Overall impression:

Kenshi is the first in-dev game I've bought, and I'm glad I did. The interface can be clunky and slow, and there are bugs, but the core gameplay is a lot of fun, and I've already gotten my money's worth.

The world is impressively huge, with a lot of different biomes with their own unique characteristics as well as a sense of ancient history, and while it's sparsely populated, there are enough rewards waiting to make exploring interesting.

My first feeling was not just of sheer bigness, of also of an expanse of gameplay potential. It didn't quite pan out that way in this version, but it could. The world, while active within bounds, is also static overall. Would be very cool if factions were plotting things that could result in big changes in the world.

I chose the settlers-style game, and building up one's own outpost is cool. The resulting mash of buildings where I could fit them reminded me of farms I've seen, where outbuildings are in random places. For some reason that added immersion. :)

The graphics are nice, though really slow to load when transitioning (and I have an Alienware desktop).

Random impressions:

- I died a few times right away before figuring a few things out necessary to survival. It's hard to see enemies at first (so many pixels, and nothing is highlighted).
- I found an isolated spot to start building in the Border Zone, with plenty of iron/copper/stone and enough water. Building the outpost was a lot of fun. I'm not sure how'd I like an RPG-only style, though. I did use the Old Soldier to do lone supply runs and sell stuff and explore, and I gave him the best gear I found/made, so in a sense I used the outpost to power a lone RPG experience. (He got good enough to take out squads of enemies by himself, including nasties like Beak Things.)
- Textures can be very slow to load while restoring a savegame (basically, it feels like it loads into the interface too quickly: it needs to stay at the loading screen longer and really finish loading).
- Pathing was difficult some places (like the Border Zone), and occasionally characters would stop moving in the middle of a move order, for no apparent reason. Very bad when moving groups around.
- It's possible to give characters conflicting/canceling work orders. Took me a bit to figure that out.
- Would be nice to have an idle notification for workers.
- Would be nice to be able to select "infinite" for crafting orders.
- Would be very nice if when constructing new buildings workers only brought the needed supplies, instead of taking all they can carry.
- It was hard to find lore about the world. So many environments posed ancient mysteries, that I'd just like to be able to learn more about what happened in-game (without going to a wiki). I felt like my characters knew more about the world than I could find out.
- Would be nice if training at a dummy could be made a permanent job. That way it would persist across reloads.
- The research mechanism is static, which means you need to find resources and blueprints to advance. Tracking down AI cores was fun, but I wish your characters could be innovative on their own, too.
- I very much like the learning by doing system (one reason I was a little disappointed in the research system).
- I didn't see quests, which was all right, since you rather make your own quests, but eventually you do run out of things to do; there's no endgame I can see. Not sure if I'll pull it off, or keep playing long enough, but my final goal is to see if taking down a Leviathan is possible. :)
- I conquered cannibal villages, but found it odd that after slaughtering them I had to rent their beds to rest, and couldn't sleep in their outdoor beds at all.
- Would be nice if you got resources back for deconstruction, especially for camp beds. I actually think you should be able to carry a bedroll. Having to carry fabric to build a new bed every time is a bit odd.
- I would have liked to have captured the Suspicious Lab and used its level 6 research stations: would have saved an AI core, but for some reason that's not possible. I cleared out the cannibals; seems odd that I couldn't plunk down a power source and do something with the still-working equipment.
- I couldn't find a way to name my outpost, though I did name my faction.
- Would be cool if there were faction diplomacy options.
- I liked the Hivers, especially how the traders might chase you to get you to buy something. :)
- The Hiver merchants are often bugged. Quite a few shops became completely empty of characters (allowing for easy theft, though I'd rather have the merchants, since they offer a source of Ancient Science books), while some have two merchants in one shop, with one causing an instance crash if I try to look at their goods. :/
- Right-clicking on enemies doesn't always work.
- It's not obvious that it's possible to kill certain fallen enemies (like some machines and animals) by removing parts from their inventory. A "kill" option would be simpler.
- Was disappointed that Ore Drills didn't seem to be for copper as well as iron.
- All my Food Store barrels were labeled "Chewsticks", and I couldn't figure out how to rename them. They still worked, though.
- Never found a crafting use for carbon.
- Was hoping to use some of the robot parts I found to craft my own, but that doesn't seem possible.
- Blueprints for certain things (like Mercenary Armor) don't seem available, although I didn't loot all the shop safes.
- Certain shops wouldn't let me click in them to move my characters into.
- Certain shops would appear to be open, lit up, and public, with a merchant behind the table, but I'd instantly be set upon as a thief when I entered.
- Given the training nature of the game, I wish I could use an experienced warrior to train inexperienced characters. For that matter, it would make sense to be able to do that with any discipline.
- Since you can train new characters in attack but not defense, I found the Horse Chopper the best weapon for them (since it reduces attack but boosts defense).
- I wish an experienced armor or weapons smith could start making High Grade gear (or even Specialist, eventually).
- Would be very nice if you could design your own armor (looks like a lot of the armor out there is like that anyhow).
- The battle system took some getting used to, but in the long run, I liked it. It doesn't require a lot of clicking; mostly it's in preparation. I -was- frustrated at how when getting attacked my characters only seemed to draw their weapons after the battle had started, even if I ordered them to attack someone attacking them. I'd often see a lot of initial red damage and then green damage afterwards as my guys got their acts together, even if I had twenty guys responding to one attacker.
- You can "train" in Toughness by having characters train without food at a dummy. For some reason, the characters won't stop to eat (like in a normal job), and so as they starve, their Toughness increases. (I found that out accidentally, of course. :) )
- While raw meat does have crafting uses, I was disappointed that there weren't any animal husbandry buildings.