Somehow I must have overlooked that there's an official OT about the Early Access version.
I'm going to copy-paste my early feedback from the past free weekend and then I guess I have some catch up to do with what people posted in the past 11 pages of the thread:
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This is a game that feels this close to be a masterpiece in the making, but I have to say that for all the great things it does (stunning art, amazing level design and maps layout, top quality cinematics, compelling narrative, fun combat and exploration, etc) the more hours I spend on it the less fond I become of some of its more obvious shortcomings.
They seem to work to actively undermine what good there is in it (and yes, as I said there's a LOT of good).
The itemization as a whole is an abomination.
For a start, you are constantly fighting the inventory and its limitations (and that's AFTER you already unlocked extra slots and store upgrades, because it's borderline unbearable at first) and spending way more time that you should navigating menu rather than enjoyin the game.
Even putting the "juggling against limitations" aside, every single item you find FEEL like generic vendor trash (even when it may be an upgrade compared to what you are using).
Consequently the reward for every accomplishment (i.e. finding a secret spot, defeating a powerful enemy) is more of the same generic trash.
On top of it most stat requirements feel honestly insane.
The equipment comes with BOTH level requirements and stat requirements. As a result, you are, say, level 15 and you stumble constantly in items that seem to expect that up to that point you had to spend the TOTALITY of the stat points you gained in a single stat. Sometimes you even stumble in items where "the math doesn't seem to math properly", since there's no way in hell at that point in the game you could have the DOUBLE stat requirement as high as it's expected to be.
Long story short, you are constantly drowning in items, the overwhelming majority of which are completely pointless to even attempt to use, because you are out their basic requirements and they are there just to keep you busy and fill your inventory.
The crucible is another... mixed bag to put it mildly. I get that like these daily bounties this feature is basically here just to "pad" content a bit, but I sure as hell hope to see it revamped in the final release.
Going through ten levels where you can die at any point (even just by falling off) only to get ONE single try at the final boss -one rather challenging and with TWO phases- and be back to the "lobby" if you die is beyond annoying.
It doesn't make me feel "challenged" as much as it makes me want to avoid the thing in its entirety.
Last but not least, the grinding of crafting materials for all the building upgrades is BOOOORING and it feels like an attempt to turn what should be a fun game into tedious work.
I also hope they'll prioritize making the single player campaign the best it can be and that "end game" repeatable game loops will remain mostly an extra/side dish, because the former is where the game truly shines.
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P.S. As a corollary to this post I'll add that since I wrote that I learned about the respec statue, put the Crucible (well, what's currently there about it) in farm status and then pretty much inished the content of this current build and tried to plague outbreaks.
This made some of the things I originally complained about a lot more manageable (i.e. stat requirements aren't a big issue when you can move them around freely and inventory gets a lot better once you get access to a few large chests in your house) but in terms of general vibe playing the game I'm more or less sticking to that first impression.
I still think they should tune down the itemization flood/spam, ideally. If it was up to me I still would be in favor of replacing the entirety of this randomized crap with a lower number of more rare and meaningful "uniques".
Also, still think that levesc-scaling/level-gating equipment is a dubious choice, and that's being diplomatic about it.
P.P.S. I said it elsewhere, but this game is a fucking stunner on my new OLED monitor. At times It looks incredible in motion. Cutscenes in particular are almost at the level of a professional animation movie.