Players are highly satisfied with the game's extensive and flexible building and crafting systems, often highlighting the sense of accomplishment these provide. The continuous improvements, updates, and dedicated developer support, especially regarding graphics and performance, significantly contribute to a positive overall gameplay experience, making the game feel well-rounded and feature-packed for its price.
Disappointment stems primarily from the perceived lack of content, long-term goals, and depth, leading to an empty world feeling. Players also express frustration over missing or simplified features, slow development progress, and the game's incomplete state, especially given its long Early Access period. Technical issues preventing playability and poor object manipulation further contribute to this negative sentiment.
Frustration is mainly caused by technical issues such as severe lag, game-breaking bugs, and update problems affecting cloud saves and performance. Players also struggle with clunky, unintuitive controls and an overly complex or outdated building system. The slow pace of updates, lack of localization, and tedious grind for resources further exacerbate these feelings.
Excitement is driven by the game's immense future potential, particularly with anticipated updates and the new Unity version bringing modern graphics and improved realism. Players are enthusiastic about the extensive building freedom, unique genre twists, and the prospect of new content and features, viewing the game as a promising competitor in the sandbox genre.
Joy is experienced through the game's fun and engaging creative mode, especially for players who enjoy building and decorating. The ability to freely modify the landscape, combined with immersive details and a casual, relaxing atmosphere, contributes to a highly enjoyable experience, often enhanced when playing with friends or family.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 82% Ā· Negative 18%. Score: 18 / 100
Positives:
Players consistently praise the game's overall quality, finding it fun, beautiful, and highly enjoyable. Many highlight its significant potential for future growth and consider it a standout title in its genre, especially given its early access status.
The game's building system is a major highlight, frequently described as superior to Minecraft due to its depth, flexibility, and extensive customization options. Players appreciate the ability to create highly detailed and imaginative structures, from individual components to entire towns, offering unparalleled creative freedom.
The development team receives strong praise for their active engagement, consistent updates, and responsiveness to player feedback. The game's continuous improvement, including a significant engine overhaul, demonstrates a strong commitment to its long-term development and quality.
The game offers a unique and relaxed survival experience, often compared favorably to Minecraft but with more realistic graphics and less emphasis on constant combat. Players appreciate the option to focus on building and exploration without aggressive enemy interference, making it suitable for a calm playstyle.
Exploration, mining, and other core gameplay loops are found to be engaging and enjoyable. The game offers a vast open world with diverse biomes, interactive elements, and satisfying mechanics for resource gathering and discovery.
Negatives:
Players consistently report a severe lack of content across all aspects of the game, including exploration, quests, enemies, items, and progression. This leads to rapid boredom and a feeling that the game is incomplete, especially given its long development time.
The building system is frequently criticized for being overly complicated, unintuitive, and difficult to learn. Players find it frustrating to use, requiring significant time to understand basic functions and connections.
Reviewers note that the game's graphics are rudimentary and unpolished, often looking awful on lower settings. Despite engine changes, the visual presentation and overall refinement are considered lacking, giving the game an 'early alpha' feel.
The user interface and controls are widely described as clunky, unintuitive, and difficult to get used to. Specific issues include non-standard button layouts, illegible UI on high-resolution monitors, and a lack of useful information.
A recurring complaint is the slow pace of development and infrequent updates, especially given the game's long tenure in Early Access. This leads to a perception that the game is not progressing adequately.
Gameplay:
The game is primarily a sandbox crafting and building experience, allowing extensive creative freedom in construction, from basic shelters to complex structures. While it includes survival elements like hunger and thirst, these are currently rudimentary, with the game leaning heavily towards its building mechanics.
Resource gathering is a core activity, involving chopping trees, mining ores, and farming crops. Players can cultivate plants, hunt animals, and process raw materials using various tools and workbenches.
The game features a variety of animals, including common farm animals like cows, pigs, and sheep, as well as wild animals like elk and foxes. Some animals, such as bears and tigers, are hostile and will attack players if provoked or if players enter their territory.
Many players compare the game to Minecraft, often describing it as a more realistic or 'grown-up' version. It shares similar block-based building mechanics but offers more detailed block types and environmental manipulation.
The game features explorable underground areas, including caves and dungeons. These locations often contain loot and hostile creatures like spiders, bandits, and skeleton men, adding an exploration and combat dimension.
Performance:
Many players report excellent performance, with the game running smoothly and maintaining high frame rates even on older hardware or at high resolutions. This indicates strong optimization.
Players noted some visual glitches and minor bugs, but generally consider them non-game-breaking and typical for an early access title. This suggests a relatively stable experience despite minor imperfections.
While some players reported the game running on very low-end systems with minimal settings, others indicated a GTX 1050TI as a more realistic minimum requirement. This suggests a wide range of playability depending on desired quality.
Some users encountered difficulties related to Java, specifically with client disconnections due to unopen Java ports. This points to potential setup hurdles for certain players.
One player experienced significant hardware strain, noting that a graphics overhaul caused their PC to overheat. This suggests that certain graphical settings or updates might be very demanding.
Recommendations:
The game is highly recommended, especially for fans of sandbox, survival, crafting, and building genres. Many reviewers highlight its value for money, particularly when on sale, and its appeal to players who enjoy creative freedom and exploration. It's often compared favorably to Minecraft, offering a more realistic or mature alternative.
Many players express a desire to support the developers, encouraging others to buy the game to help fund its continued development. They see great potential in the game and want to contribute to its growth.
Players are excited about the game's future and eager to see upcoming updates and how it will evolve. This indicates a positive outlook on the development roadmap.
For those not ready to purchase immediately, reviewers suggest adding the game to a wishlist or following it, especially to catch it during sales.
Miscellaneous:
Players acknowledge the game is in a prolonged Early Access phase (over 10 years) but appreciate the continuous updates and active development, especially the ongoing engine transition. They express excitement and high hopes for the game's future potential and content expansions.
Players are creating and recommending community-made guides and videos to help new players understand the game's features, address common issues, and navigate multiplayer.
Players are eager for Steam Workshop integration, which would allow them to share blueprints, custom craftables, textures, and UI tools, significantly expanding user-generated content.
Some new players struggle with basic mechanics like item movement and cooking, indicating a need for improved in-game tutorials or clearer instructions.
One reviewer noted that the game was more complex than anticipated, suggesting that new players might have misconceptions about its depth or genre.