I've put maybe four hundred hours into Pantheon, but yeah, I'm not entirely certain that I'll play when it is actually released. I will say, that if you enjoyed the Everquest games, and Vanguard, this might be something you'd also be keen on. There's a lot to be said for designers and programmers that actually listen to the people playing the game, and this team does more of that than any other online product that I've ever played to date.
I played a bit of Pantheon over the past two weeks, still enjoying the basic game and it is shaping up into something special. I'm still not certain that I'll actually play when it releases, that will depend on whether or not some old (or new) friends make a similar commitment.
Perhaps it lacks the depth of Vanguard, but that's to be expected nowadays, the online games are just pure rubbish for the most part, from what I currently see. The awesome days of the Everquest, Ultima Online, City of Heroes and Vanguard games are behind us, sadly. Far behind.
Pantheon does do the classic archetypes rather well, and the visuals/fluidity of the game environment is pretty spectacular. I would gladly devote some time to fully exploring the game upon release, heck, I bought quite the starting package, but if I don't see old mates ( or new) showing interest, I'll likely not play it. I'm well weaned off online game right now and it would take something truly special to immerse myself once again.
If you're looking for straight exploration and composition of classes, it easily exceeds Vanguard and many other games of similar ilk. It doesn't have the same diversity with crafting and other options, such as the diplomacy game within a game that Vanguard had. At least I've seen nothing like that as of yet.