Dinged 48 last night. Ran some heroic content with a group and it was a blast - great xp. So here are my current impressions.

Pros
1. Combat is more engaging than all other MMO offerings. Numbers of skills are limited so it never feels you are just clicking enless abilities. Normal weapon swinging does more damage relative to abilities than any other MMO I have played and you will always swing your weapon. I have all my skills macroed to my Nostromo N52 and never feel I am just clicking stuff.

If I could macro all my skills where they were one button press, I'd feel a lot better about the game. Not that I'm looking for ez mode but hitting 5 buttons to fire off one attack is the fast lane to carpal tunnel syndrome.

2. For a newly released MMO the game is probably more playable than any previous MMO release.

Agreed. They did a nice job but there seems to be a decent amount of turnover already in the first month. I see lots of "This game just doesn't grab me... I'm going back to game xxxxx" posts on various MMO forums"

3. Game is beautiful to boot. I get very good playability in a beautiful game. Whereas EQ2 becomes impossible to play at high settings for the same eye candy AoC performs much better.

The game looks amazing but the lack of a seamless world hurts my own personal experience. I didn't realize how much I like a seamless world until I put Vanguard back on my box. On my machine, I think both AOC and Vanguard are pretty even graphically with Vanguard pulling off the no zoning if your machine is powerful enough to deal with the "chunks."

4. Random PvP can be fun, just a two on two fight can be tactical and last several minutes if played right.

I like to PVP for a reason. As an exile in EQ2, I never really had that reason - unless it was to fight over a contested raid mob. After 6+ hours of doing that, even that gets old. AOC PVP will be cool if they can get enough reasons in the game to engage in PVP. Lack of a death penalty and no drops on death make it a bit of a yawn fest.

5. Lots of quests - can log in a few minutes and feel you accomplish something - game is very solo friendly.

This reminds me of ROK. I miss groups. I really do. I don't think I'm alone.

Cons
1. Very, very heavily instanced. I don't know how you all feel about instancing but it hurts immersion and for me makes me feel disconnected from the world a bit. Where EQ2 has minimal instancing - if extremely heavy you may see
2 and extremely rarely 3 antonica instances - In AoC one oveland area has no less than 8 all of the time. I much prefer minimizing overland zone instancing while providing smaller instanced zones for a good dungeon experience ala EQ2.

I guess it's a tradeoff. Graphical bells and whistles vs. instances / zoning. I'm not aware of anyone thats solved the problem yet. But I agree, the instances in AOC are aggravating. Before I left, they made it where you had to run to a revive point to change instances - that's even more aggravating.

2. Zoning - very similar to EQ2 the game is zone dependent. There is a very obvious design choice developers have between graphically rich/Instanced versus seemless world - All offerings have to this point proved both are as yet not possible. In addition to zoning the world itself feels even more disconnected than EQ2's. To travel outside of the city there is no gate etc. - you just click an npc and are zoned - these are supposedly stage coach drivers etc.

My zone times were very fast. This wasn't as big of a deal to me as the instances.

3. Awful gear itemization - this will improve I'm sure

Did they release any sets or decent looking items? Everyone looked the same to me before I left. Level 80s looked drab and boring. I'm not looking for WOWish stuff, but something a little more epic would be cool for the high levels.

4. PvP game with no PvP system - this is ridiculous and the game should not have been released without this in place. The game is FFA pvp designed around guild warfare - as of now there is nothing to do. It is a solo fest for the most part with little reason to group except for gear which until itemization is fixed seems like a crapshoot.

What's the point of pvp? For a game with such a pvp element - world pvp, mini-games, sieges etc... where is the content and rewards? I'm sure it will come, but when?

5. As with pvp, guild cities can be built, but are not functioning - game released too early.


Summary
Combat system is currently the highlight of AoC. Largest downfall is lack of a pvp system - no stats, gear, siege warfare etc. Personal taste, but I really hate heavily instanced games and am growing to dislike zoning - feels like DDO or Guild Wars. What I am most looking forward too - Guild warfare, siege warfare, sacking enemy guild cities! In fact I will keep playing to experience this.

In the end the game is fun while at the same time the world fails to capture my imagination - the game is a strange mix that has to be experienced.


Theo