It's a great idea gone awry. This is free for a reason. Try it out for a nice change from the overly-used MMO standard.
I must say that I was very impressed with the character creator in terms of stats. If you choose to fully customize instead of using one of the game's presets, you're given a huge list of stats to play around with. You can modify almost every detail in your character's abilities. If players could modify their characters' appearance like that, then this game would definitely have the best character creator that I've ever seen. You get to have a big impact on the quality and style of your hero. After you're done playing around with your numbers, you get whisked away to a beach for some adventuring.
You start off on an island, washed ashore after your ship was blown out of the water by an enraged dragon (which you don't get to see). You're greeted by a rather strange little man and a motly crew of heroins. After a short meet and greet, you're directed to a cave that needs to be explored along with a rather intelligent young woman. ;-) This is your first dungeon of many. You're given the impression that the game will be filled with story-telling, intriguing characters, and puzzle-solving. After the first stage, however, that all disappears leaving you with simple dungeon-crawling. The whole game takes place from the perspective of staring into the opening of the next dungeon. Yes, this is an instanced game. While everything is an instance, the game was done surprisingly well. The load-times are very short and timed quite nicely, getting you into the gameplay so you can kick some tail. Unfortunately, the combat is where we reach my first complaint.
The game's designers obviously tried to make this one as different from other MMOs as they possibly could. In many ways, they succeeded. That's why I hate to admit that this was also their downfall. The best example is the combat. Instead of using the typical skill-button setup for attacks, they went with a real-time combat system. You actually get to hack-and-slash your enemies. Unfortunately, the strategy of the skill-button setup gets lost. The success or failure of your character henges on how frequently he/she actually hits the enemy which depends mostly on the stats that you set up in the beginning. While the game does provide a few nice combat abilities (including real-time dodging using fast movement, attractive combat moves, and dual-wielding weapons for some classes), the utter lack of combat strategy with skill-buttons ultimately makes this game just another hack-and-slasher instead of the cerebral, group-minded gaming masterpiece that its creators probably intended. The game simply doesn't have real physical-combat skills like those seen in typical MMOs. You can improve your character's abilities, increasing your likely-hood to win battles, but the physical combat lacks strategy. Success or failure depends on how long it takes your character to land a lucky hit on the enemy. When you level, the game offers improvements on dexterity and similar physical abilities, resistence to special types of attacks (like poison and magic), and some decent support skills (like healing other party members), but there aren't any special attack skills. The exception is a magic class. Obviously, magic characters are dependent on attack skills, so the game offers plenty of nice ones for them. Oddly, though, it still forces them to use physical attacks during the early stages of the game, making you wait to actually use the magic skills that you anticipate so much. I heard that the magic characters become powerful in later stages of the game but I lost interrest before getting there.
Moving beyond combat problems..., the game is very group-dependent. While you probably won't need any help defeating the baddies in the early levels, you'll find yourself raising some eyebrows when you find a special item/location that can only be accessed by a rogue's lock-picking ability or a magic character's ability to use runes. Later, you'll be puzzled by your melee specialist's total incompetence in trying to defeat some zombies and skeletons that require the holy skills of a cleric or a monk to defeat. That's right: without the proper party members in your team, you can't do certain things in many of your quests. This game really needs to be played with a full party. Unfortunately, its hack-and-slash combat draws in many gamers who the typical cerebral, MMO gamer probably wouldn't be caught dead hanging out with. The alternative is to hire an NPC who will fight with you on your quests. (Yes, they're as stupid as you might expect.)
One of the features of this game that saves it from MMO oblivion is the scenery. The main city of the game, Stormreach, is huge and quite attractive. It spans multiple instances that all offer their own variety of scenery. I really did enjoy wondering around, looking at all the sights. If this game was like the typical MMO with great spans of wilderness on the map outside of the cities, then this game would be a masterpiece of size and scenic enjoyment. Unfortunately, Stormreach is the main part of the game. There are many places to go beyond the city, but most of the game involves that one city. As you acquire quests, they'll lead you to doors which start your next dungeon. You might explore a warehouse, the caverns that extend from someone's basement, or the sewers of the undercity. Before going on your quest, you can visit a tavern to pick up some other players for your party. While there, you might spend a little recreational time in the brawling area where you can pick a fight without any negative consequences (except maybe to your ego).
I believe that this game was intended to be truely revolutionary, impacting the MMO genre for years to come. However, it's designers' lack of vision for how they would achieve their goals somehow got lost. If you simply want a change from the typical Everquest-style of MMO that will make you kill every type of enemy several dozen times, then you should definitely take a look at this one. It is worth the time that you will invest in exploring this very unique MMO. Ultimately, though, I cannot recommend this one as a full-time replacement of your current favorite. It just has too many critical problems that rob the game of the intelligent, adventure-based enjoyment that I expected.
GOOD: Beautiful, large city to roam around in. Nice questing system that easily beats killing monsters in a field. The taverns are a fun idea. Great customization options when creating characters.
BAD: Most of the size of the game is in the dungeons, leaving the sight-seeing gamers wanting more. Combat is centered around rather boring hacking and slashing, even for magic characters. Character upgrades when leveling-up are simply disappointing.