Recent reviews by sLice-

This review is coming from the perspective of someone that has only played ARPG's like Diablo and sadly have never played Dark Souls or even Elden Ring (was not happy with keyboard and mouse at the time). This was also played first on the Breach Update if that helps.

For being early access, this game feels very polished. The combat is intense as I was thinking I could just attack my way through mobs and not have any issues. WRONG. The first bigger mob by the broken bridge in the first area gave me the hardest time until I figured out the dodge mechanics. Absolutely humbling experience and challenge.

The good:
Visuals - Incredible colors, levels and variety that are an absolute pleasure to view while playing.
Level Design - Not once did I ever feel that I couldn't go somewhere unless it was a literal mountain or a puzzle for me to solve and figure out where the ladder was or the items or chest. I did wander into a dark dungeon off the coast and instantly regretted it since it was dark and died to mobs +20 levels higher than me. :)
Combat - Visceral and frankly unforgiving. While combat is smooth I also feel it is a huge opportunity to improve quality of life.

Improvement Suggestions:
Items - I think we've all been trained to know that blue is a rare item and purple is legendary. Not the case here unless you have a TON of essence to essentially re-enchant everything even at a low enchant rate. I don't think they did a good enough job here explaining why plagued gear is purple and that you can use your essence to change up the attributes.
Gems and Drops in general: Gems are few and far between. Not farmable unless you run through every chest and hope for the best. Biggest frustration right now when you defeat a mob is where the loot drops. If I shove them off a cliff, I want the drop to show up at my feet. Instead, too many times did the drop either disappear or fell under the water, etc. Basically no way to get it.
Farming / food - Not the most burdensome thing ever, but definitely a PITA for how little inventory space you have to what you need to farm. Luckily they changed stacks this last patch. Farming food is also ridiculous. Would love potions or something to purchase vs. farming and buying food.
Bosses - I think a lot of others have mentioned how ridiculous bosses and mobs can be with endless poise and follow up attacks, etc.

All in all - for a first time dive into this type of game, I can't stop playing it. I have rolled additional characters because of how OP spell casting is vs. daggers and getting DESTROYED by Dalak round 2 around 75 times. The minute I rolled in with my staff... I one shot that fool. Definite balance issues, but all in all, it's so addicting to play.