This game deserves praise for it provided me and many others with some unique gaming experiences.
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Yes, it's outdated and the servers have been shut down for years now and the constant drama behind the scenes was tiring and you never knew if you could continue playing the next day. Yes, it too was released unfinished and fell flat on a lot of it's ambitious promises but it did deliver on a few and made those count.
World Events:
When I think back I always remember the unique aspects and my and my associates accomplishments, for we made real change happen in that gameworld. Something that is missing in today's MMOs. There were a lot of World Events that demanded player involvement and you could find a bewildered group of players meeting up on a dead expedition and discussing what could have happened, eventually leading to the discovery of caved in Mineshaft that we dug free and rebuild in a two week community effort. There certainly are more exciting gameplay elements than running resources from one part of the world to another for hours and hours but it was bringing the whole server together, there were guards needed to keep the building site safe from attacks, some where even orchestrated by GMs, you needed expert crafters to gather materials and a crew of people that took on the task of moving the resources which felt quite immersive compared to the magic instant mails of WoW. Once we rebuilt the mines and celebrated together we found portals to islands with forces of corruption on the other side. Those again needed some crafter involvement to make protective amulets and then a 12 hour fight against a crystal with the occasional attack from it's minions to keep us awake as we worked on it in shifts. Breaking one of these crystals was one of the most awesome moments in my gaming life and you can still find youtube clips of it. Once we defeated all crystals, we unlocked a whole new player race since we just saved them!
On another occasion we saved and rebuilt a forest and it's city, again needing a combination of fighters and crafters of all levels. Everybody who wanted to contribute, could if only by rebuilding a bridge or crafting station to make access to resources easier or clear an area so lower level crafters could work unharmed. When I talked to the citizens of the rebuilt city and they seemed to thank me personally for my efforts and their new old home, it brought a tear to my eye, which doesn't happen that often in gaming.
Player Cities:
Plots ranged from inexpensive small ones that could fit a small house and a bit of garden to huge ones that could house a whole guild with crafting facilities. There were various distinct architectural styles of the different cultures and a lot of decorations with a flexible editor so you could really go to town on the layout of your own little paradise. I loved my little tent with a fireplace and surrounding thick trees and groups of stone. Once you place a building, it has to be built by players but the system behind that was convenient for the crafters and the client alike. Depositing money for certain parts of the build so crafters could earn their share while they travel through the town looking for work.
These cities also needed protection as they were attacked from time to time by npc general/boss mobs and their gathered armies, once more involving the fighters and crafters alike into the experience. The only downside was that plots were "released" back to the public after a few months of unpaid fee. On the other hand it removes the problem of ghost towns and overpopulation of for example SWG or Ultima Online.
Economy:
Everything was player crafted. If no blacksmith made the quality of tools you needed, there was no alternative other than picking up the trade yourself and leveling it to be self proficient. Thankfully, even with the small community it had, those occasions were rare and your friendslist grew with the names of trusted workers you know could supply you in a pinch.
Crafting also allowed you to give items your personal touch. You could add bonus stats like added fire damage to a mace by adding special ingredients and learning the formula. Those ingredients had different rarities and fighters could often pay for crafted gear with a bunch of monster parts the crafter needs. Another mechanic that worked towards catering to both fighters and crafters.
You could also determine the look of the crafted item, for example the shaft and the head of the mace. Higher skill allowed other styles, which was needed because Horizons was plagued with armor tiers that only looked different from the textures of the used materials while the style was the same throughout for example all mail armor.
Dragons:
Another huge and unique feature that started out unfinished but was pretty great towards the end. It felt considerably different to play a dragon, they had their own society and cities and you could choose from two different directions, either helping the lesser beings for the good of all or working towards enslaving them. Good or evil, just not completely black and white.
Everything was distinctly different for a dragon, you really felt like a beast, your buildings are oversized and caves, your inventory is different, you wear protective scales you could enchant and craft yourself and in the latest stages even make and decorate your very own cave on special plots for dragons with an original dragon hoard (yes a special hoard system you could for example stash unwanted items to add to it's wealth which in turn gives you some in-game bonus). Oh and to fit into non dragon buildings, you had a humanoid form which still looked dragonlike and impressive unlike the normal humans of WoW.
You start out as a whelp, unable to fly but already quite big and menacing, later in the game you could progress to adult and then even ancient. Both stages allowed you to fly and grew you to a much more impressive size. These questlines were epic and often needed the assistance of others, so the dragons themselves were a tightly knit bunch and the welcoming of a new dragon to adulthood was always a little happening. It certainly wasn't just a "ding".
Oh and all that without making Dragons vastly superior to all the "lesser" races, there was no dragon rush like the SWG Jedis.
Classes and races:
Races had a lot of interesting choices like bearded dwarven women, humanoid felines, towering half giants and floating fairies er Dryads. There was something for everyone even if the choices were mostly based on the visuals and the feel of the race's society.
The class system was a rather open model which allowed you to multiclass to your heart's content, only limiting you with mean level which was based on your combined classes but you could play a "class and a half" penalty free. Only a few abilities and feats of one class are available when you play another class, for example my Scout/Cleric was at least able to heal himself while out adventuring and to cast some minor buffs.
Class balance wasn't quite there though, Berserkers could dish out hefty melee while retaining almost all the power of a second magic class while other combinations didn't really benefit well from each other and rather felt like a hindrance. Nobody really cared that much though, there was no PvP and PvE fights were open to whatever number of people were around and had no enrage timer. If you couldn't bring something down, get more people.
The only qualms I had was the multiclassing in crafting, you could just max out every single craft given enough time and motivation, which made specialists with less gametime fell, well, less special.
Combat:
I don't remember that much about it and mostly just played as a scout but I will always measure the feel of a ranged physical fighter to the freedom I had as a scout. It's eseentially a WoW hunter without a pet, which isn't too bad because you are really mobile and can kite forever. That way I could bring down enemies that were quite a few levels above me but it also took a long time and I always had to watch my back to not bump into other hostile creatures. So while it was possible it hardly was exploit worthy as drops didn't matter as much unless you were hunting for exotic crafting reagents.
World:
Diverse Landscape with everything you would expect from a fantasy world. From hostile Swamplands to snowy mountains with Ice Golems to hidden fun areas like a ruined tavern haunted by ghosts and I kid you not, alcohol golems, you haven't lived until you bested the rare champagne golem. :D
There also was the element of corruption which turned the land black and transformed plants into twisted, thorny black Vines and spawned undead and other nasties. Those could be defeated to eventually clear an area of the corruption, if only temporary.
With no mounts and teleporting only between cities, travelling and planning your route was meaningfull and that's why people invested days oftheir time to rebuild a bridge so they didn't have to run up and back down a whole Fjord. The world is small enough and features an excellent map so this doesn't become a major annoyance and you get some time to admire the nice sky.
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The Good:
-World altering events in which YOU play a role;
-Less ego and more community feel through the lack of PvP and mechanics and events that made you group up with others and share your experiences;
-Crafting playing a big role in every aspect of the game and meshing well with fighting classes without forcing you to go both routes;
-Playing a dragon was an experience unlike any other race in any other MMO;
The Bad:
-Bland and outdated environment graphics, slow performance and some technical issues;
-Quests were mostly run of the mill kill tasks or completely lacking for certain level ranges though a few questlines were long and rewarding;
-Lack of PvP and any "end-game" PvE challenges didn't reward players who reached top levels and alienating a lot of people who were used to the "the game really starts at max level" philosophy of EQ and the like;
In conclusion I would recommend this game to everybody who would love to concentrate on the crafting aspect of an MMO and who enjoy a friendly and mature community where e-peen and leet are unknown words. It's also worth a look for veteran MMO players who feel disenchanted by the number of "same old" gameplay releases and would like to see something different, even if just to know that alternatives are there and what is lacking in the most recent MMOs.