The game launches fine, and the menu pops up without a hitch. But as soon as I press either "Play" or "Change Server" the game stops responding. It doesn't crash to the desktop, but rather freezes indefinitely. However, when checking the Task Manager, the game is "Not responding", and in order to fully exit the game, I have to kill it there - and reboot the computer.
Throughout the freeze/crash, the forest-like audio of chirping birds etc. still plays, but I am unable to make the game respond to anything.
Before pressing "Play" or "Change Server", and thus triggering the freeze/crash, clicking "Character" or "Options" works fine.
This issue occurs every single time, and I am thus unable to play at all.