Recent reviews by JanusFenix

Positives:
Map feels large and varied.
Terraforming feels good - meaningful changes such as opening new areas, flooding areas, letting you breathe longer, etc.
Areas are locked at the beginning so you can't explore everything at once.
Progression unlocks in the first half of the game feel like game changers (base building / progression / unlocks).
World reacts not only to the base stats, but to what you put down as far as trees / animals / etc.
Exploring story locations felt interesting and exciting.
Endings have been adjusted and feel much more appropriate than they did before.

Negatives:
The game map is swiss cheese - I'd regularly clip out of the map to see how things were working or to see what's past the next ice block. It rarely took more than a minute to find a way to do so.
Mid-game requires a lot of storage management.
Automation needs a 'this thing can demand at level X, but if something of higher tier is demanding it should supply it' intermediary storage solution.
I feel like the edge areas (the sand waterfall, the southern beach, the desert) didn't get much love during development. Basic resources, no real landmarks - I never found much reason to have remote bases.
Replaying in new starting locations matters exactly up until the ice melts separating the two halves of the map.
You need a *lot* of every single one of the final tier things to finish the game, it felt like.
Insects and frogs show up around the world after you raise them - I wish creatures did, too.

The Verdict:
I liked it, especially in the first half. Admitted, I actually had as much fun clipping out of the world and Skyrimming with jetpack shenanigans as I did actually hauling materials around. That said, the final bit of actually getting from 2 to 5 TTi may not be worth it to actually finish the game once you've followed the various storylines, explored all the biomes, gotten to the Animals stage and crafted yourself a few species.

Wonderful game with a storyline that keeps you guessing as to what's going on.
It's not a challenging game by any means - the first half of it is easy enough that you can stumble on the solution without actually realizing that you've solved it, until you go into the solution cutscene.
But it has enough character to make up for it, and enough detail that seeing it over and over again is not boring, as you learn more the things you've seen take on new light.