Alex.

I have powerleveled and I have been casual in several games of this type, and usually being casual means missing out on most of the fun/action, but not this time around. Lobotomized no-life grinders will probably enjoy the other aforementioned games more as they “offer” (read: force) a multitude of evenings/weeks/months wasted in order to feel the false sensation of accomplishment or the slightest improvement in character development, whereas WAR is enjoyable from moment one and only keeps getting better as the game grows on you and you start fathoming out the mechanics a little better.

Some old school purist nerds might feel like MMORPGs are meant to consume your whole life because you should be sucked into your character’s life anyway, but quite frankly it’s plain retarded. WoW has gone downhill ever since the betas and turned from an enjoyable game into a swamp of diarrhea in world record time, the PvE element is about hitting one key repeatedly for several hours in a row five days a week while watching TV and the PvP… well, with those mechanics it’s hardly PvP at all – it’s a lottery of both latency and luck, and this is coming from a fairly successful ex-WoWer of over 4 years (and the last 3½ years was spent sitting on a barrel in Orgrimmar/Assrath). What comes to Conan, I had hard time coming up with excuses to arse myself online after level 10. There’s simply nothing in it and that PvP is a free-for-all gankfest, even though you can’t really even tell if the guy next to you is whacking your ass or trying to help you with the mob you’re fighting.

So, I’m quite used to hearing downright moronic arguments like “go play CS/WC3 if you want PvP”. I’m sorry, but I never liked shooters, so what’s there for me? WAR… now… after idling in WoW for years, chatting with buddies.

Well, at least my guitar playing skills developed immensely during the few PvE raids I attended to over the years and not having anything to do in a game is a good way to get the house cleaned up and important tasks done, but I still rather close my computer while I’m doing something else, log in the game, have a good time in there and log out without being massively pissed off at both the time wasted and the jerkoff people playing it.

Lastly, I’ve never had anything to do with the Warhammer series, still don’t know how much the game was marketed or hyped and I wasn’t overly excited about it (apart from getting something to replace WoW for good as means to relax and kill some spare time), so this is quite an unbiased view from a person who enjoys a FAIR fight against other human players and loves goblins and trolls and other nasty little buggers.

I have enjoyed my experience with Warhammer. It has a few bugs here and there, but that is to be expected out of any MMO. No game is perfect. I love the PQ’s, the concept of jumping in and helping a group finish is fun. And one of the PQ’s I recently did with a very good group had a big horde of orcs attacking as we protected three siege weapons. I was a healing class, so I did my job and kept everyone ticking. However, in the PQ’s a majority of the time; you can do the first two stages by yourself or with a few people. The third stage is where you need a group a lot of times with tanks, healing and dps. And finding a group isn’t always possible.

The PvE outside of the PQ’s is what you would expect from and MMO, fetch this, kill that, Kill so many of these to fetch that, etc etc. They do get repetitive, but they are good ways to finding the PQ’s without running around. They aren’t the best ways to get xp and gear, but they do give you enough gear to survive better then you did before, and the xp is always good in-between pvp. When you hit mid tier 2 early tier 3, you start to notice that it gets harder and harder to do stuff alone. Which is what mythic was going for when they created the game.

The PvP has its ups and downs. Scenarios have gotten better with wait time as of recently. The drawback is you never know what you’re going to get and you could get a group of all tank no dps or all dps and no healing. Which is not how the games classes should play, but victory can be brought about with skill. The raids on keeps and objective point’s area a quick get away from pve. Go take an objective get some free renown and go back to what you were doing. Keeps however, are much more difficult. You need a well balanced team, and some strategy to take down the lord and claim the keep, and the prize you may or may not have received. I have not done a city raid, so I can not tell you how I feel about those.

In terms of balance, I do not think the game is unbalance, but too balanced for people to get use to. From what I have heard from my friends that have played WoW, they say that at some point or another there is one class that seems to dominate other classes. (This is excluding skill and numbers mind you). In Warhammer, there are three areas of class just like most MMOs. There are healers, tanks, melee dps, and ranged dps. It is people learning how to use your area of class that makes the game fun, and makes whatever your doing successful. When people start to catch on to not tank as a ranged dps, and as a tank too not run in last, the game will hit its peak, and I believe more and more will enjoy it.

Order vs destruction, I have both order characters and destruction characters I have to say ,of the classes I’ve played, I do not see an imbalance between the two sides. Each side, after the December update, will have something on the opposing side that is very similer to the other. Destruction sorcerer/sorceress vs Order Bright wizard, Destruction witch elf vs order witch hunter etc etc. A well rounded group is the best way to survive and bring victory to your side. I have played both the most powerful takes, as of now, on each side. Destruction’s black Orc and order’s swordmaster. Of what I can tell in a one on one fight, it comes down to skill even though they are relatively the exactly same class, except the black orc has a healing ability that raises his max health, but the swordmaster has blocking that could make the orc’s healing harder to activate. It just comes down to skill in the end.

The down side I have noticed is population in tiers. I tier one and three I see very few people, but in tier two and four there are lots of people roaming around and fighting. It is aggravating when you can’t find a group to do a PQ or raid the keep.

Another down side is, people either fall into you know what your class is for, or you have no clue and you just try to kill. I have run into a lot of people who don’t know how to play their class. (not saying the writer of the article doesn’t mind you) and it is noticeable because they are the first to be taken out. When casters are your first ones in battle, or tanks are the last that might be an indication. No one is perfect and I’m not saying anyone who picks up the game knows exactly how to play it, but people who unfamiliar with classes are easily noticed.

In conclution, the game has its good and its bad. Though it appears that I significantly acknowledged the good, some of the bad things to me do not seem as bad as other, but that’s just me. And I know some of the WOW fanatics are saying I don’t like it cause I suck at it, that’s a possibility, but I picked up warhammer and enjoyed it almost immediately.

These impressions are from early this year and could be somewhat outdated. To read Steve’s more recent impressions of the game, check out his updated third impressions from August: http://www.mmogamer.com/08/27/2008/warhammer-online-third-impressions and some thoughts about his first week in the game: http://www.mmogamer.com/09/22/2008/thoughts-on-warhammer-online-the-first-week.

Also keep your eyes open for our review of the final game.

Cheers,
Siam
Editor-in-chief

btw: if they put the best part of a game in the first 5 lvls which are done in like 20 mins, then the other LONGER lvl’ing stages will be a drag because we expected everything to be ‘perfect” as the start… So sorry get past lvl 20 do some pvp then tell us if you changed your mind about it
thanks

anyway cant rem where i was, but suffice to say that i love pvp. reading your review which many have commented as entirely negative have actually made me want to go play warhammer online..and im a wow addict…. so seems to be a fair preview to me… anway hope to see you nice people on WAR.. i hope theres not too many rat killer open box delivery crap.. oh wait you said u can level 1 – 40 with rvr… woop here we go!!!

thanks again

NO ! Not by a long shot….. There were MMO before WOW, and they also very fun and great to play… why? It was new to everybody ! So the whole thing about wow being the greatest of them all… Not at all…. Its just the easiest to start with… It demands no skill really…. And i have been playing it for a long time… I just stopped playing… Didnt have the time anymore…. But i will grant you that WoW has brought new ideas to the surface…. And it is a solid game, but not the greatest ever… And even if it rules the market ATM, it is getting more and more critisme by the players and the media… So the timing for Warhammer Online, is great… And RvR is a great concept, meaning you really make a differnce and PVP will become a core part of the game, and will give the game a fighting chance to survive “Wrath of the lich king” And the only reason blizzard has been putting off the realese date, is becouse it is playing it safe, it will be realesed when all the other mmo’s newly made mmo have been put on the market…. So they can use it as a back-up….

But to put a number on the games and keeping in mind that WAR has’nt been online for more that 2 days….. From a scale from 1-10

WoW: 9.2 (Great game, have had a great run)

AOC: 5 (O.K. game, but has to many errors)

WAR: 8.0 (First experience is good, but it needs a bit more time to grow)

Eve: 7.8 (Good game but lacks social aspects and you often give up, to many ways to go)

thats what i think about the mmo market….

Thx for reading….

Yeh RvR was fun except for the servers crashing during every relic raid over 100 people.

I doubt I will be paying for this after the first month is up.

You know what will really really do the trick? More games with total customization for your character. At least with size, color, hair, etc. Our other greatest latest past time has been playing with the spore creature creator. The game itself is ok, and I like the space stage, but she doesn’t seem to care for anything but the creator and I tend to agree – actually creating something is the most fun part. If was exactly like WoW but offered more customization in your character, I bet that would win us over. In fact, I’m kind of hoping the upcoming haircuts etc will be a step towards that kind of thing in WoW.

Do you know why? Frankly, because of WOW. I never cared overtly for that either, as in it’s nothing horribly special, (I’ve been betaing games since Everquest-age) but I do care for something else – my girlfriend. We signed up at the same time for the Request a Friend promotion, and have been doing everything together, and talking about what we’re doing the entire time. Trash talking, planning strategies, etc. It’s fun because we’re in the same room and for the first time ever, it’s an online game she’s heard enough about to give it a chance and it’s cute (and also violent and quick) enough for her to enjoy it. She spent ten minutes jumping around and laughing about how her night elf flipped in the air.

People look for different things in games, and what I enjoy now is playing with the people close to me. Before this we’d only been able to play the odd ps2 co-op game.

So we’ll probably stick with WoW simply because it’s the one we started playing together. When we’re both level 70 and bored, we might quit (I plan to play some co-op rpgs over the network, like NWN 2) – but we’re probably not going to jump to another. The gameplay is close enough that it’s not really worth the jump, and losing the fun emotional investment in our wow characters.

As a games enthusiast I don’t think WoW is anything special – but as a cultural force, I have to admit it’s amazing how such a variety of people seem to get into it so quick. The only other game I’ve seen her take such a shine to was roller coaster tycoon 2.

I thought it would be a good idea to list my MMO background, but lets just assume that I played text based MMO’s and graduated through MMO college to end up tasting all the different flavors each company had to offer.

What I really needed to say was that I have read countless articles from one website to the next only to find the same, horridly bland ideas shuffled and reshuffled until you have no idea who’s head it orginated from. Then you have this guy write something from his mind, his own experience, something not tainted by all of your beliefs in what constitutes a “decent journalistic endeavor”.

I for one, commend him for standing up and telling his story. I don’t want to be lured, I don’t want to be tricked, I don’t need an advertisement or an overstated “awesome” “fanboi” experience. Just basic comparisons.

All comments aside, I don’t think many people on here have really used their critical thinking skills to dicern why it’s necessary to compare WAR to WoW. The obvious most blatant aspects are kicking me in the face!

1) Game controls
2) Maps
3) Level Gaining
4) Classes w/ Hybrids
5) Itemized loot
6) Add infinitum

What if someone created a new MMO? Something where there were no levels? I’m thinking Shadow of the Collosus meets MMO universe. Just you and a world, and other people, the rest is a mystery for you to uncover. These ideas are unlikely to mature to fruition soley because they haven’t been tested, and the current MMO populace is now way too accustomed to having their system setup a specific way. The rise of WoW was really the death of truly original work.

All my gripes and clapping now completed, I will say this: WAR is something you should atleast try for yourself. Don’t worry about a preview or impression that was made, worry about how you feel when you play the game. If you like it, nothing you read will hold leverage over your emotions.

Also, try not to respond by attacking someone’s writing. Criticism is good, but if I came to your place of work and told you that you sucked at your job and you are completely misinformed I would only come off as an ass. Instead, if you wish to adjust someones perspective, do it with constructive comments and positive feedback.

Thanks again!

-Green

However, I’m not worried about whether WAR PvP takes skill or not, I want PvP to be FUN. I want PvP that isn’t monotonous and frustrating. I want to see the “PvE” specs be useful. Want to tank in PvP? You can in WAR. I want to see massive battles, not 10 on 10 special olympics slap fests or canned PvP games with the same team compositions over and over.

When I played WoW pre-BC, I would roll classes just to try them in level 60 battlegrounds (2 day AVs FTW). Now I roll classes to jump around Shat waiting for a raid invite. PvP in WoW has turned into a 90% gear based, 10% skill based snorefest. And this is from a guy that refused to raid pre-BC because I found it boring.

I’m ready to give WAR a chance and /delete WoW. I miss real PvP. I miss FUN PvP. And I’m fairly certain WAR can fill the void.

I’d have to say there are similarities. However, why try to fix something thats broke, i mean, look at beat ‘em ups, they all have roughly similar UI’s, and racing games too for that matter.
Perhaps we have found the perfect UI/graphic formula for MMO’s I’m still interested in this game. Good review tho, won’t be trying out the which hunter.