Version at time of Review: v1.52 @ 207 hours:

The game has me come back over and over again as it has about the right amount of survival without being overbearing, base building, and exploration.

A lot of the game mechanics are randomized which makes each play through unique enough to be fun.

As the game is in early access, there are still a few bugs but nothing game breaking, which the developer is very responsive in fixing if one is found. And being EA, the dev is very open to suggestions and comments as development progresses.

Survival is not just food and water, which both are important, but also environmental survival. Things like sunburn if your in the sun too long without protection. Poison from spiders or scorpions. Attacks from spiders, komodo dragons, and tigers. Food can come from seagulls, crabs, animal meat, plants and herbs, among other things. Your core body temperature must also be regulated so you don't get too hot or cold which is based on the environment be it a sunny hot day or a cold rainy night, swimming, or even standing next to a fire for too long.

You must also regulate your meat versus plant food intake or you may get a vitamin deficiency. You can also be poisoned by insects, or by eating bad meat. But don't worry, there are remedies for most afflictions, you just have to find the correct plants or herbs.

It sounds like a lot in these survival aspects but it is not overly a burden and is actually funner than it sounds.

There is a story to follow, as well as finding 'blueprints' scattered around the islands, that will help you on your quest to escape.

In order to explore the islands you will need to build a raft and build things on the raft such as containers for collecting loot, a water collector so you always have some fresh water, a canopy to protect you from the sun, a cooking barrel so you can always cook your meat so you don't get parasites from eating it raw.

I would recommend the game in its current, very playable and enjoyable state. The road is still long for a finished game so if that bothers you then skip it, but add it to your wish list for later.

Why Salt 2? (11/13/2022(
Better graphics, more details, more island types, islands have 'special' locations, including interior dungeons, equipment/weapon bonuses you can pick, player skills and leveling, just to name a few things. And since it is early access the road map has a lot more features in store for the players.

There are a few things that still need improvement, but overall the game is very playable for anyone that likes exploration type games. Your ship is your home that you can decorate and place crafting workbenches on. Decorations like various light sources, beds, chests, paintings, and various small things like ropes, skulls, chairs, mugs, and the like.

Explore islands to find the supplies and resources you need to advance. Plants, loot chests at special locations, merchant towns where you can barter, and job boards to take side missions. You can hunt deer, boar and bear, or relax on the side of your boat and go fishing.

As you sail from island to island, you map the islands using your sextant and map so you know where you have been and where your heading as the compass guides your way. While your sailing, you can smelt ores to make ingots or craft weapons, clothing and equipment.

Land Ho!!!

Fun little gem of a game, with guns and spells. Unique game world with a lot of quests and things to do. Combat is fun and can be challenging at times if you're not prepared. The visual style is retro and adds flavor to the game.
When it is on sale, you really cannot beat the price for what your getting in return.

The same game genre as Master or Orion, this game is quite enjoyable as you can tell by my over 200 hours of game play. Different races with unique racial abilities, home planets and some unique technologies. You set the parameters for the universe, which can set native races, pirates, how many AI players, how rich/poor worlds are, and even how fast the game plays. You research technologies, grow food, mine resources, and build production facilities. As for diplomacy, you can form trade/research agreements, form alliances and much more. (There are no spies.)

Bought this game several years ago and after playing a while, figured out I did not know what I was supposed to do, or even how to do anything.

When I was running low on gas, I drove all around the gas tank trying to figure out how I was supposed to refuel, even looked at the keybindings to see if there was something there, but nope.

At that point I felt I did not care enough about the game to do google research on how to play the game so it now sits and rots in my library.

The graphics style takes some getting used to (paper cut-outs) and is a bit too difficult to play by yourself, but can be fun if you have several friends to play it with. (played it on my son's account.) But it is not a game I would go back to very often because it is difficult to have friends interested in playing it when you are. Same as any MP game.

Not the best of the series, but decent. Having played the original games, this game lacks a lot of the cool features of the older versions. Such as monsters protecting an awesome planet (they hang around any random planet instead, so no real reason to bother with them). The ship to ship combat is RTS, and is very difficult to control all your ships or provide any tactics on a moments notice (You have to pause and try to get your ships to do what you want within the RTS framework). I did have over 200 hours played, but that was mostly to get the various achievements, where you have to play the game so many times you loose count.

One of the more enjoyable Early Access games I have played, and right now it is at a great pre-release price! I played this for nearly 100 hours already, and will play it a lot more as new features are added during its development. You start out in a small ship, and through exploration and combat, you gain equipment and cash in order to upgrade your ships components to the hull of your ship, so you can equip more components.

Combat is fun, and full of different tactics depending on your enemies strengths and weaknesses, as well as your own. Go in with nothing but missiles that target your enemy while zipping around so they cannot fire on you. Or build a rock and go head on with that massive energy weapon of yours and kill them in one shot! It is up to you, while you increase your character skills and unlock new skills and achievements.

Actually a pretty good remake of the original games. Although you now lack being able to pick up alien weapons from the battlefield, as they get destroyed on alien death. But at least you have infininte reloads to your weapons, so it is not a big deal. And there are nowhere near the number of aliens to kill on each mission so I hardly ever need to reload.
The story is nearly the same, but with todays graphics is much more enjoyable to play. With the right mods, the tedium of the missions is eliminated as well.

Its a pretty fun game, for the new player, until you start digging deeper into the game itself by playing for many hours. The visuals are pretty good, and I find its more fun to actually build things rather than doing the actual story quest-line. Its utter drugery...

First, the play area is pretty small. Don't fall off the 'end of the world'. At least in Elder Scrolls, it would block you from going outside the game world.

Second, the orbital mechanics are completely out of whack. Perhaps its only noticable for those who understand such things. The huge moon circles the player rather than the planet, like your sitting in the bottom of a toilet bowl and there is a basket ball rolling around the rim. The second moon sits in the sky completely unmoving. At least they fixed the star field, so they are no longer in front of the moon. There is no shadow on the moon as you would expect, so no moon phases. Both moons are just silly in this game, I am not sure why they were even added considering how badly they were implemented.

Third, that huge moon being so close, it would cause such huge tides, hundreds of feet high! But the water is more like a small pond. You would think a water world game would at least have 'big waves'. But all you get are tiny ripples.

Fourth, if you want to do the story mission, you better have an internet connections so you can read the WIKI on the game. There is little indication in the game that will help you figure out 'exactly' where you need to go, let alone how to get there. For example, the first alien structure you find points you in one direction where the next alien structure is. You go that way, but there is no way to get 'down' there. You have to go to the other side of the world map, try to find a cave that will let you explore deeper, and then wind your way hopefully to the second structure. And with underwater visibility so short, you better be right on top of that little cave if you expect to find it on your own. Its the same problem with the wrecks, which is the only way to upgrade your equipment so you can go deeper.

Fifth, the overly agressive wildlife. All you can do is run for it since its okay for them to eliminate you post haste, but you cannot do the same to them. And yes, I understand the developers wanted the game to be passivist. Its just silly that the AI of the monsters seek you out to destroy you, and your left running for it, or trying to 'scare them off'.

Sixth, the huge sub. Well, the game is named 'sub-nautica' so there should at least be a sub, right? Well there is and its huge. Although not huge enough to fit two small crafts in it, you can only bring one with you. If you ever find the underwater caves on your own, your going to be hard pressed to get the sub into those tunnels without having to constantly go out and fix the hull from crashing into the tunnel walls all the time. Let alone the agressive wildlife beating the snot out of it with a brushing glance.

Seventh, building things. The collision on many objects and buildings are a bit whacky. Railings in the circular aquarium rooms force you to jump over them to get past them. Sometimes the floor collision in passages will simply not exist and you have to jump out of them. If you can. When you place buildable items, the hall way collision zones will not allow you to actually place objects straight, or close together. Sometimes, you can place a container next to another one, sometimes you have to go a full container width away from the last one before you can place it. And sometimes, you can place the container close to the wall, other times you have to put it practically in the center of the hallway. There is no 'snap to grid' like with the large building pieces. Its very frustrating at times trying to place the big glass front containers.

All said, the game has its moments, but the negatives far out-weigh the positives in the game. So I will have to not recommend the game at this time. I give it a 5 out of 10 all things considered.