I just thought I'd post my final thoughts after playing p3 and 4, for people still on the fence about snagging it. I had a 18 archer, 12 leatherworker, 10 conj.
The Immersion is it's strongest aspect. I'm one of those people who like well crafted worlds and like a world I can kind of "Live in", hanging around bullshitting in chat while running around the world. For some reason WoW didn't hook me with its world at all. Maybe it was the art style, or the way the zones are setup. In fact, since EQ not many virtual worlds have left me wanting to log in without a specific purpose, like raiding. In this, I feel like the world is amazingly crafted, and the ambient sounds and music add a great deal. A MMO where I haven't turned the music off in 10 minutes? Nearly unthinkable for me. The character customization and E-barbie factor is pretty good too, if thats your thing. I actually read the quest dialogue too. I swear to god I've NEVER done that past level 3 or 4 in a game except the secret world.
Combat is probably the worst feature, since its, well...MMO hotbar combat. Gross. There's a 2 second global cooldown, but I actually kind of like that, since the only thing worse than MMO hotbar combat is fast MMO hotbar combat. It's not /bad/, it's just a traditional MMO with all that entails. Another thing is I feel like 1-15ish was really underwhelming, and until you unlock all your options it feels a lot less enjoyable.
The game doesn't reinvent the wheel. In fact, I kind of feel like this may be the last big "Traditional style" MMO I'll play, until newer stuff like EQN hits. Some people won't like the gameplay itself, but I feel like it's basically taken the wow model and more or less polished it up pretty perfectly. It has a lot of stuff I've hated in the past (quest hubs and bear asses mainly), but somehow I don't really mind it as much, since leves and fates and alternative methods are all options. I've basically bounced from MMO to MMO since WoW and most don't hold my attention for even the intro levels. This one definitely has, and I want to log in and play a ridiculous amount. I haven't hit the exping hard like this since classic wow or EQ.
The replay value looks like it'll be there, if you like leveling up lots of classes. The fact that I can play every class on one character is huge to me. I hate alts with a passion.
Just my personal feelings on the game. It still has a lot of stuff I hate about MMOs, but I feel like it's "the best" choice out there for me right now.
