Hello,
So I have been playing for a few hours. I wanted to give some very fresh first impressions, knowing some of them could change.
I went into the game knowing practically nothing except what I read on the website. Just wanted a fresh H&S to try.
Globally, I really enjoyed my first few hours, had a hard time stopping. In the + side:
- I don’t have a clear opinion yet on itemization, it’s too early, so I’ll just be optimistic here, the crafting seems interesting.
- All the other character customization systems I have seen are VERY promising.
- Character progression feeling in the first few hours is great. That is very important to me, it is what makes me want or not to start new characters.
- I like the systems in place for life/ward/etc handling.
On the “Meh” side. Keep it mind I think most of these points are “normal” in an Alpha build:
± Graphics look old. I’m not very demanding on that front, but it does not look great until now. I suppose that’s a work in progress though.
± Monster variety in the first few hours is not great, I’ll see how it evolves.
± Elite/rate/boss monster should be much easier to spot, it’s not always clear except if they are huge.
± UI is kind of klunky sometimes, like opening the crafting panel and clicking on help makes the help popup not 100% readable. Easy fixes I suppose.
± Controls are kind of klunky sometimes. Opening a portal and stepping in it requires some work, and minion pathing is weird.
On the minus side:
- The music is horrible (and loud). I mean I never (EVER) turn off the music in games. I did in this one after 1 hour of wondering what was putting me in such a bad mood. I hope these are not the final tracks.
Voilà, I’ll probably update after playing this some more. I want to play and test every build that I can think of, which is a good sign 
I hope the end-game systems will be good.