It s really fab. There are fountains that burble, neon swamp gas that rises, geothermal geysers and sparkling waterfalls. I haven t been to the Direlands yet, but the screenshots I ve seen from there are even more amazing, and you get a much stronger sense of the depth of the game. They have rain and snow, they have butterflies, birds overhead and falling leaves. Fires flicker and crackle, lanterns and lifestones glow, and items are detailed and realistic.
Monsters are scary as all heck to look at, player characters gesture and breathe.
The characters are just a tad boxy, even with a good system, but they re far better than other games at the same development level. On a more personal note, I m also grateful that they didn t make their female characters into sword-wielding swimsuit models, either. It s nice to be able to play a female and not be worried that her platemail armor won t cover her cleavage. Kudos to whoever fought for that one. Probably the biggest issue in the early days of the release so far has been game balance.