I am going to break this game into two sections because it is one of the first games that I have played in a while that actually is holding my interest, perhaps for the long-term. This was a PlayStation Plus release for free and I believe it is free or near free on all the other platforms as well, although not on PC where it is around $20. I am playing this on a PS4.
the tl;dr of this is that I think this is an innovative game that incorporates hack-n-slash, rogue-like, and a hint of real-time-strategy. I never would have thought that this combination would work, but it kind of does.
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1: Easy controls
For gamers like me a quick way to get me to give up on something really quick is if the operation of said game is overly complicated. Tribes of Midgard is not like this although I will say that the tutorial doesn't really help you very much in figuring out how to navigate your controls. The good news is that what buttons need to be pressed is displayed on screen at all times including things you can interact with.
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it took me a while to realize this bc I'm an idiot but the bottom left corner tells you all you need to know about the controls
2: Procedurally-generated maps ensure exploration
Every time you start a new game there will be no such thing as an advantage from experience because while the elements of maps are re-used, the chance that someone other than the most autistic, 100+ hours player will ever know what the map is going to hold. Exploration becomes exactly that. Nobody knows what is in any particular direction and this is a good thing to limit the toxicity of online partners.
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Of course people online are still going to be toxic because in a world filled with so much mental illness that is bound to happen. The good news is there won't be a whole lot of "learn the map!' talk going on since it is almost impossible to know what is in any given direction in any playthrough.
3: Most enemies are pretty easy....by design
When you are exploring the world you are going to come across enemy encampments complete with mini-bosses. These camps and even the leaders can be "mad button mash" killed with relative ease and almost zero concern of dying. Of course this changes as the game goes on as you would expect but at least for early gameplay, there is very little chance that once you have just a basic grasp of the game, that you are going to wander into some "insta-kill" area by accident.
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An actual strategy isn't really necessary. Just run in there are spam attack and chances are, you are going to be ok.
While this might seem boring to people who appreciate a really difficult game the real strategy of this game is fast exploration and time / inventory management, kind of like an RTS game. While the RTS aspects of the game are minimal, they are an integral part of the game since the ultimate objective in this is to protect your keep. The destruction of your keep is the only thing that results in a game over. Dying over and over simply results in you respawning, so don't worry about that so much.
4: The villagers play an active role in defense
Almost every night your keep is going to be attacked by ghoulish creatures called Helthings. It's not a very inventive name but I suppose it describes them pretty perfectly.
"What are those things?
"Things from Hell"
"OK, let's call them that but take out one of the L's so we don't look unimaginative."
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In early gameplay these encounters are extremely easy but don't rest on your laurels because they become a LOT more difficult as the days go on. It can be a bit frustrating how you just whack whack whack whack on these things for ages and they don't friggin die. The need to return to your camp ensures you don't explore too much in a row and again, this is by design. A lot of this has to do with the fact that the villagers are not idiots and will defend the town as well and do a pretty decent job on their own even if you don't intervene. This only stays true for the first 4 attacks or so but later on their involvement is instrumental in defense since enemies will come from all 3 possible directions or entrances and it simply isn't possible for you to take them all on by yourself.
In multiplayer you don't need to bring everyone back to camp to fight them but during the "Blood Moon" sequences you better bring everyone back or you are going to use since the game scales the amount of enemies based on how many players (up to 10) are involved in a single game.
5: You get powerups to start your run as you gain XP
This is not a singular RPG type adventure. This is where the rogue-like aspects of it kick in and for the most part I am not a fan of this type of play. In my mind this game would have been better if there weren't "runs" but the gameplay kind of depends on that so I understand why they went that direction. Otherwise the map would be the same and it basically would be a watered down Witcher.
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After a certain number of playthroughs where you will almost certainly get your ass handed to you, you will gain access to "starter kits." These kits give you huge advantages at the start of a run because at the beginning you simply appear almost naked in the middle of the field and you have to gather all resources by hand, including gathering materials that enable you to build tools to gather other resources.
One of the starter kits starts you out with a full set of armor, a sword, and both gathering tools. This makes getting a jump start on the game a lot easier because you can get straight to gathering all the things you need for the VERY necessary upgrades on your keep.
After 20 hours of gameplay or so, I still find myself very engaged by this game, even in single-player mode. For some the multiplayer will be where the action really is but for people who prefer to play alone, the game is accomplishable without any partners. After a few playthroughs you find yourself really getting a lot better at the game and in this regard I feel that it is designed quite well. You should be getting better after you play for bit afterall.
I don't really feel as though this game is good enough to pay $20 for, but if it is on sale for $10 or below I think that most people will get at least as much time and enjoyment out of it as I already have.
There are plenty of downsides or negatives about this game as well though... and I will get into those next.