For as pretty as it is, the fun is sucked out by just about everything else. If you've read the negative reviews then you know what the problems are: buggy, ill conceived, rushed, poor inventory management, no way to avoid cut scenes, etc etc etc.

Save your money and come back to it in a year...or buy it on sale and let it ripen in your library. Either way it's not ready for Prime Time.

It's really got potential, but there are too many things about this game in it's current state that keep me from recommending it for the price.

The things I like:

The "hidden" treasures spread around the islands encourage exploration instead of simply gathering what you need to maintain and progress like many games of this type.

Finding recipes for new things to build is quite satisfying, and the story, lore, and method of doling it out a little at a time seem to really work.

The graphics look good.

You can swim your crashed aircraft to shore and launch it 40 feet through the air by whacking it with a stick.

The things that keep me from playing it:

The greatest gaming sin you can commit: Unskippable cut-scenes. While learning how to play and dying a few times at the start I was about to punch my monitor each time. you can't even save your game until you get to a certain point in progression. So you have to watch what feels like a 10 minute dialogue before your character seems to crash on purpose by simply letting go of the controls of a plane. It's okay though because a safety system on the plane tells you to brace for impact after the impact. You notice dumb things when being forced to watch them on repeat.

It performs poorly and has what feels like longer than average load times.

Fall damage is crazy. I don't recommend hopping 5 feet from rocks to the sandy beach. You'll shatter bones and rupture internal organs.

Sharks spawning 10 feet in front of me not just sometimes, but constantly.

Last main point: This game is considered and sold as a beta experience, but betas are supposed to be feature complete by my understanding of the definition. There are still whole branches of the skill tree for crafting that are not implemented yet. This makes it an alpha state in my opinion.


All that being said. I have put enough time into the game that I can not get a refund, so I will keep an eye on this one and if the updates interest me enough to play more and things improve so will this review.

Look, look, look, I know it's EA, but these are the dev's own words: "'We felt early access was the best route for us to work with the community to develop the game as they can play..." Then why in heaven's name was this put into EA when there are so many fundamentals missing or buggy? Case in point: you cannot store anything on your raft, even though you need to schlep things from island to island. There are core parts of the game missing. And the grind! Omg. You can grind to upgrade your equipment... but the upgrades only mean you are rewarded with a tool that grinds longer! Is there a difference in how you sail based on different raft foundations? No. But why not grind for the foundation that requires more rare items? Is there a difference in speed depending on the number of your sails? No. But you can waste materials building them. Is there a difference in health depending on what you eat? No (I ate coconuts the entire time). But you can spend time and weapon endurance hunting. If ya wanna.

I think the game has a lot of potential, no question, but my advice to you is wait until the devs get the fundamentals down pat. Meanwhile, play Green Hell or the Forest.