This really isn't a bad game at all. I went into it saying I wasn't going to play and its actually decent with some really well done parts.
The classes and combat are excellent. Probably one of the best I've played. Very Tera'ish feel combat wise but with a MUCH improved system for pulling off abilities and amazing differentiation at least between what I've played so far.
Skills are excellent. The skill tree is well done as well.
I dig the old school feel on some of the elements. Sure it's a bit of a PIA to have local storage, money having weight and well shit, weight for items and cash in general as opposed to just slots but I kind of like it. As you progress in the game it becomes less of an issue with the ability to have chests that link to the city storage and for the most part you really only need a few areas to have a house in them and linked up for access. You can also transport your goods and service via workers so overall I think it is pretty well done.
Horses are also well done. The entire inventory management is a throw back to EQ style games and having horses / wagons as well kind of combines that with Vanguard. The world is huge so running simply isn't a fast option. Horses really cut down on that and having multiple options to get them is pretty nice as well as all the tiers. The slow and deliberate pace of the travel is a nice change to the instant port bull shit of recent games. It also makes it easier to find an area to yourself as you can't simply check all the prime spots inside of 5 minutes. Having multiple instances to swap in and out is nice for farming and cuts down on crowding.
The PVE is pretty basic. More or less ploughing through 7 mobs or so at a time and the respawn is very fast. The looting system kind of sucks but you can get pets that loot for you so at least once you get them that isn't an issue anymore. I'm still enjoying the PVE, its a nice way to learn the combat system and you feel super powerful. You seriously wreck shit and it feels great. Death still happens when you get careless but overall the PVE is super easy if satisfying. There are no real dungeons which I'm fine not having to deal with lock out timers and shit drop rates. I much prefer all open world action if I'm going to PvE. Especially when I don't have to rely on a tank and healer, wait for groups or listen to people bitch about my pre made going all the time without them.
You can level almost entirely via mob hunting and you aren't screwed in the slightest. Just do the Black shadow guy quests as a guide to where to go and you can go back later and fill in the PVE quests should you desire the rewards.
Quests in game are standard crap. They do offer a variety of rewards though and people will probably want to go through at least some of them for inventory slots, skill points and other benefits if they skip them for leveling. At least they are 90% optional or so.
Loot is pretty great. You get drops from mobs that are valuable. These tend to run in 2 categories, trade worthy or vendor trash. Trade worth drops generally require stacks of any amount from 10 on up to 150+ and you can turn those into an NPC when your done for massive amounts of cash. Serious amounts. You also get the run of the mill AH quality stuff you want to sell via the AH broker. The actual amount of vendor garbage is quite low which is nice.
Economy is pretty nice as well. Everyone has things they earned. No gold sellers, no welfare, nada. All earned. There are a lot of ways to make money either via fishing, whaling, pharming mobs, running trade items etc there is something for everyone.
Karma system is really harsh. You aren't likely to see much ganking. They really should of just disabled it as things are we'll see what they announced for NA but I don't see them making major changes to this. It pisses off far more people than it makes happy and with the guild war feature you can still PvP to your hearts content.
I can't comment on the GvG and sieges. I see a lot of action on RU though.
One final thing I really like about the game is twinking is encouraged. No levels on gear. All gear is account bound. All storage is shared with all characters on the account. As you level up, you learn about mobs and do more damage, see their health bars etc and as your new characters level they also have that information that your main guy earned, trade routes you setup, node investment (i think) etc. You can throw a full set of upgraded gear in the bank for them and they can use it. Leveling in game is already really fast but its nice that on your second and later characters it won't be a total pain in the nuts to level up a new guy.
I'm actually surprised at the negativity at this game. It's not super amazing or anything but its a solid entry. With nothing else really on the immediate horizon I'd at least recommend you check it out. I think the combat system will turn off a lot of the "I can only tab target and push 1" crowd but if you liked Tera this seems like a MUCH improved version.
The wild card here is GvG and sieges. Guild owned nodes are amazing resources and there will be demand to own them for the benefits. At least the good ones will. I see a lot of GvG action on RU which is nice. I much prefer that to random ganking but we'll see how it all works out in the end.
Anyway, check this shit out. Its not amazing or anything but its certainly worth playing.
