Impressions so far

Epika

I've been playing a few weeks counting beta now.

Graphics:

Meh, very ugly is most areas.  I like the character models and some areas of the world are cool looking,but everything is very simple looking with very little details.  The animations are usually off or just looking ugly.  It's often hard to see where I'm being shot from, who is healing someone, etc just because the animations are poorly done.

UI:

I like the UI look, but it's not responsive enough.  Spells normally don't go off right when you hit the button.  At other times my casting bar does not sync up with what I am doing.  Sometimes my spells will fire off when the bar completes, sometimes when the bar is only half way done.  I have no idea.

Tome of knowledge is great.  It tracks everything and writes your story as you go.  One of the cooler features of the game.

PVP:

It's all group oriented.  This is very cool when you get some large scale battles going.  At other times it can be frustrating.  Your class will stand no chances against some other classes, and vice versa.  There's no creative play or skill that can be used to beat them. You need a team at all times when playing.

Scenarios are just like simplified WOW BGs.  Whoever has the most healers usually wins.  It's very cool you can get into them from anywhere in the world.  Also cool you get XP and can level fairly decently in them (if your team isn't bad).

It's hard to find RVR.  Everyone is either questing or queueing up for scenarios in a non stop loop (yeah, the same people that hate WOW BGs just run scenarios over and over).  I've already gotten bored of the same few scenarios but there's no one to world pvp with.  We've taken Order keeps and they don't even bother to come defend.

PVE:

The slower combat makes the PVE very boring.  Most mobs fight exactly the same so it gets stale super quick.  Just about all the quests are the same "kill X amount of Mob Y" that we've seen a billion times before.   

PQs were really cool at the start, but I've noticed there are just too many after getting past T1.  People are spread out and it's hard to get them done without a good group.  Good idea, just needs more thought put into it.  I hope they perfect them, or maybe another game will take the idea and tweak it. 

Conclusion:

Those are just a few of the areas I wanted to hit on.  Overall, I find the game looks and plays extremely dated.  In 2008 I don't expect a game to look so simple and play so clunky.  Graphics aren't a big deal, but the gameplay that goes along with them is just slow and awkward.  I was expecting a game I could level through exciting PVP with, but WAR is nothing but a giant scenario grind at the moment.

I haven't really played any MMOs this year besides my brief stint with Conan.  If WAR was good I would have gotten back into the genre, but I don't see myself playing past the free month.  I didn't have any hopes or many expectations for the game, so I don't mind that it didn't pull me in.  It seems like they had a lot of good ideas but most of them feel half done.

I will say that I do like Mythic's communication with the playerbase.

Azrile

that's funny.   ' Clunky' is the word I kept using over and over.   The UI is clunky and things just don't happen when they are supposed to.. you kinda feel like all your buttons have a +/- .5seconds attached to them.

The same is true of the animations.. what is happening to you just isn't 'accurately' portrayed by what you are seeing.. again.. it's like watching a movie where the sound doesn't match up with the mouths moving.  It just feels 'off'.

Overall, it's just a very very average game.  There isn't anything drasticall wrong with it, but it offers very few things more than WOW offers, and is lacking a lot of that WOW does have.

If you hate wow, this is the only game you can reallly play, so I guess enjoy it. If you don't hate WOW, there's no reason to play War over WOW

vmoped

Originally posted by Azrile
Overall, it's just a very very average game.  There isn't anything drasticall wrong with it, but it offers very few things more than WOW offers, and is lacking a lot of that WOW does have.
If you hate wow, this is the only game you can reallly play, so I guess enjoy it. If you don't hate WOW, there's no reason to play War over WOW

 

I would say it offers much more in the way of pvp than wow, and its pve is far more interesting since you actually get rewarded for exploration and there is plenty of hidden stuff to find. I suppose its a matter of opinion, but four+ years of WoW feel wasted after playing this game for over a year now (elder beta tester), and it just keeps getting better.

Cheers!

AstralGeth

Interesting thread here about the clunkiness and animation disconnection, up to 33 pages now.

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86257