Re: Impressions
Speaking as another Fearless Tester....
Your commentary on revealing the rules & balance issues drives, really, to the heart of a key design intent & philosophy in SAIS & WW:
Discovery of the rules is part of the game (and intended to be a *fun* part of the game).
When you start playing WW, you have little clue how good a Neptunium Railgun is. Over multiple playings, you'll start to find out what it can't do (and the special things it can).
Each new item is like a package delivery to your door with a brief marketing blurb. You've got some idea what it's meant to do - but only testing will tell the full story.
Thus the numerical breakdown at the end is useful, because it's part of the clue package.
This concept of exploration isn't for everybody; some people prefer to have everything up front and approach the game as a puzzle. WW gives you the puzzle of solving the rules first - and the randomization means you're never certain at the outset exactly which puzzle you're going to solve [kind of like playing Solitaire with 1/2 of the cards randomly removed.]
My favorite part of the testing process was getting a new build with new content - a new present to find, unwrap, and explore.
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