A complete total hidden gem of a game.
Don't let the first glance at it deceive you. On the surface, it looks like something cheaply made, slapped-together jank. But it's not even like that. True, it's an indie game, but very well made, to where I'm confused why it's even free.
Essentially, it's your typical openworld survivalcraft voxel game, whereas it's actually less blocky than it looks, in that the terrain can be morphed, similar to 7 Days To Die (7DTD). Like that game, it has a huge open world full points of interest (POI). Unlike 7DTD, this one actually has people in those settlements: quest-givers and NPCs. They're static but it helps add to the overall sense of the world being lived in.
The game plops you down and gives you initial starter-quests/achievements to complete. To build your first tools, crafting stations, etc. It's up to you. Or you can just go around finding POI, different types of containers (crates, chests, barrels, cabinets and more...) for things to loot. It might be foods, water, gear, anything.
The game has an xp/skill-point leveling system. Nearly anything you do, rewards XP. Each level, you earn points to spend on perks. There's multiple categories with their own sub-categories. Additionally, some specialized NPCs will give quests where they'll "train" you in one of the perks, which is a nice touch. As you level up, the gear you craft becomes better, more efficient.
Is it a grind? It depends on how you wish to play the game. It doesn't take that long to get started, thankfully. But some items require X number of Stone or Wood, and when your initial skill is low, it can take time. Once you push through enough, it comes faster and eventually you'll find yourself needing more space to store materials.
Your character has slots for armor, weapons, and stats that track your hunger/thirst. The hunger part is different in most games, in that it's divided into nutrients, things like Protein, Carbs, Vitamins, Minerals. If these levels get too low, then it reduces your energy regeneration levels, I noticed. Each food has stats indicating which it provides. Need more carbs in your diet? Eat bread. More protein? Eat meat. Most foods cover multiple, especially meals with many ingredientis. There's all sorts of meals and drinks you can make or find in the world. The NPC towns have farms you can harvest materials from or you can obtain seeds and plant your own crops, it's super easy and no maintenance required (no need to constantly water or till the ground or anything like that, just plant it and come back later from adventuring to see its progress and harvest).
Mining is a big part of the game. I tell you, the game allows the player dig anywhere. Very much like 7DTD, can you go dig out your own caves and mines. There are extraordinary depths. Game has all sorts of delves and POI to find, different environments, I found a walled-city at one point, a temple, did some quests to clear Goblins, it's incredibly expansive. What is also cool, is the game has DLC that will generate customizable random worlds, given how much the base game already contains, it's an abundance that sounds worth checking out. Finding all the towns and locales filled with NPCs gave me TES: Daggerfall vibes. One thing to add, is the game isn't just "flat" but is full of hills, large peaks, canyons, crevasses, many very cool formations of all sorts that look mysterious or eerie, perhaps cavernous, worth spelunking to find hidden resources, bearing openings to caves or dungeons (or you can just dig and make your own).
The game has a day/night cycle, and creatures will start to appear. I think I'm like Day 4 or 5. I've barely scratched the surface of the world. There's a ton to explore. So each day, like Stardew Valley, I'll make plans what I intend to do for that day. You have to makes sure to have the right foods/water, gear, before you venture out. Including materials to support a campfire because the game has a "hot/cold" system, you can freeze at night without a warm fire. Do you go out and spend days exploring? Or before sunset, head on home? Up to you.
Finally, the game looks, plays, feels very good. No jank, glitchiness, runs very good, smooth. No stuttering, no lag, no bad UI, no weird cpu cycling up shenanigans, but rather, it's very optimized and clean, polished, has many graphics settings and runs great when I turned them up, wasn't even noticable, cpu and gpu didn't even break a sweat. No freezes, no crashes. The UI is very good, works perfectly well, easy to understand and use, IMO. It's like the Dev simply went with what's known to work, instead of trying to "re-invent the wheel" as some have tried to do. Jumping into the game, I couldn't stop playing. It makes a lot of other games from bigger studios look really bad in comparison. There's a ton of game here, I can't wait to see what else I can find, or what else the Dev makes or where takes it next.
