. My number one issue with this game is that no matter if I log in every day my streak is always reset. I have only gotten the day 2 perk 1 time and not been above. Unless my game is bugged I do not understand why. Again it happened.. seems like you need to load game in the morning then again in the evening where your daily bonus “might not” reset.. I dont know. I never had any issue with logging in and getting daily bugle bonus from any other game I have played.

by 861027

This game is great. Entertaining, calming, interactive, user friendly, you know, all the things.

The problem I seem to have is that after 10 minutes of play, the game freezes. I have to force close the game and start again. Typically happens while fishing and anything currently on the line is lost at sea. It hasn’t happened with a rare, timer catch yet but that could be frustrating.

Overall, decent game aside from the frequent freezing.

by Lemme Fish

I really enjoy the casual and relaxing play through of this game. I tried to reset the game as after two days of play, it was not responding to certain choice buttons. It stopped responding once again after another two days. I will definitely change my review once this bug is fixed and playthrough is uninterrupted.

by Porteryeahporter

I have a glitch where any box I touch doesn’t redeem what I pressed it for. Can’t do anything once u catch a fish, neither of the two buttons work. Same with eggs and pork. Fun game asides this but it’s completely broken for me right now.

by Zootedem

This game is really really fun in the beginning. Everything worked perfect and I was having an amazing time until day 3. On the third day of having CastingAway every single time I would catch a “new” fish CastingAway would crash. CastingAway would pause & keep playing music (after I clear it off my phone). Then when I would go to log back on; it didn’t even record the “new fish” I just caught. I tried it at least 4 times & every single time it crashed. I really wanted CastingAway to work😩. It would be a really relaxing & enjoyable game if they would fix the bugs, but after awhile it’s just not worth it.

by Nick Name 1974

Give ability to upgrade the bait. Maybe with the dock, but make it possible to never have one star bait. By the time you’re at a level 50 rod, reel and line, level three dock, then you have the professional fishing boat, you have to catch the right level fish and slowly upgrade the bait one level at a time to catch a big one and you’ve been casting like mad and you’re almost there and a one star spawns in at the perfect moment…
Then you have a one star bait again.
Then you play solitaire.
I don’t even think you have the option to use real money to upgrade the bait.

by Fast Pablo

This is the best fishing game I have encountered. It is so relaxing. The gameplay is engaging (and somewhat unique; most fishing games focus their gameplay on a reeling-in mechanic, while this game focuses on maneuvering around lesser fish to get better catches). The farming and cooking elements are fun and I really hope that the developer continues to expand it. But, as other reviewers have mentioned, there is a bug that makes the game unplayable that popped up for me after two days of playing. I’d really love it if the developer would address this, since I would readily pay money to remove ads from this game if it functioned properly.

by OCayCool

I just download this game, I mean I just get past the tutorial… and it’s already crashed twice. I’m just playing the game and then I freezes for a little while and then crashes and kicks me out. I love the idea of the game but I wish it had less bugs. It’s annoying me and I’m thinking about deleting the game, please fix this issue.

by Fueledbypanic32

I like the idea of the game, and I love the graphics and that there are so many different areas to unlock upgrades in (home, farm, fishing gear, etc).

This sounds counterintuitive but my main problem with the game is that the ads in the free version don’t work. You can watch ads to do things like speed up food production and, most importantly, get 3x or 4x more resources when you find a treasure box. But every time I try to watch an ad I get the error message that “ad cannot load right now” which means I can’t take advantage of any of those things. If this was fixed the game would be perfect!

by Ryanhasthepower

Very fun and relaxing game at its core. The gameplay feels gratifying in the early levels, but quickly plateaus before eventually turning into a grind. After reading other reviews, I can see that many others feel the same. Around level 60 the upgrades become so expensive that it takes days/weeks worth of catching the same fish just to advance one level. It’s disappointing because the game was pretty fun to play as a quick time killer. But at this point the enjoyment is tapped out. I’m keeping the game installed with the hope that the developer continues to support it and make changes.

by Urfavpisces.org

I love the game, it’s very easy and relaxing. But the fish are annoying me. You bait your fish with a high level one only to get a very low grade one. I know that’s part of the challenge but it’s still very annoying. The low grade fish are on the top so obviously they’re gong to get the bait before my line sinks down to where the higher level fish are. Also, in the fishing bag, I hate how you can only use everything once. It’s annoying that I bait my line with a high grade bait, and then only get a low grade fish in return because they see it first.

by Zachary Prock

Just kinda boring and simple. Fun for a few minutes and really slow progress but good visual graphics. Fishing line physics are a little weird

by Ilksosa

When you go to cast out it won’t let you use fish as bait or carry it can’t collect just the one day present thing that stays on the screen every time we do something it goes away come back in this keeps giving you money

by Tglembo

Updates suggested to the devs:
1) Allow crafting of longer lasting lures/bait. Why can't I craft some 3-star bait that lasts 15 casts? Or lasts 12 hours? Please please please make this happen. Please. Please. Pretty please.
2) Allow fish in the fishing net to be used for bait. It's very frustrating that I catch fish and can't use them as bait except immediately.
3) Allow 2 way trading at the trading post. I have more wood than I know what to do with. Any way I can trade it in for gems?

I think those 3 things would improve the playability of the game a lot. Other than that, I really enjoy the game as a nice way to relax. No timers to force you to open CastingAway when you aren't feeling it. I enjoy the visuals and all the different types of fish. Highly replayable cuz gotta catch 'em all!

Can't wait to see the above updates made reality :-)

by MannyThree3

Don’t get me wrong on the title, Casting Away is an amazing game. I liked every detail and gameplay of this game, I enjoyed every bit of this game. I deleted the game because it broke on me. When I would go to my farm, I would try to produce an egg, ham and milk. It never made me wait for it, I just instantly got the item. I’m totally fine with that, gives me a huge advantage to the game. Then I would go and fish, I would cast my rod and catch a fish. Then the option to carry or use as bait would come up. I would try to click on either one but nothing would happen. Then since there’s no option to opt out the screen I have to close the application. Once I reopened it the same issues occurred. This forced me to delete the game unfortunately, and since I was so far into the game I didn’t want to restart. Hey I had fun while it lasted, I still do recommend this game though. I hope the this issue can be resolved so other players can fully enjoy the game!

by TherealJaymz

Pretty good game for what it is. It is relaxing, not a whole lot going on. I have had it for a week now and haven’t had any of the issues that other reviews talk about. It is a basic collect for a task then upgrade your items to collect more for bigger tasks game. One thing that is frustrating is you buy these items with runes to help you catch bigger fish that you cannot catch without them only to have a smaller fish rush over and bite the hook before your hook even gets down to where the big fish are. Now that item is gone, wasted on a small fish and you have to get more runes and other things saved up to get another one. Same with using big fish you catch as bait. You see a huge fish you want to catch so you bait the hook with a 1500 rune fish only to have a 100 rune fish get it. Or a piranha. I get that it is part of the challenge but dang it man.

by Berrymkokiner69420

It was a great game and really fun to play and hard to get off of but after around day three the game started glitching and freezing up everytime I’d try to fish it would give me unlimited amounts of money but I wouldn’t be able to buy anything if they could fix the bug (that I’ve also seen others report) then this would be a fantastic game please keep in mind after it glitched the first time I deleted and reinstalled the game and it did the same thing on day three

by Ppmaster3000

This game has a really fun and relaxing environment behind it. The main focus is the fishing and upgrading for bigger and better. Would recommend for others to play.

Okay feedback to devs:
- Wish you could cast in either direction
- the fact that fish have bait ratings; I don’t think a 2 star bait fish should be able to take 3 star bait fish off the hook. Seems kinda useless considering with current fishing mechanics in place you can’t maneuver around the smaller, cheaper fish. I have an issue where lesser fish spawn right in front of 3 star fish I’ve been poaching around to finally get.
- hope to see the game expand more and maybe more interaction outside of fishing.

by Dust_Eater3

I can’t get my daily reward and i can’t pick up chests. It’s a really fun game and i think it can be a great game if the devs fix it up and keep working on it

by Jeanetty( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

It’s the same as Fishing & Life, another app of the same company, but with a farm that gives boosts. It’s a good game to play while bored or trying to relax a little.

Overall, not too bad. It can become a little grindy to get the upgrades. Each bait will be gone after each use, regardless of whether a fish ate it or not, and I do not like that very much.

by Laydros

First off, I really don’t like most modern in-app purchase heavy games. I am very happy that for Casting Away I was able to buy the remove ads one time and just play after that.

It’s very fun, a little challenging, a little repetitive. But you can spend as much or as little time on the game, it’s not very frustrating. As others have said, it’s really fairly relaxing.

I think whatever crashing issue other reviewers posted about have been fixed.

by Sefgingf

This game is amazing but it has a couple of problems for me,

First, I have been playing for three days and it restarted my daily streak, I don’t know if you have fixed this. Moving on

Some stuff is WAY to expensive, like when I want to buy a wood plank I have to go fishing At least a million times! At least make it a little less expensive.

Here’s my ideas, I think when it’s night you have to go to bed and you wake up in the morning, next I think that there should be at least one other thing to do ( even though the whole game is about fishing), I think that you should be able to go inside of your house and decorate it. I’m not sure if you guys did do any of this already
Because I haven’t played the whole game, thanks for reading, I LOVE UR GAME!!! 👋❤️

by ReviewReaderNotGamer

Beautiful game, sad feelings. I’m sad because you or Nexelon had worked hard on this game it’s awesome, fun and addicting and the music is sooo relaxing g although it could have more such as
Make add give less recourses just too make it easier :D and add a survival aspect like food and fatigue and so if you don’t eat you die but if you fish too much then you have too sleep or else you die those are my only recommendations too make this GREAT game even better. I will share this game with my friends and I hope you respond too this Good luck Nexelon, -Eli

by Vespito

It’s been more than 6 months, and still enjoying the game. Unlike some other developers, when you pay to remove adds, they remove all adds. Just wish you did not have to click to skip each time. Suggestion: Create a cooler that can be built to store your catch to use as bait *later*! Much like the fish farm, you can expand slots. Just a thought :)

by FlareOfAmethyst

I'm enjoying the game quite a lot so far. It's very meditative and I love that it doesn't take "energy" or "gems" or whatever to catch fish. I can just keep casting the line over and over, which is what pushed the game into five stars and justifying buying ad-free for me. It's fun seeing and catching all the different kinds of fish and trying to work my way up to getting the fish way at the bottom. The art is pleasing and the fish designs are really cute.

I do think it would be a good feature if we were able to use the fish in the fishing net as bait as well, instead of having to decide immediately after catching the fish whether or not to use it as bait.

by Phillip Goodwin

The bug that other people were talking about is gone. This is a good quality game with very acceptable ads. I wish the other reviews could be changed because they could put people off of a really good game.

by Dswdfgfff

It’s a phone game everyone so don’t come in expecting the best game ever but this game is one of the best phone games on the market it’s simple and easy to play and it’s addictive just survival and good ol fishing and did I mention that you can catch a whole whale I rest my case

by KillerGriffn

Fun game and the horrible bug I was experiencing that stopped me from being able to play is now fixed great game, I wish there weren’t as much ads

by Duorazs

How can I play the game on iPad with the account on my iPhone?Can't link the account to Facebook or something else?Thank you!

by Yattrr

I made a million runes off a glitch it just kept giving me daily reward

by Flashman99

This game is simple, yet addicting. The music and graphics are calming, and it’s a great way to quickly pass time.