Hmm.. most of the other Beta players I've spoken to have said it's a Day 1 purchase for them. I know it certainly is for me. There were things I didn't like in the Beta, but overall it left me craving for more.
I've been following impressions on this forum and on two other forums, out of maybe 30 or so impressions, 5-6 were positive or fairly positive the rest hated it or just wasnt impressed at all. But well, i've tried the beta now
(let's not have a boring morality discussion about that..) and i have to say i like it and i will pre-order..
There were some few issues that i didnt like, like opening a chest or buying items is now on a separate screen. It really distracts from the experience and it doesnt fit at all in their games which are so much about the "immersiveness". A really bad design choice.
Combat seems "ok", but i also rushed through the demo (i didnt want to spoil the full experience). It's probably decent when you've gained skills for it, like in their previous games. It was really fluid though, i liked that.
The graphics is a mixed bag, but mostly fine. LOD's / popups are quite bad, a bit worse than Skyrim maybe.. Also, branches and bushes are shrinking and growing(?!) - that looks absolutely awful, hope that will be fixed.. On the whole it looks fine or even great at times, the lightning effects are very nice. It's disapointing that you can't swim, the game now even have water caustics, which looks really great.
But yeah i'm now sure this will be a nice game, the exploring seems intact too, i was a bit worried they had limited that part.