Haven’t jumped in yet. Is this game now overwhelming for new players, or does it ease you in slowly?
You are very limited in what you can do early game, and it does a pretty good job easing you in. Story is somewhat interesting now as well when you start the game compared to years ago.
normal mode is significantly easier than Survival. Can store way more stuff in each inventory slot(example: 9,999 carbon normal vs 250 survival) and hazard protection depletes much, much faster on survival).
I much prefer Survival because you have to be much more cautious about what you do and what planets to visit until you have significant upgrades.
I tried Permadeath once. Made it 50 hours and then got careless and watched my save file go poof. Yeah, Survival is good enough. Lol.