This is a real honest review from someone who's played just about every online game to date.
The gameplay is amazing but it is also different. Most people will say that the gameplay is rather sluggish; that the combat is slow-paced, but I say otherwise. You have to remember that this game is D&D. Combat may feel slow paced at first, but believe me after the first couple of quests, there's nothing slow paced about it. This is not just another MMO that makes up its own combat and gameplay. This game is based off of D&D, so most things in this game are in regards to that. I have never played a game where I could roll around as a rogue and dodge attacks based on skill rather than mere rolls, increase my jump skill and climb a house and then jump off a cliff. Increase my swim skill so that I could be the one to figure out underwater traps, where other characters would drown. Every skill is useful, if you know how to use it.
Soloing the game is possible, but you will not be able to do some of the better quests in the game. The best dungeons take multiple people with multiple set of skills. You may need a rogue to get through a high locked door, a swimmer to swim through a long tunnel with traps, a wizard to unlock runes, a fighter to take on the ugliest beasts youve ever seen. This game takes thinking, and skill. Do you jump across 3 ledges to get a treasure chest knowing that if you fall you will plunge to your death? There are OPTIONS here. LOTS of OPTIONS. Choose what you want to do. Tons of quests to do that varies. Fight an onslaught of 200+ kobolds and see if you can win.
The game has the best swimming animations and graphics I've ever seen in a game. The overall animations are great. The game feels like D&D and is true to the ruleset. If you are not familiar with D&D, you may or may not like the game. Oh yeah, did I mention that you get to CHOOSE what item you want after certain quests? I love the variety. Not only do I get to pick which quests, but certain quests let you choose which item you can get.
The traps in the game are also amazing. If you dont sit back and think about how to get through the traps and just run through them, you will seriously have to rethink your plan. There's nothing like watching your fighter teammate run through a trap thinking he's big and strong. Yeah he got through the fire trap taking little damage, but he stepped on a plate that activated spikes that came out of the ground. Yeah he didn't last long. Now since he died, one of us had to go through the traps to get his sphere and take it all the way back to a shrine to get him ressurected. So now you have one guy down, and another trying to get his sphere so he can be rescued. If the rescuer dies, then another person has to try and get two spheres now. So you can see how teamwork helps. Rogues are useful. Very useful, since you can't get treasure chests that are behind high locked doors without them.
The sounds are great in the game and give it that D&D feel. Although the music could be a little better, it still hits home. Also, there is no PVP in the game. So anyone that wants PvP, your out of luck. This is not that type of game.
In closing I would just like to say this:
I am a PvPer. Thats what I play MMO's for. PVP period. I don't play them for any other reason other than to compete with other players. Let me tell you, this is the first MMO that I have played where I actually dont mind just playing with other players and getting through dungeons. The dungeon's and monsters themselves are just as hard. Believe me.