As a “3 hour a week dad” who has managed to rack up 150 hours of this game, it’s a lot of fun. But it’s also insufferable when they release updates that cause rag-dolling to launch you all over the map, and new enemies that are just completely bugged out.
From a 400k player base at the start to <25k now, I’m convinced they’re actively trying to hurt the game to lower server costs. And why would they care? Each of those 400k players already paid their $50 for the game. And it’s not like the new DLC is any good. The snow-armour that didn’t help sliding on ice, and the fire armour that came with a fire-nerf.
It’s fun, but don’t go in expecting the same game every week. Chances are they’ll nerf your favourite weapon in the interest of “balance”, then ask for more money.
I waited to get involved until after the Echoes update last summer, and I truly enjoyed 100+ hours of the game.
It still does suffer from inevitably feeling really empty, with billions of copies of the same 4 different coloured/temperatured planets and 8 creature types, but it was still a heck of an experience.