Is the game fun to play? Yes
Is it fun without mods? Not so much
Is it annoying to play it with mods? Absolutely.

I started a save game two days ago on UE5, to give Conan a new chance. It was actually really fun and I liked it. But what comes next is the most annoying sh*t in this game: 1. They brought a battle pass (which was the reason why i left) 2. they removed the pass but brought an ingame Shop for building pieces and armors (In an effin' survival game!!) and 3rd (the main problem here) the incompetence to implement game versioning. You could roll back to UE4, that's possible. But if you're current savegame is on UE5 and the next patch comes up with breaking changes, you are fd. Why? You cannot roll back to your last compatible version, rendering this game unplayable unless you disable mods. But does disabling mods break the progress of your savegame or your server? Yes, absolutely. And for this reason I am leaving for good. To you Fucom: If you grab for money, then at least have the decency to make your game playable for those who pay or play with mods, since it's part of your game. I am sick and tired of your crap once and for all.
It's really sad, you had your chance for years, but never seized the opportunity to make this game great. And with the last engine upgrade you could have brought back many many players. It's a shame you missed it.

About mods and asset policy:

And here's what really boils my blood: The mod 'Desert Town' alone has more innovation than every official DLC combined. Half-stairs. Circular stairs, Stackable fences. Choices between windows and shutters. Wooden ceilings on foundations. Trees as decorative elements. Trims for finishing walls. Rotation agnostic building pieces (ones that look the same on both directions) that actually work as interior dividers and sooo much more. Meanwhile, Funcom's DLCs are just reskins of existing meshes. No new mechanics. No round pieces. No onion dome roofs. Nothing. And they've been doing this for YEARS. One modder in their spare time shows more love for this game than a whole company selling 10 € DLC packs.

Oh, and don't expect to use DLC assets in mods. Funcom blocks that because they're terrified you might make something better than their 10 bucks reskins and give it away for free. Other games (Stellaris, etc.) figured this out years ago – let mods use DLC assets, but require the DLC to be owned. Works fine. Funcom just doesn't want you to have nice things unless you pay and even then the quality of what you get is questionable. And then pay again – with time, progress and frustration – when the mod breaks because they couldn't be bothered to version their game properly.

fun game but servers are absolute dog **** and ping is insane ever after all these years funcom is unable to give players a good foundation to play on

It is an amazing game. RPG and crafting mechanics are deep. There are survival mechanics like hunger, thirst and temperature but it is quite forgiving and manageable with ease for most players. The game has a few tutorials but doesn't really hold your hand on essential mechanics. Do not rush into the wilderness or you will suffer at early game. It needs slow build up and preparation. UE5 update is just sweet and everything looks modern. This is a few hundred hours type of game to enjoy.

Here are some newbie tips that I think they game doesn't guide you but very important. Stop reading if you want to experience blind on your own. no story spoilers.

+Follow the "Journey". It is your main quest to unlock and grow your character. You start out butt naked.
+Get all the stone tools and choose a weapon. They are repairable no need craft new if it breaks. Using different tool can yield different resource from the same source such as prey carcass, trees.
+Throw away unwanted items. I think they despawn after a while (not very sure).
+Essential basic resources respawn near you fast
+starting a base is important. Choose level ground away from mobs, They respawn.
+Do not forget to put in RPG stats for your character and chosen class(weapon) as you level up. It impacts the damage and abilities significantly.
+Iron tools yield more resources from the same source. So you need to upgrade your stone tools and weapons to Iron. However, you need a lot of Ironstones and they don't spawn in starter area. They spawn rarely in River's immediate north and much more abundant further north mountains beyond the river which are full of enemies. Try to find a safe path to more Iron deposits further north but combat is unavoidable. Make sure you have leveled up almost everything in stone age and know how to fight. Once you secured your iron supply, the game takes off and start to be a lot more fun. I wasted a good chunk of time fumbling to find Iron.