So first off let me say there's a lot of good stuff here. The world is built well, the atmosphere is perfect, the visuals are good, the enemies are cool and well thought-out (and often quite terrifying). You're playing the part of an under-powered scavenger struggling to keep your colony alive. The combat is rewarding, and scary enough to make you think twice about it. - a great concept overall making for very unique game play.

So why the negative review?

It's probably what every other negative review says, but I'll put it here again - WATER

So if you haven't already read about this, here's the gameplay loop:
1. Start at your base, called "The Innards"
2. Gear up and select a mission
3. Go through your mission (15 minutes - 1 hour + depending on play style)
4. Return to your base with the loot you've collected

OK but what's water and why does it matter? - Essentially, water is what runs your base. There is a limit to how much water you can take back with you each mission. In the early game, you can only take one "large item" (one unit of water is a "large item") back with you to your base. As you collect more water, more people move in to your base, and more and more shop vendors will sell to you, granting access to better weapons and gear which lets you be more aggressive and take more risks in missions.

So this in itself isn't a bad system - gradual progression - there's a reason to keep playing. EXCEPT - the amount of water in your base diminishes over time. Not IN-GAME time, REAL time. When your base runs out of water completely all of your progress resets (including your inventory, money, everything - just like starting a new game). If you are a casual player playing 1-2 times per week, only playing for an hour or two each time, this game is basically arcade-style. There is no progression. You're going to be low-level playing hide-and-seek with enemies - and maybe you'll get better over a few missions - maybe even get enough water to unlock the first store, but the next time you play you're going to have to do it all over again.

A lot of other people talk about the glitches, the AI, tanks spontaneously going into orbit, but those things don't bother me in an early access game. The devs for this game are excellent. The're actively working on the bugs, and they have a good read on what the community wants out of the game - actively tweaking game play to reflect what the community wants. However, on this one water issue they've held fast - even introducing "water thieves" which can further accelerate your inevitable game reset. They're well aware of the fact that a large portion of their player base would like to see changes to this system (most of the negative reviews mention this, as well as many of the positive ones), and they've responded by doubling down for some unknown reason.

Water mechanics aside - I like this game, and I'd even recommend buying it if you find the concept interesting and don't mind a challenge (this is how I choose view this game). Just don't come in with the expectation that you can casually play this game and get to experience all of it's content (thus why I can't recommend it overall).

terrible water mechanic that makes you lose your crap if you dont play - this is a video game i dont care how much people will argue its "for the hardcore", i dont want leisure to turn into a job. the time you take to farm water is not an investment, its extortion

if you want to give up your life to save all your looted kit being being stolen by the devs after 24+ hours of not playing this is the game for you, I on the other hand have a library of games I can play when I want to play & not have to worry about losing kit if I'm working away for a few days, not some half baked mechanic that has alienated casuals like me, still this is EA so the devs may look at this off putting mechanic & implement a hardcore mode for the tweekers & a "game mode" for the filthy casuals like me