Wayfinder Review (Towershield)
Gameplay:
Combat is very smooth and playstyles will vary based on what weapons you use. Wayfinders aren't limited to any particular weapons and there seems to be a synergy with most Wayfinder/Weapon combinations, though some characters work better with some weapons than others. Being able to switch Wayfinders, your weapons, accessories and echoes at any time is a HUGE boon to being able to adapt to combat conditions on the fly.
Desync, Lag and Rubber-banding:
Zero issues remain on this front now that the online component is gone. There's still some loading issues whenever you enter the Highlands but overall the zone still loads faster than it used to. Hopefully this is fixed before 1.0 launch.
Gear:
Weapons drop now and aren't crafted. Armor seems to only drop once. 100+ copies of the Ransom rifle and Typhoon axe after ~20 hours of MSQ and side quest grinding is a bit of an issue but thankfully weapons you don't want can be sold for good amounts of gold. The old system of requiring various components to craft weapons and summon wayfinders is still there but is used for Awakenings now. Accessory and potion crafting remains unchanged.
Armor is strange compared to weapon drops when you consider you only get one of that item ever compared to the constant replacing of weapons. The stats on armor is all percentage-based so even early game drops can remain relevant later on. Armor cannot be sold (thank goodness) and echoes cannot be slotted into them.
Echoes themselves drop more often than they used to so you'll never NOT have enough of them to slot into your weapons and accessories. You can also sort Echoes by the various stats available so you can min/max or optimize more easily.
The game could greatly benefit from a better fusion system for improving Echoes IMHO.
Character Unlocks:
You still pick one of three initial Wayfinders at the start of the game and you're practically given the other two selections by playing the early MSQ. Other characters are unlocked by getting their summoning stones to drop from mobs and bosses. Good drop rates practically guarantee you'll have all the Wayfinders long before the MSQ moves into the frost region.
Cosmetics:
Every armor and weapon drop unlocks the ability to use their visuals in the game's Style/Transmog system. Dye colors start off as a limited pool of choices but more are unlocked just by playing the game and using in-game currencies at vendors. Mounts and ability visuals cannot be recolored so keep that in mind if you're wanting THAT level of color coordination.
Overall I feel the Echoes update is generally a much better version of the game than it's original iteration. Hopefully this upcoming Early Access release will iron out the last few bumps and wrinkles and that the final 1.0 version will be as complete as can be.
Digital Extremes pulled out of their agreement with Airship Syndicate and left this game high and dry without a publisher.
After unsuccessful attempts to find a new publisher, the devs decided to self-publish. After that transition was complete they suspended sales of Founder's Packs and made the choice to rework the game from a live-service MMO to an offline single-player game with optional peer-to-peer co-op play.
Founders asking for refunds are being told that due to the way things were set up when DE was publisher, all of the money from those Founder's Packs went to DE. According to AS, now that they're self-publishing, they can't do anything about the money that was collected while DE was the publisher and as a result AS can't refund that money. This inability to issue refunds has understandably made a portion of the Founders very upset, hence the recent surge in negative reviews.
I can't really accurately review the gameplay or anything else in the game as of the time of writing this review. Once the May 31st update rolls out the game will undergo drastic changes, so there's no point in talking about those things as they are now. I'll update this review to include things like gameplay, lag and game systems once the Echoes update goes live.
I'm not going to give this game a negative review for what seems to be a bad hand dealt to these developers by their previous publisher. Airship Syndicate isn't pulling a Sony here.
(edited to fix grammar)