Okay so, first impressions were okay. AI was a bit janky, controls and animations are a bit jank, performance is sort of not good. None of that actually matters too much right now, its an early access title, these things will be worked on with our feedback and I'm sure alot is placeholder so that we can actually play the game.

That being said, I want to bring attention to the water mechanic. Water is a resource that is tied both to progression and your loss condition. Getting more water unlocks more traders and features in your hideout, something that's a cool idea.
Running out of it entirely causes everybody to die, and essentially does a game reset minus your character EXP. Your items get deleted, that sort of thing.

The issue is that this water mechanic is tied to real life time, not just when you're playing, when you aren't playing either. A barrel of water equals 24 hours of time you buy yourself before your material progress is deleted entirely. The devs claim so that this has you thinking about FW and are anxious about it even when not playing, and is explained to be "fun".

A bold choice, however that will ultimately turn this game into a chore no matter what gets fixed, no matter what gets better, no matter what gets worse. Making it so that it's mandatory for you to return to this game and find a few barrels of water so that you can keep your progress between breaks on it, or hell even keeping your progress over the work week will make anybody eventually dislike it. Instead of being able to play whatever you want, this game demands that you put down whatever it is you're doing and dedicate some time to it if you want to keep what you've worked for.

They got feedback, negative mostly, about the system before this launch, and their response was to make water more common, not really fixing anything, just making it a non issue while you're actively playing.

Hopefully these devs take the feedback that a commitment of this nature is sort of a deal breaker for a huge number of people. This doesn't make the game "hard" or any more "hardcore". There are hundreds of hardcore experiences that don't punish you for taking breaks. This makes me afraid to get into it because what if my other commitments wipe away everything I've worked for here.
If you're a fan of the kinda game that demands your attention like this then sure go ahead, I'm sure in time that this will be a great product. The art direction is pretty good and it's a cool setting. Buuuuut, there's a pretty big elephant in the room right now. Hopefully they shoo it out or alter it somehow.

Quick edit. Just wanted to mention a bug in the game that scared the ♥♥♥♥ out of me and I thought was funny. A functional tank was somehow flung towards me, almost crushing me in the process.
I had fun with my time so far. That one mechanic is what's scaring me off.

ONE MORE EDIT FOR NOW.
Instead of just saying "This is is ♥♥♥♥, fix it.", I should ALSO say a potential way to fix it. I imagine the devs would like to keep some semblance of punishment for not playing, which while I personally don't like it at all, compromises would in fact alienate less people. Maybe instead of losing everything in your stash, you just lose everybody. No traders, no help, no lifeline. Just you, and whatever goodies you have left to try and make a comeback. This is still punishing, but in a way to where it might scare off less people. It would still be a chore to avoid it, but maybe one that more people could live with.

Another edit, 9/25/2024
I did NOT imagine this many people would see this, if you're reading this now and were interested in the game before please, please check in every so often to see where the game is at. As an early access literally everything talked about in this review could be changed, so please for the love of god keep checking in. This game looks like it has some really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good potential, it's just this one mechanic.

Okay so, first impressions were okay. AI was a bit janky, controls and animations are a bit jank, performance is sort of not good. None of that actually matters too much right now, its an early access title, these things will be worked on with our feedback and I'm sure alot is placeholder so that we can actually play the game. That being said, I want to bring attention to the water mechanic. Water is a resource that is tied both to progression and your loss condition. Getting more water unlocks more traders and features in your hideout, something that's a cool idea. Running out of it entirely causes everybody to die, and essentially does a game reset minus your character EXP. Your items get deleted, that sort of thing. The issue is that this water mechanic is tied to real life time, not just when you're playing, when you aren't playing either. A barrel of water equals 24 hours of time you buy yourself before your material progress is deleted entirely. The devs claim so that this has you thinking about FW and are anxious about it even when not playing, and is explained to be "fun". A bold choice, however that will ultimately turn this game into a chore no matter what gets fixed, no matter what gets better, no matter what gets worse. Making it so that it's mandatory for you to return to this game and find a few barrels of water so that you can keep your progress between breaks on it, or hell even keeping your progress over the work week will make anybody eventually dislike it. Instead of being able to play whatever you want, this game demands that you put down whatever it is you're doing and dedicate some time to it if you want to keep what you've worked for. They got feedback, negative mostly, about the system before this launch, and their response was to make water more common, not really fixing anything, just making it a non issue while you're actively playing. Hopefully these devs take the feedback that a commitment of this nature is sort of a deal breaker for a huge number of people. This doesn't make the game "hard" or any more "hardcore". There are hundreds of hardcore experiences that don't punish you for taking breaks. This makes me afraid to get into it because what if my other commitments wipe away everything I've worked for here. If you're a fan of the kinda game that demands your attention like this then sure go ahead, I'm sure in time that this will be a great product. The art direction is pretty good and it's a cool setting. Buuuuut, there's a pretty big elephant in the room right now. Hopefully they shoo it out or alter it somehow. Quick edit. Just wanted to mention a bug in the game that scared the shit out of me and I thought was funny. A functional tank was somehow flung towards me, almost crushing me in the process. I had fun with my time so far. That one mechanic is what's scaring me off. ONE MORE EDIT FOR NOW. Instead of just saying "This is is shit, fix it.", I should ALSO say a potential way to fix it. I imagine the devs would like to keep some semblance of punishment for not playing, which while I personally don't like it at all, compromises would in fact alienate less people. Maybe instead of losing everything in your stash, you just lose everybody. No traders, no help, no lifeline. Just you, and whatever goodies you have left to try and make a comeback. This is still punishing, but in a way to where it might scare off less people. It would still be a chore to avoid it, but maybe one that more people could live with. Another edit, 9/25/2024 I did NOT imagine this many people would see this, if you're reading this now and were interested in the game before please, please check in every so often to see where the game is at. As an early access literally everything talked about in this review could be changed, so please for the love of god keep checking in. This game looks like it has some really fucking good potential, it's just this one mechanic.