Archlord = Woefully terrible
Archlord is disturbingly similar but without big robots or flying broomsticks. Down to the same arrangement of monsters ('groups' that sit in a specific location on the map), the same combat system and the same crap UI.
For those of you who haven't played the above games:
Movement is restricted to point and click with the left mouse button, camera controls manipulated with the right mouse button. Now anyone who likes to have a decent amount of control over their character isn't going to like this because the keyboard is practically useless not to mention the fact that your character will downright refuse to have his feet leave the floor for any reason.
The combat system is again, point and click with the left mouse button. Boring, monotonous and frustrating to say the least. If you don't highlight the monster you want to attack (which can be harder than it sounds) you will run right past it instead of slapping it around a bit. The less said about skills advancement the better.
The Quests are poorly written affairs that are as much fun as watching paint dry. ALL of them consist of "go kill 5 of these" or "go kill x amount of these until you find x item" often with little or no reason for doing so.
Character progression is limited. Character creation is even more limited (ridiculously so) but this has already been discussed in detail on this board so i will not reitterate.
In short. Its just a lazy, back of cigarette packet game that really shouldn't be allowed to see the light of day. The addition of a 'pay more get more' system is disgusting and should be investigated by trading standards. MMOs should be about time and effort spent working your character up through the ranks, not about how much money you can fill your characters pockets with by spending your own.
If you want a good beta, go play on Battlefield 2142.
If you want a good MMO, your going to have to wait.....