I gave Salem a go earlier and thought I'd post a few first impressions:
-The gather/study/replenish bile mechanic is kind of boring. I read that it's actually fairly difficult to die permanently, which is good because having to grind out those starting skills over and over would be torture.
-I like the overall feel of the game, setting, graphics, etc.
-It took a while to figure out what to do. I ended up tabbing out and finding one of the guides on the forums.
-I haven't seen a single player since I talked to the wilderness guy in town.
Basically it feels like an Isometric version of Wurm Online, good and bad included. I normally prefer sandbox type games but I am left thinking "why bother?" in this case.