izigame.me

Mixed review 7/10 with a recommended with reservations for what might be big disappointments in an otherwise fun game.
This is a relaxed city builder that looks and plays like a survival game (but lacks any threat). Overall it worked, but some major issues.

Pros:
+casual pace was great for multiple barely conscious sick days.
+++Some of the best pre-form building I've seen in a survival like game. Seriously, more survival games should be like this. Genuinely satisfying.
+The 1st person survival feel to a city builder was a nice change of pace from most survival or city builder games
+islander theme was fun
+hold the build/gather button for easy use.
+simplistic village management model was easy to use and didn't require a masters degree.
+game has a definite end/story goal, but warns you to make a save if you just want to forever build.
+can skip ahead in progress (focus on unlocking altar upgrades) and finish objectives before talking to quest npcs. (I really appreciated this lack of gate keeping within zones as I learned to take advantage of it towards the end of the game)

All that sounds awesome, right? So why only 7/10?
Cons:
-promised controller support to players and didn't follow through
-Lots of give you the thing you needed after you don't need it (eg unlock stone quarry - when you no longer have need of excessive amounts of stone)
-lots of very unnecessary travel back and forth. Tiny quest progress, travel across 1/4 of the map and back tiny progress, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat (if that felt annoying to read, then imagine how minutes of running feel)
-fast travel, but after you needed it. Sure it's helpful, but when you need it is when you need to pack supplies and run out trying to build things. Basically you unlock fast travel once you've finished an area. Do you still need some supplies there? kinda, but markets could have handled it, and it sure would have been nice to unlock WAY sooner.
-middle area is the most needed area and totally without fast travel. The desert gets used a lot simply because it is a good half minute closer than all other areas.
-needless excessive ramp up of build costs. The gather rates don't keep up. I found myself repeatedly returning 5-6 times per major story event to starter areas to gather basic resources that had gathering buildings/workers assigned.
-like controller support
-there is a mix of feeling like they put time into a lot of aspects and then just kind of made other things workable enough and never got back to refining it. Honestly, it feels like a week of balancing focus could have easily brought this game up to an 8 or 9/10.
-all of this is very noticeable when story necessary "achievements" have 10% or 15% player achievement. It tells you a lot of players tried it and gave up long before finishing. If I hadn't been sick, the time wasted to story progress would have been much more frustrating. Even still, that trek to the middle area, ugh...
-ending: very anticlimactic. It has a cinematic, but it fails to even show the every present story threat. It feels rushed and like they meant to have twice as long a cinematic, but placeholdered it and never bothered to come back and finish it. such a missed opportunity.

Did I enjoy it? Yes, but it's a recommendation with reservations. It was fun at times but also frustratingly time wasting at times. Looks like only 10-15% of people make it past that annoyance. They really could fix this in 1 or 2 quick patches, but they probably won't.

As a finish. if you do buy this, a few tips to enhance your play experience:
1. it's easy to not notice, but a lot of gathering buildings have percentages of how effective they will gather at currently hovered placement location. Pay attention to this while searching for a placement location, as it greatly affects how well they gather (eg fishing, gathering, logging, mining)
2. You need tons of bamboo, wood, and vines (eventually clay). Seriously considering growing your camp to beyond 1 storage building just to ramp up how fast you gather those. Even making a whole extra food+tool chain attached will save so much time overall. Once you have enough tools/food fill those gathering buildings up.
3. don't be afraid of expanding your village. the 5 person to storage facility is really the only limiting factor. You will get way too many tools if you keep the makers supplied and end up turning them off (not a bad thing). Also, the "village storage" with only 2 carriers is quickly obsolete, worth replacing.
4. Build as close to fast travel as you can. but you kinda need a lot of flat space.
5. I don't know if there is a village limit. It seems mostly like it separates major climate zones (but workers transfer)
6. craft a bunch of waterskins and food and let yourself explore/ignore present missions. They hid some things throughout the maps to discover. Give yourself a playstyle refresh and just go exploring (maybe even unlock village collection upgrades).
7. Biggest tip: unlock fast travel ASAP. focus on this over story, as it only helps you complete the story.

have fun, enjoy it's building system.