Now the full game comes out and what do I notice after a couple of hours? The game is only fun if you're not scavenging supplies around. I feel like the anons that didn't like Hunger in Minecraft: here's a fantastical world with tons of things to see, but you'll be looking at chests/cupboards/file cabinets 60% of the time, with the reminder divided between the Chemical workbench and the Tool Workbench. After realizing this, I decided to keep a brisk pace with the story, do sidequests that wouldn't require long detours and kept my scavenging to minimum. Then I proceed to have a moderate amount of fun. As Arthur.
This last point is very important, because when Sally's chapter started, I wanted to scream at the Dev's. So much emphasis on crafting weapons + healing and the later 1/3 of Arthur's story drops a ridiculous ammount of weapons and first aid kits on your lap. I kept my scavenging to minimum, fought a lot of people, and still ended up swamped in weapons.
And as bad as the balance of that sounds, believe me: it's far, FAR worse with the other characters.
Sally's main gimmicky was that she was a more stealthy and crafty character. She can't takedown enemies like Arthur and Ollie does (unless she crafts a knockout seringe). 20 minutes after you start, you'll make 40 of the things and not use them all game. Because despite there being already few reasons to use them (Sally can easily outrun a lot of enemies), once you unlock the Pituitary extractor, you can take down ANYONE for free AND get a crafting ingredient from them! Even the Bobbies which Arthur can only do with a perk. Then there's the fact that half her craftables don't really work: the berserker dart will berserk someone… who will promptly run after you ignoring everyone else, defeating the purpose of a FUCKING BERSERK DART. The main signature weapons (the atomizers) are ridiculous. It's like a perfume bottle you craft to keep people away. You get all the ingredients for the first one rather soonish but can't actually gather one of the ingredients until you're 3/4 of the story in. And then the bloody thing only works OUTSIDE of combat. The other atomizer has a recipe you find when you're 9/10 of the story in, meaning you can forget about it since it will barely matter by then: the last 1/10 of the game has you carry a bag that makes it impossible to use it, so if you crafted it, you can't even use it. And even if you did want to use it, guess what: it's a Berzerk Atomizer and works just as well as the Dart version: it pains a large red target on your forehead and that's it. In short, Sally has a nice but rushed story with a shitty build up, rather crappy ending and the gameplay is mostly balls.
Ollie has the dumbest gameplay of all three so far. He has to watch his Blood sugar level since he's diabetic. You know what that means? It means dumping 5 skill points on the feat that let's you eat rotten food and you can replenish your blood sugar any-fucking-where for free. The game want's you to craft the Special Seringes that help you keep the Blood sugar at a medium level, but it's so fucking pointless when a perk you're buying anyway to acess a better let's you completely bypass the character's main mechanic.
He's suposedly better than Sally and Arthur in combat, but from experience: no he fucking isn't. He can fight unharmed, until you realize he can't block mellee weapons with his fists leading you to get pummelled. He also has a lot less stamina than Arthur/Sally meaning you can't even fight for long. OH! He's also suposed to be the best Tool Workbench crafter gainning acess to some impressive weapons and gadjets! But… he needs to upgrade the workbench for that and that's 2/3 of the story in. Before that, you can craft half of what Arthur could. Fucking fantastic.
Out of the three, he's the best written character and I like his personality a lot, but playing as him sucks some major ass.
The alpha clearly marketed a product. Arthur Hastings, outcast of society going postal in an ever-oh-so-british way and politely kicking ass. He was clearly where the brunt of the balancing and testing was put on, with the other two characters being an after though besides being ways to explore the story, a story that is presented as a complete mess around Arthur.
In short, the Alpha needed a lot of work, but was headed a good way. The final product scraped nearly all of the best ideas and developed all the wrong bits about it.
At least the artsyle has some nnice moments, I guess.