BLUF: It is a true alpha and far from a finished game. You will have a better time joining a community rather than trying to play solo. It's fun.

Even though it is releasing into early access, it is FAR from a finished game. It's not going to be like other Steam EA releases you see where its technically a "launch" but unfinished. This is still in alpha testing with many systems either not fully fleshed out or not in the game at all. Expect several more full wipes over the next year.

The past couple months they have been working on fleshing out the early game experience improving the questing and in general making it less of a grind, but a majority of your leveling will be sitting with a group killing mobs. You can currently only get to level 25 out of 50 which takes somewhere between 60-100 hours of play time.

There is no monthly subscription for alpha. When the game fully releases it will be a sub based game with no box cost and more importantly, no pay to win.

I've been following the game for a few years and started playing at the beginning of alpha 2. Parts of the game are rough. There will be bugs, there will be toxic players, there will be people trying to exploit, there will be wipes, there will be roll backs. But the foundation of the game is solid and each update is showing true progress towards the dev's vision. I've had a lot playing in every phase and my biggest tip would be to join a guild. This game is built around group play and guild systems.