"Postponed indefinitely" is a face-saving (but still transparent) way to avoid saying "We're abandoning this turd to work on some other one."

It was a two year long (on steam anyway, where I found it) scam that they're finally dropping pretense of. It is a shining example of everything wrong with Early Access, and a strong argument for Steam reforming EA funding policies.

Scam is an accusing word, but that is my perception, feeling, and personal opinion. My experience watching this cluster♥♥♥♥ as a paying customer:

I bought it around Spring of 2014 based on the very well-presented Roadmap, which is a vision of the game's progress and completion at that time. Roadmaps are presented to sell an idea of what you'll get later if you buy in now. It's a pact, a "contract" to deliver a good-faith representation of what they're presenting if you help fund its completion. The devs appeared to know what they were doing and what they wanted for the game.

I knew TDL was early alpha, so the barren landscape with warped road and tiny town placeholder, and being practically unplayable beyond walking around, wasn't alarming at the time when I set it aside waiting for progress.

I returned to check on it every few months, eventually seeing weekly updates written by the devs about its ongoing development. It sounded great, but the game still didn't look playable so I kept setting it aside.

Over time I noticed that the volume written about the development progress was far greater than the actual progress being made toward a playable game, and this had been so for quite some time. That raises red flags for me, the same way DAYZ Standalone's lack of progress (on anything but minor aesthetics) at the time did.

Fast forward the months since then, here & there I checked in to see discussions like "you're changing engines AGAIN!?!?" That's when I knew I had lost my $20 and wouldn't get anything for it. One change to a new version is understandable, as dev tech does evolve quickly, but multiple engine changes on top of shrinking the original Roadmap along the way looks to me like intentional excuses to give the appearance and belief that it's still on the way to becoming something despite no longer believing in it themselves. DAYZ SA did this for the longest time (don't know if they still do, I gave up on it too), excusing lack of apparent progress saying they were doing background/engine building. There are other examples of perpetual-Early-Access titles, some still "in progress" and many more just going radio silent after hyping up engine swaps.

Combine that with the multitude of reviews saying TDL isn't much more playable today than it was "4 years ago" and it paints a picture that, in my opinion, looks pretty sketchy/scammy. If it's not an outright scam, it's still EPIC incompetence & blatant overselling at the very least. I certainly won't ever buy anything this Dev touches in the future--the studio and dev's names are going in my blackbook, along with Code}{atch.

Reducing the price isn't good enough. This needs to be removed from the storefront/early access sales completely, as it is neither a completed game nor under further development towards being one, and unsuspecting people may buy it thinking it will be finished someday.

FINAL VERDICT:

I'm adding my NOT RECOMMENDED to the pile in hopes of helping others avoid throwing their money away.

Taking even the new price of $5 for this aborted fetus of a project is unjust, unethical, and the Dev should be shamed and ashamed of it.

EDIT: Glad to see Steam disabled purchases completely.