I don't know if this is the right place to put this, but I'll just leave this here. If it's placed wrong and you (the reader) find this post to make a fair point, feel free to repost in the right spot. If not, feel free to ignore it.
Many good things about this game. Especially, the combat interface works well.
There are three design-flaws I found throughout the alpha that I feel stand in danger of impacting the game in a particulary bad way. I disclose them without much in the ways of padding, so if you feel that negative review equals trolling you have the option to stop reading now.
Two non-compatible themes.
On one side the Divine setting is dark, mystical and serious. On the other side, you have this Monty Python humour displaying inappropriate absurdity. In the alpha this is most clearly manifested in the talking sea-shell. The Python-effect derives not from the fact that it speaks, but rather the personality it displays and the manner of the player characters' response. It appears roughly as if in the middle of Legonas', Aragorn and Gimlis tracking of the Uruk-Hai the spanish inquisition would jump out from behind the rocks to perform an unexpected singing act for our heroes. It is inappropriate (although, try telling the sea-shell that..). While some would find that entertaining, reviews would perhaps not average at the present metacritic score. Since I assume you yourselves rather like your own humour from your developers perspective, and also want to stay loyal to the fans who disagree with me, I have a suggestion to make: Please flag all your attempts at humoristic content, and make a toggle-button to simply disable/enable all of it. While I don't mind meeting talking sea-shells in general, I would rather not have met this particular one.
Dialogue void of personality.
The dialogue in the alpha is really inept. Every line displays less personality than the dialogue of Diablo. Where Diablo was entirely combat-centric, D:OS display ambitions to be something more. Still, the only personality I encountered in the alpha was the speaking sea-shell, and that one seemed like it had inadvertently escaped from discworld. If the alpha proves representative for the dialogue in the release, you're gonna' have quite a few reviews giving average or low scores referring to a decent tactical game with dialogue that makes you wanna' carve your own brain out with a small fork. Dialogue must be written in a way so as to show the characters' attitudes, values and jargon, if you are to cater to role-players. The player characters should be the main priority here, but no NPC should be given a line to say without having a sense of personality to put behind it. Otherwise, it would be much better to cut away all dialogue and spend the resources elsewhere, as the current dialogue just make the game worse. In this spirit, and because I assume you yourselves and loyal fans feel the dialogue look both smart and meaningful, please make a toggle-button to disable/enable absolutely all dialogue in the game. Where removed, clicking NPCs should simply auto-complete all dialogue through a pre-set route, updating the quest-log and progressing the game. Ideal? No. Better? Yes, worlds apart.
Loot-galore?
The armour and damage numbers, and equipment names and properties makes me suspect you plan a diablo-like loot-galore. I think this is a design choice that lends itself poorly to a tactical game. Diablo progress very fast which makes you impatient for new stuff and prevents you from thinking about how inappropriate it is that the epic belly-button lint you just picked up gives you 4000 extra horse-powers for chopping with hand-axes. Turn-based games set a very different stage, and so you should consider a fallout-like design for equipment. Also, you should scrap the heaps of trash-items (what is the point of populating the game with useless junk anyway?).
Anyway, good luck with the further development. I'll give it a shot once it's completed. The tactical combat-elements of the game seem to be coming along nicely.
Kindest Regards and Best Intentions,
Emil
