PROs:
✅ Fun exploration
✅ Interesting creature design
✅ NPC assistants are a nice addition
✅ Great visuals — Unity engine is used really well
✅ Fun and funny jolly co-op experience
✅ Materials gathering and ziplining feel satisfying
✅ Story is intriguing for the most part (nothing amazing though)
CONs:
❌ Multiplayer bugs and random disconnects
❌ Really awkward and messy building system
❌ Odd inventory quantity inconsistencies
❌ Guns suck (might as well have kept it melee-only)
❌ Lack of QoL features make a lot of stuff tedious and annoying
❌ Vehicle hitboxes are moronic (smallest rock hidden in a bush can full-stop you)
❌ Babysitting ally NPCs is annoying AF — they can permadie
❌ Pixel-perfect interaction prompts (some things are almost impossible to destroy without scrapping everything around them first)
❌ Very blind adventuring
❌ Most food recipes feel like too much effort — boiled water + dried fish becomes the go-to
❌ Final unlocks are interesting but kinda pointless
❌ Building system feels too creative/advanced for its own good — not practical and very tedious
Comments:
What I liked: The world is beautiful and finding points of interest can lead to fun (or terrifying) surprises. It’s mostly a hiking game, but over time you unlock better ways to traverse the island. Creature designs are neat, just like the first game. Ziplining logs back to base and setting up collectors is genuinely satisfying.
It’s also a Unity game that surprisingly runs and looks pretty good — way better optimized than most Unity titles I’ve played.
The addition of NPC helpers is nice. Kelvin can chop trees, haul logs, and collect materials for you while you do other stuff, which makes base building feel a bit less painful. Even though their AI is pretty rough — they get stuck constantly, make dumb decisions, and require constant babysitting so they don’t die or accidentally kill themselves (they can permadie). I honestly recommend just using the immortal NPCs mod. On the bright side, watching them do stupid shit and dressing them up like idiots is pretty comical.
Speaking of NPCs. Wish the affinity system would have more clear indication on what lowers or heightens the affinity.
The main issues (besides the general lack of QoL) showed up hard in multiplayer: random disconnects and weird bugs. The inventory system is unique but frustrating — no upgrades, and stack sizes make zero sense (some tiny items only let you carry 5, others 20). Storage is very limited too. I wish there was an easier way to manage shelves with bigger stacks & auto-sort nearby items.
Hitboxes are another pain. Vehicles? Spot a bush and there’s probably a tiny rock inside that will completely stop you or knock you off your Knight. Trying to interact with clustered objects? Good luck spending 10 minutes pixel-hunting the perfect mouse position. Built a nice roof? Have fun removing one panel without dismantling half the building first.
Story and general adventuring feel very blind. You can easily do things out of order and then struggle to make sense of the notes. You’ll end up re-running the same locations multiple times because you need specific gear you haven’t unlocked yet. Definitely drop GPS markers or draw your own map notes.
A lot of food recipes aren’t worth the effort, so we mostly stuck to boiled water and dried fish from collectors. Caves provided the rest. Picking a base spot near a printer and basic resources is usually the smartest move.
The building system is unique and interesting idea-wise, but damn is it buggy and messy. Sometimes the game just decides you can’t place something even though the supports look perfect. Other times you can’t break a single piece without salvaging everything around it first. Options feel limited and everything takes way too long.
Also — why do the guns feel so bad? Bow, explosives and melee were almost always the better choice.
As for missing QoL nice haves – better material storage, item sorting, smarter stack sizes, easier late-game mass transport, more food preservation, improved NPC management, better bow aiming, and faster note browsing (console-style scrolling is painfully slow). Many annoyances can be fixed with mods, but not all.
Overall, it was an okay game with a unique approach to a lot of things. Exploration was fun and the shenanigans with friends were hilarious. With a group it’s not overly difficult or time-consuming, but I can’t imagine wanting to solo this.
If you’re looking for a survival game with challenge, mystery, spooks, and an enjoyable open world to hike through — especially with friends — then it’s a good pick. Solo though? Probably frustrating and grindy. But if you want a survival game known for a smooth building system and solid resource management… I’d look elsewhere.
🌟 Total score: 6/10 🌟
Game status:
✅ Finished
Reviewing info: How I review/rate & other info on my website through my profile. (desozone)