This does not appear to be the typical Cryptic game with tons of customization, at least at the start. You will look like just about everyone else in terms of costume and physical appearance. But, there's a promise of per-use microtransactions.... Characters look a bit awkward with default stances and they jump a bit oddly, but otherwise move (and emote) pretty well.
Character creation was a bit of a letdown also, as you get to pick your origin from numerous places in the realm and a one sentence back story (recruit of the Flaming Fist, monster hunter, etc.), but it appears to be relatively meaningless and we all start in the same tutorial zone, which can last a long while (or atleast seem tedious). I hope there will be an opportunity to bypass it or start elsewhere...
The combat action (for the control wizard) was relatively fun, although presently the mouse scheme is a bit questionable. There is no free mouse look during combat, nor is there any zoom in/zoom out. I did not find the encounters terribly difficult as healing comes pretty easy at the beginning -- I never died (except when I had to kill myself to get out of a bugged instance [Blacklake Skirmish]). I did not go hardcore playing the game, making it only to about level 11 and visiting the tower district. Battling Orcs was a bit more exciting.
This really isn't DnD, other than the setting. The classes are fixed and there are no weapon proficiencies; they've reverted to skill trees that have repeating skills...magic missle 1, magic missle 2, magic missle 3. When "rolling" stats, it's really just rotating through an array of preset stat distributions, ensuring that your primary and secondary skills have the highest -- there's no point buy, or even an opportunity to gimp a stat to make something else exceptional.
One of the more fun aspects were the traps - I felt like I was playing Neverwinter Nights as a stumbled around setting bunches of them off. Definitely a need for someone to spot traps. Speaking of which, there are skills such as Thieving, Arcana, Religion, Nature and Dungeoneering, for which you can purchase kits that give anyone a ~65% chance of success -- early on those kits are a waste as the cost of them doesn't come anywhere near what you will find. THey also are not properly itemized.
Speaking of costs.....there are a stupid amount of currencies in game. There are --
- Bronze, Gold, Silver, which drops. Unfortunately, they're only good for merchants, not on the auction house.
- Astral Diamonds, which you get from praying and possibly major quests. These are used on the Auction House and also can be acquired with Zen. You will require many thousands of them along the way.....
- Celestial Coins, which come from praying, but disappear if you don't log in daily and pray/invoke again.
- Ardent (?) Coins, which come from praying
- At least 4 types of seals
- Glory
- maybe other stuff (not including bounty items which are quasi currency, yet take inventory space)
That's just seriously annoying.
Possibly the most redeeming value to the game will be the Forge and Foundry -- it will do what I think we all wanted AE to ever do. I admit I did not check it out this weekend, but will during Beta Weekend 3, but here's some video showing off the system (including branching, conditional dialogue and custom maps).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhpYM8GDMIE&t=4m45s 
