This is one of those quintessential crafting/building games that might not be a perfect fit for everyone. Anyone with the slightest tendency of becoming bored with slow pace should look the other way. If you can look beyond the extremely slow progress and micromanagement, this is a gem.

Although my opinion obviously being highly subjective and based off of prior experiences in the genre, the best description I can give is that this is like Valheim on steroids gameplay wise. Apart from the obvious differences in the setting itself and the enemies being solely wildlife (that actually feels VERY threatening, don't be fooled), the building system is way more intricate and complicated. It is also not very focused on creating a massive base or a kingdom to call your own. Your first time around you'll be 15 hours in and living in a stick hut with no flooring, and under a roof made out of spruce branches. But for some weird reason this feels like it is your castle, and you actually WILL care about it, because it is all you have. The game also presents a growing threat that increases by the day. The Blight. These clouds of plague practicly acts as a doom-timer.

The game is an EA title, and naturally, with that it does lack in certain aspects. The tutorial is pretty un-intuitive as of now, and the learning curve is pretty steep. With that said, it is also very rewarding. Every little improvement you get your hands on feels like a total game changer although you'll soon discover that it is not. You'll be googling a lot, and not finding a lot. There is no Wiki, only you and the wilderness and a few heroic people on YouTube with hour-long stream episodes figuring the game out on the go. So, rest assured, you will be challenged here. The game is actually really hard and super punishing. Expect a lot of rinse and repeats and trial and error, but at least to me, that just makes it even better.

Negatives.

I want to mention the current negatives aswell, for those who's still wondering. At 30h in I have not fully learned the game by a long shot, but there are some obvious misses that will break or make the experience for many potential players as of now.

The crafting system is not as straight forward as in other games, this might be intentional, but there are some basic & crucial things that really SHOULD be in the game already even at EA. Such as being able to mine rocks & stones on the ground, or chopping wooden logs laying around. These logs are effectively taking up unnecessary space and sometimes they're destroying nice camp spots. There is also close to zero terraforming possibilities, which isn't that huge of a problem until your OCD kicks in and that small patch of ground sticks up through your hard earned wooden floor. Last but not least, why isn't there a Copper Pickaxe? The pickaxe is a crucial tool in this game, and believe me when I say that it is NOT easily obtainable. In fact, you have to scour the entire map in hopes of finding one of the scarse log cabins that are few and far between, and even when you stumble across one it might not hold the loot you're after. The alternative isn't that much better, looking for caves. Many caves only hold Iron Ore deposits and not a single Iron Ore rock to loot without a pickaxe. This is perhaps the biggest turn-off for me right now, since it takes up way too much time of your starting days.

There should really be different kinds of wounds, toxic and physical. Bandages as a complement to tea would be a game changer, because right now the biggest threat to your health is combat, and as damage taken from it clearly is physical, there should be some quicker way of bandaging those wounds.

There are no form of armor upgrades save for a shield. And they're badly needed to be fair. There is also not any ranged alternative to the spears. A bow would be nice, and quite frankly, very logical.

You cannot build with logs, although one would assume so given the setting.

The game really needs an auto-run keybinding.

The game does also not come with a sandbox mode, although it really should be implemented if you ask me. The Blight spread is pretty stressful even at the easiest setting.

Once you get the basics down and understand the concept & end goals of the game, the randomly procedurally generated map will force you to reroll a new game for hours before you find a map of your liking. It would actually be better to have a few different maps to chose from because some seeds will make the game practicly impossible for you in the long run.

And while speaking of impossible, as of right now there is no way of finishing the story. This would be fine however, IF there were a sandbox mode. After a few playthroughs you'll probably find that you really enjoy the building, crafting and gathering aspects of the game, and probably even the story. But if you're like me, you'll also start to really grow tired of the blight spread. It WILL win in the end, rendering your perfect spot & 100 hour base build unuseable. Right now, the only way to play "sandbox mode" is to run to the edge of the map and keep going. However, I find the existence outside of the map way too hard since there is no real way of navigating here. Perhaps you're technically able to using the compass you get in the realistic game setting, although i'd argue that this setting is just too hard for most of us, at least to start with.

With that being said, the game provides a solid challenge even on easy, it has a really intricate progress system that will have you scratching your head many times. It also runs perfect and is beautiful to look at. There are very few bugs and I havn't had a single crash or performance issue in 30 hours on a 3 year old machine with 32gb RAM, a 12th gen i7 and a regular 3060. It is well worth your time and money, and the dev seems very active and responsive.

If a sandbox mode would be implemented, I'd play this game 'til kingdom come once it becomes finished.

The current verdict (subject to change) is a solid 8/10.

This is one of those quintessential crafting/building games that might not be a perfect fit for everyone. Anyone with the slightest tendency of becoming bored with slow pace should look the other way. If you can look beyond the extremely slow progress and micromanagement, this is a gem. Although my opinion obviously being highly subjective and based off of prior experiences in the genre, the best description I can give is that this is like Valheim on steroids gameplay wise. Apart from the obvious differences in the setting itself and the enemies being solely wildlife (that actually feels VERY threatening, don't be fooled), the building system is way more intricate and complicated. It is also not very focused on creating a massive base or a kingdom to call your own. Your first time around you'll be 15 hours in and living in a stick hut with no flooring, and under a roof made out of spruce branches. But for some weird reason this feels like it is your castle, and you actually WILL care about it, because it is all you have. The game also presents a growing threat that increases by the day. The Blight. These clouds of plague practicly acts as a doom-timer. The game is an EA title, and naturally, with that it does lack in certain aspects. The tutorial is pretty un-intuitive as of now, and the learning curve is pretty steep. With that said, it is also very rewarding. Every little improvement you get your hands on feels like a total game changer although you'll soon discover that it is not. You'll be googling a lot, and not finding a lot. There is no Wiki, only you and the wilderness and a few heroic people on YouTube with hour-long stream episodes figuring the game out on the go. So, rest assured, you will be challenged here. The game is actually really hard and super punishing. Expect a lot of rinse and repeats and trial and error, but at least to me, that just makes it even better. Negatives. I want to mention the current negatives aswell, for those who's still wondering. At 30h in I have not fully learned the game by a long shot, but there are some obvious misses that will break or make the experience for many potential players as of now. The crafting system is not as straight forward as in other games, this might be intentional, but there are some basic & crucial things that really SHOULD be in the game already even at EA. Such as being able to mine rocks & stones on the ground, or chopping wooden logs laying around. These logs are effectively taking up unnecessary space and sometimes they're destroying nice camp spots. There is also close to zero terraforming possibilities, which isn't that huge of a problem until your OCD kicks in and that small patch of ground sticks up through your hard earned wooden floor. Last but not least, why isn't there a Copper Pickaxe? The pickaxe is a crucial tool in this game, and believe me when I say that it is NOT easily obtainable. In fact, you have to scour the entire map in hopes of finding one of the scarse log cabins that are few and far between, and even when you stumble across one it might not hold the loot you're after. The alternative isn't that much better, looking for caves. Many caves only hold Iron Ore deposits and not a single Iron Ore rock to loot without a pickaxe. This is perhaps the biggest turn-off for me right now, since it takes up way too much time of your starting days. There should really be different kinds of wounds, toxic and physical. Bandages as a complement to tea would be a game changer, because right now the biggest threat to your health is combat, and as damage taken from it clearly is physical, there should be some quicker way of bandaging those wounds. There are no form of armor upgrades save for a shield. And they're badly needed to be fair. There is also not any ranged alternative to the spears. A bow would be nice, and quite frankly, very logical. You cannot build with logs, although one would assume so given the setting. The game really needs an auto-run keybinding. The game does also not come with a sandbox mode, although it really should be implemented if you ask me. The Blight spread is pretty stressful even at the easiest setting. Once you get the basics down and understand the concept & end goals of the game, the randomly procedurally generated map will force you to reroll a new game for hours before you find a map of your liking. It would actually be better to have a few different maps to chose from because some seeds will make the game practicly impossible for you in the long run. And while speaking of impossible, as of right now there is no way of finishing the story. This would be fine however, IF there were a sandbox mode. After a few playthroughs you'll probably find that you really enjoy the building, crafting and gathering aspects of the game, and probably even the story. But if you're like me, you'll also start to really grow tired of the blight spread. It WILL win in the end, rendering your perfect spot & 100 hour base build unuseable. Right now, the only way to play "sandbox mode" is to run to the edge of the map and keep going. However, I find the existence outside of the map way too hard since there is no real way of navigating here. Perhaps you're technically able to using the compass you get in the realistic game setting, although i'd argue that this setting is just too hard for most of us, at least to start with. With that being said, the game provides a solid challenge even on easy, it has a really intricate progress system that will have you scratching your head many times. It also runs perfect and is beautiful to look at. There are very few bugs and I havn't had a single crash or performance issue in 30 hours on a 3 year old machine with 32gb RAM, a 12th gen i7 and a regular 3060. It is well worth your time and money, and the dev seems very active and responsive. If a sandbox mode would be implemented, I'd play this game 'til kingdom come once it becomes finished. The current verdict (subject to change) is a solid 8/10.