As of version 0.4.4.

For anyone jumping into the new beta branch and reading my earlier gripes about the law enforcement being a tedious nuisance: do not let that deter you. The police system I later found is easily beaten with the smoking the right combination of product (I wish the effects lasted just a little longer.). (Hail Anti-Gravity effect! Makes travelling across the map a breeze and sneaky is a life saver when trying to deliver product with an almost complete disregard for law enforcement while jumping from roof to roof like some druggie god.)

Bypassing the cops using your own custom mixes turns the whole thing into a satisfying achievement rather than a disjointed penalty. Despite the bugs, the core loop is oddly addictive and absolutely worth the investment.

As of version: 0.4.2.

Schedule I is a game that I quite enjoy... as a foundation. In its current early access state, I must admit I didn't anticipate how fun it was actually going to be. If I could have predicted how enjoyable it would be to mix and match random strains of weed and other substances like some kind of illicit pick-and-mix, I would have bought it far sooner. There's something oddly satisfying about the creation of a new mix and stumbling onto a new combination that is worth more, which is quite entertaining.

What kept me hooked beyond the mixing mechanics was the sequential progression. There's a genuine sense of achievement when you've saved enough to buy a new property or business and begin expanding your operation. For some players, the idea of having to rebuy and relocate all your equipment to a new property, reinvest profits, and carefully manage stock levels, including how much your dealers can reliably move, may sound like busywork. But that's precisely where the satisfaction lives. Completing a large sale after carefully managing all the parts feels earned, as a player achievement and not a linear objective marker.

Being in early access, I feel the price is, for the most part, justified as long as you approach it with the mindset that it is still incomplete and has quite a few bugs and some minor oversights. That said, I'm genuinely not sure what the purpose of the law enforcement system is beyond existing as a nuisance. The never-ending wanted system quickly goes from tense to tedious, and the logic behind it is questionable at best.

A bug I experienced which was particularly annoying was waiting at the stop and search when another vehicle proceeded to hit mine, which pushed into an officer (or two, based on the 'you got caught' fee), and immediately triggered wanted dead or alive. Bugs in early access are nothing new and sometimes, much like the initial release of Cyberpunk 2077, they can be hilarious. I had an officer chase me, wanted, straight into my house where all the illegal drugs were, and then charge me based on the contents of my vehicle.

The police/wanted system I feel is disjointed. It acts more like a nuisance or something to waste time avoiding than something actually detrimental or significant. This poorly contrasts against the action-like chase scenes that must be endured before you realise this isn't GTA 6 and they will hunt you for eternity. In my 15 hours of playtime, I got rid of the wanted status once.

For an early access title, Schedule I offers enough of a foundation to justify the investment, and I do intend to keep playing. The core loop is genuinely enjoyable and the progression feels rewarding in a way that suggests the developer has a solid vision for where this is heading. My hopes for future updates would primarily be a meaningful rework of the law enforcement system, something that makes it feel consequential rather than arbitrary, as well as continued expansion of the content available. If the same care that went into the business and progression mechanics is applied to the rougher edges of the game, Schedule I has the potential to be something worth far more than its early access price tag.