The beginning is fun and really just sucks the life out of you as your are flooded with new mechanics and npcs.
Then the game very quickly shows itself for what it is, an open world game.
It's a glorious grindy repetitive complicated open world game that doesn't hold your hand.
I knew I was in love the moment I started compiling my pal attribute database. 90% of gamers dont like that kind of stuff. They just want to be lead from A to Z.
I think it's fun, actually. If the game never updates again I'll be disappointed that it never became what it could have been but I won't regret buying it or spending time playing with my friends.
Personally I kinda hope it turns even more into Ark. Maybe we could get other big maps in future updates that could act as different "regions" like in Pokemon. It already kinda works like that in the game, but they could introduce new pals that you can only find in certain spots on the new map.
And of course the rest of the story with the crazy world tree and ancient civilization.
I mean I don't see what mechanics you could possibly be overwhelmed by. I'm enjoying it but I think it's biggest flaw is that it's TOO simple
If you feel underwater with 10 mechanics total, there's not many games you can play. The building is basic, the crafting is extremely straight forward, and fighting consists of run, shoot, and roll.
Said sucked the life out of me. Had me engrossed. My first sit down was 4 hours that felt like 5 minutes.
Edit: Cheeky, but I gotta sat it... people who are taking "sucked the life out of me" as a negative statement have never enjoyed a blowjob. At least not a good one.
Maybe pick something else to say in the future so people won't be confused? Usually "sucked the life out of me" is used for when people feel negatively exhausted after something.
I played literally all night when I first started, I didn't want to stop even when I noticed the sun was up.