They do have their own launcher. Go here, and click on the Epic logo, then Get Epic Games at the bottom of the drop-down menu.

I only played an hour or so last night, but the game STILL feels far from finished. The UI really drives me crazy more than anything. I'm basically still in the tutorial (I guess?), so I'll give it some more time. I definitely expected it to be more fleshed out and intuitive than it currently is.

Maaaan, that's a bummer.

I find the UI is ok and i dubt it will change but the game loves to pour billions of things onto you right from the start. Despite that the game is surprisingly shallow with just basic hoardmode and endless lootboxes. I doubt Epic knows what to do with these modern ffa games but they want in on it.

@sfw44: It's on PC through the Epic Game's Launcher, I believe.

Me and some friends played a good chunk last night and it's pretty fun, though with how (seemingly) restrictive the traps are to make (just due to the little specific things they require to be made), it kinda seems almost wasteful to use them anywhere but on your home base. At least any good traps. From anyone who knows, is there ever a way to just make planks? Because it seems super weird to have 999 wood, but still have to go murder trees for planks.

To me it feels quite a lot like Borderlands, which is great because I love that series, mixed with a handful of other games. The "weak point" system is a smart thing they did, since that makes smashing things infinitely less tedious. I also like the story they have going on, and the voice acting. The building is pretty damn good too, especially with the editing system, and making stairs on the fly to climb up a small cliff just feels real smooth once you get used to it.

Having like 10 different sections of things to level up is a little overwhelming but at least I'll never run out of stuff to do.

So far I'm enjoying it quite a bit. The UI could use a little work and sometimes it seems to eat directional inputs but I got used to it relatively quickly.

The game is not basic hordemode at all. In fact there are mission types that go well beyond that but you need to play more than 3-4 missions to have that content introduced. It also has a lot of loot options and depth in the non mission portion that only becomes apparent as you get further into the 2 tech trees.

Seems like you have put less than 2 hours into the game yet. It's fine that you're not into it but you have seen less than a fragment of the game so far.

@wandrecanada: I have put way more than 2 hours into it and 30-40 missions rather than 3-4.

I must say however that not much new content has been introduced since the first 3-4 missions. There are 4 "mission types" sofar and 3 of them are hoardmodes.

@matsemann08: ONLY available from the Epic Games Launcher (who knew they had their own games launcher platform?), never coming out on Steam apparently.

So you pay to beta test the game and when it's finished everyone else gets it for free? That doesn't rub anybody else the wrong way?

I'd like to remind everyone that it being early access doesn't mean that it will actually become a thing, lol.

This looks really lame... its like a maybe slightly more polished version of Orcs Must Die/Dungeon Defenders?

I don't know... I cant help but feel like if a game is going to rehash all of these really outdated ideas it needs to really deliver on some other peripheral experience... like crazy graphics or extreme character fidelity... something.

This just looks like a free to play game.

What bothers me more is you're still paying full price--40 or 60--for a game with loads of the same free to play grind game design that will soon be in an actual free to play game. And as has already been said, they're not really making that fact very well known.

I guess that makes sense, though. "Buy Today! Or just wait and get it for free next year" isn't a very effective marketing concept. It still rather distasteful, IMO. Either your game is free to play, or it isn't.

Just a mention for the people who don't see any walue in buyin in into this early acces: there is actually a special set of lootboxes which are awardad daily, called Founder's lamas (lamas = loot chests in this game) and also a currency Founder's coins which is also exclusive for early players and is used to buy more chests. One day I logged in and for some reason I was awarded 15 of those chests, which woul equal quite a lot of money if you was to buy those with the paid currency. Also, aside from the special currency mentioned above, there is only one type - you can both buy it and earn it ingame, which is cool.

Yes, the game is very grind focused and on PS4 technically not as polished as I expected, but I am having a good fun playing it with podcasts and the constant progression keeps me engaged.

If you are not sure about this one, I would wait for it to hit free to play though.

I bought a code for $20 from a guy who got one of the higher tier packages.

One great thing that I hope catches on is one code will get you access on PC and PS4, and your progress carries over between the two. Shame Destiny 2 didn't go this route. Anyhow, it's pretty fun so far, I've got about 4-5 hours into it. I've heard it doesn't get remotely challenging until level 15ish, which seems to be the case.

The graphic style has a great aesthetic, and it's fun and easy to build things. Loading up in solo mode and exploring the map and finding chests is fun.

There's a LOT of backend systems in play, and it's not really laid out very clearly, so expect to be digging through reddit posts trying to figure out how to do things.

Anyhow, $40 was a hard sell, but for $20 I'd say it's worth a shot.

I think that this is a pretty awful development and although it has been touched upon in the podcast I think it could be discussed further.

Presumably the people who have poured money in at this stage will get benefits of some kind later?

Also - is anyone else getting BOMBARDED with adverts on facebook for this game? It is relentless, and the adverts are not at all clear that the product is very incomplete.

It appears as if they are blowing budget on advertising, and releasing the game early to retail, just to get enough funds to finish making the game. Not a great look when you consider they've had alpha players giving them feedback for years already!