Walls of text inbound.
I've been playing it since launch, and it's...not completely there yet but still fun. By that I mean that some features simply aren't in the Western release yet, such as sieges and node wars between guilds which is a big deal. As of right now, the only reason to wage war on another guild is for the fun of it or disputes over farming spots. PvP is the main draw of this game, there is basically no "traditional" PvE endgame what so ever, so it missing some of the core PvP features is a mark against it until it's added. However, the game itself is fun and feels different enough from other MMOs.
You mentioned owning properties and that's a big part of the game. Doing quests gives you "contribution" exp which in turn gives you contribution points as you gain enough of it. These points can be spent on buying property or investing in nodes (various locations in game). You don't need property per say to craft general items, but you do need them to craft more advanced items such as wagons, boats, horse equipment, etc. You need workers to actually use the various workstations you turn the properties into however, and in a logical way. For example, lets say you want to make a fishing boat. First you would need to get some property that's able to be turned into a boatyard (I believe that's what it's called). Once you do that you need workers to actually work in that boatyard, and to get those workers, you need to own property for them to live in (which is called lodging in game). Then you actually need the materials needed to make the boat, which you could either get yourself, or have your workers get it for you. Some nodes have sub-nodes which are basically gathering nodes for your workers. Lets say you need birch plywood to make your boat, which requires birch timber to make, but you don't want to get it all yourself. You could simply invest in a node that has a Birch timber gathering node attached to it, and then send your workers off to get a bunch for you. In order to invest in a node however, it has to be able to be connected to a node you already invested in (it'll show you in game on the map which nodes will connect to ones you already own). You could then take that timber, and either turn it into the plywood yourself which is it's own two step process...or if you own a building capable of being turned into what's basically a woodshop, you can have your workers do that too. Workers themselves level up, gain skills, and can be promoted into higher tier as well...however they do have stamina, with each action they do using up one stamina. That's easily refilled however with alcohol...lots and lots of alcohol =)
The professions in the game just feel better or different as well, as you have to invest and do more with them other than simply getting a higher tier tool. Say you want to be a trader for example. Well, you're going to need a trading wagon to carry around all of your goods, which means either buying one of the basic ones from a local stable or making one yourself by getting some property that lets you do so. Then you're going to need a few horses to actually pull your wagon, which you can either tame yourself (which is a whole other can of worms) or buy one from either a stable master or from another player off the horse market. After you have your horses and wagon, you then need to go to a trader npc and buy some general goods to fill your wagon. The goods vary in what they are, from books, to perishables, to art, with some goods not being able to be purchased until you hit a higher trade mastery level. You can also haggle with the trader to get a better deal, or get some insight on where would be best to sell the goods you purchased. Those two actions cost energy, which is a bit of a flaw of the game I'll get into later. Now you're ready to get on your wagon, and go sell those goods. However there's one other catch: you need to be linked to the node you plan to sell your goods in, in order to get full value or more for your goods. So being a trader also involves a lot of exploring and linking nodes across various countries in order to get as much as you can for the goods you're trading in. After all, selling some fine wine to a trader in a capital city miles away from where you bought that wine will be far more profitable than selling it to a local farm just outside town (in most cases anyway). I find the professions to be quite oddly fun, to the point where I'm level 39 (soft cap is 50) and I've barely fought any enemies. I've just been sailing the seas and fishing, making a ton of money I don't know what to do with. Most goods you get from professions you don't sell to other players by the way, but to in game trader npcs for prices based on supply and demand.
The economy of the game is..really different in that the players actually can't set the prices. There's more or less an in game economy based on supply and demand (for the most part anyway), with players being able to set either a minimum or maximum amount on an item based on the current economy. In some ways, this is fantastic, as the economy will never hit a point where it's so insane that new players down the road will be overwhelmed by how much they need to make to get decent gear and just stop playing. That's a problem I've seen hit so many other MMOs and prevent them from ever really getting new players who are invested in the game. On the downside...until the economy settles down, right now some items simply aren't worth selling as they sell for less than the goods needed to make them. It also means that players who love to "play" the marketplace in other MMOs simply will have an extremely hard time doing so...which others may see as a good thing =P
It's true that there's no level cap per say, but there is a soft cap at 50 and more of a hard cap at 55-60. The skills/passives in your skill tree only really go up to level 60 as well at the moment, and I don't believe you really get anything out of going beyond that at the moment either. Combat is pretty fun, with there being next to no reliance on hotkeys and having more of a combo based system. It feels more like a refined, faster version of Tera and is very very satisfying to just tear through hordes of enemies. PvP I can't really speak much of yet (just a simple fisherman at the moment) but from what I've seen it looks quite fun. Also, the weapons/armor/accessories have no level requirement in this game, so you can buy whatever gear you want whenever you need it/can afford it and use it right away. Now there is flat out open pvp in this game, but that doesn't become enabled until you hit level 45. So no worries about someone giving their level five character a full set of "end game" gear and tearing new players apart.
Also, the world is DAMN beautiful and is not a typical "open fields full of enemies" MMO. My biggest problem with MMOs is how empty their worlds look and felt. A lot of areas in MMOs feel like they were designed around having a bunch of enemies in them, so the zone was designed around those enemies....usually resulting in overly big areas that just seemed unnatural and artificial. In here, it's more like the world was designed first and the monsters were placed in it, rather than the other way around.
If I have one major gripe with the game, it's the energy system. Gathering, crafting, and a few other things take energy to do..which is a pain at the start of the game when you have so little of it. Later on it becomes less of a problem when you gain a ton of it, but even then it really feels not needed at all...especially considering the free to play versions of the game in Russia and Korea have a much less limited energy system. One would think this would mean there would be "energy potions" you can buy with real money in the Western release...but there isn't...and they said there won't be. There's literally no logical reason for the energy system to be this limiting in this version of the game. Like I said, it's not a problem as you gain more max energy, and it does regen rather quickly, to where the only way you'll run out is if you nonstop craft yourself and never use workers...but still, it's not needed to be that limiting. A minor gripe I have is the limited variety in weapons and armor...at least in appearance. At character creation you can view all the sets for that class as well as a few cash shop ones...and the ones that aren't cash shop, that's all the sets in the game, and they all look pretty similar. So while they have a great character editor, the in game equipment is visually lacking in variety. That is a problem that I imagine will be fixed one way or another however.
Overall I really really like this game...I've played A LOT of MMOs over the years...and this is the first one to really pull me in in a long time. It just...I can't explain how..maybe it's the truly open world, the nontraditional formula it follows, the professions that feel like actual professions, the great combat...but it really doesn't feel like an MMO to me, or at least a bog standard one. It's actually trying to do things differently, and it has a lot of damn potential that I really hope it lives up to. I think it has a shot.
