TLDR: I recommend Survival mode only, don't bother with Wintermute.

Ok this has become a very complicated situation because the Survival mode of this game is definitely worth playing, and has gotten better and better over time. But if you're interested in the world and the story the developers have taken 10 years to release "episodes" that have in my opinion declined in quality as they've gone along. The cutscenes are sharper, the mechanics get more complex, but in the tech advancements something is lost.

What was a survival exploration semi-open world game with an overarching story becomes a running down a hallway and watch 20 minute cutscene simulator. Literally there are multiple entire sections of episode 4 and especially episode 5 that can be summed up with "Run down this hallway, up these stairs, down this hallway, click the thing, then 34 more hallways and you're done."

I don't know what the hell went on inside Hinterland the past 5 years or so but I do not like the way the game changed from episodes 1 and 2. Those may not have been entirely polished, and they were remade and reworked at some point - but the bones and structure had promise. The game was fun. There was side content that coule be missed and upgrades that if you took the time to explore and make an effort to them really mattered.

Rather than episode 3 being more polished it shifted a little more into a linear story with less side exploration and content, episode 4 even more there was very little, and now we have episode 5 which from a gameplay perspective is quite frankly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It's embarassing I'm sorry. The story is fine. Not great, just ok.

I have almost 300 hours in this game and have loved it since early access and recommended it to people in the past, gifted it to friends, and been excited about the premise and the art style and the gameplay.
Getting through episode 5 was a slog - it was boring and nothing I did mattered. There were no choices to be made, I didn't have to find food or water or shelter. The game had stashes of food everywhere, convenient rest points at regular intervals, and locked you into these hand held multi-hour long sections.