Yeah, everything's really worn down and the world looks so empty. Nintendo's said that there will be towns full of people, but so far this world looks like a post-apocalyptic wilderness. I like it; it helps the game stand out from previous entries. Nintendo has said that they're trying to break a lot of the conventions of Zelda, and I hope they continue that with the story and try to do something new instead of just having Link save Zelda from Ganon for the 100000000th time.
Speaking of story, Nintendo is trying to keep E3 fairly spoiler free, but it sounds like at some point the old man we see in the demo (who we all know will turn out to be someone important) says that
Ganon was sealed inside of Hyrule castle many years prior to the events of this game and Link needs to find a way to defeat him before the seal breaks. This would explain the huge, ominous cloud seen in the trailer and off in the distance in the demo. Don't know how Zelda's going to factor into this, but I get the feeling she'll be
captured or sacrificed by some minor villain who's trying to break Ganon's seal. Y'know, like Twinrova or Ghirahim. They could go a different route, and I really hope they do, but some of
that idiot Aonuma's comments suggest otherwise. Still, if they're really trying to "break the conventions of Zelda" like they keep saying, this would be a good place to start.