This game took Steam by a storm and as the winds clear, it's my time to take a look at it. That is - for the second time as I have played it in Alpha already some years ago.
It was a pretty fun game then and is now. Though I don't see major changes, there is a significant polish to the game. It uses all the basic mechanics we know, love and hate and adds a fresh twist to it. Almost every action requires stamina, from fighting to jumping, but at the same time, it seems as every skill could be leveled up. Run, sneak, fight, chop down, etc. etc. You do what you have to do to survive, but you get a reward on top of that. Higher jump height when juping, better stamina usage when running - you get the idea. All is described in-game in menus.
Tutorial is kind of lacking and slow as I found myself wandering a lot before I got a tip of my bird on how to progress. But this game is in early access and we are grateful it has any. (Although EA is the new release nowadays.) Core gameplay loop is to survive (meaning chop-hunt-eat-take-shelter), armor up, give offerings to bosses so they kindly spawn and allow themselves to be killed. When killed, you get a nice perk to use in-game and ease your survival. To spice things up, every now and then there is a raid you have to fence off, but fortunately there are quite a few options to building fences and fortresses of your own.
The little things matters. For example your health bar is not set to usual 100 HP, but the maximum is defined by your eating habits. Do you have diverse eating habits? -you can have around 75 HP at start. Do you eat only meat? - you can have around 40 HP. Food came to me in three different varieties so far: raspberries, mushrooms, meat. Basic things like building, cooking, chopping (beware the falling tree) are easy enough to be entertaining. On top of all, you can easily repair damaged tools at workbench.
I really am looking forward the full launch, that could be pretty long, satisfying, deep and polished game with amazing QOL features. Good luck devs!
For first 2-hours of gameplay you can check out video below: