WAR (Warhammer Online)

So, the hubby and I talked, and he twisted my arm today when we were in WalMart into buying it since my WoW retirement. I'm just bored out of my mind. I don't like raiding much anymore and there only a few BG's one of which I loathe. WoW is the hamster in a wheel grind until your eyes bleed BS and it's driving me nuts.

After the great flop that was AoC and prior to that Vanguard, I wasn't really interested in WAR to be frank with you. LoTRO also left much to be desired (boring.) For starters, I did not like the character movement in prior games, the feel was all wrong. AoC didn't like the 123 combat stuff the mechanics of combat itself. The instancing or very busy graphics. EQ2 is just plain ugly and I feel it's full of technical issues given it's age. Lineage 2, pretty package, crap everything else. Horrible controls, horrible community etc etc. Then you have other games which I don't even feel like going into. All in all, I never care for the classes or combat of other games when compared to WoW. In a nutshell, they are missing one critical part, Fun. It also left me highly nervous for the future release of other games. Total skeptic.

From this point forward, my review is to be compared with my WoW Gnome deep fire Mage.

My Review

So anyhow, with much pessimism and overall distaste, I installed it, loaded it up, and watched the intro video. I add, I did this knowing that it was going to be a sinker, an over hyped stinker.

Holy cow, the intro video rocked my world. Ok, well, it's just an intro video… right?

First of all, let me start off by saying, I adore the art. It's beautiful. Is it WoW like? Yes, sorta on the surface, however the more we play the more we see it's not a WoW clone. Lots of major differences, including the lack of a grind. RvR (Like a BG) is actually fun.) There is tons of action... The longer you play the more you see it is nothing like WoW, other than a few art similarities and similar UI layout. The graphics are just stunning, all the little details are so well executed, but still with the cartoon edge, which I really like (it's a freaking video game, I hate playing a waxy corpse and overly real is fake and corpsey.) The spell animations for the classes I chose blew me away. You log into the middle of battle, not a pup tent and some corny kiddie quests. It seemed as if my realistic yet fun looking wizard was actually casting a magic spell vs vibrating her triangular shaped hands. Or clunking a wolf upside the head (slowly) with some blunt mace. Thunk! Quests were straight forward... fun, didn't take too terribly long and wasn't collect 56 freaking Trogg teeth. I like it. So much in fact, I really don't want to be any other class. It was what a Mage/Wizard SHOULD be, but never quite was. Even with my gnome's good gear and the fact I could farm like no tomorrow, the wow factor was always missing. All around me bombs are going off, canons are being fired, there is action action action. There is a large glitz factor here, start right in the middle of something going down. Wow starting zones = crickets and old people fast asleep. I’m really starting to get interested, but still cautious. But I should at least check other stuff out... you know, other classes.

Next I tried Dwarf Engineer. Oh my GOD. Are these dwarf chicks ever pretty, cute, and VERY FUN. Dwarf women in WoW couldn't bed down a 4 toothed trucker. These thick girls got it goin’ on! I find the engineer class FUN. I was smiling from ear to ear. A real live smile on my face. However, I heard that the Engineer Class has a strange utility, basically irritate and confuse with some AoE. Sorta like a CC thing. Jack of all trades master of none, with somebody that is fast with mouse and macro, and due to the fact my reaction times aren’t as fast being an older gamer, I decide to tinker around a bit more (but VERY hooked on the Female Dwarf.)

Enter the Greenskin Shaman. Really funky with a cool vibe, not my deal, too creepy/gross/evil, I log out after I give him one good hop (I even got the named Pickle btw, which is pretty cool) and try a Witch Elf.

The Witch Elf female is very oh la la. Pretty as she is, not feeling it so much, and cant’ say I’m crazy about the way this race moves, it doesn’t’ feel natural, just not my taste. I also think it's because I like the Goodies more than the Baddies. So....

I try a Dwarf Rune Priest. I think I'm in love. She is so fun. With this class I don't start off with 3 spells, I get 2, a damage spell and a heal spell, but I love the feel of it. Frankly, I am torn. I've always been a mage/wizard type. Always. And... god my Bright Wizard chick is a FOX. Whew! This chick has tats that are on fire people, and it doesn't look stupid. I do adore the Dwarves in WAR, I really do, it just has that fun feeling, like my old gnome, but far more attractive.

My basic system specs:
Vista 32 bit
Dual Core Duo
8800 GT
And all the other basics

The Score SO FAR with only several hours played - Give me a few days to see where the numbers REALLY stand.

10 The World Love how everything is open, yet not so open that it takes forever to get anywhere, how I can instantly queue for RvR without all the travel time, and the scenarios - you simply walk right into them - are a blast. Constant action everywhere, mobs are close together and respawn rates are fast. I really like the art direction and overall fun factor. I also like how things (such as in AoC and for a smaller part LoTRO) aren't heavily instanced. If there is instancing involved, the load times are so rapid I have no clue it's happening.

9 RvR Will speak entirely from Dwarf standpoint here. Really love the way they do this. As I mention elsewhere, I enjoy how you can queue right from your UI, vs taking a half an hour to reach the NPC to queue you up. Each starting race gets it's own RvR zone assignment. I have done Empire RvR and Dwarf RvR zones,but mostly Dwarf (I do prefer the starter Empire RvR zone better in terms of layout) and it's similar to capture the flag. You stand by the flag until the bar slides over. Very enjoyable, fast paced, skill based, and most of all, I love how you get XP. I do notice the more people in the RvR encounter, the more lag, but it's not extreme lag (thankfully) and didn't effect my gameplay. I do not know how the lag would effect low end PC's. Need to figure out how to view all party members in the entire group other than my immediate party for healing and buffs. Everyone has a role, IE: Tank, Heal, CC and DPS, and from what I see early in, things are fairly balanced for being such a newly released game.

10 UI and Graphics. Simply beautiful, from the environments, to the flags,the detail in my characters appearance, to the way the buildigns are made. Not too busy, most machines can handle it, yet plenty of eye candy. Each race gets a little different of a UI, with a different sort of icon. The graphics I give just about a perfect 10 other than when a bug pops up, but to be frank, with all the whining about bugs and lag, I haven't encountered anything really yet that deserves beign whined about. I remember when WoW first came out, our PC's would lock up in flight or in IF and servers would crash when people raided Crossroads... and this other than a very slight stutter once in a blue moon is nothing. RvR is smooth as butter. I also like the compass around my character so I know where I am headed without looking on the minimap. Also like that I can track more than 5 quests at a time on my screen. All sorts of little bells and whistles... too numerous to go in here that make me realize, Blizzard implemented stuff like the ! and ? for quests because of this game. I’m sure of it. They made many of their recent moves to counter this game, and with just cause.

Community N/A Can't say too much, but so far, everyone works together for the scenarios, however chat is rather quiet. Quiet tells me people are having fun, so it's not a bad thing. The people I run into seem very decent. Will leave this as N/A for now.

9 Quests. At level 2 I was firing and aiming cannons, not whackin troggs with a wooden hammer, which is pretty cool. some typical quests as well, but very fun. I also like how early on from the starting point, you feel immersed in action and war.

9 Professions and Crafting Love the interface for my professions. I am currently taking cultivation and apothecary. I find professions detailed and interesting. I have a lot to learn, but there is a lot mroe involved than standing there with some linen and waiting 5 minutes to make 12 bolts of cloth. For example, from my understanding (I haven't spent too much time on this) while making potions, what you select may or may not work out, some ingredients are unstable when put together, so it might (or might not fail.) When cultivating, you grow a plant, add soil, water and a nturient, then harvest your plant. Depending on the seed etc, you get a plant that goes into a certain potion. I will enjoy crafting.

10 Spells, Combat and Animations. The combat is not quite as fast as WoW for some classes, yet faster for others, but it feels more natural and real, without feeling clunky. I very much enjoy casting, and this game gets casting right, it really adds to the fun factor. Animations are very cool, the eye rolling and hair flipping of my Witch for example. I also like how the mobs/people I fight all look different. Not killing the same freaking face over and over. Very refreshing.

8.5 Bugs and clunk. Hmmm, very little so far. I was expecting a lot more. I was almost tempted to score it a 9, but I haven’t played long enough just yet. I feel it’s very fluid, and I would never have been able to tell that it was released today.

9 Innovation. Love the scenarios and crafting process. Really appreciate the way things are so streamlined. One trainer for all classes, no needless running around, queue for RvR right on your minimap with a simple click, but mostly, LOVE the scenarios. Can't comment yet, but as far as layout and combat, the wheel hasn't been "fixed" if you catch my drift. It has however been refined and improved (better materials.) Will score top marks because I only see an VERY improved wheel, not a square one.

10 Fun Factor. So far? Big fun. I can't wait to log in. I don't remember the last time I had this feeling, but I am loving every moment of it and for a change, do NOT regret spending cash on this game. It's early still, and I will post as the week goes on. I am forcing myself to go to bed, but look forward to logging in tomorrow.

9 Potential. From what I see, tons and tons of potential. Now I know why WoW opened up PvP to PvE and back transfers. I think this game would make Blizzard a lot more nervous for their monthly bottom line. However, everyone is very very wary of new MMO's, because it's been one nasty tank after another. I'm having a lot of fun and I really hope it continues that way. I think they (Blizzard) may very well be afraid of WAR taking a chunk of their already burned out player base. Will it be a WoW killer? No, some people won't ever even give it a try, especially because all the other MMOs are bombs and that will scare many people off (Van, AoC, and IMO LoTRO is also pretty lame, all be it not bombs and much better than Van and AoC) compared to WoW. Some people might think, ew it's PvP. And I may yet still find it's not for me, but this is a damn good game, you can tell that there was a lot of solid effort put into it by real pros. I don't want to grind for fiftyeleventyseven hours or raid for 5 hours to face monster repair bills. Suddenly, WoW seems so... simple. Very very... simple. Even if I opt not to choose WAR and I'm 90% sure even at level 3 I will be, that this game has shown me there is some real solid potential out there.

So far, it's beautiful, and I love it. So far...

The below screens were taken on Balanced (Not high) settings. They are also distorted due to being saved and resized, the game looks better than this on my PC. View my PC specs above.

SCREENSHOTS

My Flicker Album:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58039367@N00/

Thank you Mythic, so far 

Will post more screens later if I get the chance

Exactly...

Now come back in 10 days and reread what you wrote.

than you'll understand....

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 Every WAR copy sold is free publicity for WotLK.

Awesome first look review. Really a good read.

Ohw, and and ignore the hater trolls.

Originally posted by bodypass

Exactly...

Now come back in 10 days and reread what you wrote.

 

than you'll understand....

-----

 Every WAR copy sold is free publicity for WotLK.

 

Nice OP. As for the chap in quotes here, he must be a viral marketer for Blizzard or he is on some sort of crusade, check his post history.

Why does everyone think  that WAR and WoW are aimed at the same crowd?

It isnt. I do enjoy WoW alot, but I missed fun endgame. So I started WAR, which has got alot of good stuff from WoW, plus Endgame I like. Probally still going to play WOTLK, my bro's is going to buy a copy.. but hey.

Whats wrong with it? No really, whats wrong with both games? They are both fun, I played them both. Stop hating.

Nice spirited review :)

indeed there is much that is just 'fun' about that game and if you like WoW pvp then you will love this game is simply a big BG and thats what i like.

It is a hard thing to decide on a class as they are all good and attractive. I would suggest you to read a few of the Warhammer books that have been around for quite a few years now to really get into the spirit of the Olde World.

So OP is saying EQ2 is ugly and WAR graphics are 10/10? you know i love WAR and i am not going to stop playing it for a long time but i would never write bullshit and lies like this.