The game feels and plays a lot like WoW.
However since that model has worked so well for so many years and has been experienced by so many players (WoW made the MMO market everyone friendly) I think most people will experience a strong feeling of "I've done this before" and experience it a lot.
I won't bother listing the similarities as it would take far too long, has been talked about ad nauseum and some of those similarities that some players are raging on and on about are simply staple RPG elements you will encounter in ANY RPG. I will also add that Gamespot was spot on in the first sentence of their review which said this was a complete game. That alone is a dramatic departure from many MMO predecessors since WoW and is in and of itself a testament to Trions' efforts in putting Rift together.
That being said, I simply want to review Rift's greatest departure from WoW -- the Rifts and world events.
These were an absolute double-edged sword for me while leveling my character. There were times when a rift would appear and I would join the public group to assist in closing said rift. They were fun, unique experiences and were a welcome interruption from the all too common "kill X and retrieve Y" quests I was on. Rewards reaped for closing the rift, some being a bit esoteric and confusing to new players without some degree of explanation, were generally worth the effort (provided your zone wasn't clogged with high level players whose presence invariably reduced your effort and subsequent reward). And it was fun running up against higher level elites (relatively speaking) with a group of 20 strong players and utterly wrecking it.
That being said the Rifts appear FAR too often and equally as often they interrupt with simple questing. I can't count the number of times when I would suddenly have an invasion in my quest log that I wanted nothing to do with but had no choice but to get involved in, as the rift creatures were attacking and obliterating the very NPCs I need to get quests from or return quests to. I realize having high level guards around quest NPCs would make these invasions trivial, but questing became quite tedious when I would have to bypass NPCs who were dead or dying and return later (often in a different session) or join a raid attacking an invasion I simply wanted nothing to do with. On top of that, you don't always have enough players around to do anything to combat the dozens of rift denizens that spawn, so you have no choice but to either wait it out, move on, die or log off. I often chose the latter.
So like I said, the Rifts were good and bad for me. On one hand they were exciting diversions from the daily quest grind, but on the other hand, they were intrusive game elements that interrupted my daily quest grind more often than I would have liked.
One last thing: I also felt they introduced multiple souls (talent trees) far, FAR too early in the game. I chose my initial role as Champion (since a bulk of my previous MMO experience was as a caster) and I had barely even put 2 talent points into that tree when I was required to chose my 2nd and even 3rd specialization. I had barely any information as what I was choosing. Sure Trion offers suggestions for souls that work well with other souls and you can reset your talents if you want, but let me become comfortable with the game and my chosen specialty before laying on the complexity. There is a reason Blizzard keeps talents unavailable before level 10 ... it allows you to become familiar with the basic mechanics of your class before pushing you into more complex roles. That is something Trion should have considered.
Should you play Rift? That is hard to say. My subscription is close to running out and I won't be re-subscribing. For me, this has less to do with Rift and more to do with the fact that I feel tired of MMOs right now. And since Rift offers really only one serious departure from the classic MMO model, I just don't see myself in it for the long term.
Oh ... and while environment and lighting and other visuals are standouts to WoWs "cartoony" style, UPGRADE THE ARMOR VISUALS. bland, bland, bland.