I spent some time with the beta, and I'm generally very pleased with the game. Of course there is much room for improvement, but it shows great potential even in its current state. The below list is of course completely subjective Positive: + The environment is spot on. The visuality is outstanding; it's beautifully done, credible, and vivid. The sounds are a great plus in the immersion effect. + The ambient music is okay. Does not attract too much attention on its own, but stand its ground when watched actively. + Character creation is clear, easy to follow, well organized, and very informative. + The dialog system is outstanding. The distinction between vocal and meta communication is very good, and the choice of having skill-restricted entries shown/hidden is great. Negative: - The character selection process is far from being optimal. The area to click is too small, and the feedback before selection click is inadequate even for normal circumstances. The positioning of action icons is not logical, too much "under the feet". - The visuals and animation of characters, monsters, and NPCs are not up to comparison with the environment. - The combat sound design is a bit weak. Some audio effects are missing, some others are underdeveloped if not obtrusive. - It's difficult to see through combat, and it needs waaaaaay too much micromanagement. - The inventory/stash/trading UI is a borderline case of "grasp all, lose all". Weird: ? Maybe it's a bit early to make a verdict on this, but the concept of no XP for clearing up an area is a bit strange. ? We were promised live instrumentation for the soundtrack, but in its current state it doesn't sound a live one. ? Perhaps I played too much game with full VO lately, but I miss it. Would be nice to have: ! Camera rotation controls for getting better viewing angles on some situations ! More appropriate (darker toned) ambient music for dungeons ! Some automatic combat behavior to get through at least the trivial encounters ! A switchable autosave mechanism (bound to transitions for example) ! Minimap
Even in its current state, with all the negatives and weird stuff, the game sucked me right in. Can't wait to get a hold of the real thing. Kudos to the developers!
