Updated Third Impressions: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
With less than a month to go prior to its scheduled release date, I have taken up the mantle once again of giving my impressions on what Warhammer Online will have to offer.
For those of you unacquainted with the saga up to this point, the prior installment of this article, without question, received the most violently negative reaction of any piece I have ever written.
As a result, to clear up any possible misconceptions this time around, I’m going to state something very clearly here right up front:
This article in no way represents a “review” of Warhammer Online. A review will not be forthcoming until after the game has been released. It’s an impressions piece.
An impressions piece is a collection of thoughts and, yes, even opinions, that myself, the author, personally felt and experienced while playing the game.
Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, it is not the job of the gaming press (and this site, in particular) to distribute puff pieces stating that every title that comes across our desk is the Second Coming of Christ, destined to lead us to the Promised Land.
If you aren’t interested in seeing someone take a good, hard look at WARwar reviews
from a veteran MMO player’s perspective, I’m sure that there are many fansites available which could much better accommodate you.
The Third Time’s a Charm
As those who read my prior impressions piece may recall, I did have some rather unkind words to say about the game.
While I admit now that I could have offered up a more even-handed appraisal, I stand by everything I said as being accurate at that time. Keep in mind, when I wrote those words the game’s release date was not September 18th, but the first quarter of this year—six months ago.
If anyone back then seriously thought that WAR was in anywhere near a state ready for release, somebody had to try and put the fear of God into them, and it might as well have been me.
But, that was then.
I do not hesitate to say that the game has come a very long way since that article was published. Nine months is a lifetime in game development, and they’ve put their delays to good use, polishing what needed to be polished, and cutting what they knew wouldn’t make the grade in time.
That action alone, cutting four classes and end-game cities out of the game, shows just how deadly serious the team is about delivering a quality product.
As they should be. Age of Conan demonstrated all too well the very real dangers of pushing out an unpolished product for the sake of meeting an arbitrary release date.
WAR isn’t going to be anywhere near perfect at launch. No game ever is (though, Civilization 4 came pretty close), and anyone expecting it to be—Warhammer Alliance—are going to find themselves to be sorely disappointed.
But, WAR is also not going to be a repeat performance of Conan. While there are the usual pre-release bugs a-plenty, and some classes are still more balanced than others, there is nothing inherently flawed in either its design or production. The game itself is for the most part fun, entertaining, and solid enough to hold all but the most hardcore of players over until post-release content is forthcoming.
Another thing the game is not going to be, in something of a reversal of my first impressions of it, is a WoWWow reviews clone.
Much of the game, from the UI, to the graphics engine, to the character models and combat has been heavily reworked since I first saw it, and now, in many places it bears only the most remote passing resemblance to WoW in terms of style and art direction.
Now, I’d say that there is a much greater comparison to another game… one likely much more familiar to long-term Mythic fans: If BioShock is the spiritual successor to System Shock 2, Warhammer Online is the spiritual successor to Dark Age of Camelot.
The game is at its core DAoC 2.0, with a change in setting, updated classes, and a much larger focus on PvP from the outset.
[...] was published in January, 2008. Nearly all of the information in it is currently out of date. Please click here to read our updated impressions published August 28, [...]
[...] The interview actually took place a few weeks back at E3, but I’ve been sitting on it until now to allow it to become a companion piece to my updated impressions article, which you can read right over here. [...]
Pretty much dead on, though I would point out that AoC was already at 415k by the end of June, so they are probably a heck of a lot lower now. I know a lot of the more committed people quit in mid-July, you can see it on all the forums.
As for the feeling of PVE shallowness in WAR: I think a lot of things contribute to it. The slower combat (good for PVP, makes it easy to run from mobs though), marked map, tooltip quest directions, instant scenario queues, unlimited hearth, shallow crafting, linear zone design, lack of gear (used to be too much gear, actually), bland graphics (sliders set to med-low settings for beta) and bad mob AI (was good in the past, broken for PW, said to be fixed). The writing is good, but hidden in the ToK, not something I’m going to bother with during a beta.
I found myself mostly alternating PQ’s and scenario play, doing maybe 2/3 of the quests along the way if convenient. It was a heck of a lot more mixed up and social then the average WoW solo leveling treadmill, where you might see a new dungeon every 3-4 nights. I have heard reasonably good things about the open dungeons at higher levels, and although there are only a few of them I hope they add another significant wrinkle to the content.
I have never enjoyed MMO PVP, though I have enjoyed competition in online shooters and fighting games. I really enjoyed the PVP in WAR; it seemed that every situation was different and gave you a lot to think about. So anyone who thinks they might like PVP should give the open beta a shake.
Nice Preview/Review, I am actually an old DaoC player and no other MMORPG has ever got my adrenaline pumping and heart beating like the first Large scale RvR battle I experienced.So I am eagerly anticipating WAR.
On a side note,I find it odd how Negative the reviewer was 6 months ago,granted you should be negative if its needed,but in this review your totally unbiased.
Obviously that’s a good thing but your also allowed to show your impressed or excited if the experience merits that.
What’s so special about the PQ’s. It just sounds to me (from this review) like a normal quest chain like you get in any other mmo. i.e. it starts of feasy and gets harder as you get to the ‘boss’ in the final quest.
What’s special is that you don’t actually get it from anyone – you just see a huge crowd and some text on your screen and realize something crazy is about to happen. It’s actually the best part of the PvE game so far – though it seems like it forces players to co-operate more than actually encouraging it. I know people tend to try and grab kills and objectives for selfish reasons because they want a better chance at the loot.
If you’re in it for a cool boss spawn or world event, it’s great. Waiting 5 times to get the loot you want is about the same as every other mmo I’ve ever played.
You know, I think that if someone is really excited about pvp in other games (like wow) and is getting bored – this is a good one. I don’t see it grabbing many roleplayers though. Maybe it’s just the beta rush, but only two people have even answered my hello since starting. (well, I’m sure it’s the beta rush) I haven’t found an emote that works yet either.
Still, more fun than the average grind – I do like that I can get experience from players.
Pretty spot on review. Now with release Id like to add a few more things. Apparently theres a pretty major memory leak. I use a 64 bit OS and have 8G of RAM. After running war for about 3 hours Im using over 85% of my memory. Its easily corrected by restarting the client but who wants to stop and reload every few hours.
IMO the PVP is where it is at. Ive done a mix of PVP, PVE, and PQ up to level 7 and then went pure PVP/RVR for for the next 7.
I think this is a very “good” and fun game but I honestly believe, if you wernt a fan of the genre already this is not going to be the one that brings you in. Its very much more of the same with a few improvements and additions.
[...] That’s the gist of my first week in WAR. So far, I’ve found the PvP side of the game to be fast-paced, fun, and exciting, with the PvE side being exactly the opposite–dull, repetitive, the sort of things we’ve all seen before. Not much changed from my third impressions piece prior to launch. [...]
[...] http://www.mmogamer.com/08/27/2008/warhammer-online-third-impressions [...]
Is the “living guild” really a new idea? I haven’t played EQ2 for several years, but I’d swear that guilds leveled up in that game back in 2004 or 2005
Living guild isn’t really a new idea but I havn’t seen a lot of MMO’s use it. I played Ragnarok Online a lot a few years ago, and they had a leveling system for the guild that allowed for guild skills (depending on a Tax % of your leveling experience your guild leader chose for you =P) But it consisted mostly of allowing more players into the guild, or bonus stats for the war of emperium fights. (Guild Vs Guild fighting over a castle, by destroying/defending the emperium in the deepest part of the castle) Although in a normal basis the guild level didn’t help unless it was for the WoE fights (or more people) .