Recent reviews by Will Ravon

More content than I've seen in some AAA titles at full release and far fewer bugs as well. 1 crash in all those 61 hours. Lore is surprisingly detailed and progression is lengthy. Combat is simple yet challenging. Only issue I can say is it could do a better job of identifying what the source is for various materials/ingredients. This is early access though so I imagine it will change as more updates are made.

It's certainly not perfect, but if you enjoyed Fallout 4 or Skyrim this should be enjoyable for you as well. It's certainly more open than all of Bethesda's previous titles and you could argue that it's too open. You do see repetition among the randomly generated maps which I only really found disappointing after seeing it multiple times in a row (this happened only once to me though). The random encounters and multiple, diverse major settlements are great. Just know that this is not No Man's Sky, it's more like Fallout 4 in space with extra maps.

The value for this is supremely understated. 6 different Halo games for less than a single 3 year old AAA game. The nostalgia is real

Can be difficult due to the randomness, but overall super fun watching all the pixels do their thing especially a tactical nuke that spawns more tactical nukes destroying the entire area you're in.

It definitely has improved a lot since it initially launched in Early Access. Unfortunately it's still missing some features from Warband.
Negatives so far:
- naval warfare/travel is still missing
- can't trade fiefs
- establishing your own kingdom is difficult and requires intense grinding
- no books
- AI factions are not the most intelligent on the campaign map
Positives so far:
- dozens of different battlegrounds spanning various climates and cultures
- allows various styles of play (mercenary, merchant, bandit, etc)
- huge mod potential (full overhauls, troop rebalancing, armor/weapon additions, etc)
- easy to modify battle difficulty (actual difficulty is obviously subjective)

Revamped and updated version of the original. The nostalgia is almost overwhelming and the gameplay is even better than it used to be.

Just a ridiculous amount of unique weapons with a high focus on hats.

It started off rough, more like an early access game. After successive, free updates it has become much more expansive, detailed, interactive, and enjoyable. Starting off can be difficult since it's random what planet you begin on and some planets will legitimately try to kill you by default. Owning ships, building bases, and just exploring can be quite addictive though.

Imagine you've developed your settlement to the point where your 13 colonizers each have their own bedroom fully furnished, a large dining room, walk in freezers, large fields of food/trees, ample resources for building weapons/clothes/furniture/etc when all of a sudden 37 rabid chinchillas spawn in and attack immediately. While you're preparing to defend yourself from the fluffy wave of death one of your settlers has a mental breakdown and starts setting fire to anything and everything. On top of that another colonizer has been on a food binge for 2 days eating everything you have in storage. In addition, 2 of your villagers are missing limbs from your last encounter with pirates from the settlement close by and are currently unconscious while requiring medical aid. But it's okay, because your 3 tamed giant sloths can each wreck a chinchilla in 1 hit. However, while fighting the chinchillas alongside your giant sloths one of your colonizers breaks a wall that unleashes 3 pseudo terminators and a giant robotic slug thing. They proceed to slaughter your entire colony with railguns, laser rifles, and miniguns. You got farther than last time when a heat wave hit in peak summer whereby killing everyone by heat stroke within the first year and farther still than that time 3 rabid elephants showed up in the first week massacring anything that moved. Don't let the chaos hold you back though, the game is addictively enjoyable.

Oodles of micromanagement.
Near infinite combinations of personality traits.
Full weather and seasons.
Lively fauna and flora.
Mod support out the butt.
Planet customization galore.

It stands the test of time with nearly endless mod options and with Remastered just coming out it can only mean an extra boost to the modding community.