If you can improve the shadows, it'd be nice, but I'm not too bothered either way. [ideally, of course, I'd like to see you re-write the engine to use a real-time global illumination solution :D]
I wasn't particularly expecting anything from the artwork, so what you have is fine. [I'm playing PtD at the moment, and I'm much more concerned that dialogue option X isn't present, than with the fact that half the world keeps flashing in and out of existence]
One thing I would say about PtD art is that it's pretty lifeless. There's very little variety / life in the game world. It doesn't particularly bother me that it isn't there, but it'd be nice if it were.
I think AoD could benefit from a bit more variety / lived-in-ness.
First, quite a bit more stuff would be nice (though I know it takes a long time).
For instance,
here the three objects outside the building look pretty conspicuous, since they're the only ones, and are all pretty much axis-aligned (even the junk fits into a neat little square). Better shadows would help too, of course.
In general, the more clutter you have around the place, the less it's going to stand out. Clearly it needs to make sense - you don't want a load of large objects in the middle of a road without good reason. However, you might want slight dips / puddles / cracks / bits of paper (or equivalent) / weeds / stones...
This also looks a little too empty. Perhaps there shouldn't be large objects in such a room, but I'd expect to see more stuff lying around. For example, I don't see any drinks. In a room of guards training in full armour, that makes little sense.
Also, I'd agree that there's a bit too much square / rectangular stuff. For walls, that might be reasonable [I don't know, but I guess the Romans were keen on axis-alignment].
However, if you're doing that for the walls (reasonable), don't do it too often for other objects.
For instance
here - does the NPC ever sit in the chair at the desk? If not, then why is it in that position? When you get up from a chair with arms at a desk, it's pretty unnatural to leave the chair in place. You'd almost certainly push it to an angle as you left - also making it simpler to sit back down.
If he needs to sit in it in-game, or if that particular guy is very fastideous, fair enough. Otherwise, I think a more lived-in look would help.
Just to be difficult
, in the pile of crates in the same picture, what's with the crate that's most vertical, but still at an angle? How is it not falling over (it looks like it'd need to be supported by the wall at that angle, which I guess isn't right)?
And why on earth would anyone put it down like that?? How often do you put a heavy crate down so that it rests precariously on an edge? You'd only do that if it were necessary due to lack of space. Who's going to balance it on an edge like that, when there's an easy bit of clear floor right next to it? [it's also a pretty much impossible position to fall into]
I'm being picky here - most of the object placment looks good to me (though more would be nice in the other screens). I just think that in these cases (unless the chair needs to be sat in), the placer of the objects hasn't considered how they're used / how they got there.
Most players might not explicitly notice these things, but they might perceive a general "oddness" about rooms where item placement doesn't quite make sense.
I don't think it's worth spending time to get the graphics impressive, but I do think it makes sense to do what you can to give them a natural feel.
This is still a significantly lower priority than double-checking quests / dialogues etc. though. I'll be much more put off by some quest not responding robustly to my doing things in the "wrong" order, than by graphical sparseness / oddness.