brutal difficulty at first, but once I was a few days in i had a safety net of supplies to rely on. still, i cannot stress how under the wire it felt, with my hunger always seemingly being in the red.

progress is slow and navigating without running is painful. i consider this a feature not a bug but my god i feel like i spend most my time running back to camp while keith complains about how tired he is. gameplay loop would get me addicted for a few hours but then i'd run out of inventory space or do furniture crafting and be completlely pulled out of The Zone.

it's very interesting how this game treats interactions with Skye as a kind of wife raising sim- she has zero agency and it feels like caring for a baby at times. i'm sure this is the desired effect for the straight guys this game was made for but i found it a mixture of funny and terrifyingly anti-feminist.

that said, the mechanic of guiding her and the little slap of hand on hand as you pull her up a log, to be deeply tender and a highlight of the game for me.