Is this game really worth playing?

[emitfudd]

I am at 91 minutes and not playing again until I get more information on whether this is worth playing or not. I made it to the first island and I am already dying of thirst and hunger. I hate that mechanic in all games. If I start a new game and turn these settings off or down to the minimum is it even worth playing. I have played many survival games but constantly worrying about dying of thirst or hunger is not fun at all. Should I refund or play on the easiest level?

I love base building and that looks decent in this game. I think the crafting menus are a bit clunky so far. There is also no map for playing with controller, only KB&M. It says full controller support.

I don't know when this game originally came out but there don't seem to be many people playing based on the number of posts on the discussion page here. Not good if you need to ask questions.

I see this game frequently being compared to the long dark. I tried to like that game but quit after a few hours.

Games I have played and loved: Valheim, 7 Days to Die, The Forest 2, Conan Exiles, Skyrim, Fallout 4.

One more thing that bothers me. The volume is way too loud. I have the main volume turned down to 25%. Most of the other sliders are at 50% or even lower. My main volume setting in Windows is only at 50%.

I had to turn my controller sensitivity down to 2. It was moving so fast when panning that it made me sick. Completely disorienting. Not sure this game was really made for controller.

[Markus]

My controller works fine and it is so worth it!

[emitfudd]

Originally posted by Markus:

My controller works fine and it is so worth it!

My controller works but my concern is that there is no map of controller functions in the settings menu. No idea what buttons do what.

[stretch]

Pretty sure there are settings at the game creation you can set but I don't think you can go back and revert them once started so check that first.
I don't know your abilities but I find this game to be absolutely chock full of really, really annoying things. It's part of the genre of the game so there isn't anything really new and probably not even that bad by some standards but some of the things are just too frequent for me to really enjoy the rest of the game properly. Like you have your bags full of everything you need and then you use up your energy mining, go to rest to recover it and find your hydration is at 59% and that debuffs your rest. So off you go to find fluid, get stung by 3 scorpions, attacked by 4 condors, ravaged by a puma and get a runny nose on the way to the nearby banana tree. It just gets a bit annoying. If you can deal with all this then have at it. Most of the game is pretty good but some.... argh.
These things should be experienced and without them you wont be getting the full game but after a while when you have beaten these mechanics over and over again I really just want them to stop. There are some ways late in the game to really take the edge off but I don't think many of them can ever be stopped entirely so I suggest you start at minimal and turn them up if you want a second run through just so you don't get turned off the game straight away.

I can't help you with controllers. Wondering why a PC game isn't designed to cater for a console play system just seems weird to me but whatever. I would have thought if it has controller support it would have those listed somewhere. Maybe google can help if the game doesn't?

[johnisaroundhere]

If you enjoyed the clunkiness of 7D2D you should be able to adapt just fine...

I played about 12 hours so far. I'm enjoying it. I've turned down the hunger/thirst settings enough so that they are there but I can played at a relaxed pace.

To be honest, though, your post makes it sound like you've already made up your mind not to be happy with the game and now you're looking for affirmation. It's a game. You play it to have fun. If you aren't having fun don't ask for people to convince you otherwise. Life is too short to do something for fun that is not entertaining you.

[mskitty]

If you decide to play past 90 minutes you will do things that earn survival points, you can then apply the points to a skill tree, hunger and thirst control are two of the options on the tree.

I haven't seen many people comparing this game to TLD, they don't have much in common imo besides being survival games with exploration and difficulty choice. To me TLD is a glorified walking simulator and doesn't offer nearly as many features like this game has, such as the base building, ship building, sailing, diving, farming, many types of crafting stations, blueprints, recepies, etc.

I don't use controllers so can't speak to that but mouse and kb work just fine for controls.

One reason that it seems that not many people are playing this game is that they hadn't stumbled upon it, I've seen several people make that comment, I only found out about it because somebody posted a link for it on another forum, and since I have been playing I haven't had any problem getting answers to my questions on this forum. According to Steam DB the peak player count is 1400, and while not huge it's not exactly a small amount either.

https://steamdb.info/app/1967630/charts/

[Amyrlyn]

I have played this game since it first released in EA and I love it. But, it's probably not for everyone. That said, if you stick with it, it might surprise you. My husband is into FPSs (e.g., Halo) and RPGs (e.g., Assassin's Creed), and is not really into survival games, so I didn't think this was something he would get into. But, when Odinsoft announced the game was going into full release, I suggested it to him and, to my surprise, he has been thoroughly enjoying it.

I can't tell you what to do about the controller as I use the KB and mouse, but as for things like thirst, just look around the world you're in and those problems will be solved. Green coconuts will quench your thirst and food is super abundant in the form of crabs, short-eared dogs, eggs, ripe coconuts, wild boar, and so on. It usually does take a few days of game time to get your bearings and stabilize your health, so you have to have some patience. At the beginning, your character has just survived a ship wreck, after all, and he is on a strange island trying to survive. But, once you find your rhythm those things aren't really an issue anymore.

Good luck.

[emitfudd]

All good feedback. The post by Stretch makes me think I should refund. Does anyone know if you can turn off thirst and hunger completely? I know that would make the game pointless to play but if I can turn these off and just build a base it might be worth playing for a little bit. Although I suspect I won't be able to find the required base building items on the first island.

I have tried to google a bunch of questions and all the answers are from 2023 before the final release. That is annoying as most of the information is now incorrect.

I think I saw an advanced difficulty?? I am wondering if that option allows you to fine tune all things like thirst, hunger, disease, etc. and not just pick a preset like easy, normal or hard.

I read on article but can't remember where it was that said something about changing the day rate from the default to a lower number. The OP said 8 worked well. Since sleeping and crafting drain your stats how does the day cycle work exactly? Does it increase crafting time but decrease stat drain? Does it actually make the daytime longer?

I don't remember seeing a tutorial in this game.

[Cougarific]

Originally posted by emitfudd:

I have played many survival games but constantly worrying about dying of thirst or hunger is not fun at all.

Originally posted by emitfudd:

I see this game frequently being compared to the long dark. I tried to like that game but quit after a few hours.

These are the two most realistic survival games on the market, in which worrying about thirst, hunger and shelter from the elements are actual concerns.

If you don't enjoy these mechanics, you shouldn't play (and haven't been playing) actual survival games.

[Soma]

Does not look like you can turn it off completely but you can turn it WAY down. If you want the most casual experience available I recommend these settings.

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198036593664/screenshot/2501265323591731891/

Would be nice to have tool tips on the settings when you mouse over them. Example, in the settings above it says tool durability "low" would that be they break more often or less often?

[emitfudd]

Originally posted by Soma:

Does not look like you can turn it off completely but you can turn it WAY down. If you want the most casual experience available I recommend these settings.

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198036593664/screenshot/2501265323591731891/

Would be nice to have tool tips on the settings when you mouse over them. Example, in the settings above it says tool durability "low" would that be they break more often or less often?

This is helpful. Thanks. I guess I will try starting a new game and use these settings. If it still sucks I can always use Wemod.

[emitfudd]

I still can't find any useful information on changing the day cycle. Anyone?

[Soma]

When you start a game you can change that:

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198036593664/screenshot/2501265323591942659/

You can set it from 1X up to 64X with the default being 36X.

Edit: Again would be nice to have a tool tip upon mouse over. Not sure if daytime speed effects night also. I would assume that lowering it from 36X to say 8X would make the days about 4 times longer? Does that make nights about 4 times longer also?

I might be able to test it later today or maybe someone knows the answer?

[Jimbo]

The game has alot of settings you can adjust. I would suggest lowering the settings for hunger and thirst in the creation of your game.

I also prefer to lower the amount I have to repair.

[emitfudd]

Originally posted by Soma:

When you start a game you can change that:

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198036593664/screenshot/2501265323591942659/

You can set it from 1X up to 64X with the default being 36X.

Edit: Again would be nice to have a tool tip upon mouse over. Not sure if daytime speed effects night also. I would assume that lowering it from 36X to say 8X would make the days about 4 times longer? Does that make nights about 4 times longer also?

I might be able to test it later today or maybe someone knows the answer?

I am starting a new game for the 3rd time. I am setting the day speed to 8. I will see how long the days last compared to my first attempt with the default 36. Those days went way too fast. If I notice the days lasting significantly longer on 8 I will keep playing unless I muck something up. If they are still too fast I will try again at a setting of 1. Also will keep track of how long night lasts.

Yes, lack of tool tips or a tutorial in the settings menu sucks.

[emitfudd]

So far with day cycle at 8, the starting area with the tutorial seemed to go by just as fast. Now I am at the first island and daytime is lasting pretty long. Haven't had a night cycle here yet. I will update after a night cycle.