I'll give my impressions of the game so far.
I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical when purchasing EQII, but am glad I did. Overall, I would give the game so far an 8 out of 10. Let me start with what I don't like. The only major issue I've had so far is with choppiness and lag inside city zones in which there are a lot of players or things going on in a dense area. At times, it gets so choppy that I have to let my computer "catch up" before I can even move. This doesn't always happen though and seems to occur mainly during peak hours (like in the early evenings). It has seemed to get better as well. In terms of other criticism, the quest system is great but needs a little finetuning. I don't like how you can obtain quests in which you have absolutely no chance at completing for another 10 levels (even with a decent group). The only good thing about this is you can save the quest for later, but by then you have so many high level quests built up, its hard to remember and keep track of all of them. Also with quests that require multiple steps, sometimes your quest journal doesn't always update as quickly as it should. There are still many bugs, but most of which are fairly minor when you take the entire game into mind. Server stability has been pretty good so far, and in the two weeks I've been playing now there has only been two server downtimes when I've attempted to log on.
Now to the good stuff. The graphics and combat is really quite amazing. I like many of the various gameplay features they have added. The navigation system both in terms of maps and questing is excellent and makes getting around from place to place much easier and more enjoyable. For example, if you are inside a city and need to find a certain person you can ask a guard who will give you directions to the person. You can also toggle your map, click on a landmark, and it will give you a wisp (a fuzzy gold line) that guides you to where you need to go. Obtaining quests is usually quite simple as well and there are plenty of quests to complete. Unfortunately some of them aren't as worth it as others (ie..getting 20 copper for spending an hour doing a quest), but that's just part of the game. Some of the more specialized quests are nice because during one of the final tasks you actually go into a separate "quest zone" made just for you or your group. What this basically means is that you don't always have to wait for something to spawn AND you don't have 5 groups all wanting to complete the same quest as you at the same time. Combat is pretty straightforward and simple for the most part and similar to any other MMORPG I've played such as EQ 1 and DaOC.
I think many of you critics are in for a surprise with this game. The launch went much smoother than many thought and the game without a doubt is READY TO PLAY. Have fun and hope this helps some.