well, the game's out now - i've played part of it.
as everyone knows, the look of the game is *fantastic*. it's actually better than i'd realized, just looking at pictures - they really crafted a very *alive* world in this game, very fluid movements of all sorts of characters... quite nice.
forget who mentioned it, but the combat is definitely more complex than step back, forward and hit - there are blocks, the ability to dodge quickly left or right, a running attack, a couple attacks of differing strength (and speed), certain attacks that trigger only if you attack at the right time (such as after shucking to the side to successfully dodge an attack), some ever-wonderful kicking enemies when they're down
and so on. and also some gunplay, though the guns are relatively primitive - you can switch to regular combat when you wish, though. combat has a lot of character, i find it to be fun, and it's complex enough that it'll likely take you some time to master (i'm far from it, myself).
the story/writing are alright - nothing too amazing so far, but it keeps you going through the general weirdness of the game (which is the big selling point of the game anyway - basically *everything* in this game is odd in some way or another). there's a particular secret, which i'm sure will be revealed in a little bit - whether it's an interesting twist or not, we'll see. some of the writing hits well enough with me, other lines sound a bit awkward (which doesnt much surprise me, as this was made by non-native english speakers). the presentation of the game, the relativly cinematic feel it has (within those bizarre settings) makes things feel a little deeper than they are, though - which is nice! this game is, i'm sure, going to be pretty short though.
as far as music/voices... i admit that specific scores arent sticking out in my mind, but i recall enjoying it - some nice stuff in there, fitting in nicely with the atmosphere of the game. the voice acting is difficult to rate... generally, for the non-human creatures, who have odd, distorted voices, i find the performances to be quite nice - much better than most games out there. i find the main character to be on-and-off in his performance - he has a decent voice, some of his lines he delivers well, other lines he just sounds a bit awkward in the delivery. the supporting female character is easily the weakest performance in the game - most of her lines come out *very* flat, and i'm not quite sure why they decided to give such a weak performance to one of the main characters - there are other female performances in the game which are far superior. on the other hand, however, i do recognize that almost *everyone* in this game talks rather oddly, and i'm willing to accept the possibility that i've misinterpreted things, and that these sometimes-off performances might be intentionally sounding that way. even if this were the case, i wish they had done something a bit better for that lass, Deadra... it just doesnt sound very good.
overall, i'm quite enjoying the game - the gameplay is enjoyable so far, and the combination of the visual and audial aesthetics with the bizarrity of the world, characters, and the writing to some degree, is making for a really neat experience.