Recent reviews by Theory

I'm writing this review from a solo player perspective in the current state of the game. (March 2023)

The first 15-20 hours you will spend doing the main story where you will do the typical boring MMO quests but at the same time you will have time to experience one of the most satisfying combat systems. Also, there are some pretty cool cutscenes and an average story overall.

After those 15-20 hours you will reach the first breakpoint, Item Level 250 where the main content begins (daily/weekly content):

Daily things that you will do:
- 2 Chaos Dungeons where you will fight a large amount of random mobs (it can be compared to the Nephelam Rifts from Diablo 3; pretty fun but it gets boring pretty fast)
- 2 Guardian Raids where you will have to fight a single boss, learn his attacks, how to dodge his attacks and the appropriate time to do damage (it can be compared to any boss encounter from the Dark Souls series; pretty fun)
- 3 Daily quests of your choosing (those are pretty boring quests but you'll need to do them)
- Trade Skills (Gathering, Logging, Mining, Hunting, Fishing, Excavating) which are pretty boring but thankfully those are not that necessary in the beginning.

Weekly things that you will do:
- Cube where you'll have to do some random challenges (eliminate enemies in a certain amount of time, survive, fight bosses; pretty fun)
- Boss Rush where you'll fight lots of waves of random bosses (pretty fun)
- Abyssal Dungeons. This is the most fun activity at the early levels but unfortunately there is a really big problem, you will most likely not find any players of your level to do them with (it's mandatory to have 4-8 players for this) (most of the time you will get carried by some over leveled players, skipping most of the mechanics).
And here we find the worst problem for new solo players, it's really hard to find a party (an issue that extends to the very endgame)

After reaching certain item levels, more zones, dungeons and stories will become available.

After approximately. 3 months (playing casually 3-4 hours every day, F2P, without multiple characters) you will reach item level 1350-1400 where you will unlock the most fun content in the game, Legion Raids; which are basically bossfights with lots of phases and really complex mechanics. Here are some things you need to know:
1. You'll need to check out the wikis and some youtube videos to have a basic understanding of the fights in order to have ANY chance to enter a party.
2. It will be really hard to find a party that will accept a new player because 1 mistake can kill the entire raid (and most players don't want to lose time on newcomers)
3. Most of the time you will find yourself in the Find Party Menu for HOURS applying to different parties without success.
4. Even if you get lucky and a party accepts you, you will most likely be kicked after your 1st-2nd mistake (which is understandable; 1 mistake can wipe the entire raid and lose 10-20 minutes of everybody's time)
5. The only parties where it could be easy to enter are the learning parties but from my experience you'll only find 2-3 of those per day. So you'll need to keep watch for those.
6. There are also WTS parties where you can pay someone to carry you. (I find those extremely lame; it takes away all the satisfaction after a successful raid... but if you care only about the upgrade materials you can do it)
7. The last 2 Legion Raids (also the most complex ones) you will find it twice as hard to find a party.

Mention: If you're playing a support it will be WAYY easier to find a party.

All and all, though all the good, the bad and the ugly, I had a LOTS and LOTS of fun doing Legion Raids (when I was able a find a chill non-toxic learning party); spending even 6-8 hours in a single phase of the boss trying to coordinate with the entire party to get through a mechanic... the feeling of accomplishment is unmeasurable.
In my opinion, those are the best things about this game, the complexity of the fights, the visuals during the fights and the achievement at the end of every phase.. and all of those combined with a beautiful combat system.

So... is it worth spending 3-4 months to finally get to the best content the game has to offer... I don't think so :) But I would say it's worth a try just for the combat.

!!!IMPORTANT!!!
!!!IMPORTANT!!!
!!!IMPORTANT!!!
I did not mentioned anything about the cash shop and the P2W systems and I'm not gonna get into them. Just know that I've spent around 20 EUR TOTAL for some minor benefits+skins. The idea is that you can easily play full F2P until you get close to the last 2 item sets. (where is close to impossible to upgrade them without spending a lot of time or EUR o/ )
Obviously, if you swipe your credit/debit card, you can accelerate your progression a lot but know that the Raids remain the same and you still need to learn the mechanics.

It is fun if you don't play competitive,

I start the game.
I die in tutorial.
I die in tutorial while attempting to jump.
I see a message telling me to jump... i die.
I see a big stone that tells me how many people died.
I join the Champions Covenant by mistake.
I keep asking myself why i die in 2 hits.
I search on google why is this game so hard.
I found out that i need to leave Champions Covenant to make it easier.
I realise that the game is hard anyway.
I get killed by zombies.
I get killed by exploding zombies.
I get killed by turtles.
I get killed by invaders.
I get killed by rats.
I get killed by big rats.
I get killed by spiders.
I get killed by invaders.
I get killed by invaders.
I get killed by knights.
I get killed by posion.
I get killed by fire.
I get killed by snow.
I finish the game.
I go on new game+. (do it all over again)

Final reward - "All flames are blue now" ..Thanks

11/10 Never again.