A very courageous attempt to make the best MMO in the market. Did Funcom succeed? Time will tell.
I'll not talk about graphics here. If you're reading player review, you saw videos in the gamespot review first. And yes, the game is gorgeous.
No, the quests are not original. But they are well-written, well acted (in those that are voice acted) and overall has the right feeling about them. Unless you simply don't read the quests you will not feel you're doing dull handwork while you level up.
The combat system... oh, the combat system. That's a complicated subject.
In PvE it really shines. It's great in tandem with the fatalities cause in every fight you try your best to chop someone's head off (and that's done hitting your enemy with a combo last move - works around 10% of the time). You don't get bored killing those thousands of NPCs cause you can behead them.
But.
BUT.
The combat system is a very messy factor for PvP. Making combos while chasing people sprinting from you is FAR from easy. Caster classes (specially priest, with heals and the same armor as barbarians) are really OP right now, cause they can spend all their stamina running and then turn around and kill you or heal.
(in time - if you never played AoC, non-magical classes use stamina both for running and to make combos)
It could even work if the game only had melee classes, so everyone would be forced to deal with the same difficulties... but as it stands, you can simply reroll a tempest of set. And you'll have a great experience, but without the gratification of taking some heads.
I actually see no solution to this except make every melee class able to put a hard, long-lasting ensnare on their target. It would pretty much ruin class diversity tough.
I think the root of this problem is - the combat system was CLEARLY built to be used in consoles controllers.
The game has other problems as well. Many many bugs, some memory leaks (not too many tough, you'll find people are often exaggerating about those).
Other than that, the game is nearly perfect. You MUST see the graphics (if you have a machine that handles it, let me make it clear).
So, there's a TON of potential and some problems to be solved, and then the combat system that is, the way I see, the game's best asset in PvE and it's worst flaw in PvP.
If Funcom manages to deal with those, AoC will be the new standard for MMOs from now on. If they don't it will be a terrible loss, but I can guarantee no serious PvPer will be playing AoC after some months. A system where either one side is stunlocked to death or the fight always ends with someone fleeting (or a priest winning) is not really interesting on the long run. On the other hand, if it IS solved - decapitating your player-controlled opponent is REALLY thrilling.
Another scenario is AoC becoming a PvE focused game. But the siege system and keeps (et cetera) makes it highly unlikely.
Lemme say it for the last time, the game has huge potential. If you can live with the fact that it's not a really polished product right now and need some time to reach it peak, go ahead and grab it. I did and I'm addicted to it. But if you can't, wait one or two months and see what happens.
I'm giving AoC 8.5 considering all the problems I stated. Without them, it would be a 9.5. But they do exist and are serious concerns to the game longevity.