izigame.me

Having played a lot of survival/crafting games, this one stands out for its environment, combat, and progression.
Arachnophobia warning - skip if you don't care
I've always been a bit unsettled by spiders, but also found them fascinating from a distance. I don't like them on or too near me, but I didn't know I had arachnophobia until I played this game. There are several different types of spiders in this game and I'm pretty sure it would be impossible to complete without fighting at least some of them. You are going to encounter many of them that will chase you regardless. Most of them are bigger than you, some significantly. There is a setting to change their appearance, but it breaks immersion pretty bad because they become absurd looking. I had a REALLY hard time getting through the game for this reason alone as it turned it into a horror jump scare game at times and I would have to take a break after some of the encounters. That said, once I learned all of their attack patterns and how to kill them, they became less of a high threat and I was able to manage my fear a bit better. Playing with friends also helped, but I wasn't always playing with friends.
Environment
The environment in this game is obviously very unique as you are in a backyard, shrunken down to about the size of a common ant. For me, the novelty of this never really wears off and it's always neat to run into standard household items at a massive scale. The game world is built around this, and there are different 'biomes' represented by common back yard fixtures that require proper gear similar to Zelda temples (water is a koi pond, desert is a sandbox, volcano is an overturned charcoal grill, etc).
The graphics have a bit of a cartoony feel to them, but everything is crisp, the lighting is nice, and the art style is consistent across all of the biomes and creatures. I personally find the game to be quite pretty compared to some others in the genre.
Building and Crafting
The building system is solid, not amazing. I would describe it as a hybrid between ARK where there are predefined pieces you snap together, and the forest where the pieces you place create a ghost version of your structure, and you have to fill it in with materials to complete the construction. Similar to the forest, there is an aspect to it that involves manually hauling materials in your hands (not inventory), but they give you tools to help with this such as pallets for grass planks and weed stems. As long as the pallets are close enough to where you are trying to build, you will automatically build from them and save yourself some running back and forth. A big tip is that the pallets can be relocated with material on them, so you can move your pallets back and forth between where you gather materials and where you are building. Also notable is that there is not really a stability mechanic in that you can build as many things off of a single point of contact as you want, but each link in the structure supports the next, so if the one point of contact gets destroyed, the whole thing comes down. This also means when you build your ghost structure, you have to complete the point of contact first, then the next thing, then the next. You can't fill in unsupported pieces in the middle.
Similar to building, crafting is set up to work out of containers in a radius. As long as you place all of your chests and workbenches near each other, you never have to grab items out of your chests to use them for crafting, this extends to crafting from your character inventory. The radius is also pretty generous so you don't have to be too careful about your placement of everything. If you craft something from your inventory or the workbench, it is instant and the product is placed in your inventory. For other stations that process materials, they take time but have their own inventories so you can go about your business while they work and retrieve your materials later.
Combat
The combat is good. Armor is varied and offers different perks (run faster, attack boost, carry more, draw more aggro in a group, etc). There are weapons with different damage types that are more or less effective depending on the bug. 1H, 2H, Bows, Shields, Magic Staves. You can parry (for the souls-like fans, you can take down a wolf spider with the first tool you make if you're good enough), and there are augments that can be applied to the weapons (poison, cold, fire, etc). There are also consumables you can craft that grant temporary buffs.
There are several bosses that have different themes, mechanics, and move-sets. I didn't find any of them to be particularly frustrating, but some are more difficult than others. Having the right weapons, armor, and buffs to exploit their weaknesses and mitigate their strengths makes the job easier, and patience is key. If you take your time and learn their moves you can beat them, trying to ham-fist your way through and stat check them isn't going to work. Bear in mind this game is not Dark Souls/Elden Ring so don't let this scare you off, but it does require a level of coordination and engagement with the combat that might turn some people off.
There is also a neat mutation (perk) system, where typically if you do something enough you end up with a mutation to help you do that thing better or easier. E.g. cut down enough grass for planks, and you get a mutation to cut down grass in less swings. Kill enough wolf spiders and you get a perk that makes you immune to their powerful poison bite. You start with 2 but can unlock up to 5 mutation slots and swap the mutations you are using to approach different tasks, similar to swapping different armors, weapons, and tools. This adds another layer of complexity to how you kit yourself that keeps things fresh.
Progression
The story is serviceable, nothing special but it is fun and complete so there is a soft end to the game despite it being a sandbox. A decent amount of the story has to be found on cassette tapes that you pick up, so it is possible to miss some finer details or musings of the scientist that is responsible for your predicament, but you'll get the meat and potatoes regardless.
Progression is mainly achieved via completing quests and scanning every new material you find at designated stations. Each time you scan a new item or complete a quest, you will earn the game's main currency 'raw science', which you can also find deposits of hidden across the map. Scanning new materials will sometimes unlock new recipes. Other recipes and some perks must be purchased with raw science. Generally speaking, the different areas of the map are gated by obstacles, hazards, and enemies that you are not ready to deal with until you collect materials and unlock recipes from elsewhere that allow you to properly gear for the challenge.
Conclusion:
This game is one of my favorite survival crafting games. I don't think there is any one thing it does better than all other survival games, but I think as a package it is one of the most well rounded and polished of the games I've played. For reference, said games in no particular order of preference would be be: 7D2D, Valheim, ARK, Sunkenlands, Enshrouded, Icarus, Nightingale, Stranded Deep, The Forest 1&2, Green Hell, Raft, Smalland, and of course Minecraft.