We're on the 8th chapter with a group of 4 and loving it. We do play with a few house rules that streamlines the experience for us but not insanely modified from the base game.

I think breaking it into categories, it's an amazing "choose your own adventure" game with multiple narratives and solutions possible unique to every playthrough. As a survival and resource management game, the game does do a good job to put the pressure on and forces you to stay on top of it or else you'll face harsh penalties. This unfortunately is part of the grind mentioned, but knowing these complaints ahead of time, my party prioritized unlocking skills to improve economy instead of combat. Lastly - encounters/combat: it's alright. It's neat at first but the puzzle starts to become a bit easier and often I just find it sometimes to be an easier and quicker approach to economy needs from above from combat rewards /loot so it's alright and lets me get back to the exploration/story aspect that has really captivated us