Finished the Alpha. Below is my impression, some of it going to be spoiler, but I will avoid it as much as possible. For mechnical impression, I am playing on Core difficulty (no enemy stats bonus, bigger group of enemies).
Overall impression of the game: it is Kingmaker, but mostly better, being in buggy alpha state aside. Owlcat is trying to adress people's issues with KiM while trying to mantain what's good about it. Ofc there are new problems in WoR but if you like KM I can see that you will like WoR besides for specific grievence.
Level Progression: this is one of the bigger difference compared to KM. WoR in geeneral is much faster pace wise (as intended by the dev who aims to have a shorter game vs KM), and it follows that your mechanical progression is much faster. You will be at these levels on each chapter ends: Prologue (Level 3). Chapter 1 (Level 6 Mythic 1) Chapter 2 (Level 9/10 Mythic 3) Chapter 3 (level 13/14 Mythic 4). There are supposed to be 10 Mythic Level and currently the Level: Mythic ratio is around 3.5:1. People like Lacrymas who think "striking and miss 50% of the time low level DnD" is fun will be disapointed in this front. WoR is supposed to be 5/6 chapters game and you already reach end of mid level by the time Chapter 3 ends. With roughly half the game left, this could mean that either you will be getting power much slower from then on (to balance the Level: Mythic Ratio to the closer 2:1), or the game will keep the current pace where you will reach Level 20 before Mythic 10 and have the rest of the progression to be Mythic only. Eiher way, I feel that this is too fast and your power growth severely out pace those of the enemies with exception of few encounter.
Item Progression: TTRPG and games based on them usually have issue where item progression is rather slow. KM adressed this by giving a load of generic magical items (+1, +2 weapon, attributes enchancing accesorries, etc) fairly early. WoR approach is similar but different. Instead of a load of generic magical items, what you will get is more unique items (mostly weapon but also other items) with situational/specific uses. Now I'll be honest, for the weapons, esepcially Ch 1 and 2, those uniqueness are barely useful. A 17 Fort DC effect on critical attack is not really that usefull considering the save the enemies had. Later on (end of Ch2 to Ch3) you will find uniques that are less situational and DC dependent. For non-weapon items, I think this is where the itemization shines more. The Unique non-weapon items are good in build defining kind of way instead of just "+x to attributes." Lawntoilet posted some of them several posts ago. Expect non-weapon uniques to be more specific but "fun."
Weapon Type Spread: one of the bigger criticism of KM was how taking non Dueling Blades Exotic Proficiency/Focus is a big mechanical trap. Heck focusing anything but the most generic weapon type (Greatsword, Longbow, Longsword, Dagger) can put you in a pinch due to drought of specific weapon type. WoR tries really hard to adress this issue. Exotic uniques are found throughout the story as loots. Merchants in general have decent magical items/uniques for most weapon type (common and exotic) for sale. Now some weapon types are still better than the other, but you will no longer have the "I am stuck with this +2 Falcata for 70% of the game" issue people had with KM.
"Crafting": besides finding 10 bear asses 10 ring fragments like in KM, there are new "crafting" mechanic in the game. Trhoughout your exploration by the party and Cursade Battle (that HOMM style thing) you will often finds certain unique artifacts that can be converted into equipments thorugh project in Crusade Management. Usually each artifact can be converted into one to several item types (e.g. a mamoth corpse can be converted into Short Spear or Light Shield, some demon asses can be covnerted into Light Armor, Robe, or Cloak) with each of item type usually having different alternatives (e.g. the mamoth corpse spear can either deal sonic damage or do additional attack on tripping enemy (this is pure example, I don't exactly remember each variety)). Usually weapons will have the same alternatives (say an artifact can be made into Greataxe, Handaxe, or Waraxe but each weapon type has the same 2 alternatives) while non-weapons are less restricted. This gives another dimension on giving playe rmore control over the itemization and less "boxing" them around by the game loot table.
Enemy Variety: when WoR was announced, one of the worry is that we wil bel fighting only demon for the whole game with low enemy variety. Based on alpha this is not far from the mark. Now KM is not exactly beacon of enemy variety either, but in KM usually each chapter has a certain enemy type that the game is focusing on. Due to WoR theme, throught the first 3 chapters you will be mostly fighting Cultist and Stronger Cultist, Demon and Stronger Demon variants for like 85% of the time. The rest 15% are some undead and animals or some such. This is currently my biggest gripe with WoR especially as Chapter 4 is seemingly about you going to Abyss..... which means another fucking demon focused chapter.
General Difficulties: disclaimer, I am playing on Core. In geenral the game has a smoother difficulty curve compared to KM with optional encounters usually being the crux of the difficulties. Due to the fast progression above (not to mention getting Mythic Levels and thus Mythic Abiltiies and Feats) the game from Chapter 3 on rarely feels difficult. Some enemy comps like the mages/bard combo I posted about can fuck you up. You regularly have some minotaurs being sicked on you and each of them have like +30 attack and +30 to damage rolls, but in general the game is not that difficult (just like in KM). This feels obvious, once again, due to the very fast level progression. Either they need to buff the enemies more (by Mythic Levels if needed, and yes some enemies also have Mythic Levels with their Myhic Abilties) or they need to slow down the player power creep.
I guess this would be it for meachanical impression. Will probably post more about the narrative one later in the day.
