izigame.me

My Experience so far

Currently the game starts you in the middle of a Jungle with no tool or weapons.
Even after the 0.0.0.1.2.9 Patch which noted that you do now start with a default tool, the Beating Stick, this is not the case though, at least for me in SP.
Your character does not attack or do anything without anything in its hands, which is fine. I'm just mentioning it so you know there is nothing wrong with your controls when you hit the attack/action keys without anything on you.
To get started crafting you must find one of a Villages which are located somewhere near the beach areas. When you walk around and see gigantic Rock formations, walk to those as the Villages are usually close by.
Though, depending on where you spawn, finding a Village did take me anything from 5 minutes to 40 minutes.
When you find the Village you will find your first Log, pick it up and using the crafting diagrams provided by the devs in the "Day one Survival guide" announcement start making some sticks.
The 4 sticks will then let you make the "Beating Stick" which will be your first tool. the Beating Stick, which is a branch, lets you now fell trees and mine small rock formations for rocks and ore, diamonds, sapphire, sulfur, etc..
Ones you have a few rocks and made some more sticks, you can make the stone hammer which is a slightly better tool, chopping trees a little faster, I think, though that could be just my imagination.
Crafting your first building is a little time consuming as you need 4 -8 logs for each item, such as walls, doorways, walls with window holes, foundations, etc.. Placing them is easy and very straight forward.
At this point I played 2 satisfying hours of doing the basics of this game.
According to the crafting diagrams and the devs, there is tons of items already in the game, but I only found a few, such as plants or potatoes, which are plants you just hit with your stick/hammer and then pick up, similar to the potato plants in Stranded Deep.
You can craft a workbench as well but it takes 10 x Iron Ore. Iron Ore I was only able to get from destroying the small rock formations. Though Iron Ore is only a chance and those rock formations are scarce so that will take you a good while.
Up to this point this all sounds great, while the game didn't really offer anything unique on functionality or features yet, I was looking forward to its more complex and unique crafting features, like tailoring, or making a reloading table, workbench , etc..
As I got ready to get more wood, one of the trees ragdolled out and smacked me in the face, killing me instantly while the Tree continue to fly across the map.
Dying, spawned me somewhere random in the Jungle, though I was able to keep everything I had on me which was OK, so of we go find our base. After another 30m I finally reached the Village again I started my base in.
As I reached the Village the game crashed. That's OK, no problem, it is Early Access.
When I logged back into the game I was re-spawned in the middle of the Jungle starting from scratch. I just lost 2-3 hours of gameplay. Assuming this was only due to the crash I spent the next 1-2 hours re-doing everything I already had done, just to get back to the point I can continue grinding for Iron Ore.
It was late, I played for 4 hours now and needed a break. So I exited the game to the main menu and had some food.
When I got back I clicked to continue my single player.
I was now again looking at a screen with all my items and work gone. Wiped.

Conclusion

While the game seems to offer so much in functionality already, the only way right now you can experience it is by playing a massive session and hoping the game doesn't crash.
For me the close to 6 hours I spent on this game so far were walking and wood chopping/mining without any feeling of progress or the ability to continue at a later point.
While I was on the fence for a while, it was for that single reason that I cannot recommend the game in this current state.
I know Early Access games contain bugs but the game is selling for €15 at this time (after the 15% discount) and I feel it is not worth that price at this time in the current state it is in.
Ones the issue is fixed and I can save my state and can continue my game to access the other crafting diagrams from Workbenches, Looms, Reloading Stations, etc.... I shall re-visit my review of this game and re-evaluate it.

EA Disclaimer

Before anyone starts mentioning "This is EA, relax, the game will eventually be OK"
I do NOT buy or review EA games for promises, awesome road maps, developer’s best intentions or things that might make it into the game at some stage. Those are values I take into account when supporting game developers on Kickstarter but not when buying EA games on STEAM :)
EA games, I buy and review for what I get right now, taking very, very much into consideration that bugs are acceptable in EA but also take into consideration that the developer felt the game was ready and in a good enough state to be going to the public and be worth the price specified.