Went into this game on blood moon mostly blind, and going out of my way to full clear every area, looking for every secret I could find and killing everything that I could reach, both enemy and critter. There will be minor spoilers throughout.
Stealth mechanics worked quite well, save a few instances where enemies would detect me from odd angles, or hear me backstab their friend through walls, as well as a few spots with odd lighting behavior. There was also a singular time a constable made zero noise with no footsteps of him approaching nor speaking when I was specifically listening for it. I also want to mention that the fast walking makes you a bit too visible compared to slow walking, enemies seeing you from much further away because you are walking a little bit faster I find rather odd.
Combat felt a bit sluggish at times but more than functional, you could 2v1 most enemies melee only once you're good enough with the movement and timings, and the enemies that you can't melee you can just shoot, use traps, or blow up with barrels. There were also a few times where my block wouldn't register despite being up, though it only happened 4 times from my memory, and only 2 of them directly resulted in my death. I also want to mention the fast attack with the canesword feels mostly useless, there is virtually never a time not to use a charged strike over it instead.
Movement is a bit questionable sometimes, I'd fail to climb up or over a ledge multiple times before it'll let me up, and trying to attack something when standing too close to a chain will result in you grabbing it over and over even when standing still. Running away from an enemy that spotted you is extremely difficult as they are all far faster and more agile than you, which is honestly good as it forces you to either get creative with your escapes or learn how to fight them (though I do still wish I was a little bit faster by default, with the crowman perk increasing my speed even more, and not just my holstered speed).
Resources were surprisingly plentiful despite what blood moon's description insinuated, with only two real exceptions, those being the beginning areas (fishery/caves/cliffs), which was mostly down to me learning the game, and needing to use a lot of healing items to make up for my mistakes in stealth and combat, and the nest, which was a pretty big difficulty spike compared to what I had faced before reaching that point, and underestimated how much healing/ammunition I'd need for that section (which, consequently, forced me to get really good at using melee on the crowmen).
Saving was also far more lax than I was expecting on blood moon, I was pretty conservative with using up the wax cylinders, usually only saving 2, maybe 3 times per area, but by the time I reached the end of the early access content, I had 3 stacks of the stuff. Even if you do manage to burn through all of it, the merchant that you unlock in the mid game sells them for quite cheap.
Inventory is very limited at the start, you definitely will struggle to carry everything you want, but once you get the upgrade from the merchant, you can walk around with a full arsenal with just enough space for healing items. The only real issue is that ferrying loot to the merchant after clearing an area can be rather tedious, but that, for me at least, wasn't too big of a deal.
Enemies were, for the most part, challenging but not unfair, both in terms of stealth and combat. The only possible exception would be crowmen, due to their high health, acid spit, their sheer numbers, and immunity to silent backstabs. Honestly, they proved far more challenging than the constables that you face after them. That said, you can absolutely beat them using just melee with careful timing and movement.
Aesthetics wise, I like it quite a bit, the style reminds me of some older games I played back in the mid 2000s, and there are some places that have rather stunning views.
Story wise, I wouldn't say its anything out of this world, but it is pretty decent. It has a good mixture of environmental storytelling as well as dialogue. There are a few small but interesting twists, and are given the idea that things are not quite the way they seem throughout the game.
Overall, a great game despite some of the issues stated above as well as the fact that it's in early access. Reminds me a lot of the old thief games. I'll definitely be playing more of this while waiting for the bank update, probably do some challenge runs.
