Advertised as a competitor to pay-to-play games but failed as such. Completely dependent on Cash Shop.
If you watched any of the early presentations for Runes of Magic, such as those from the Games Convention '08 in Leipzig, you could already spot the fact that it was near impossible to upgrade "epic" level gear with upgrade items (with a chance to succeed or fail), when a pre-made GM character consistently failed to do so blaming it on his "bad luck" for that day. The upgrade fail rate increases with gear level, so if you only started playing, you may not notice it at first.
The game further showed its true colors when they opened a Cash Shop during the Open Beta period, with no refunds, while still trying to use the "Beta" excuse for any bugs and failures. This is a scam.
During the Games Convention '08, they announce two more classes and a new race for the release but never deliver, and later attempt to claim that it was never announced for the release.
Starting from the early interviews, video presentations and up to this day, they've been claiming that the game is not dependent on the Cash Shop. They almost always bring an example of not selling "uber weapons or armor". However, they are selling "uber" upgrade items for weapons and armor, which is essentially the same thing, with a good chance to fail on upgrade. Failing on upgrade can cause your gear to downgrade as well. That means not only that the game is dependent on Cash Shop but they are ripping off paying customers too, as this is basically gambling.
The game also features "dual classes", which you have to level separately from scratch, as if two different characters. You cannot re-use most of their gear/armor/weapons etc between each other, so, for example, if you leveled as a primary Rogue, then switched to a Priest, you cannot wear Rogue Leather Armor as a Priest, as if you suddenly had an amnesia and forgot how to wear it. This is nothing more than a ploy to extend the grind and get you to buy more CS items for your classes, and possibly hose your gear with "upgrade" items, since they have a chance of failure. If they truly wanted to make interesting class builds, they would've either implemented talent trees or made dual classes more compatible.
Overall, if you want to fully enjoy everything in the game (including Cash Shop items), as you would in a P2P, for example, it will end up being a lot more expensive than a P2P. You'll be spending hundreds of euros/dollars/whatever per month for a boring content.
If you don't plan on using the Cash Shop, you can spend years playing catch-up in upgrading your full equipment, including all weapons and armor pieces, by which time they could increase a max character level, with an even bigger failure rate for "upgrade" items.
While character leveling may not seem like much of a grind at first, it is an extreme and boring grind when you take into account the gear leveling. Gear upgrades greatly affect both, PvP and PvE. In PvE it could get as bad as you not being accepted to raid parties, unless you are fully CS-upgraded because otherwise the party may wipe. You won't be solo-ing much as the game isn't solo-friendly, and you will be advised on the forums to find parties to survive, so it goes back to either being fully CS-upgraded or not accepted into parties. Such parties include many guilds on the servers as well, not just a random group. Look at player reports on the main forums for proof.
They've also advertised things like "shared housing for all characters on the account" all the way until release and for some time past the release, until it was brought up on the forums and the site was finally updated. Shared housing means you could use an item storage chest and share Cash Shop items between all your characters on the same account. Can you figure out why they decided not to implement it? To make you buy more Cash Shop items for your different characters, of course.
They've also been advertising and are still falsely advertising "Server vs. Server PvP" on the international version of the game as an existing game feature. The feature isn't available and won't be until at least between August and October of 2009, if then, according to their latest GDC09 interview with the developers.
Overall, the game looks very childish, as in too much manga. The first mobs you'll come across are manga-looking "mushrooms". Does this sound epic to you? Character animations are awful. The male characters are especially badly done, with the running animation looking like they have a wedgie.
Graphics engine is poorly optimized. It isn't about having the latest and greatest computer. Even on the latest PCs, the game will lag in some cases, and has been reported to overheat GPUs and CPUs. In other words, be prepared for your brand new hardware to get some unneeded extra wear and tear, all because some programmers were too lazy to optimize the code.
Audio is lackluster, with lots of silence. According to many, it does not even function properly.
Crafting is slow, monotonous and grindy.
The main story is bland. The quests are a standard F2P share. Most are very uninspired.
At this point, if you're trying to play a free-to-play game without using a Cash Shop, then any F2P will do. It doesn't matter, since these games will be catered to those who are willing to use Cash Shop, despite being ripped off.
Most of the positive (p)reviews you see on the net are written by shills. Read the thread titled "Frosger Gets Busted for BS" on this website's forum for the game for proof that no shill could deny. Notice how GameSpot won't even review most F2P games because such games are not serious. If they ever do, it will be very interesting to see how it gets reviewed as an advertised competitor to P2Ps.
Avoid this scam.