First Impressions / Issues
Now as for the gameplay itself, I am really too early on to comment much but I'll make some observations. The controls are standard MMO combat fare but I have noticed the action bar abilities seem sluggish to respond at times and the combat system has proved uninspiring thus far. However, I am expecting (hoping) this will improve as my character advances. There are great innovations here, such as autopathfinding, which means that once you're given a quest you can simply click on the objective's name and your character will automatically make his way there. No more wondering for hours for Mankrik's wife.
Quests seem reasonably varied if occasionally baffling, you can kidnap other players, spy and counterspy, but I am not very knowledgeable as to how all this works. Also, I believe there are only pvp servers, and players can be attacked and killed anywhere!
Goldspammers are absolutely ubiquitous. The first thing you'll do in the game is block about 10 of them before you realise that this is futile. However, I think that as one progresses, one exclusively uses chat channels that the spammers can't enter. There have been many account hacks already and server issues. However, Snail are already banning goldbuyers and, as it's a new game, it is bound to have teething problems. The game is certainly interesting, enough to make me want to persist and see what's below the surface. I will update this "review" once I've played much more but one thing is for sure, this is not another WoW-clone. It could actually turn out to be something special.
Check out a beginner guide here: http://forum.mmosite.com/board/2-263.html
Update 1: Ok, this is an update. Today I decided to upgrade my account to what's known as VIP. This essentially is just a paid subscription service which gives you access to the full range of options in the game. Now, here's where I start to get annoyed. This game is difficult to get to grips with, it's confusing and you have to explore and experiment for yourself. This is great (imo) but I do not expect the same level of impenetrable obfuscation when it comes to account and customer services. In order to upgrade my account I have to buy gold via Snail's site. This requires a separate account to your forum account (why they are not linked God alone knows). So I register and pay via a 3rd party and via paypal. Almost 4 hours later, still no gold. I speak to a customer representative of the 3rd party and they say the transaction is successful and that I need to speak to Snail. So I email Snail and then I have to create a 3rd password this time for a customer services account and my complaint is now sat languishing with their accounts team waiting for someone to look at it. I don't think I've ever come across a more complex, user-unfriendly or irritating system for allowing a player to simply pay for a game they are playing. This is obviously a big issue for an MMO and so I have to take 1.5 of the score for that alone. I will update as to whether I ever get my money back.
Update 2: I worked out what happened regarding the gold. When you first enter the game you are asked to use either an email or social account such as google or facebook. So I logged in using email and played for a while. Then, once I realised that players I also required a Snail account I made one, using the same email address. I was also asked to create a username, so I used the name of my character. Now, what was not explained at any point was that the email address I was logging in with previously was acting as my username and instead of linking the game account and the Snail account (both using the same email) I had inadvertently created a second account and it was this second account which the gold was sent to. This problem seems to have affected many players. The entire account creation system is a mess and extremely unclear. Why it is so difficult to simply have one account linked to one email which serves as a single account for game, forum and payment, I really have no idea. In the end Snail have closed the second account and sent the gold to my first account. Except for some unknown reason they only reimbursed 30 of the 100 gold. Not good!!!