It's actually not a bad game. It plays more like a hack-n-slash game than a slower, methodical D&D game. Even more arcadey than NWN2. The one thing I enjoyed is the entire lack of potions in this game. A Moderate Cure Light Wounds potion is EXPENSIVE and any healing potion rarely drops. Which means healers are at a premium and the infrequent rest areas are crucial. It adds some strategy in the game (if you are soloing) and you are 3/4 through the instance on whether to leave then .. or push on a take a chance in finishing the instance even though you are near death. It's a cool rush to play so near the edge like that.
It follows the traditional D&D 3.5 ruleset .. but they have added a few twists. It takes very long to level, but each level has sub-levels where you can add on "enhancements". Additional points to skills like Jump or hide/sneak or even on saving throws. It's a nice way to reward the player without having everyone at level 10 by the first 20 hours of play. I played casually for about 50 hours and reached level 5. The max level is 16.
There are a ton of quests for low level players, although they do a poor job of pointing you to where those quests are in the other "sectors" of the city. Each quest is instanced and has diminishing returns for each time you run it. You can run them again at higher difficulties and get better loot/exp. Plus there are a bunch of bonuses for each run you make (most kills, most breakables, first time clear, etc).
The downsides are the price (15 dollars a month is kind of silly) and the weapon selection is pretty poor. It follows strict D&D rules. So it's very rare to find a weapon that does anything more than offer a +1 +2 for the first 20-30 hours of play. Plus, many item enhancements do not stack. If you are wearing a gauntlets of ogre power (+1 str), if you find a ring of similar makeup .. it is worthless. So, you end up with a lot of accessories that increase meaningless stats (haggling, throws on will saves, etc etc). Soloing is very possible in the early going .. but as you venture on, you almost need a party for all the quests if you want to maximize your time/loot.
I am probably going to buy the game for 15 bucks and then use up the free 30 days and then quit.
