izigame.me

I have over 3k hours on this game, and shame on me XD. That said, I feel I have earned the right to make a detailed review which hopefully will be helpful for at least some, here goes.
The Pros:
GRAPHICS-I'm running a 3070ti higher end CPU and this game is just stunning! Everywhere you look from the scrolled out views, to the level of detail in chopping down a tree, to the simplest thing like a food cart, this game is beautiful! I can literally just spend hours wandering around farming mats just because its so damn pretty. Clearly the best looking MMO available to date.
SOUND-An often overlooked aspect of many games but when done right its a difference maker. When you shoot your musket you KNOW you've fired your weapon and can almost feel the feedback. When a fireball is launched and impacts, again, same thing it draws you in. But probably one of the best displays of sounds I've ever seen in a game was during a holiday event when a meteor came crashing down and hit land. I know this sounds simple and trite but I literally stood there in awe and was a 'that just happened' moment, it was breathtaking how much went into that simple event when they simply could have skimped. Bottom line, the sounds are great, it all areas.
EASY TO LEARN, EASY TO MASTER-Any person can pick this game up and dive right in. The in-game tutorial provided gives one a basic understanding of the simple button mashing you will be doing while playing Due to the simplistic nature and limited amount of keys it gives those who have never played an MMO a chance to learn quickly and be competitive in either PVE and PVP environments.
NO SUB-This is by far one of the biggest draws to the game in that there is no subscription fee, once you buy it you can play at any time. That said, you may ask 'well how does AGS make their $$ back then?' well baby bird, I'm gonna tell ya. There is an in-game store which allows you to buy with real $ different skins, items for houses, emotes, etc. The selection wasn't that great at first but has drastically improved over the past several months. Some of the skins are amazing, and some are crap. The housing items are great addition.
PVP (at level 60)-If you are a fan of PVP you will likely enjoy this. At level 10 you can turn on PVP at any town or shrine. A 30 second timer later and you are eligible to be attacked by others who have PVP turned on. There is a PVP equalizing system in place that enables you to be 'somewhat competitive' but a lvl 60 attacking a lvl 10, the 10 loses every time. I place the caveat 'at level 60' simply because that's when I started to PVP seriously and regularly. There are several available outlets for PVP action, open world, arenas, a game mode called Outpost Rush, and wars. All provide fast paced action and are extremely fun.
CUSTOMIZATION-This game does a great job of allowing you to create and customize your toon and deciding how you want to play them. This game is centered around certain weapons to master and allows you to use two at a time. As you progress you will become extremely proficient at switching between the two during all fights. Want to be a mage, sure. Tired of being a mage, how about an archer, yep, etc. etc. A simple attribute system (*Constitution, Intelligence, Strength, Focus, Dexterity) allows you to customize your play-style at any time. The only drawback is if you need to have the available gears which have these specific attributes on them to successfully play that type of character. As you play and collect gear this becomes easier and easier to switch between specs. There is a cost to switch, but is minimal.
CRAFTING-A deep and rich crafting design allows you to create everything from the shirt on your back to the stool you sit on in your house. There are many different types of crafting methods to chose from, and you can specialize in all, but doing so will cost you a lot of time and a lot of farming or in-game $$ (not real $). This is where most people make their $ from in selling high end gears on the trading post (auction house equiv). I am that guy that has to master everything so i can be self sufficient and I have yet to master them all, it just takes forever. AGS has accelerated this process several times during promotional events, but its still a slow grind to max it out, and I'm perfectly ok with that.
HOUSING-The ability to own a house (or up to 3) in this game is a great feature and serves a couple important functions. The biggest is it extends your storage capability for that city that the house is located in. Having a house also allows you to place 'trophies' which give you buffs toward many aspects of play (armor creation, addtl dmg bonus vs certain types of monsters, etc.). There are several designs of casas based on the town you purchase in, but basically you are buying an empty shell of a pre-fabbed home and placing items inside.
NO PAY TO WIN-The fact that there is none! You are either good, or you're not.

The Cons:
EASY TO LEARN, EASY TO MASTER-Because there are limited buttons that one uses for normal gameplay might turn some folks off. You only use 3 main buttons and 4 others which can have potions, food, and other items hot linked. There is talk of expanding this function, but nothing yet.
PVP-Can be extremely frustrating for many folks, even those that are great at it. There truly is no 'best' setup for gear but there are those that are clearly much better than others and it shows. To get the higher end gears you need to either be very lucky in crafting it, having it drop in a dung. or simply pay the exorbitant cost for it in the trading post. Being good at PVP is one thing, but having the right gears is a difference maker almost in all occasions.
NO SUB-I feel that if there were a sub the game would get more attention to much needed fixes quicker. While AGS does do a great job at patching, there are still may gameplay issues which cause frustration (lag, rubber-banding, etc).
THE GAME DIDN'T START UNTIL LVL 60-I took my time to level to 60 because I wanted to enjoy and learn the game that AGS made. It truly was a great leveling experience, albeit a simple one. The grind did allow me to experience and become proficient in many different weapons, but the end game dungeons, outpost rush PVP (lvl 50) all were later in the game.

WARS-Are basically a giant lag fest, watch any stream.
THE LAG-*see above. I'm at 943 mbps down and 944 up, not mine conn. This also comes into play when you are farming certain areas with a large group of people. It helps to turn the graphics down but doesnt excuse AGS for making a game that lags in with today's technology.
Overall...I clearly love this game as noted by time played. I was a die-hard WoW fan for over 15+ years and this is the game I want to play more hands down. I would recommend it any person who enjoys playing MMOS, I have gotten my $50 out of it many MANY times over.
I give it a solid 8/10. cheers.