Warcry slams Warhammer, calling it a WoW clone

RedwoodSap

http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/conferences/pax_2008/5226-PAX-2008-Top-Five-Disappointments.2

 

3.) Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (Mythic, PC)

Cryptic might have months to tighten up Champions, but Mythic is rapidly running out of time before servers go live on September 18th. For many MMOGamers, Warhammer is a special case: for all the games that have been hyped as would-be successors to the World of Warcraft throne, WAR has stood out beyond the rest. From Guild Wars to Age of Conan, games have come and gone, eventually settling down with their own playerbases as Blizzard's behemoth grew and grew ... but with all of them, there seemed to be a sentiment of "Oh, but just wait until Warhammer...!" Further fueling the fire was the subtle if constant undercurrent of rivalry that seems to run between diehard fans of the respective Blizzard and Games Workshop franchises.

I'm a WoW fan, but I was looking forward to WAR as much as anyone ... which is why I can't help but feel let down by what I saw on the PAX show floor. The amount of time I was actually able to spend with the game wasn't much, and judging any game on the first three levels of play would be hasty, let alone an MMORPG. Even with that in mind, though, WAR was underwhelming. This isn't to say that it's a bad game by any stretch of the imagination; I was simply hoping for the title to wow me in a way that it didn't.

Rather, the game "WoW"ed me. It's a comparison I really hate to draw, but one that's unfortunately accurate: of the three levels I spent with my Witch Elf, the game felt like a slow, clunky, and unpolished World of Warcraft clone. The UI was similar (down to the quest tracking on the right side of the screen), and the gameplay followed suit. It didn't help that the career mechanic specific to the Witch Elf class was practically identical to the Combo Point system Rogues use in Warcraft. All in all, combat in WAR feels like combat in WoW, only slower and less slick.

I was further underwhelmed visually, and the comparison keeps coming: WoW might not be the best-looking game around, but the cartoonish graphics have a sort of innate charm to them. It might look dated, but in combination with superb art direction it doesn't look ugly. WAR goes for a more "realistic" look (though it's all relative, of course), and falls flat. The landscapes are dreary and the colors washed-out, and even on maximum settings the draw distance is limited and the character models bland.

I do get that WAR is trying to portray a world ravaged by conflict and as such bright flowery fields with happy bunny companions wouldn't make much sense ... but it was already getting old by the time I logged off, and that doesn't bode well for a game I'd been hoping to spend months playing. WAR is falling into the same "brown and gray = mature!" pitfall so many other games have succumbed to these days, and it's unfortunate that everybody has suddenly become so deathly afraid of color. Heck, in some ways having some bright, colorful areas would make the transition to the battle-scarred wastelands that much more jarring and impactful.

There is the excuse floating around the Internet that graphics in the Beta stage are hard-capped on the lowest settings despite what the in-game sliders say - and if that's the case, Mythic is running out of time to show gamers and the media what WAR is really capable of looking like. Time is the crucial commodity here, and I'm left wondering if Mythic feels their game is really ready to launch, or they're just shoving out the door as quickly as they can. I have no doubt that once players are max-level and can engage in the PvP that makes up the core of the game it'll likely be a blast; if getting there feels like a chore then the game will be in trouble.

I feel slightly more let-down by my short experience with WAR because there are genuinely great and solid ideas beneath the surface. Showing quest areas on the map is awesome and makes for a more intuitive experience, proper collision detection between players means that tank classes can actually act as tanks in PvP, and the RvR concept that is the core of the game should appeal to disenfranchised WoW PvPers who want a reason to smash in enemy skulls other than the pursuit of phat lewts.

WAR has potential to be phenomenal, though it desperately needs more polish and tightening before it can even think about realizing it. As it stands, while its core PvP base will likely still play and love the game, more casual gamers drawn to the MMO genre by WoW will almost undoubtedly draw the same comparisons between this and Blizzard's 600-pound gorilla - and not in a favorable way, either.

If Mythic can get the game up and running in the few months immediately after its launch, it stands a shot at success, and hopefully a solid second-place ranking in the market. But polish takes time, and time is one thing that the developers do not have a lot of.

That said, there is still time to maybe get a few last-minute changes out the door, and I'll see how the game plays with more time spent with it during the game's Open Beta Test. (If you're looking to try it out for yourself, we've got has a few thousand keys to give away!)

 

memoir

The click comes immeadiately when you play the game for real..

The hype stumbles over its own feet the moment you do the first quests and watch the "world(?)" your avatar moves (glides) in.

Nothing to say more about it. Just play it and you'll see it.

I am playing with my CE pre release codes, but it is the FIRST time I cancelled my CE of a new MMORPG launched. Is it that bad? Not even that.

Mythic challenged itself to go head to head with WOW. It was their choice, they choose the theme.

The hype was tremendous: now they have to bare the consequences.

The MMO industry as a whole will suffer from it.

WAR is the biggest free advertisement Blizzard ever had.

As of now MMORPG = Wow, I can see EVE as a second partner to profit from it. All the rest follows the faith of Vanguard, EQ, Hellsgate L, TR (they are going to close it), ...

Oh btw: AoC could survive, not because of it merits, but for its first 20 polished levels. Something "screaming Paul" should think about next time he hypes on the internet for 2 years.

Unknown

I could already tell when they made their open beta test not really open that this would not be the next WoW/Runescape in terms of population. I'm not saying it won't be a good game. It just isn't going to compete with the reigning champs we already know and love (or hate) in terms of population.

Yeebo

From the story above:

The amount of time I was actually able to spend with the game wasn't much, and judging any game on the first three levels of play would be hasty, let alone an MMORPG.

I don't think the author of that piece listened his own common sense well enough.  His entire impression seems to be based on roughly ten minutes of play.  Unless he went to a PvP zone and took down some keeps, he was sort of missing the point.  And he could have only really tried one class out of 20 or so.

Of course a lot of folks on this website hate pretty any new MMO that comes out if it isn't pre-Trammel UO or a  forced grouping grinder with punishing amounts of downtime ala luanch EQ.  I don't expect reaction to WAR here to be any different. 

Munki

Originally posted by RedwoodSap


 
which is why I can't help but feel let down by what I saw on the PAX show floor. The amount of time I was actually able to spend with the game wasn't much, and judging any game on the first three levels of play would be hasty, let alone an MMORPG. Even with that in mind, though, WAR was underwhelming


 

 

Anybody else read this, then laugh, and not bother reading the rest? Sounds to me like they are pretty desperate for staff over at warcry.

Edit: lol I see you noticed the same Idea Yeebo "Nobody can form an opinion in 3 only minutes of play time, but I can, so here it goes."

coffee

Originally posted by Yeebo


From the story above:
The amount of time I was actually able to spend with the game wasn't much, and judging any game on the first three levels of play would be hasty, let alone an MMORPG.
I don't think the author of that piece listened his own common sense well enough.  His entire impression seems to be based on roughly ten minutes of play.  Unless he went to a PvP zone and took down some keeps, he was sort of missing the point.  And he could have only really tried one class out of 20 or so.
Of course a lot of folks on this website hate pretty any new MMO that comes out if it isn't pre-Trammel UO or a  forced grouping grinder with punishing amounts of downtime ala luanch EQ.  I don't expect reaction to WAR here to be any different. 

But an mmo should grab you and be fun in the first 10 minutes.. not "the fun starts at lvl x".  I felt just as the OP did.  It wants to play like WoW with RVR but it falls short of the mark and the world looks and feels boring. Just my Honest opinion ofc.

 

Teganx

Every major MMO on the market has the quest tracker on the right side...

VirgoThree

His review was far to limited to make such sweeping comparisons. Also on the graphics note of it being dull and dreary.....just look at the majority of the elf pairing! You have color bursting out everywhere. Granted the first half of T1 Elf area isn't as vibrant color wise, the rest sure as hell is.

fuzzylojik

Woo he played til level 3. 

 

 

 

 

 

......................................... GG

 

 

I was already RvRing from level 1 this dude is missing out

Dreadlich

He played a beta client at PAX and got to level 3. He should just keep his mouth shut. You can get about as much feel for the game watching Youtube vids.

klapdoor

Personally I cannot care what some half-arsed 'reviewer' thinks of the game after 'playing' it for a few minutes. I know what I think of the game after being for days in the open beta. It will take a while after release before the rest will catch on though, as most still are in their 'is it like WoW?' mode.

Yaros

Lol, 3 levels at PAX and he calls it "review". Warcry fails.

_Seeker

This is what i don't get. There are all these people who want bright happy landscapes. Yet they also want to play in a warzone. They would be much better suited to a game to an open ended sandbox experience, where they could do other activities besides killing opponents.

Urrelles

This reviewer was an idiot.  If he was not an idiot he sure made himself seem like one off of this "1st Impression" review.  You can not play ANY MMO game and understand how it works in 10 minutes.  It makes no sense to base 1 year of potential gameplay off of 10 minutes of playing a closed beta.

I have never been awe inspired by a single MMORPG game on my first day of gameplay.  The only things that catch my eye are the character customizations, ease of controls, and ease of flow into combat.  If the game just does not look or feel somewhat complete, I will have doubts.  WAR was solid.  IT was not polished like WoW but it is solid.  WAR is not trying to compete with WoW.  They said that.  They are trying to grab a different group of gamers than WoW by focusing on PvP.

The idiot in this interivew didn't even see PvP action to understand why the graphics are done in their way or why the animations are so simple.  slap 100 people on a screen and give them all complex animations and ridiculous spell effects, and you will have 500 tons of lag issues.

I honestly think this is one of the same reviewers who gave Age of Conan a 9 / 10 after 30 minutes of gameplay.  We all know how that game is now.

originalegg

lol at people getting on this guy's case...defensive much?

while 3 levels is certainly not enough to appreciate everything the game has to offer...it is plenty to get a feel for the game.

its graphics, combat, and overall feel are certainly availible early on.  Sometimes games just turn people off, and believe it or not this guy is not alone.  Their are many out there who couldnt bare themselves to play this clone past an hour or so.

WisebutCruel

Originally posted by Urrelles


This reviewer was an idiot.  If he was not an idiot he sure made himself seem like one off of this "1st Impression" review.  You can not play ANY MMO game and understand how it works in 10 minutes.  It makes no sense to base 1 year of potential gameplay off of 10 minutes of playing a closed beta.
I have never been awe inspired by a single MMORPG game on my first day of gameplay.  The only things that catch my eye are the character customizations, ease of controls, and ease of flow into combat.  If the game just does not look or feel somewhat complete, I will have doubts.  WAR was solid.  IT was not polished like WoW but it is solid.  WAR is not trying to compete with WoW.  They said that.  They are trying to grab a different group of gamers than WoW by focusing on PvP.
The idiot in this interivew didn't even see PvP action to understand why the graphics are done in their way or why the animations are so simple.  slap 100 people on a screen and give them all complex animations and ridiculous spell effects, and you will have 500 tons of lag issues.
I honestly think this is one of the same reviewers who gave Age of Conan a 9 / 10 after 30 minutes of gameplay.  We all know how that game is now.

 

Perhaps Funcom threatened to remove his kickbacks.

akirafes

At least indeed its not  far superior then warcraft . when you think the age difference beetwen them .

Chiram

Wow, what a flippin' idiot. Seriously, who the hell makes a comparison or review on THREE GD LEVELS. MMOs take time to mature and some are like fine wines. You cannot get an evenly comparable grasp on the overall quality of a game in three levels, this is pointless as hell. If I see this reject at the next E3 im going kick him in the balls, my god.... This is basically making a gnome mage in WoW and going " well damn, all I got was an ice shield and a frost bolt then durrr... I went and trained, I saw a few bunnies and troggs but IM A FAN!!!!. Hell, this would be like reviewing everquest 1, leveling up falling off a tree house at 3 and saying DAMN, this game sucks, the difficulty is way too hard because im blind and fell off Kelethin.

/Removes warcry. Where the hell do they find their staff.

Urrelles

Originally posted by originalegg


lol at people getting on this guy's case...defensive much?
while 3 levels is certainly not enough to appreciate everything the game has to offer...it is plenty to get a feel for the game.
its graphics, combat, and overall feel are certainly availible early on.  Sometimes games just turn people off, and believe it or not this guy is not alone.  Their are many out there who couldnt bare themselves to play this clone past an hour or so.

The reason I flip out is because short sighted reviewers, like this guy, hurt the gaming community more.  They sure hurt me, when I see 5 different magazines make a quick review of a game stating it is awesome.  Then I go buy the game to try it out only to find the first 5 minutes of the game fun.  Or on the other hand I read a bunch of reviews stating a game is bad only to find out the game was actually very good and I missed out.

I missedout on Bards  Tale till recently because most reviewers gave it a 7 / 10 at best.  That game was gold and many gamers loved evey aspect of the it.

I bought AoC after reading countless reviews stating it was 7 - 9 /10.  I got the game and within 5 minutes I saw major UI bugs and piss poor sloppy coding all over the place that detracted from gameplay.  Then after 3 weeks of play the game just degraded to something that was only worth a 2 / 10 score.

 

These reviewers need an understanding of gameplay principles and not let their first OMG WOW impressions take over.  Movie reviewers know everything about movies and what to watch for but game reviewers are all about the OMG factor and they don't take into account UI features, ease of control, large range of options, easy to learn, level layouts etc.  It seems only EGM reviewers look at these kind of things.

VPgearchin

people have a right to their opinions as we all do. I personally love warhammer and will play till my thumbs come off. some people do get a sense of the game the first three lvls. I like the aspect and almost all mmo's are copies off of each other so nothing is really a "wow clone". they were smart by using some of the aspects that makes mmo's great, a clean ui ,the combat is not that clunky, and the environments are amazingly done.

well everyone have an excellent night.

Darwa

Whilst he bases his review on only three levels, I have played every class to at least 15 and have concluded the same.

Oh, and I'm most definitely not a WoW fan.

jinxit

Well I've never liked WoW (played a paladin and shaman up to lvl 30) but WAR I like it just has that something that i cant put my finger on....

Kurush

I'd actually say the PvE looks, feels, and is structured _much_ closer to LotRO than WoW.  If you've played all three, you'd agree with me on that, I think.  The similarities seem striking to me.  The way skills are handled, the way quests look and feel, the UI, the combat.

Anyway, yeah.  The beta is looking pretty shitty if you play ten minutes.  Then again, it's an OB.  Performance is going to be shit in the starting zone during an OB.  This doesn't _necessarily_ mean that it will be shit at launch.  Then again, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will perform well at launch, either.  I won't dispute that it's not close to WoW or LotRO on technical polish at launch level.  Then again, the overall launch of WAR may end up smoother than WoW if they have enough servers.

I can't honestly say whether the PvP will be that great or not.  I don't think anyone can.  We really need to wait and see how things shake out.  I still think it offers a far superior world PvP experience to WoW, which may end up drawing a lot of people if the performance issues evaporate at retail.

Digna

A small negative statement from a large fan based on site can have a negative impact on sales, Even if it's retracted later. It's called mudslinging (see the current US election status for more info)

The review is 'hopeful' with negative overtones so it can't get hauled in for liable but I suspect collusion somewhere. Or the writer is a fanboi carefully wrapped in a 'non-biased writer wrapper'.

Noggin

I've never really had much time for Warcry, it's the bottom of the barrel as far as these types of sites go. Oh, except this one.

Overpower

PvP starts at level 1. PvP ends at level NEVER!!!

Heck, Nordland PvP is the most fun I've ever had in any MMORPG under level 10. It's like Arathi Basin mixed with a little Alterac Valley, a continously ongoing event on the same map where you quest.