Well, I liked it... a lot. even with the bugs. Played a bit last weekend on the overflow server test... and every single broken quest was fixed. They said they found 3 underlying issues that were breaking the quests and fixed all 3.

Whether it ever goes F2P, I don't know. It shaped up to be more fun than any other MMO I've played in a long long time... and it does play a lot like Skyrim, even if the skill trees / combat mechanics aren't exactly the same.

Folks need to get out of thinking of traditional RPGs. Just because one chooses a class, like a Templar in the beginning... doesn't mean you HAVE to play it like a tank or a healer. You could have a cloth casting templar if you want... and the build would be very viable.

I don't think folks fully understand how much freedom in the builds that you have in the game. With a bit of experimentation... it's easy to find something fun to play, instead being locked down to someone's strict idea of how a class "should be".

They've also fixed all the major complaints... combat isn't as floaty with collision detection and screen shakes, can bypass the starter islands if you feel that content is too "on-rails", they've definitely fixed all the bugged out quests as far as I can see, and they are working on getting phasing issues corrected so you can stay with your group-mates that are on different progression levels of a quest.

Bottom line... you don't play it like an MMO.
You play it like Skyrim with friends, or solo. (PVE)
You play it like DAoC for PvP.

Does it have as much freedom as Skyrim? No. It still is an MMO. For example, you can't go killing town NPC's etc. like you can in the single player game. There are MMO-like restrictions for obvious reasons.

Does it have more freedom than most other MMO's? Absolutely.

Is the questing different than typical MMO Kill x and bring back y?
Yes and No.

Most quests are a chain of events to complete ONE quest, so the presentation feels more like a quest, however underlying tasks may include typical Kill x or retrieve z and go talk to v.