Hey all, so nice to see you!
I bought a copy last friday and played for a few hours on the weekend. Started with the default settings and chose commoner to get the most out-of-the-box beginner's experience so I could gauge the intended play style and what personal changes I would want to make as I went along.
I'm quite impressed with how well the game runs and feels. So far, it's very much my kinda game. Before starting myself, I watched a few people do blind starts and some more tutorial type videos from experienced players, and from those I had thought the experience would be much more tense and unforgiving than what I found out. I think the game is fairly well balanced and not at all frustrating to manage as long as you have an understanding of the basics, which I found quite intuitive to grasp. I didn't find it uniquely difficult or stressful at all, and that includes opening the game up and hitting play for the very first time only to spawn quite literally face to face with a bear in a crater-like formation with sheer walls all around and just one little exit in the far corner behind the bear. I died twice more and rolled another world after that and then I could spawn in relatively more favorable circumstances. I'd say it was smooth sailing after that.
So far, I have a little dirt hut, a bunch of firewood, four hand baskets, a straw bed. I hunted a few boars and a deer. Foraged berries and mushrooms. I couldn't find a fish yet. I found that drifters and shivers die pretty quick after you stab them in the face a few times with a flint spear. I'm sure it'll be easier with better weapons. I haven't made a shield or any armor yet but those are next on the list for my second play session.
Now, onto my little gripe: SAT is short for satiation, not saturation. It's driving me nuts when I watch other people playing.
So, yeah... Cool game. I might pick up a couple gift keys for friends.