Overall I think it is an OK book for a great setting.
I'd say that it is worth buying, but I wouldn't use it as an example of how a campaign book should be.
1) It was too short. Honestly, deep down, I'm seriously unhappy that the Eberron Campaign Guide got 63 more pages. This isn't purely a "but they got more" reaction (although a small part of it is), but that the book on its own merits was too short... by about 60 pages. Especially since it was a player's guide + campaign guide combo sharing its page space. If they had added 60 pages, every city could have had an entry as long as Tyr's entry, and still had 35 pages left over. It didn't feel satisfying, and was a HUGE knock against the book in my opinion. HUGE. Bad enough that if Wizards does it again, I'll badmouth their campaign settings as being "too short" in general conversation about the D&D line. They very seriously crossed a line with the page count and content.
Rolling the Campaign Guide and Player's Guide into one book was fine. Adding the page count of a Campaign Guide and a Player's Guide together and dividing by two was an awful formula to arrive at a page count.
Honestly, if I even suspect that they were holding out text content to use for DDI articles, I'm going to seriously unhappy with the company.
2) Honestly, deep down, I'm not happy that DDI articles are showing up with what are some really nice pieces of art that I think are clearly better than some of the art pieces that did make it into the book. It also makes me feel like they short changed me on purpose.
3) The Dray work pretty well, I'd even consider playing one. This is in the context me of having a huge dislike for Dragonborn.
The Eladrin are fine, and they fit into the setting well as presented.
The Tiefling seem like a ham-fisted shoe-horning that needed more work, especially since divine/infernal beings inherently beg questions that does the setting no favors.
I totally support the use of Goliath mechanics since large creatures are a menace, but frankly, they did more than use Goliath mechanics, they completely replaced half-giants with Goliaths, right down to the artwork. It wasn't a re-skinning, because, they literally did not re-skin them.
I also think they cut too far and too lazily on Thri-Kreens. Their "the greatest enemy of a centaur is a ladder, so we made them humans in bug suits" argument holds no water with me. Thri-kreen worked in the original setting, and frankly, I don't think anyone has difficulty imagining a slightly downsized thri-kreen getting up a ladder, or into whatever spaces that a traditional adventure would take players.
4) All the rules were fine. The defiling, the wild talents, the breakable weapons, the alternate advancement, the "gp worth of favors" system, all looks like it will work well enough.
The "gold is the standard outside the cities" is pretty lame though. They should have said "barter" is the standard outside the cities. Especially when they go and have a section on Walis and mention how little gold actually gets mined there.
5) I think themes are a really good thing. Too many players need some sort of "permission by rules" to add 'character' to their characters, and one of the major complaints that I've seen leveled against D&D is that characters are just a "race and class combo". The major validity of that complaint rests on can vs will. People can make their characters interesting, but too often they will just roll a halfing rogue with no background and call it a character. I think having people selecting a race, class, theme combo will help address those complaints, as a halfling rogue pirate or a halfling rogue merchant is more palatable.
6) I really REALLY liked that each city got a map. Best part of the book. That being said, the Tyr map was a let down. It is all sorts of out of proportion compared to the other city maps. Which is exceptionally disappointing for the city that most adventures will be happening it.
7) The map of the Tyr Region on the other hand is excellent. The addition of a lot more features and points of interest really makes it a better tool and prop.
