Wow. Glad you have played it.
7 days of hardcore playtime, streamed the entire play-through. Reached lv56, acquired awakening, built a boat, hunted whales, got shot at by pirates and killed a desert dragon. Good times.
However, for most positive points the game has, there is generally a negative attached directly.
*Combat is potentially the deepest in any game ever with 3D positioning, combos, and pseudo physics based interactions. However, it is too unclean; hard to actually see what is happening on screen beyond the static of insane effects. The latency too, as you would expect in an MMO, will kill you. Especially in mob PvP which is supposed to be a highlight of the game.
*Monsters are deeply interesting overall, not Darksoulsian, but almost. Add in their numbers and sizes, and this game had true potential but tragically PvE, all the way up is absolutely a breeze.
*Node Management + Worker system is engrossing but actually not as deep as it first looks on the surface. There are very obvious spots you pick to make money regardless of what your expertise might be in. There is still some creativity, especially with the map expanding the way it is, but I think we are at least 1 more expansion away before it gets really fun. I think adding in a few more worker types / resources could be good instead of just making the map overall bigger, add more layers to what exists already.
*RNG. There is actual fun to be had with playing the RNG game, failstacks and all that good jazz, but this game has a huge RNG wall that is NOT fun once you hit it and incentives the cash shop hard.
*Cash shop is expensive and not consumer friendly but luckily it isn't as bad as some games. P2W? Depends on your mindset/win condition. I think most people agree it is either microscopically pay to win or not at all.
*The world lore is great, the tutorial / intro story is cheesy and badly acted / animated. It doesn't really teach the player very well either.
*The games races and characters look very good, but overall class uniquity isn't as great as it might seem from their promo videos. They have differences for sure, but many other MMO have more varying classes and roles.
*PvP has potential to be my favorite game of all time on paper but it completely fails in execution. It devolves down to getting insta gibbed or flailing around desperately. I'm Masters in Overwatch, play arena shooters, MOBA and love battleground type games from For Honor to MMO games like this but honestly if I first played the PvP side of BDO first, I wouldn't have ever considered doing a full review. Many people will sell the game on its PvP, but I am not one of those people. It is simply too laggy. I heard they are working to optimize the game further which is needed greatly for aesthetics and gameplay, but I also want an update to promote 1v1 pvp.