Overall comment:
Really enjoyed the game. Kudos to the developers who are constantly improving things and working to fix bugs!

MULTIPLAYER STORY MODE:
Updated after more hours of gameplay. Although the start is confusing where you are separated from all your friends, following gathering resources and getting yourself started to explore further to try to find your friends, the game progresses fairly quickly. We did make the mistake of me going to all the places and getting the grappling hook before drinking our first potion. But once we have met up and the gameplay is pretty much the same as non story mode.

Recommend?
Yes


PRE MULTIPLAYER STORY MODE:
Multiplayer survival observations

Pros:
Really good graphics and realistic mechanisms. There are so many things you can make and it is super satisfying when you figure out something new.
After 51 hours of gameplay, I can safely say I enjoy the game a lot. The coop aspect is really what makes the game enjoyable for both of us.

Cons:
Some frustrating bugs. First and foremost is the coop loading, where anyone joining the game gets a blank character despite previous saves. The only fix we found from other players is to kill the guest character and respawn. Before knowing this fix it was super frustrating and we spent an hour plus loading and reloading the game, coming very close to shelving it until developers fix this with a patch.
Second bug is that the mud forge doesn't work after a while no matter what, where the host can't use it but guest can but anything forged in there disappears.
Third bug bear, though not as annoying as the first or second is that sometimes only one of us in the game can see the natives and receive the attacks. Whilst this is a set back, it also brings some minor conveniences to the game.

Bottom line:
Yes the bugs are frustrating and it nearly caused us to shelve the game indefinitely. But, credit must be given where it's due, the gameplay is excellent and game mechanisms are incredible, leaving the players hungry for more.

Recommend?
Previously, high on the coop load bug frustrations I'd have said no! But after finding the fix that allowed us to continue playing and enjoying the game, I am happy to say YES.