I picked up AoC a few days ago and have managed to play a couple toons, my highest to level 16 or so. So this is just first impressions.
- Combat is fun. The melee attacks and combos make WoW and other "auto attack" MMOs feel like child's play. I like it.
- Casting is basically the same here as it is anywhere.
- The game is fun so far, and the island of Tortage is a very well rounded experience. The areas are big enough to feel daunting to run across, yet small enough you don't spend all day running from A to B. Graphics, sound, and music is top of the line. Quests and storylines are solid and fairly rewarding. So far I haven't gotten a lot of fed-ex and kill creature type quests. They feel well mixed and diverse.
- I like the DD/RPG style base skills... perception, climbing, run speed, casting concentration. It's a cool concept. One thing I hate about WoW is the complete lack of character customization. X class always gets Y skills and all you can do to control it is talents. AoC has feats (talents like WoW basically) and then the core skills. I really wish I could distribute my own attributes too. Oh well.
- I played GW for a long time, and I don't find this game to be too similar to it. There is instancing, but not quite as bad as GW was about it. Instancing is pretty good, but I felt GW overdid it. It feels lesser in AoC.
- I like the adult themes. People are pretty immature about it and run around naked all the time, but yeah, that's life. Once the newness wears off, it'll die down a little.
- The game is pretty. It's not as pretty as it's been hyped up to be, but it is a large step up from WoW and other current MMOs. I'd say LOTRO is on par with it, but it's still superior. The human animations and textures are pretty amazing. The animals are pretty sad. WoW, I think, does animal animations the best I've ever seen.
- Good music, good sounds. High quality, as to be expected.
- Great story line for Tortage. I hear once you get out in the world the strength of the quests and storyline dies down. Even so, this is a much better 1-20 game than WoW ever could hope to be. LOTRO does the newbie levels good as well. I feel AoC aces it, though.
- The game is stable and the server is stable. It's not even month since release and I've had no issues. The only client-crash issues I had were very self inflicted (running hacked BIOS and flashing for motherboards you don't actually own can do this). Since I reverted back to a good BIOS, no crashes or glitches.
- It does take a very beefy computer to run well. My computer is not far from top of the line, and I'd like to see some FPS increases. I hear disabling shadow cures all, I haven't done this yet.
- I suppose there are many bugs, but I really have yet to come across one. Then again, according to the community, tortage is awesome and amazing, but everything after it is lack luster. I guess I'll post a follow up as I get to play more.
With a new baby and important HJ tasks to take care of, it could be some time!