After a few runs of various sorts across both segments I can give some impressions and feedback. Going to post this the OE forum.
Jankiness, Control and Physical Simulation
Movement feels fairly fluid and somewhat satisfying, which is not what I expected given the complaints of jank. My character feels like it has mass and inertia and it appears to me that the PC is interacting physically with the environment rather than simply moving around. I am reminded of Skate and Mirror's Edge in that they also have the PC interacting physically within the game world. With that (especially in skate for those who remember it) allows for an element of physical glitchiness for edge cases, but polished some can lead to very satisfying controls in the game. Time will tell how it pans out. For now there are instances of hangup on geometry, taking damage when going through broken doors and similar issues. After some practice, I have been doing some satisfying parkour just now and I am enouraged.
Physics are front and center and seems to have substantial influence on most things. From movement to physical or chemical interaction this is certainly a simulation IMO. I have observed and interacted with these properties that I can list so far: Speed, inertia, elasticity, rigidity/strength, kinetic resistance, friction, buoyancy, temperature, light, sound, imbue heat, imbue wetness, wear/condition. In playing it and enumerating these as I discovered them, it is clear to me that this has LGS ingredients. Very encouraging. It is neat to watch a pile of wooden stuff burn and see some of these elements take on a life of their own.
There is a real focus on fire. Fire seems very well simulated. Check... what else is coming? What other elements we will see in the game and what other properties can be interacted with within the simulation?
Atmosphere and Lighting
There were sections of the level that had great atmosphere. I liked the hallway with the wisps for a few reasons. Great use of lighting to set a mood and good artistic design IMO. The player doesn't know what is at the end of the hallway but gets an ever changing glimpse based on movement of the wisps. I initially thought the wisps would be a nuisance and a convenient way to be lazy about lighting levels, but playing it, I think they are brilliant. I extinguished all the sconces and candles in the area as far away from them as I could and the effect was great. The hall all of a sudden was very dark and felt very organic and ominous. It was neet to watch a distant wisp move around, its dim light peeling back the darkness. Very cool, more of that please. I wonder if the ever-moving darkness around the wisps can be leveraged for stealth.
I appreciate the darkness. It's great, and I am glad to see OE took seriously the request for darkness. I would go further still, but only with a couple of important changes. In UW, the character gave off a very faint glow that dimly lit the area immediately around them, as though to approximate your eyes acclimating to darkness or perhaps wearing a glowing amulet or something. Without a light source anywhere nearby, you could make out what was in your very immediate area. This is not the case in the current build and has some people saying the darkness has been taken too far. I found myself trying to carry braziers around or catching stuff on fire to create light but I really don't want the answer to that to be lightening up the baseline or scattering around yet more super conveniently placed candles.
Second, allow the player to carry a torch, taper, or refillable lantern that are spent with use, as it was in UW. These had varying light radii and longevity. Please implement.
These additions would allow for two important things to happen:
1) Seriously limit the superfluous placement of candles, sconces and braziers to areas occupied by humanoids. The Abyss didn't have convenient placement of everlasting candles, sconces or braziers and I suspect the reason they appear now would be addressed by my suggestions above. These convenient light sources are contrived and should be used sparingly. These things should appear only where humanoids would place them, tend them and rely on them.
2) Allow the team to fully leverage darkness without concern of having to strike a balance using candles, sconces and braziers, or making the game lighter by default. Menu brightness adjustment I don't see as an answer really if it is gamma. The realtime lighting looks quite good IMO, so let the player make light while contending with the darkness.
There was one rather well lit room and I was a little relieved to visit it, which is an indication that you are on the right path.
Sound
Some good 3d placement of sounds and I have discovered differing environmental effects depending on where you are and the geometry of the immediate area. Muffling, echo, etc. Nice. Hopefully that translates to floor and wall makeup etc. moving forward. There are some instances of a skeleton sound is poorly placed or mixed, being too loud or giving the impression of being very close by but being off in the distance.
Sconces are too loud and their sound does not fade appropriately. Quieter default level would be good.
Some sounds seem scripted, such as a skeleton sighing when you enter an area. This is fine but it sounds like it is right next to you. This should be addressed.
Howling wind sounds are nicely done. A little more subtlety and alignment with local level geometry would be nice. Silence other than minimal, coherent environmentals can be plenty atmospheric.
I love the sound work on the opening of Balin's book in LOTR:
https://youtu.be/0HPeNPOOamw?t=1m10s
Combat & Magic
Melee and Archery combat is woefully easy at this point. Skeletons do not pose any real threat at this point. They move too slowly and are easy to dispatch with a few blows at most. One section suggests a stealth approach to get around one skeleton. The challenge may be to go undetected, but that only has meaning if being detected carries consequences. Enemies should be made much deadlier. They need to be faster and tougher. Two skeletons at once should be trouble.
On the positive, hitting the skeletons results in expected animations. Hit one after they miss, in the direction they missed, and they swing wildly in that direction. It seems to me that my sword interacts with them physically, which suggests to me that there is potential to ratchet things up to good effect. This needs attention.
Arrows don't seem to use ballistics at this point, or ft/s needs to be lowered to the player has to mentally calculate and adjust for trajectory, different bows have different ballistic characteristics, wear can influence, etc. Will this be implemented?
Magic effects seem nice and the spells implemented seem to work pretty predictably and interestingly, but need to see more spells. I think the use of wands with rune slots as shown here will be a good trade-off between swapping out runes for one spell at a time. The player can find or earn wands. I like it, so long as runic magic is also present and reminiscent of the system in UW.
UI
I hope this UI approach is placeholder. I'm not sure so I am going to present arguments why this UI should be replaced by classic UW UI elements.
In UW, if you want to switch weapons you have to bring up your inventory/paperdoll to swap it out, which while under threat creates tension. This is an opportunity that shouldn't be squandered.
The UW paperdoll and inventory were just about perfect. Will se see this? Are there art budget problems in doing so? An actual appearance of a backpack with representative icons is a huge loss IMO. U9 style inventory would be ideal.
The map in this alpha pales in comparison to UW automap. Can we get some feedback on what the map will be?
Are health and mana regeneration simulated as they were in UW?
Dialog, Trading, NPC interaction, Journal etc.
We have seen literally nothing on these facets and the game releases next quarter according to the current timeline. We need to see these.
but I've got to see for myself.
