First: I'm really enjoying D:OS. I love Larian's transparent and honest communication with players, and I completely understand they're working on an extremely tight budget/timeframe (considering the scope of the project and the size of their team).
Now that that's out of the way, I also have to admit I'm pretty disappointed in the lack of realism/interactivity with the world, especially for a game branding itself as the Next Ultima 7 over twenty years later. I'm not only talking about NPC schedules here. I mean some of the little things Nemisis Dragon mentioned (there's no bard or people sitting/eating/drinking in the tavern, quest NPCs simply disappear/walk through objects and walls when leaving the scene, etc.). NPCs in general have no reaction to the weather (or what limited weather there is), to you smashing or fireballing doors and containers right next to them (as long as the targets aren't marked as "owned"), to you sneaking about six inches behind their back (even with no points in the Sneaking ability) and robbing them blind as your party loiters a few feet away... you get the idea.
Unless some major changes are made before the release - and they almost definitely won't be, as we're already in beta - I guess we'll have to settle for a fun little game with good turn-based combat, with a fairly well-developed elemental system the only method of truly interacting with the game world. Again, I really like Larian, and I'm enjoying D:OS, but a true spiritual sequel to Ultima 7 it's not.
Anyway, back to Cyseal - got some more skulls to bash.
