Ascend: Hand Of Kul: Early Impressions

On Wednesday, Ascend: Hand of Kul (previously Ascend: New Gods) was released on the Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade) as a free to play game.  Like all free-to-play games on the Xbox 360, it has its issues (though it is probably on of the better F2P there).  There is a store where you can use the in-game currency of souls (you can also purchase souls with real money).  I'm not sure why it is rated M (yes there is a little blood, but so far not that much and it's mostly monsters/animals). 

What is Ascend?:
Ascend is a free-to-play hack-and-slash RPG light (if you've played Arkadian Warriors it is similar, but you probably haven't).  I think this game would have worked better as a $10 XBLA title (without certain "features"), but oh well.  In this you play as a Caos (a sort of champion of one of three gods).  There really isn't much story (so far) as it is basically conquering areas and fighting monsters. The main combat controls are X for attack, Y for strong attack and B for magic.  Every once in a while (so many levels) you can "ascend" which basically kills your current character and starts a new-ish one with the opportunity to keep certain items).  Ascending also increases your level cap and give you some stat bonuses (sometimes). 

What Kind of Sucks:
* Stability: I have lost connection to their servers several times, there is also an issue where it freezes on me.  It has been out for two days and already I have had at least 4 freezes (2 that locked up my Xbox, another one where I beat a boss and it seemed to be on a loop - no button presses registered).
* Initial Load Time: usually when I start up the game it takes about 1 minutes 30 seconds to 2 minutes to start the game
* Defending Altars: Basically, you defeat an area and "convert" it to the worship of your god - then a representation of someone else that played the game tries to take over your area.  This seems like an ok concept the first couple of times you try it, but eventually it gets boring and tedious. 
* Curses, Blessings, Etc.: Curses and blessings are essentially a thing you can do online to kind of mess with other players.
* Large Enemies: trolls, ogres, whatever.  These larger monsters give me a little issue (at least some of them will stop at stairs and you can just try to spam them with fireballs - though the spell are kind of slow).  There is also a wolf somewhere that slows you down, this sucks
* Enemies seem to level with you: I hate it when that happens, it should allow me to grind and become super powerful
* Degradable weapons and armor: really, this is still a thing.  Like enemies leveling with you, I could do without this in any and every game.
* Camera: well, I never really like 3rd person, but it kind of annoys me.  For one thing I don't think there is a center camera button (sure there is some "button" for throwing things, which i'll never do, but there is nothing for centering the camera). 


So what could I do without?  Basically all of the "connected aspects" like ascending, defending altars and the Crusade aspect (spells, etc).  I could also do without the representations of other players in my game world.