Impact Winter

I've certainly got my money's worth out of this game, but it's not for everyone. Mostly the negative reviews come from the impression the game was abandoned, however an update in April 2018 proves otherwise and brought some much needed improvements- such as to load times, which previously could be up to 30 seconds and are now under 1-3 seconds.
There are still a few bugs to be dealt with, the most noteable and frustrating are:
1) Getting stuck in the environment - which thankfully is only really an issue if you're trekking across the map without checking in at locations along the way, due to how the save system works.
2) The inventory systems. There will be many instances of cooking the wrong item, or using the wrong item on the fire. There seems to be a problem between using the mouse wheel and using the keyboard, and using the mouse to click/select. It's my most frustrating issue with the game, but it's something that once you're aware of it you can find ways to work around.
3) Clicking with the mouse is very non responsive. It's required to enter/exit locations and to pick locks, and often I find I have to click dozens of times before the action is recognised. This is definitely an issue with the game and not my mouse.
It's not all bad, there's plenty of good stuff too! The world is beautiful and the map is littered with all sorts of locations and opportunities. I love exploring the world, and the character questlines do a great job of introducing you to all the aspects of the game. I only regret that I only get >30 days in a playthrough. I actually really like the save system that the game uses, in that it doesn't really have one. It constantly recognises everything you've done, and quitting and rentering simply moves you back to the last building you entered or exited. Helpful if you get stuck in the environment, but not so much if your stats were low.
There are only 2 improvements to the game (other than the bug fixes of course!) that I would love to see:
1) Custom key bindings. At the moment, you can't change the keys and that's... well, I'm left-handed and an arrow-key player, so it's an awkward problem for me.
2) A sandbox mode, or an extended campaign mode. I fully understand why the game is only >30 days long, it's to push people to make multiple play-throughs to experience everything and therefore extend the game's playtime and longetivity. And yet. Dear god let me see how long I can survive. There are so many aspects of the game I ignore completly - the nomads, helping other characters, the birdtec vans, the radio masts etc, because they reduce the rescue time and therefore my play time. Give us a 50 day mode, give us a 100 day mode, give us an endless mode so we can struggle as long as possible. I don't even think an endless mode would be impossible, simply swap the rescue time rewards for seeds and bam, struggle on.

I don't know how it used to be, but as of right now the game is a 6 or maybe 7/10 survival experience. Nothing ground breaking, but an ok game in the genre.
There are still some bugs, but nothing that has forced me to reboot the game so far.
-I've gotten stuck a few times, but i've been able to get free by crouching and wiggling a bit.
-Sometimes interacting with stuff is difficult, like trying to climb a ladder, just gotta find the sweet spot where it let's you grab it.
-Difficulties changing zones, when you go in or outside, it can take a few button presses for your command to register.
-There is a game mechanic that let's your robot carry your stuff back to base if you camp out, but sometimes it doesn't do this. I'm not sure if this is a bug, or if i'm just not sleeping for long enough to let the robot do it's thing.
-There is a dude that wants your help to open his chest with a lockpick. After doing it the first time, he keeps asking you to do it everytime you come back(even though the chest is now already unlocked), and gives some XP(RP).
Overall these have all been very minor inconviniences.
If it looks like something you might be interested, it's certainly worth it in a sale for 5 buckaroos or so.

EDIT: This game "recommends" using a gamepad. My original review was playing the game using a mouse and keyboard. When using a gamepad, many of the bugs I ran into don't apply. I have enjoyed playing the game now that I figured that out. If you don't have a gamepad, you will probably find this game buggy and hard to play.
I like the premise of this game. In execution, however, I keep bumping into annoying bugs. I lock a recipe to know which items I am searching for only to find it deselected later. I try to cook something and cook everything else. The hit box to loot or to enter an area is really hard to achieve successfully first try. I find myself wishing someone had made an unofficial Impact Winter patch to address all these annoyances. Since these bugs are still in the game 2 years later, I really can't recommend it. No one wants to play a game that becomes more and more frustrating the further in you get.

I love this game. It's a combination of just about every mechanic I adore from the good old days of proper PC gaming melded together into a very well crafted and difficult survival, exploration adventure.
That being said,.....
The UI and control is absolutly atrocious. Jittering, barely working canabled together input functions are a massive frustration. This should have been an early access release. This is not the state a finished game should be offered to the public. Rife with bugs and astonishingly abysmal control both via controller and KB+M amazingly enough, (Yes they even managed to massivly screw up keyboard and mouse controls.) it's hard to really get into any serious time investment that a game like this really requires. Key expensive items vanishing, buggy item selection literally tossing valuable objects into a bonfire with no recourse is unexcusable.
This will be one of my favorite games, it's exactly the kind of experience I want and believe needs to be explored more often by developers. All they have to do is actually finish the damn thing rather than feed us this steaming pile of what I can only describe as barely out of alpha code they have released so far. If there has ever been an example of a game that should have been classified as early access,.. this is it.
Whomever made the executive decision to release this as a "finished shippable game" should have a really good look in the mirror and maby contimplate the possibility they they have been promoted beyond their abilities and competency. I want to know exactly what happened in those meetings,.. what idocy was on display, what rational was put forth, what avarice conspired to come to the decision where you basically shot yourselves in the foot, seemingly on purpose. Was beta testing even something you discussed? Was there a beta test? If yes,.. how the hell did all of this slip through? I want to knnow all of this, not to lay blame, the damage is done. I want the story,.. There is no way it's not an epic tale of ineptitude and poor judgement.
So yes, flawed is probably the milest possible way to describe Impact Winter in it's current buggy state. But,.. for those like myself who feverishly crave exactly this kind of game, if/when this is all sorted out Impact Winter will truly be a game that will be played for a long time and cherished as a modern classic of the genre. All ya gotta do is pull your heads out of your asses and get this stuff fixed guys. I for one, am cheering you on.

The title of a Kotaku review, "I just can't stop playing this busted survival game", adequately describes this game for me. I think it is fun and addicting to play for a while, though there are some obvious bugs and odd design decisions. I haven't run into anything completely game breaking for me yet.
I have two main compaints:
Getting stuck. Every couple hours or so of running around exploring, my character gets stupidly stuck in graphics just walking in snow and I worry that I will have to restart and lose my last progress, but usually after a couple minutes of trying to move I find the magical right direction to get out.
Length. Also, though it does give you a good amount of time before you get rescued, probably 10 or more hours of play time, I would really enjoy the option of a longer, or endless play. It doesn't give enough time to explore all the locations or complete the other survivors missions before the game comes to an end.

That rare time when there is nothing special or greate in the game but you still keep going to bed at about 02:00 after thinking "well, the kid sleeps, watching a movie is far too long (need to get up early), i guess ill just play that game about winter of which i dont even remember the name...".
And you arent even sorry about that in the morning.

A Survival Game About Exploring, Looting, and Keeping a Group of Fellow Survivors Alive and Well.
TL;DR, pros and cons at the bottom.
First, let me say that the majority of the negative reviews stem from bugs that the devs have since patched out (i.e. a lot of reviews are now out of date)
Second, let me warn you that a game controller is highly recommended due to a bug (this is coming from a hardcore PC, keyboard and mouse person who happens to own and XBox 360 controller).
The Crafting
Unlike other survival games, you don't do any of the crafting yourself. You're simply the person who finds the required materials and then your team of 4 undertakes the crafting once you've collected all the necessary items. Each of the 4 team members has their own unique role to play: one is a chef, one is a car mechanic, one is a survival expert, and the last is an electronics/computer expert/hacker. The chef can turn basic ingredients into complex meals that are much greater than the sum of their parts, offering more sustenance and possibly a much-needed morale boost to those who eat them. The mechanic, amongst other things, can build upgrades for the church that help to keep the team and its belongings safe from looters, and stave off the freezing temperatures outside. The survivalist will craft you items that will make your solo expeditions into The Void easier and safer, and the hacker will upgrade your robotic companion making it even more useful.
On top of this, each team member has their own story line to follow. These are all completely optional, but are recommended to pursue, as completing their missions will unlock further upgrades and crafting options along the character tech trees. These unlocked craftables not only increase your chance of survival, but also improve the quality of life for each of the survivors and even you the player. Yes, the game can become less of a chore for us playing it at home. For example, you start the game with a very limited inventory space for loot. Completing the first story mission for the computer hacker gives you the opportunity to increase its size. This means that you can then carry more, and so have to make fewer trips between a particular loot location and the church to transfer all the goods you feel you need to have to survive.
The Survival
The survival is pretty standard fare for the genre with a couple of exceptions. Stave off hunger, keep thirst at bay, sleep whenever you're tired, and keep the fire burning. However, there is no base building (just base updgrading), and there's no hacking away at trees and rocks. Food can be found by looting abandoned buildings and by hunting. Drink is found through the scavenging process as well.
Being in a post-apocalyptic "nuclear winter", hypothermia is also a permanent threat. But in reality, unless you spend a ridiculous amount of time in a very cold area (e.g. -30 centigrade) it's not actually a problem for your character. The cold is principally a problem for your companions back at the church. If you fail to keep the base camp fire burning at all hours, they'll quickly become cold, their morale will drop, and they could end up abandoning your party.
In addition to the hunger, thirst, warmth, and morale meters, each character has an overall health gauge. This depletes when attacked by a hostile creature, or when someone is dying from starvation, dehydration, or hypothermia. The health bar replenishes when each of your needs is sufficiently met.
The Management
In addition to assigning crafting/cooking tasks to your fellow survivors, you also get to assign them a particular role, and have to ration their food and drink supply. They have ration boxes that are separate from the church's main storage area.
Each available role can be taken by only one survivor at a time (that's worth noting right now, as I thought this was bugged when I was trying to assign the same role to more than one person), roles can greatly assist in your team's survival (someone assigned to hunt will bring in a very nice stash of raw meat), and each role has a positive and a negative effect. Not only do you have to weigh up the pros and cons when assigning a particular role, but you also have to decide when the best time is to allocate that role. For example, it would be a waste to designate someone as a hunter if you're urgently waiting for them to finish crafting a vital upgrade.
The ration boxes are a very important way of ensuring that your team members remain hunger-free, well hydrated, and happy. Plus, you can assign a specific foodstuff to just one person if you know that person happens to love it and will get an important morale boost from consuming it. Keeping a happy team will ensure that it's productive, and will keep depression at bay. A depressed member will lose faith in your leadership and will wander off away from the church and disappear, thereby permanently depriving you of the strengths they brought to the group.

Ako Light
In addition to being your portable inventory, your robotic companion acts as a source of light, and can scan and dig for buried caches of loot. You must use good judgement of where and when to scan for such an underground anomaly, as every scan drains the battery, and battery life is limited. Once having found a buried treasure trove, you still need to decide whether it's worth Ako Light using the energy to dig for it there and then, as running out of battery disables Ako's radar, causing you to lose your only immediate means of navigation. You must then find your way back to the church to safety with no asistance. Returning to the church recharges Ako Light immediately.
PROS
+ Excellent survival game in which you have to scavenge for every last scrap of food, every last drop of water, and any items which could be of any crafting use.
+ Very nice crafting progression system, which truly does reward you for keeping a keen eye out for potentially valuable items.
+ Excellent visuals that immerse you in the post-apocalyptic world.
+ The game provides you with a rather large map to explore with a good variety of looting locations.
+ On top of the "open world" freedom for exploration, the crafting unlocks and progressions of each of the other 4 survivors allow you to focus on what you feel is most important for your team, and how you want to play the game.
+ Good team management aspect that adds a meaningful extra layer of gameplay to what could have been "just another ordinary survival game."
+ Good soundtrack that adds to the atmosphere.
CONS
- Impact Winter still has several bugs that persist even after all this time, and after several patches e.g. getting stuck on terrain and having to reload your game from the last checkpoint.
- The game involves a lot of hiking back and forth between the church and looting and mission locations. This could be a big turn-off for some people. There is a snowmobile in the game for high-speed travelling, but you have to advance quite a way through the crafting projects for it to become available to build.
- A controller is highly recommended, and does work very well. The keyboard and mouse support has improved a lot since launch, but still contains some bugs that could negatively affect your game. You have been warned!
- The weather seems to be rather clement too much of the time and so the world itself never truly feels threatening. Not once have I found myself stranded because of a whiteout or at risk of death due to hypothermia.
- Only one real level of difficulty. An option to choose how many days you have to survive to complete the game would be very welcome, as 30 days can pass rather quickly.
Summary
An excellent wintery survival game with good team management elements. Any enhusiast of the genre will enjoy it immensely, but do expect to be hiking back and forth a lot, seeing the same places over and over again.