Recent reviews by ZOLY

Very unfortunate the developers decided to go the route of further progression being locked behind a paid DLC which costs nearly the same as the base game. You would hope the developer would try and revive the player base which is already so low by providing content that allows every single player to explore more, discover new things, further level up to everyone, not lock it behind a paid DLC.
It was a fun ~230 hours of game time, which was basically all the game time required to more or less complete the game maxing out on most skills, upgrading gear to max gear score and trying out all available expeditions, missions etc. Everything else is a repetitive task of doing the same thing over, and over again.
Can't bring myself to recommend this game when further content and progression is locked behind a DLC, what a terrible choice and what a terrible waste.

Frustrating when starting off (at least on Nightmare difficulty) but as you play it and keep learning new things, develop strategies, understand mechanic it gets super fun and addicting. You're always kept on your toes, you almost never have nothing to do, you always get to whether finding supplies for your community, upgrading the base, doing missions, finding plague hearts, finding new recruits, avoiding getting killed every 5 seconds. Overall in the short amount of time I've spent playing this game I've had a lot of fun and can't point out any negative aspects of the game.

So far, very fun, easy going game!
Lots to do, overall nice looking game, runs good too.

A genuine borefest that has been going on for nearly 10 years being in the alpha stage of development, hence it being buggy asf. Features that should have been in the game prior to release are being added every 6 months to a year and considered as "updates".

Can't think of how else to describe this game other than "massively disappointing". Only thing this game has going for it is the overall look of the game, the seasons, the world itself (though the host of coop session doesn't actually get the "seasons").
When you're able to discover pretty much everything there is to discover including finishing the "story" (I'll get back to it later) in 15 hours, that's just embarrassing. This many years waiting for this game and here we are, with 15 hours to show for it. You find everything so quickly and easily nothing feels like an accomplishment.
The GPS eliminates the need to explore "mindlessly and freely" because everything is shown to you, where you need to go to progress.
There's no sense in making any "better" tools because you can find the modern axe so easily which deals a lot of damage, has good block and can chop a tree until you find the katana. This huge, new modern inventory is useless. When all you need is a axe/katana, a couple of cans of energy drink and a few energy bars along with pills, what is the point in this massive inventory, filled with useless garbage?
Hunting, using traps, farming is just useless because of the amount of loot you get from caves and these "interest points". So much for the "struggle to survive" aspect.
Oh, you're tired, your stamina is low, you should go to sleep to recover it! And then here we are again, the amount of loot you get, you just pop an energy drink and an energy bar and you're good for another day, no need to sleep!
Using energy drinks and bars completely eliminates the reason to even go back to your base or using temporary shelter while exploring other than to save your game when turning it off.
The AI is just.. annoying more than anything. Not a single cannibal was ever challenging. If you leave your base and not come back for a while, then no cannibals spawn around your base. When you ARE in your base, they just spawn right outside your base rather than actually coming from somewhere.
Even the caves themselves are just pathetic compared to even the first game. All caves in this game are just the same, small in size with not much to explore in them. You enter a cave, kill 4 cannibals, loot, run, crouch and you reached the end of the cave.
The story. Overall, just, what? A whole of 3 cutscenes throughout the game, including the very first one when the helicopter you're on crashes and the very last one, where the "story mode" ends? Other than the whole 3 cutscenes you get to read like 10 pieces of paper scattered throughout the map, how exciting! I can't decide whether this can actually be called a "story mode" and I'm starting to think this was just some.. side mission to something rather than this story mode.

It has taken this long to develop this game and all there is to show for is a pistol, a shotgun, a pretty much non-existent story-mode, 2 AI that will "help" you and basic things like a damn water collector being removed.

Overall the game feels so empty with nothing to do past 15 hours of gameplay, feels so rushed with just the most basic features of "survival" added which includes hunger and thirst which can actually be easily ignored since nothing really happens if you do.
When will this cash grabbing trend of "early access games" end when all it is just a DEMO of a game with the amount of content included.
I could make this review so, so much longer just after playing this game for 15 hours, goes to show how empty and disappointing it is in the end.

Worth all the money it costs, fun, easy to get into.
The store for the equipment is just about the dumbest thing this game could have though, it's so overly complicated for what should be such a simple mechanic.

Very fun to play with friends, quite a few maps.

Game has potential, but until the major bugs are fixed, it's not worth buying. Stuns don't work, you get hit even after the hunter has been stunned, you still get seated even though the hunter is stunned, hitboxes are laughable amongst other game-breaking bugs. Fun when playing with friends for the first couple of hours until you start noticing all the bugs, which just completely ruins the game.

could be worse

Finally, been waiting for a Baltic expansion forever!