Yeah, I gave it a go for about an hour last night and was mildly impressed -- it certainly does seem to borrow quite a bit from W6/7, and for me that's always a smart move. It seemed a little too derivative of those games, really feeling to me more like a module than a different game -- but, hey, I've been playing W7 for 8 years now, so I'm not too opposed to just more of the same. The interface was rather clunky, with far too many mouse clicks, but that may be fixed in the real version, if that's ever released. To me it seems like it would be worth shareware money, but I probably won't shell out a full $40 for it, if that's what he decides to charge. Of course, I'll have to try the actual shareware version and not the beta to really be able to say. I'll have to play a little more to really be able to decide, but more than anything it just made me really want to go back and play more W7 (and maybe give EOB another go through, too) than actually wanting to play grimoire.
OE