Okay, here are my impressions.
First, I would like to say that I was not really expecting much of that game. I am a huge fan of the first NWN, still haven't really played 2, but just the press release was enough to deter me from this Neverwinter announcement. I got in the beta completely randomly, by answering in time to some guy who was giving free keys.
My first impressions were awful, then a lot better, then a bit bad again.
The first thing to keep in mind is that it is not the NWN you used to know : this is a WoW clone, with a twist. The twist being The Foundry. I was not able to try that aspect of the game since it somehow requires you to be level 15. But more on that later.
Let's start with the bad points :
-The combat is awful and pointless, and yes, that pretty much ruins most of the point of the game. Select your opponent, hold the mouse button, wait for it to die. _IF_ your opponent is tougher than average, then you will have to watch out for the red circles on the ground : that means he's going to cast an area effect spell there, or area attack/skill. This gives you ample time to leave or parry. Pretty much ruins the point. There is NO strategy involved so far, at least, until level 9 where I stopped playing.
-It is, so far, very buggy. I had to give up on my magic user because a bug prevented me from leaving the tutorial/intro area. I was completely stuck and this character became unusable. This happened again with my other character, Level 9 elf Fighter, which got stuck in an instance. An empty instance, with no usable item. I couldn't do anything and thus I left the game to post this. If this doesn't get fixed at release, people are going to get pissed.
That said, after a couple of hours, you know what to expect of the game : something that is unrelated to the game you loved, but something that is still DECENT compared to the standards of today, especially one : I actually think Neverwinter is a much better game than Diablo 3, to which it is easier to compare it to.
Though the game is multiplayer, you can play it single player which is most of what I did. The story appears to be more engaging than some RPGs, and less than others. Something about the Crown of Neverwinter being stolen by the Nasher gang, so far. Once in Neverwinter you are given quests, and sidequests : go there, kill that, fetch me this, bring it to this guy. It is fairly classic so far. Not bad. Just nothing special. Graphic wise, the game looks okay. Just okay, nothing special once again.
The depth, though it being a shallow game compared to the games we used to love... Well, it is better than Diablo 3 : skills, more character classes, the loot is a bit better, there is a lot more to do. So far, I haven't noticed any hindrance for being a free user and not paying anything. I have no doubt this will come at some point, though.
It is also better because of the Foundry, which allows for the best and worse. I did only two "homemade" quests. One brought to me to a forest and seemed interesting : it was the start of a custom campaign, but unfortunately the rest wasn't available. Another one really felt homemade : clunky execution, slightly glitchy, and spelling mistakes everywhere. As this game is going Free To Play, I expect to see a lot of those shitty quests pop up everywhere. The quests are given either from the game interface, or from some "bard" character who tells you about rumors which are player generated (and the start of said quest). Hopefully, there is a ranking system that can be used to sort the good fruit apart the rotten ones. Once the quest is finished, you can reward its author with some ingame money, that is also a nice touch.
To sum up, yes, it is dumbed down WoW/Diablo shit. HOWEVER, it is dumbed down WoW shit that is done correctly, and The Foundry is interesting. And in my opinion, it still puts Diablo 3 to shame in term of quality, depth, character customization, and of course, price value since it is F2P.
Also, I spent the two days of beta without talking to ANYONE AT ALL ingame. And this was not a bother.