Warhammer Online – War, war never changes

WinnTech

As much as I would like to say that Warhammer Online is the game to finally end World of Warcraft’s reign on Fantasy online gaming but, sadly, I cannot. Warhammer has the capability to be a great game. The ideas that were woven together were brilliant, but there are shadows to every light, all games, if one looks enough, have their darker side. Not a Chaos or Horde, but metaphorically speaking, a dark side, what they did wrong.

Warhammer – The Good

• Public Quests – These are number one on my list. I thought it a wonderful idea to have a quest where I could walk up and assist, see where I ranked the fray and possibly receive loot for my struggles. Two thumbs up.

• SceneryEnvironment -- I tried both Good and Evil, the Evil side looked wonderful compared to the Good side. The characters matched the environment and did not appear to be floating over the ground, well, except the Magus, but that’s how they get around. Love the floating disc. Two thumbs up.

• Map – Thank you, thank you, thank you Warhammer. The Map is wonderful. Now, this may seem somewhat of a cheat, but the map shows in Red where you need to go to. This saved much time when I was lost and, well honestly, did not want to read the Quest Log. Two thumbs up.

• Quests – Quests, will always be the same, kill X number of this, collect x number of this, go to x and do y. There is nothing wrong with this idea of a quest. The quest side bar, very nice, hover over it and give you the details, I use this when I get lost during a quest and don’t have to open the Quest Log. Although quests never change from game to game, this is well implemented system for quests.

• Achievements – I was new to the achievement system unless I was playing a strategy game. Let me just say that, I love the system of achievements. It is something I could do all day just to see that next title. I find myself trying to get the titles more than levels at times.

• UI – this is something often overlooked, but, the UI system and the fact that in the game there is a UI section to where you can completely reorganize the all the windows in an easy to use fashion, brilliant. No mod needed to do it this time around modders (WoW).

Warhammer – The Bad

• Bugs – It is inevitable, games have bugs. In this instance, they are a bit apparent off from the start of the game. Enemies running through bridges instead of over and clipping through walls and solid structures. The worst that was seen was where an enemy was attacking my lowbie Marauder. The mob was a ranged one, being a Marauder, I had to get close. I ran up on the mob and started to attack and received the message, Out of Range. The mob proceeded to pummel me at point blank range with ranged shot. Normally I would retreat in such an instance and let the mob reset, but by this time, after attacking mobs and they would run away, run back, stop, then attack me, or, they would run at me, stop, then appear behind me, I had enough and just let my toon die. I was not pleased. Like I said, all games have bugs. One thumb down.

• Toon Similarity – Problem with most games is the fact that their toons tend to look alike. Warhammer is no different. This is a category that is often overlooked by developers anyhow. Looking different is a boon. Eventually someone will get it right, not everyone is an awesome muscle-bound spectacle or a lithe and graceful elf or even a scarred up green and fanged monster. When did all characters have to be about the same size and height? Two thumbs down.

• Modeling – I had tried the elven on both sides, any character with long and flowing hair, in my opinion, is a victim. The hair moves as one solid piece. This may be a particular thing to stare at, but it caught my attention nonetheless. The Marauder, when landing, does some odd Incredible Hulk flex. Odd, yeah perhaps, but doable. The animations are defiantly something to be worked on. More attack animations, more special effect animations, just needs more. This game has been pending for a while, it needs to look like it was worth the wait. Two thumbs down

• Graphics – Although I feel that the game should look much better than it does, there are some from my WoW guild that cannot play the game due to graphics. This mainly likely cause they really need to up their graphic cards, but, even with two 8600s in SLI the game really does not look all the wonderful. But, one must take into account that mass PvP and RvR, this is probably for the best. One thumb down

• Base of Ops – For those more used to being able to run to Stormwind and fish or cook for hours on end and check the Auction House or play around in the Darkmoon Faire, you may be left in the wanting. This is War, things work a little different. If you enjoy just playing the craft game, you may want to stick with WoW. There is not a “home base” per say just camps; I will say that WoW had it right in that area. Always nice to have that home base. One thumb down

• Weapons – More, need more variation, need more everything. I NEVER like to be limited to one or two weapons at any level. Games need more weapons, it’s a major flaunting point these days “ooh look at how many weapons OUR game has…” is one of the newer cries in the industry. To move backwards in defiantly frowned upon. There should at least be three to four different weapons per level or more. One thumb down

All in all, Warhammer, not a complete disappointment, it is fun to play. Just all this time and publicity and you get in the game and, it’s just war. There is nothing pretty about war, but Warhammer, does have its good and bad. Its good actually do outnumber the bad, if you have not tried it, you should. It is a fun game, just has some points to where it can be a better game. If I am paying $50 for the game then $15 a month, I expect more from the industry. Fantasy MMOs, who will actually get it right?

Warhammer rating: 8/10