I love playing the game, but there is good and bad so far. I love the graphics. Here is what I have experienced. I love the gathering of stones and sticks, very easy and realistic. stones are frequent enough to gather reasonably. The building of the house snaps well and the crafting is fun. The building of fencing on uneven ground is not pleasant and does not follow terrain, so it can be a challenge and clunky.
The chopping of the trees is a little odd that you have to crouch and keep going around the tree to hit that perfect low spot necessary to knock out the wood. Each tree gives a decent amount of logs, but the need for logs on some things is outrageous. I need logs to make the only walls available in the game - I cannot use planks. The Saw will turn each log into only 2 planks. Each Iron ingot only makes 3 nails. That is crazy - luckily, I only need one nail per wall...However, I need 2 logs for a wall, but 8 logs for one tiny planting plot?!? change that to planks and it would be more realistic, but still too many for a single plant planter.
I love that I can kill a boar or dear with a single throw of the spear, but it does not give enough meat and there are not enough animals to keep the protein up. It rots before I can find another animal. Killing the cannibals without dying every time is good - using a spear to keep them at a distance, especially if I poke them in the head as I back up or go in circles around them. It would be nice if they dropped loot or provided any benefit to having them around to kill. There is none, except to avoid them.
I crafted canteens, but cannot get the canteens to fill with river water-do they only work with dirty water? I found no dirty water.
The biggest fails are:
1-the times you cannot use the keys for no reason I can find and randomly happens - I just have to pause and un-pause a few times or exit to main and load a previous save to get out of it.
2-I dumped a bunch of stuff on the ground in one of the caves and it dumped me into water under the game and I can see the cave above me, but cannot swim - have to exit and reload.
3-The worst issues that can also cause full failure: the long saving time - and while it is saving, you can be attacked and die without being able to do anything. Also the loading can glitch. I have been playing over 13 hours, and just lost all because I cannot load. It sits on the Loading Screen forever more - while you hear yourself being attacked during the load, same as during the save, and it still sits on the never ending loading screen. perhaps because I was attacked while saving? So I have to start a new game if I want to continue. It is fun, but not enough fun to start over after that and risk it happening again - so I will wait to see patches.
I still recommend the game because it is still fun. It is not like you lose any major accomplishments when you have to play over. I started over three times as I was learning how the game works. I kept turning the mining caves into my player home because it requires least materials and I can easily kill the cannibals through the window if they find me. And the ore keeps regenerating in random spots so I have plenty or ores. My next plan is to build a house near the center of the map so I can put solar panels on a roof and have electricity.
