So I've decided to check out the new update and started a new game.
Well, it indeed starts to resemble an actual game now, instead of just being a larger tech demo.
They managed to implement the save system and a persistent dungeon after all, even though they claimed only a couple of months ago that this was not possible (not that anyone believed them). It has a very basic narrative structure now and Typhon is presented as a slightly less abstract threat to the denizens of the Underworld.
The gameplay itself is still pretty much the same: you get a quest (just one now, as far as I can tell - Edit: You get one "story" quest at a time, but eventually you get to choose between three faction quests again. ) which has you run to some random part of the current dungeon level to find/kill/gather something.
Once you complete your objective, you now backtrack to the start of the dungeon level, with some new enemies spawning along the way.
Quests are no longer offered on the billboard in Marcaul, but handed out by the spiky saurian lady who apparently is some kind of lizard-gypsy, dragging a gipsy-cart along which serves as the new billboard to post your next quest. As she and her cart are now appearing at the starting areas of the dungeons, going to Marcaul is only necessary to visit the vendor or the skill trainer, as all quests are offered in the dungeon and the different levels are now interconnected by the grand staircase (or at least the stand-in double consisting of a few steps with a door at the end).
Levels have overall received some polish, with many of the issues with level geometry resolved (might get worse in the later levels).
Same seems true for performance, but there are still areas where I get serious dips in fps.
Many concepts, while interesting on paper, still don't work very well (or at all). Notably the deep slugs - you can feed them stuff to alter their slime trail and make them poop effects, but why bother? The Materia Modi (or whatever they are called), which are supposed to alter the environment (by changing water or lava levels), are still introduced by Cabirus, but don't seem to work at all now.
And of course, lizard men look as stupid as ever.
So, overall my impression is that they are slowly completing the technical base - levels, systems, etc. - but are still lacking worthwhile content. The stuff UA offers right now gets old quickly. With a couple of good writers and content creators working on it for a couple of months, the end-result might even be a decent-enough UU-offshoot.
Is that going to happen? I doubt it very much.
