Too much WoW, not enough Bioware. Good for MMO fans, but not for single-player Bioware fans.
I played this during the beta, and then again for the 5 days leading up to release. This is what I found:
--Good--
+ Good multiplayer, both co-operatively and PVP
+ Massive game universe, with hundreds of side quests
+ Customisation options are good
+ Good nods to previous Star Wars fiction
+ Excellent musical score, and decent sound effects
--Bad--
- Frequently sub-par voice acting (particularly from the protagonists)
- Disappointing dialogue writing
- Poorly placed plot, broken up by filler "fetch" quests
- Some story elements ruin the previous KOTOR stories entirely
- Combat seems a step backwards, even from KOTOR
- Combat animations do not seem to interact with one another often enough (mostly a case of hitting eachother over and over, not enough parrying)
- Cartoony graphics ruin the immersion and make the story feel childish.
- No statistic distribution on level up
- Companions rarely engage you in conversation
- Buying powers from vendors feels cheap, like you didn't earn them
- Crafting system has plenty of options, but feels weak
- Game does not warrant the full retail price PLUS subscription fee
- Quests are 90% absolutely dull and repetitive
- Companion customisation is limited to a number of skins, which you buy
- Large player base ruins immersion with jumping around in "ancient, undisturbed, foreboding" dungeons.
- Rips off World of Warcraft in far too many ways.
- Limited number of companions for each class
- Only able to take 1 companion with you at once (a decision which feels forced, purely because they decided to make the game online)
- Sometimes you have to queue for an hour to actually play the game
- Broken, out-dated control system
- No controller option (which is strange, because controllers worked better for KOTOR)