For a pre-production mockup, the P:E waterfall scene is outstanding. On a technical level, it's far superior to any of the IE RPGs, which is to be expected; in terms of pure aesthetics and art direction, it leaves something to be desired when compared to post-production PS:T, while being very nearly on par with BG2. It's worth noting however that the waterfall scene is just one scene, and that experiencing dozens of "rooms" will be necessary to get a truer sense of P:E's aesthetics and art direction. Once the game is finished, I expect P:E to exceed all past IE games in terms of visual fidelity, and hopefully its art direction and resultant atmosphere will be up to standards as well. Music and sound will have an effect, too.
What's most important to me is that there are no red flags that make me think, "Wait a minute...". I saw none in the video, except for that one bush that's jerking to and fro like someone blasted it with a cocaine cannon (in a universe where plants can get high on cocaine). Again though, it's just a mockup.
I'm very reluctantly forced to agree with Roguey that P:E "looks better" than Wasteland 2 from a technical standpoint, when the videos are compared. Then again, the WL2 videos aren't mockups—they're real WIPs. If I wanted to, I could probably grab an engine of some kind, pay a programmer $1,000 to spend ten hours slapping together some free art assets, pay another programmer $1,000 to animate some assets (characters), pay an artist $1,000-$2,000 to draw me a bridge and a door and a few rocks, add a UI myself if desired, and upload a similar (if shittier) mockup.
Here's something I made years ago, in like 2007. The GIF frame timings appear to have degraded over the years; I know not how. When I first made this six years ago, the timings were smooth and spot-on. Fixing it is way too much work and trouble. It's essentially a hack's shitty mockup, a few hours' tinkering with, obviously, ripped sprites, backgrounds, and a certain font face. Add $3,000-$4,000, 50 more man-hours, real (non-stolen/original) art assets, and a real programmer, and you have an actual respectable mockup.
