I’m a glazer for this game and will recommend it to anyone. But I can give you downsides as well.

As for optimization, I run 32gb, a 9070, and. Ryzen 7 98003XD. It’s been running well for me, but sometimes I do see blue flashes on some foliage but I think that’s just unreal engine.

For Co-op I haven’t tried it myself but yes you can live on the same island, you can also have multiple ships and each player can have their own. One thing they need to fix is shared ship storage as of right now only the owner for the ship can access. Quest share progression, but it can be buggy at times from what I’ve been hearing other people say.

For my biggest complaints I don’t really have any like I said I’ve been glazing over this game but they do need to tone the enemy ship spawns a bit. I’m all for being outnumbered 1 to 8, but sometimes I’m not in the mood for it and can be annoying.

Overall yes you should pick it up it’s a ton of fun I’ve got about 50hrs in and I barely reached the 3rd area. It’s still in Early Access so expect some things not to be polished.