Great posts, all!
And a special thank you to LordCrash and Robcat for theirs. In fact, if you somehow could meld them together, you'll most likely have a fantastic piece of reflections of where D:OS is at right now. I have only played a few hours in alpha and one hour in this last beta, but I really have to join this choir of lamentation over this lack of a deeper and more engaging world. Ultima VII was extremely captivating and every item placed seemed to have some significance. And in Forgotten Realms, you get an almost Tolkien-deep lore. It's almost no end to the history, diversity and cultures there. Sometimes, Rivellon feels a bit gimmicky, like a RPG world by proxy. In Divine Divinity, this made me care less about the world, but all the humour and cool twists and turns certainly made up for that. Perhaps Rivellon needs to be taken more seriously.
As for combat, it's far too early for me to have an opinion.
