From what I recall, I think that Your character’s appearance will be set from the beginning (looking like the guy in the video), but minor tweaks and options should be available ingame.
I am quite OK with the set look of the main hero (I think it is somewhat good for the story, because you can relate to the guy a bit more) and also remember that for example Mafia 1 & 2 also followed a set hero from the beginning.
When thinking for example about the Gothic series, I think that it was beneficial that the hero was set, I can remember him clearly even after the years (the quality of the story, especially in Gothic I and II helped with that I think), whereas if I had a whole lot of different options (like creating a black woman), I probably wouldn’t remember now. I don’t remember the appearance of my Skyrim hero as well for example (IMO Skyrim didn’t have such a strong story I could relate to as well).
So IMHO a well-scripted, strong emotional story (which I think Dan Vavra showed he can do pretty well) + set hero and apperance with minor possible ingame tweaks which others will react to = win.
I would like to grow an epic beard ingame and then scare people off with it
. I hope this won’t be a problem as Dan Vavra himself has an epic beard, so they should at least consider it
.