Quoted from TinyBlackDog:

Here are some comments on my Day 1 w/ Alien SV.
Packing: The machine is packed very well and arrived without any damage. The legs are placed on top of some thin styrofoam sheets at the top of the box, and the styrofoam didn't really hold up (it was in lots of tiny pieces). Nothing got damaged but I think PB needs to find a better way to pack the legs.
Cabinet: The cabinet is made from 3/4" plywood with black laminate on both sides. This seems to be used on all sides of the cabinet and the backbox, and should hold up really well. The build quality is excellent. There are clear plastic leg protectors attached to the cabinet - I kind of wish they were metal but they do the job and keep the legs from touching the cabinet and digging into the decals. Some have complained about the artwork (I don't agree - I think it looks just fine) - the decals are high quality and installed professionally. There is really not a single blemish on the outside or inside of the cabinet. I checked the speaker/sub wires before raising the head and they were plugged into the correct connectors.
Playfield Bottom: The slides on the bottom of the playfield run from front to back and allow you to pull the playfield out just a little or almost all the way. The playfield also rotates and stands vertically so you don't need to rest it against the backbox when working on the bottom side. Really nice clean design, with much of the wiring being zip-tied on the upper side of the rails. The bottom of the playfield is really clean (see Retrocengo's awesome unboxing video if you haven't already). There are no exposed boards - they are all enclosed in black metal cases either on the cabinet floor, attached to the bottom rear of the playfield, or in the backbox. There are 3 fuses in one of the boxes on the cabinet floor. More later on why I know where they are located
Setup was much like any other NIB pinball machine. There were 3 screws rattling around in the cabinet - two of them from the coin mechanism (these fall out of Sterns all the time) and another from one of the light boards. I installed the balls, put the glass back on, and fired it up for the first time (on off switch is under the cabinet where it belongs, though not in the typical Bally/Williams location).
“CABINET I/O NOT FOUND. CHECK DIP SETTINGS = 0. AND USB CABLES CONNECTED"
None of the playfield lights came on. Great. So I turned it off for 10 seconds and back on and this time it booted up successfully. The Xenomorph went through its power on test and I was able to play my first game. My first few games I was just getting a feel for things. The flippers felt a bit different from your typical strong Stern flippers. The slingshots are noticeably weaker than the Stern "outlane cannons". I noticed a couple of issues within the first game or two:
1. The MUTHUR eject was bouncing balls off the ball guide and not feeding cleanly to the upper left flipper. Need to tweak the angle of the coil bracket underneath.
2. Balls can get hung up on the hyper sleep ramp as they make the U turn at the back of the playfield. Need to take the plastic off and look closer.
However, before I could look at those minor issues I ran into a more significant one. I was in the middle of a multi ball and the MUTHUR and Airlock eject coils stopped ejecting balls. They eventually got ejected by a ball search but got stuck again. Shortly later my left flippers stopped flipping. I powered off the machine and back on and could not get it to boot up cleanly. I tried 4 times, with slightly different messages on the screen. At this point I called Melissa at Cointaker and she fired off an email to PB Support. Melissa suggested reseating the connectors in the backbox so I did that as well as connectors on the black cases in the cabinet and back of playfield. Nothing seemed to be loose and it didn't get me past the boot issue.
It was already mid afternoon (i.e. evening in Europe) so I added some details to her email and assumed I wouldn't hear back from PB until the next day. Much to my surprise I got an email about an hour later with a link to sign up to the PB support site (which is powered by Freshdesk). As soon as I logged in I saw a couple of FAQ messages - one that matched the error I was seeing on the screen and indicated it was due to a specific fuse blowing. I found the fuse had blown, replaced it, and was able to get it to boot up successfully. A few minutes later I got a very lengthy email from Cato at PB support addressing everything I pointed out in my email (about 6 different items). It included an offer to do a Skype call to walk through my problem, which I didn't need cause the fuse had already fixed it. It turns out that several of the items I brought up are already known and they are in the process of fixing in a future bios update. Moral of the story - if you see the message "Volume 10" on the screen during boot up - that means replace the rightmost fuse They'll clean that all up I'm sure - pains of being an early adopter.
From that point onwards, the game was trouble free and my son and I played it all night and he has been playing it this morning too. I still have occasional issues with the MUTHUR eject that I'll look at, as well as the hyper sleep ramp hangup. I think all of my switches are working properly.
Xenomorph: So far the Xeno mech seems to be doing what it is supposed to do. The mouth opens and closes when it is supposed to and the inner magnet does what it is supposed to. The only issue, and I think this was an issue with the OG as well, is that the playfield magnet doesn't always grab the ball. If you hit a slow shot right into the center of the target it always works, but a really fast shot or one that glances off the side and doesn't roll near the magnet, gets missed. I'm not sure how this could be resolved without increasing the size/power of the magnet. I know that the TWD prison and well walker magnets work similarly and seem to be more reliable. Not sure. Anyway I think the Xeno itself is working properly.
The game is such a BLAST to play. I'm going to try and get some gameplay video this weekend. I also want to take a look at the backbox extension connector with a multimeter and see if beacons might already be supported. The bass level is really good - you can feel it on the lockdown bar - so I will probably not worry about a shaker motor anytime soon.
Let me know if you'd like pictures or videos of anything in particular. Besides gameplay - I already know about that.
EDIT: I forgot to mention the screen. I absolutely LOVE the display location and size that was chosen. It is considerably larger than a Stern display (18.5" diagonal vs. 15.5" diagonal) and I prefer it being located at the bottom of the backbox vs above the speakers as in a JJP or the OG - much easier to glance up and see things. The display is really high quality. I think this is my favorite LCD display (quality + size + location) I've seen from any manufacturer. Some may wish for a bigger display mounted higher up but this is just PERFECT in my opinion. If I could get a no-cost upgrade to a JJP style display I wouldn't do it.

Quoted from Averell:

So that's the Pinball Brothers quality assurance!
Same issues we already had with the HW-ALIEN and PB is not in a position to turn this off in advance?
Even better high-tech switches that work even crappier!
In Germany we often say: "Less is more", but this machine seems to be busted in many ways.

Quoted from Averell:

This is unacceptable, but what can we expect... production in Italy, as cheap as possible.

Quoted from Averell:

In my opinion they had their chance to make a big theme even bigger and famous - but they failed in many ways.
PB haven't done their homework and the customer pays the price again.
If the community hadn't fixed the many problems on the HW-ALIEN ahead of time, the PB would be even worse than it currently is - that's what it looks like!
I'm not impressed about the results.

Quoted from Royale-W-Cheese:

What a mess that has been...almost 2 years ago I saw it and played it in Houston...
I dont need a PF screen. I can think of 5-6 other items to justify the 2k more..
This was a dream pin for many and that came true...LOL.
Hoping my other dream pin comes true-----The one who guesses it right get's a steak dinner at TPF.. Let's roll.

Quoted from billsfanmd:

following this thread...some of the issues make me want to wait 6-12 months down the road to see if some of these issues are cleaned up on later runs. Multiple blown fuses make no sense on a new pin.

Quoted from Mageek:

People should maybe check out some of the other owner threads, none of the other new machines have ANY problems …..

Quoted from joetechbob:

Get a q2 run instead. Double edged sword with the first run--get it earlier, but also with more issues.

Quoted from Dee-Bow:

I think you meant the hydrofoil

Quoted from HurryUpPinball:

Joe and the magical save.

Quoted from brado426:

If you bought this expecting a perfectly working game, that's just not how it works for these pinball machines. I would never recommend that anyone purchase a pinball machine who isn't willing and capable of resolving issues... yes, even when it is brand new. Ask the experts and they'll tell you that there *will* be some problems to resolve. I was not surprised in the slightest that I had a few issues to resolve on this NIB game.

Quoted from Kneissl:

Hopefully their issues are more qc and minor tweaks than something like the jjp rgb lighting. They did bring this baby back from the dead with serious improvements/changes. I give ‘em good odds from the issues I’ve read.

Quoted from zacaj:

I'm noticing the same thing on 2.2. Was worse on 2.0 but still an issue. I have an open ticket about it, Cato says they're looking into it

Quoted from Mr_Outlane:

An $8000,00 pinball machine? Seriously?

Quoted from bigdaddy07:

IMO as a pinball fan, there's not a game out there that sucks bad enough to earn a 1 or 2

Quoted from Mageek:

I have but wouldn't know how to rate it since I walked away after the second ball ....

Quoted from Eric_S:

With all of the surface mount component boards and issues with loosening hardware and broken wire leads, I don't think adding more vibration with a shaker motor is prudent.

Quoted from Hershmeister:

The game does not yell at you like many pins. The video screen will tell you what to
Flaahing red shots are jackpots

Quoted from Kkoss24:

Don’t care about the ratings much , but it’s in my personal top 7 games of all without a doubt Not sure where but it’s up there .

Quoted from Baggerman:

back down flipper power a bit.. they are overpowered from the factory. There are also some "anti airball" shims for sale in the marketplace that add a slight downward angle to the targets.. they help a bit.