I've been very very hesitant on buying another game that is early access, as I'm getting sick of how they never seem to get finished.
I put this on wishlist, and saw their recent update that improved structures in the game. I was going to wait till they make it possible to build castles, but I've been craving a game like this, so i jumped in with a buddy and been playing 94 hours in the past 3 weeks. I have a newborn and a hard living to keep my wife home, so the fact that I put that many hours into this game that quickly, is a testiment in itself.
There is a lot of progression, and it can feel very grinding. As someone that likes to mine a lot in most games, I will say, the mining in this game is boring as ♥♥♥♥. However, there is a reason why they did it like they did, cause you're technically supposed to depend on your villagers to do a lot of the grinding for you.
You're basically the Manager/Supervisor that delegates, but actually works hard with your villagers to improve your village.

It can be a pro/con depending on the person, that this game requires you to really micro manage your village. My buddy and I have like 30 to 40 villagers, all with vastly different skills, and we have to set different priorites to each one of them, and some we had to make sure they stay armed and ready for war. (our reservist who will still work during peace time).

I do wish there was more ways to tell your villagers what they can and can't do. My archers like to use the expensive arrows for hunting when I rather them use simple arrows, but they use up the sturdy arrows and have none for defense.

Buidings in the game is a pain in the ass, they are FUN to build progression, but trying to move from one tier to the next is almost impossible without just moving you're entire base. I wish they just made it where you upgraded a building, and it stays that size but just gets taller and nicer looking. Instead you have to tear down the first building if you want to save space and put down the new building which sometimes takes up so much space! The tier 3 pisses me off, cause they have a useless fence all around the building that takes up almost half a football field! Mind you, it takes a long time to build these unless you have dedicated laborers to do nothing but construct for you.

otherwise, we took over half the map so far, and we are having a blast.

POS: To whatever Dev, who decided to make bandit camps that has amazing structures disapear after clearing, is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and can suck it. We thought we could build our first base inside one, and then we came back and it was gone. LOL. WHY you make a poor decision?

Needs more work. Keeping an eye on it to come back and play it again. Fun Building, lacking things to fight, like bosses.

I spent a lot of time building my house. Honestly the best building system I've seen in a survival game. Trying to get my friends to play with me before I spoil too much of the game for myself.
I do wish the jumping animation was not so lame, and the combat seems very basic. Otherwise, there is a big ass skill tree to spec into w/e you want, but still can play with other weapons effectively.

I really love this game. I've played strategy games that are based around magical worlds or middle ages. This game reminds me a little of Stellaris, huge difference, but you can customize any faction and have a different game each time. I played a game with 7 random factions, and happened to have 3 of them that had the same last names. My quest was to destroy all 3 of them. They were evil brothers lol. I never seen that in the 40 or so game i've played, but each one is different.
They games are very long. I haven't been able to try this with friends, but I think it would be so much fun with friends.

I've played Stronghold games, Warhammer games, Age of Empires games, Stellaris... and I think this might be my favorite game now.

can't scroll out very far, so the buildings and where you're looking is in your face.

If you play against the AI, it's very stressful cause they are not human, so they can control one little unit that harasses your workers while you're trying to build up for the end game. it makes it almost impossible to chase 1 unit then you're base is under attack by a horde and now you played yourself cause you were chasing that one mf'ng unit.
AI should not be running away if they only have one unit left, they should make the AI fight to the end. If it's a group, then i understand. but no one has the capacity to control 1 f'n unit while also building up a large army. Thats the only reason playing AI Hard, is hard...

can't pick your own colors. that's dumb.
sometimes end game will lag tf out of your computer.

This game is taking me forever to get to end game, and its so much fun getting to it.
I'm enjoying it, and can see myself continue the enjoyment. I hope they plan to come out with DLCs, which there is a lot of room for. They designed it really well.
I feel very immersed in the game, and i love making a factory base that has so many different avenues of approach to how you want to make an automated base.