This is the RUST experience for the average player that plays alone / a couple of friends at best.

---Early establishment on the server---
Tried playing in small groups / solo.
Tried playing on servers that are not Official and have an average of ~50 people on them so that it's not a warzone.
Still getting raided too fast. Waste ~5 hours to build a small base with a good design, doesn't matter. Next day your base could be gone. Hard work, zero reward.

---Very Rare Firepower---
Guns? Forget it. You don't even get to craft a revolver, you have to find it in a small monument / gas station and the chances are still low as ♥♥♥♥ for some reason, like 1 in 200 crates opened or something (that's how it feels i am serious)
You want actual guns? Go to the bigger radtowns and have the same abysmal chances of getting said guns and also get killed pretty fast by people who have guns before you.

Basically you can't defend yourself with much because you have to use spears / bows / crossbows. And it's not like on those youtube videos you see with people who get kills on geared players with primitive weapons. It doesn't happen that often at all. If I were to count beating people with primitive weapons when they had guns I think I would give an estimation of 1 in 20 chance. From my experience at least. Unless you get headshots consistently or something you aren't going to make it in most cases.

Maybe you did get guns after a few days of not getting raided. Only to find out the server wipes on a weekly/bi weekly schedule and it's not one month wipe like the rest just to make you feel better.

---GUNPLAY---
Man, what the ♥♥♥♥ did they do to the gunplay. It's a crouching simulator. I am all for skilled gunplay as long as it's also controls great and is satisfying, and during the early days of Rust (LEGACY), the gunplay was satisfying as hell. You had to control your weapons and not spray everywhere, and the recoil was just right, not too much, not too little. It was enough to make you feel like you were wielding a gun and not a laser weapon. + inaccuracy while spraying too much (I believe), so that you burst or tap fire more often.

Now, well, it feels like you are using cannons instead, try to fire and you have to crouch to be able to tap fire on people with an AK. And to make everything better there are people who use scripts to negate the recoil and basically demolish you.
They could've just made it so that if you spray too much you just get more inaccuracy than just tremendous recoil that can be negated.

Can you learn the recoil? If you have enough mouse pad surface and want to, sure, you can. Is it worth the trade-off by getting script kiddies that negate your hard work in learning the recoil anyway? In my opinion at least, no.
I don't know if I turn the game into "cs go" by having learnable recoil pattern (which it already has) but also more innacuracy while spraying beyond a third of your magazine (so you don't get sprayed down easily at long ranges unless the person has that great of an aim), but I don't know. I am just not a fan of the current system.
But the gunplay is just a factor, and it's not the biggest one that bothers me.

Should you buy the game? It depends. Excluding the gunplay that you can adapt to even if you like it or hate it, the rest is the biggest turnoff. Grind, lose, hours wasted for nothing, dissatisfaction, destroyed by people who no life the game because it's designed that way as far as I have seen.

Was it worth the money for me? Yes, back in the early days. Not now. I wouldn't recommend the game as it is now to me, but I would've recommended in 2014 when I was playing Legacy.

I will try to play the game again and see if the experience is any better at least on small group servers and maybe in the future i will change my opinion.

This is the RUST experience for the average player that plays alone / a couple of friends at best. ---Early establishment on the server--- Tried playing in small groups / solo. Tried playing on servers that are not Official and have an average of ~50 people on them so that it's not a warzone. Still getting raided too fast. Waste ~5 hours to build a small base with a good design, doesn't matter. Next day your base could be gone. Hard work, zero reward. ---Very Rare Firepower--- Guns? Forget it. You don't even get to craft a revolver, you have to find it in a small monument / gas station and the chances are still low as shit for some reason, like 1 in 200 crates opened or something (that's how it feels i am serious) You want actual guns? Go to the bigger radtowns and have the same abysmal chances of getting said guns and also get killed pretty fast by people who have guns before you. Basically you can't defend yourself with much because you have to use spears / bows / crossbows. And it's not like on those youtube videos you see with people who get kills on geared players with primitive weapons. It doesn't happen that often at all. If I were to count beating people with primitive weapons when they had guns I think I would give an estimation of 1 in 20 chance. From my experience at least. Unless you get headshots consistently or something you aren't going to make it in most cases. Maybe you did get guns after a few days of not getting raided. Only to find out the server wipes on a weekly/bi weekly schedule and it's not one month wipe like the rest just to make you feel better. ---GUNPLAY--- Man, what the fuck did they do to the gunplay. It's a crouching simulator. I am all for skilled gunplay as long as it's also controls great and is satisfying, and during the early days of Rust (LEGACY), the gunplay was satisfying as hell. You had to control your weapons and not spray everywhere, and the recoil was just right, not too much, not too little. It was enough to make you feel like you were wielding a gun and not a laser weapon. + inaccuracy while spraying too much (I believe), so that you burst or tap fire more often. Now, well, it feels like you are using cannons instead, try to fire and you have to crouch to be able to tap fire on people with an AK. And to make everything better there are people who use scripts to negate the recoil and basically demolish you. They could've just made it so that if you spray too much you just get more inaccuracy than just tremendous recoil that can be negated. Can you learn the recoil? If you have enough mouse pad surface and want to, sure, you can. Is it worth the trade-off by getting script kiddies that negate your hard work in learning the recoil anyway? In my opinion at least, no. I don't know if I turn the game into "cs go" by having learnable recoil pattern (which it already has) but also more innacuracy while spraying beyond a third of your magazine (so you don't get sprayed down easily at long ranges unless the person has that great of an aim), but I don't know. I am just not a fan of the current system. But the gunplay is just a factor, and it's not the biggest one that bothers me. Should you buy the game? It depends. Excluding the gunplay that you can adapt to even if you like it or hate it, the rest is the biggest turnoff. Grind, lose, hours wasted for nothing, dissatisfaction, destroyed by people who no life the game because it's designed that way as far as I have seen. Was it worth the money for me? Yes, back in the early days. Not now. I wouldn't recommend the game as it is now to me, but I would've recommended in 2014 when I was playing Legacy. I will try to play the game again and see if the experience is any better at least on small group servers and maybe in the future i will change my opinion.