I am currently playing in the alpha right now and I can say a few things about it:

The Good:
The controls are incredibly smooth and feel just like you would expect them to feel. A game where I finally feel like I am piloting a Mech on the PC (looking forward to the Oculus Rift and the Hawken Mech Controller). The videos really show this off well as it was one of my main concerns.

Repairing, yes repairing. This is probably my favorite option. Get into a firefight and take out a few baddies and don't have much health left? Find some cover and repair back to full health! This sounds a bit over powered but remember you are completely helpless while you are powering down to repair yourself. This has turned many fights both ways for me and I wouldn't have it any other way. Great addition!

The hover option is really nice. There are two maps in Alpha right now and they both make great use of this option. High ground only reachable by hovering can give you a great vantage point. I can't count how many times hovering has saved my ass because it confuses people if you fly above them.

So far it seems very skill based. There isn't much jumping in and kicking ass to this game. You can tell when someone is really good at dodging or really bad at dodging and that can make all the difference in the world. Boosting away mid fight to find cover and get a short repair in can turn the entire fight in your favor.

Each different mech cockpit has a different UI. This is awesome to me because each mech you have to learn their layout to watch for your fuel level, health, powerups and overheating on your guns. This will be awesome when the Oculus Rift drops next year for this.

The Neutral

The colors in the videos are the same colors in the games. Example: The city map has a greenish hue to it. It adds that more gritty urban feel in my opinion but I can understand why people wouldn't like it.

The customization is good for each mech but needs much improvement. So far the customization I have encountered is more along the lines of a skill tree. This is nice for customizing your gameplay but the customization physically needs some love. Also from what I have seen so far most of the new stuff you need to buy, say for example a new cockpit, costs Hawken Meta Cash (or whatever it is you pay real money for). Now don't get this confused with P2W because the customization of appearance does not add any stat boost. All stat or gun boosts are done from currency won from matches. That all said there are a lot of mechs to buy and choose from but each mech is limited to about 5 different pieces for each slot (cockpit,legs,arms,ect) so the options are incredibly limiting but as I said before, they are in need of some love.

The Bad:

The maps don't have much you can destroy. This was kind of disappointing to me and I debated putting this into the Neutral or Bad section but I feel like this was an easier option to implement that they ignored. I was hoping you could shoot a rocket into the side of a wall and use the hole that this created as cover(almost like in Red Faction), this is not the case. There are some things you can destroy such as cars and other small objects around but not too much besides that and bullet holes in the wall.

So far the server stabilization for some friends and myself is just awful. I understand this is alpha and not even beta so far so it is not a huge deal. Unfortunately though when you are doing well in a game and about to win just to dc due to server failure is very annoying.

The balancing between ranged/rocket/assault mechs feels very off. The sniper mechs feel a little underpowered with firepower while having a lot of defense. I feel like it should be opposite since the ranged guns feel a bit useless as is and overheat quickly. The Rocket mechs have very slow recharge rates but do insane amounts of damage while taking very little damage while not feeling as slow as they should with their size. I usually just use the assault mechs as they are the easiest and more balanced than the other two with decent fire power but terrible defense.

Overall:

Sorry if this seems like a lot of rambling but I am just kind of giving my two cents about the alpha so far. It feels awesome and plays great. Some things need to be worked on but overall I feel like upon release it will fulfill my expectations. I can't wait for them to implement the friend system so my friends and I can duke it out but until now it is just me vs some strangers. If you have any questions feel free to ask!