I played it for about 40-50 hours, mostly in short bursts after updates during early access and overall it's a good game. Yet for me right now in 1.0 release state I have conflicting thoughts about the game. It sort of optimized for 1-1.30 hour game chunks where you're working on settlement based on rng resources/blueprints/cornerstones provided. After which you will inevitably leave behind all that and start a new one. This core gameplay loop is fun (and comfortable) experience for me for an evening of play.

There are a few ways they set up to expand on this core loop and I hate all of them.

- Going up with prestige levels feels like punishment. I already have trouble selecting blueprint from 4 choices, and on certain prestige I will have only 2 choices? Paying amber to open glades? Goods sold to merchant costs 50% of their value?
Sure, it can work as a challenge, but you start to treat a game like a puzzle, and it usually involves abusing the game mechanics to their breaking point where there is no longer fun.

- Seals. In order to attempt the seal you most likely need to finish all the settlements successfully, but that means you need to play 5-6 hours before you can even attempt the seal and if you failed at any point(you don't have enough fragments) need to start again. On higher seal level you need more settlements finished faster for the bonuses, which is just a major pain in the ass.

- Daily expeditions. Sometimes good, usually just masochistic.

- New ironman mode. For people who think Prestige20 is too easy.

Looking through all the new builder games that are coming out I can say it's one of the better ones, but only in small doses for me.