My impression

valkerus

I started in Beta in July and tested till November.  Highest level i reached was 41 as a Sith Juggernaut. Second highest toon was a 23 imperial agent (healer).

Story:

I found the story line for my Jugg not nearly as good as the IA though this is probably subjective. I just felt the early story of the IA made you feel like a spy or agent.

I appreciated the change in quests that allowed for light/dark points. i saw between choosing straight darkside choices on my jugg vs. straight light side on my IA verying outcomes as advertised.

It should be noted that your class storyline does not make up the majority of the quests, this leads to tedious leveling after level 10 on a reroll of the same faction.

Overall the story (on your first play through) is quite engrossing and I can say i was hooked.

Combat:

I felt the combat was fun but not something i would hang my hat on. I visualize it as something between WoW and Champions online. Wow in my experience is very, stand in one spot and tank, heal or dps. Champions was tank, heal or dps on the run. SWOTOR is somewhere in the middle.

My tank felt and played like a tank after lvl 16 (a point where threat generators are available). My healer felt a bit more like healing in Champions where you are not static, almost encouraged to dps which i liked. 

up to the point where i stopped testing i thought the mobs were quite weak and the pathing of both the mobs and your companions was atrocious. I would start fighting by a lift bridge and my companion would not path off of it so half the fight she's up on the elevator while i'm fighting solo. She would sometimes dissapear and just die from falling damage. THIS IS MOST LIKELY FIXED but when i stopped playing this was still an issue.

Guns vs. melee. Again at the time i stopped playing a ranged toon had advantages or cheats not available to melee toons. Two bosses for example one in Black Talon first empire flashpoint and the Sith Beast lvl 14 heroic quest boss had big time pathing bug exploits. As a ranged toon you could fire and gain agro then move around a pillar while the boss would try and get line of sight because it too was ranged (black talon boss also arguable the toughest boss in the flashpoint). I was able to exploit this mob and kill it with just a companion. The sith beast was similar though it was melee. it seemed never fast enough to catch up with me running around or jumping over rocks in the environment, my ranged companion eventually killed it solo while it chased me about. i sent multiple tickets on this and never saw it fixed.

Companions:

Loved them.  I can not stress this enough...too many people did not TEST this game, they played it.  Companions can be outfitted with gear and can become quite powerfull. On my IA as a healer i put more time into outfitting my companion so it was sure to not only have full agro control through dps but by doing this my healer leveled solo with ease. They offer additional story through the game and are such a convienience when deleaing with full bags that come with long play times. Being out in the wilderness with the abillity to send your companion instantly to sell your junk is such a time saver, kudos to BW for this. Same goes for crafting missions. The benefits of companions really comes into its own when you have multiples. Being able to shuffle them to sell and craft while you have one out with you leveling is huge.

Talent Trees

Reminded me a bit of vanilla wow with each tree having one or two special abillities available up the tree that set it apart , percent increases to abilities or core stats and each tree having its specialty. It boils down to three trees within each specialty, however i would argue each specialty has one tree that is a bit more pvp oriented.  I didn't care for the ability to not change your specialty. If you choose to be an agent instead of a sniper...that's it. If you find you don't like the way it plays...reroll. I hope this is changed at launch.

 

That is my small write up lol. I know i didn't touch on everything and i'm not going to state whether i am buying the game or not because honestly it doesn't matter. My job was to test the game not play with blinders or stars in my eyes. it has good points and bad points but honestly my feeling is that the success of this title will rest more on what they do post launch vs what is available at launch.