I guess I'm well placed to review it all now.
I absolutely loved the game while there was something to work towards, the missions are great, some of the end missions are truly brilliant, and the co-op is great fun.
The problem with the game is endgame isn't good enough. Once you've got decent gear, what are you working towards anymore? You can do challenges, but all you get is more gear, that is no better than the gear you get from grinding in the DZ. There's no incentive.
I'm already seeing the online aspect of this game falling off a cliff, many like myself put hours and hours in racing to endgame and then found endgame to be a disappointment, I've already noticed a rapid decrease in people online - we're not going to log on everyday to do a repeat of the same mission on a harder difficulty for a piece of gear no better than the gear we already have.
The main problem with this game has been balance, and it seems to be the one area they've got majorly wrong in different areas. PvP is pretty much non-existent because the risk and reward ratio for going rogue is fucked, the chance to gain about 600 exp for surviving rogue, versus losing 30,000 exp for being killed while rogue, how the f**k did they ever think anyone was going to go for that? As a result, everyone in the DZ is doing the same grind, PvE for loot drops, all the reviews before release were like "you get the best loot in the DZ, but you'll have a hard time getting it out of the DZ" - that has absolutely not been the case, getting items out of the DZ is a breeze because there's no danger of PvP killing you, and most people are working together even if they're not in a group, so there's no danger or challenge.
Also, the exp balance in the DZ is fucked too, I get the same amount of exp for killing a named NPC in DZ01 that I can kill in two headshots, as I do for killing a named NPC in DZ06 that takes 20 headshots. They're both just as likely to drop the same loot as well, so what incentive is there to go into the harder DZ areas? Well there is none really, and as such DZ05 and 06 are a ghost land, you rarely ever bump into other people, everyone is doing the same farming route between the Sports Store, Library, Refuelling Station and killing the NPCs down in 02 and 03.
I'm personally left with nothing to work for now, my gear isn't going to get any better, other than marginally, and I'm not going to grind for 4 hours on the off chance I might get a weapon mod that adds a few hundred more to my DPS, because I don't need any better stats because there's nothing that requires me being better, there are no "raids" yet and I don't need to be my best for PvP because there is no PvP.
I think they've dropped the ball slightly, they've made a very good game which drew a lot of hype and pulled a lot of people in, but they haven't offered enough to keep those people at endgame, and I wonder whether by the time they do add more, there will still be a large online community.