It's a real shame the devs pushed this game to "full release" and never touched it again, but I guess life happens and they probably found more important things to do. This game had great potential while it was in Beta and I was pretty active on the forums. Devs even pinned my thread for animal suggestions and I logged all of them on there for the Devs to consider. But, as the years went by, updates got slower and slower, and it's a bit disappointing having the game still feel like it's in Beta, even after so many years. It definitely does not feel like a finished game unfortunately but it's still a pretty stable game as a whole, just a bit lacking in some areas.
So, as someone who has 200+ hours in this game (And not like 5 or 10 hours like all the other reviews), and played during Alpha YEARS ago, I'm rather mixed on my final review of the game after picking it up again recently, but recommending it to others is extremely contextual to the individual. There's a few spoilers listed here, but nothing detrimental.
[h3]Pros:[/h3]
Most of the maps are quite pretty with the exception of a few of the ones added much later. Cultsberg and Kitsune's Den are probably my favorites to explore through. As a hoarder of resources in games, I love running through and picking up whatever the hell I can find, and perhaps an animal or two. It's fun getting spooked by a bear, leopard, or raiders while you're in the zone exploring and picking up stuff.
There's quite an expansive collection of animals in the game you can "rescue". Plenty of bovines, deer, wolves, foxes, some birds, livestock, big cats, and even bigger animals in the African themed map, Dahm Bah. In general scummy ai fashion however, you can down any animal with quick strafes and plenty of tranq arrows without getting hurt, so if you find a big rhino or tiger, sprint jumping or getting up high on something makes quick work of collecting them.
There's quite collection of cool artifacts and weapons you can find. Samauri swords, Zweihanders, Claymores, and guns like the Shotgun, Pistols, and Rifles. Combat can be a bit tricky and herd management of enemies can become a bit of a challenge. Having better weapons certainly makes combat easier, so exploring odd structures usually brings good rewards.
Building and crafting can be a bit grindy at times, but once you get a few buildings up and plenty of chests to dump your resources in, you can have quite a bit of fun organizing your resources into themed containers, decorate, and create your own little village once you get some settlements. Nothing is permanent so you can pick things up and rearrange to your liking. I prefer Sliceland for my base but Arpashi works well too. Just make sure to empty any containers before you move them as a precaution.
You can also make your own enclosures and essentially your own zoo full of all the animals you've collected. There's tons of decorations, fences, and "enrichments" for your animals [i](though, the enrichments do nothing other than make your enclosure pretty looking)[/i]. You can name them once you cure & tame them and some can follow you around if you wish. There's a Breeding Center you can build, but as far as I know, there's only a few models for young animals. Never really bothered with the Breeding Center so I'm not sure how it works exactly. Pets can also follow you to different maps and help fight for you, though I wouldn't recommend sending a tiny kitten to help fight a raider camp.
[h3]Cons:[/h3]
This game is not very optimized and never really was, and being well over 80 gigs, some computers may not be able to handle it, especially with some of the larger maps. I've had times where it would freeze up on me while changing my settings and you cant lower the graphics mid-game, so fair warning. Run it on medium for your first time to see how well it does. I usually run it on high with my (still surviving) 2080.
Lots of unity assets, especially the animals and more particularly the enemies. ([i]If you want good looking animals to hunt, go play the Hunter: Call of the Wild[/i]). The animals are quite muddy looking, and animations aren't the greatest, but not terrible. NPCs are all the same model if not with the exception of 2 others you find in Corpse Harbor. There's no dialogue for NPCs either, they're just moving objects essentially. I don't recall the dev mentioning anything about unique models made just for the game, but I could be wrong.
There is little to no story and I feel like it was an after thought. It's messy and some of it doesn't really make sense to me. Rarely, you can find notes lying around in all the maps, but in general it's just there to try to keep things interesting and not just a simulator/exploration game. The Gorehounds and enemies are all unity assets and aren't endemic to the game.
Controls of the game are fairly stable once you get used to them but can be really buggy sometimes. You have Bethesda mountain climbing abilities though and can bypass almost anything if you can jump high enough at an angle. Switching through your hotbar too quick might fail to load your weapon or tool (you can just scroll wheel or press the hotkey again for it to show up though). Using some weapons or the crossbow can feel sluggish at times during combat or tranq-ing an animal. The controls for placing buildings down can be a mild inconvenience too since it uses the scroll wheel to rotate (and you cant scroll to something else on your hotbar.)
Most of the maps are... quite empty with the exception of Cultsberg or Kitsune's Den being the better ones, and Corpse Harbor, Oceania, and the other base maps being a bit less on the empty side of things. Most of the time you'll be walking through wide open areas with the occasional raider camp, cabin, farm, or other structure scattered around. So you'll be sprinting and chugging water constantly. Burning Sands, Red Mountains, and Eagles Nest just to name a few are very boring unfortunately as far as exploring and animal collecting goes. If you're just exploring and picking up resources, I recommend riding a horse for that very reason.
Speaking of horses, the horses can be buggy at times. Hopping on and off is sluggish and a nuisance if you're being chased unexpectedly. You can't eat or drink or shoot while on your horse, you HAVE to dismount it, so doing so early before you run into a horde of raiders and mutants will do you good.
Overall the game is very grindy. Getting the rarer resources like the Blue Metal, Silicon, and Quartz requires you to scour an entire map just to make yourself a laboratory and chemistry table to craft more tranquilizers/cures/etc. If you want to build ALL of the crafting stations, it'll take you a while. If you want to make every settlement, good luck. There's only so many "Settlement Agreements" you can find naturally while exploring. If you want more, you'll have to grind for LOTS of food in order to make crates, to buy the better ones at Corpse Harbor.
[h3]Overall Review:[/h3]
I can't recommend this game to serious players who've played every other survival craft base building game under the sun because it simply doesn't compare to them. This game doesn't play like a full game and isn't perfect. If you're the type to be hyper critical on little details like optimization, graphics, controls, or immersion, this game isn't for you. I feel it would be too frustrating and your $5 would be better spent elsewhere for something you'd enjoy.
If you're the type of player who's a bit more forgiving, I'd recommend giving this game a play and it's worth the $5 you pay for it. It doesn't play like a full game at times, but if you like collecting and grinding for resources and animals, playing around with building and crafting, and base building, that's where this game shines. It has it's own charm in a way and hopefully you can find the same charm I have for this game.
