Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
My review
numatic
Member UncommonPosts: 675
Cut and paste from my post on the WoW forum
Figured I would post my impressions of WoW from stress testing since im bored and the game is shutting down. Hey I get my 2 cents right? Anyhow here we go
Graphics- A+ what can i say? I don't like "realistic" graphics. I play for the fantasy and that is exactly what Blizzard has delivered here. And it's in the "role" on how warcraft was built.
Performance- Heres my basic specs. 1.6ghz AMD, 5700 ultra 128mb vid card, 768MB ram, Win XP SP1. The game ran top notch. The only times it lagged was in the raids which needs some addressing. When large player battles ensue my framerate drops to about 10-15 fps. Whereas I get about 30-70 just roaming around. Stil great performance especially for a beta client. Also I would crash every couple hours but im sure that will be fixed.
Combat- Very fast paced which is how I like it. Many different skills to choose from. Half the time I just get a mind freeze on my rogue on which finishing move to use on a guy lol.
Animations- Combat and spell animations are great. Loved them. When you actualy shoot a bolt you shoot a bolt. Instead of waving your hands in the air and getting some stupid particle effect on the mob. Although I think some combat animations need some work.
Quests- I don't see why people complain about the questing system. Infact it's one of the best features. I hate mindless wacking away at mobs for hours on end to gain XP. In WoW a majority of your XP comes from quests. It gives you something to do!
Balance- WoW did it right. Many many MMO's Balance is a huge issue. Whats the only way to get a true balance? By allowing both sides to play the same classes. Except for the druid, paladin, and shaman, every class is the same. Which ensures a great deal of balance. IMO i like it alot.
Classes- 2 Words. Need more. However I beleive they should be introduced "slowly". Putting in like 5 new classes at a time could be destructive.
Sound- Since I watch TV when i play games (glimpse over when im doing something slow or boring) I wear headphones. But the sounds are great.
Skill Advancement- Although Talents are nice, I think a bit more Diversity could be a good thing. My highest character was 22 and I thought the aquisition of new combat abilties was fine. Usually every 2-4 lvls. Don't know how it is after that.
PvP- PvP is fun to a point. Currently the PvP system is very poor. It's...raid the others land, die, ressurect your corpse. Rinse and repeat. To keep PvP interesting we need goals. These goals should have an impact on both sides so large it would keep PvP fun. Perhaps add the ability to take over territories. Im sure someone at blizzard could think of something. It needs work. HOwever the pvp combat is very fun 
Game Mechanics- I think WoW did a great job on how every thing works and staying within the tradition of Warcraft. Lets just hope it stays that way. It would be nice for once for an MMO to stick with the story line of there history instead of listening to players whines and changing things for the worst.
Items- I'm not to keen on the idea that armor plays a major factor in the game. Frankly I couldnt really tell. However I hear stories of high lvls actually not being invited into a group because of the "weaker" gear they were wearing, and that they should be wearing a certain suit before they can join a group. This to me seems a bit harsh. I would like to see the game based slightly less on uber items and a bit more on character stats.
Trade Skills- I don't do crafting in games until im high lvl and want a secondary thing to do when i got time so i cant comment on this.
Overall I would rate the game a 9.2 out of 10. The game is very well done. If I didn't know it was a beta, I would have thought it was a retail game. Compared to 80% of MMO's released, this game is definately ready for shipping. However I know blizzard and how they operate and they wont release until the game is very well polished which is what im hoping for. For me, i'll definately be leaving DAoC for WoW. I played as long as I could in ST because im a somewhat casual gamer and wanted to get to know the game as well as i could. Lets just hope they don't change to much until they release.
If you want my opinion on another part of wow just ask and ill let ya know
Comments
I don't really have much to say. Nothing to add and nothing to argue with. Just about everything you said, I agree with.
Well, almost nothing to add. To anyone who cares to know, I think the Tradeskills need a lot more work. It was far too easy to progress with tradeskills. Don't get me wrong, I like that you can't fail because I hate scouring the globe for the rarest items in the game just to fail 4 times before I create something.
I still think that it is too easy to level tradeskills, though. Just about everytime you do something with a tradeskill up to level 100, it gets higher. Then after that it is about every 2 times you do something until it is at about 120-130. That's right about where I stopped playing.
Maybe it is just Leatherworking and skinning they need to slow down because I hear some people saying that Herbalism and Alchemy levels far too slowly for their tastes.
Excellent good read, I agree with you. And yes I was working on clothier and that was slow too, but I din't mind gave me something to work on. Nice.
Very bad review.
Graphics are ok. The graphics and the WoW franchise are the ONLY things that make this game worth mentioning.
It brings nothing new to the MMO scene. The quests system is horrible in which you said it was ok. PvE is lame as possibly could be in a computer game. On and on.
Its not a bad game. Just doesnt offer me anything better then playing Eve Online.
If you get enjoyment from this deja vu of a game then ...
Enough said. Warcraft owned though. They didnt win any points from me with WoW.
game is kool
the boot from booty bay is buged. I hate crashing then loging into to zome grave yard in middle of nowhere.
sucks!
Mess with the best, Burn like the rest..
Mess with the best, Burn like the rest..
PvE is always lame. Look at horizons. They tried to do the "PvE only" MMO and it sucked harder then an amsterdam prostitute. The quest system is better then any MMO I have played in. If you actually bother to read the stories, it falls into a decent storyline. And I like that you need "pre requisites" to do higher end quests. Makes it so you cant skip ahead into the story. I guess if you Like EQ, you might not like this game.
I can't put my finger on it, but something about WoW just makes it unique to me compared to the other MMO's i have played.
i was in the middle of a pvp raid when the servers went down, when they came back up it took me like 45 mins to get back into horde terr, damn high lvl ncp's kept killing me.
You can have your own opinions and voice them on your own but don't discredit someone's review just because they differ from your own.
I agree with most of what you said. It was a nearly polished product that will provide months of play. For thos people who have to rush out and get to the top as fast as possible it serves them right for getting bored quick.
Many games were very unpolished, like daoc, uo, and quite a few others, when they first came out. The quests in this game were almost totally implemented. There were a few which were bugged but over all the game was a blast.
I think everyone needs to remember most other mmorpgs leave something to be added and improved on. Expansions will come out and make the game bigger and better. I think there will be plenty added to WoW over the next few years. I stuck around in EQ for 5 and UO for 2-3 and Meridian59 for a year or so. I had a SWG, DAOC, Horizons and CoH kick in between all of them. The game is decent if not great compared to the others that are out there.
/Signed.
Players like r1tual make me really wonder. What are all these new things that are supposed to be added to all new MMORPGs? I am still waiting to read about them. Perhaps they all died with the games that have been cancelled (Mythica, Warhammer Online, Dragon Empires, UOX, etc). New ideas are good, but you still need a solid game behind them and WoW is very solid with or without a ton of "new" ideas. I also follow EQ2 and that game doesn't look to be revolutionary either, but I bet it will also be a huge hit.
To me it is all about the presentation and WoW gets a near perfect score for this. Who cares if WoW doesn't reinvent the MMORPG's genre. The game is very fun and that should be all that matters when one is playing a game.
-Hrnac
haha k
Thanks for the review
Good info!
I agree with your review. WoW gave me a different and exciting experience aside from all the other MMO's I've tried like AO, PS, and CoH.
In WoW I felt there's so much to do other then killing x amount of mobs to get xp in the shortest amount of time to attain the highest level possible. I could sit around for hours and explore the land to see weird monsters and exciting places like the ride on a griffion (if that's what they're called) from Dun Morgh to the Human lands where you can see dragons and three massive statues of three grim reaper looking dudes. Not only that, but I could search and craft items to make new and awesome things to wear and sell for even more hours at a time.
My WoW experience was truly unique, and I cannot wait for the open beta to come out with the initial release of WoW shortly after.
I loved the graphics. I don't need anything fancy. I prefer simplier in fact. I hate that I have to give up a game because the graphics got upgraded and my computer can no longer run it. I looked at the pictures of new character models of the newest part for DAoC and realized that I almost chose everyone one of the older models as the ones I liked. It was not till I looked at the text did I realize that the improved graphics is the ones I thought were the old stuff. I also prefer cartoony over realistic.
The rest of the game was fun to me. I had problems but nothing too much. My only problem is that quest list can get full lol. I will be glad when open beta begins. The thing that scares me is that the post in the Stress Test forums from Blizzard states it might be better to uninstall since it could be several months before get to play again.
Good informative review Numatic I have a few additional questions for you though.
1. Are there any Dungeons that players can team up and go in and explore that offer unique MOB's and Items..And if so are they lvl specific
2. How is teaming handled, ie is there a team chat channel and is teaming encouraged?
3. In your exp with PVP was it pretty much balanced or were there like 1 or 2 classes that were way over or underpowered.
4. Did you see or hear about raids of certain unqiue MOB's? If so how would you rate those MOBS? As in the difficulty in defeating them..
5. And the last question is how would you rate the AI? In some games the AI seems to be extremly stupid while in others like COH for instance is pretty well done.
------------------------------
You see, every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You spread to an area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.-Mr.Smith
1. Yes there are dungeons, but currently the only reason to group right now in wow is for questing. About 70% of your XP comes from quests, and grouping XP is very very low. You go 2 times faster soloing then you would grouping. Also the aggro needs to be fixed because the tanks cannot hold aggro off of the mages and priests. This is because aggro is distributed by damage or heal to damage ratios. I only came across 2 dungeons but I only got to 22. And they arent lvl specific from what ive seen. However, ive only explored about 10% of the world.
2. When you group yes your own channel forms. You use /p to chat in it. However as i said above, grouping for XP just from killing mobs isnt viable right now. The only reason to group is for Quests. Also would like to add, zone chats use /1 for general, /2 for the trade channel, and /3 for world defense(for yelling about getting attacked soemwhere etc..).
3. I did as much PvP as I could, but unfortunately I was not high enough to experience the full enjoyment of it. However in my experience it would seem some classes are better at killing then others. For example, as a rogue I could kill pretty much any class. The only ones I had problems killing were paladins and warriors(still beat warriors more then they beat me though). Combat is very faced paced so everything requires a split second decision. I wasnt in many 1v1 fights because apparently alliance didn't like the idea of fighting fair especially when i was alone
Al around though I would say PvP in WoW is more balanced then almost any MMO i played, especially DAoC(which WoW gameplay is often compared to).
4. Nope. Not many got past 40. Up until then, its all questing from what I hear. After that the questing slows down a bit. But I can't be positive on that. Some guy did however post screens of some very very High lvl mobs in a Slithilis(sp?) dungeon. They were the size of his entire screen heh.
5. AI is pretty much limited. Although at my lvl I didnt think it was to high. NPC AI seems wel done. I have done escorting quests, or quests where the NPC aids me in fights etc.. But mob AI is pretty much limited to "If im aggressive, im gunna attack you if you get close". Though this may change at higher lvls.
To be more specific about grp XP, groups can only have a max of 5 people. Now if we kill a mob that would give me normally 200XP solo, we would get about 30-50XP for it while grpd. And the killing isnt fast enough to outwiegh the benefits.
I agree for the mostpart.
However I dont like the cheezy char mods. Too cartoony.
The quests suck, the system is good, but its the same boring quest after quest. Needs imagination.
PvP is pure trash in this game. (Yes I know its not finished yet but thats all we can base it on) PvP has no place in MMORPG's anyway. You want PvP go play Mortal Kombat.
Overall a great game. I just HATE the quests. You should have to go around and talk to people, I mean actually converse with them like in EQ, not just see someone with an exclamation point above their heads and get a quest. Thats the only thing that really REALLY pisses me off.
Lying in bed, looking up at the stars, a single thought passed through my head. Where the fuc|{ is my roof.
-----------------Censored------------------
^^^
Like i mentioned before, if you like EQ this game will likely not appeal to you
and yea, Pvp sucks right now. The combat is fun, but has no purpose except to fight. Which im sure will be fixed. However i disagree that PvP doesnt belong in MMO's. I beleive it has a rightful place in MMO's because AI only goes so far. Players provide a distinct challenge because you never know what they will do next. PvP provides an endgame for most MMO's. Its the lifeforce of alot of games. Some people like the ability to PvP in an MMO enviornment, which is much different then playing Mortal combat, or a FPS game.
I just dislike the impression, if you want PvP go play SoandSo game. It makes it sound like PvP ruins MMO's. The only games that are mostly PvE that fit into the "theme" of warcraft is EQ and Horizons. Which only one of those are doing well. But then u got games Like EvE which i dont realy fit into the category. Does EvE have pvp? Dunno, never tried it.
My PvP comment was more directed at people who like a game based on its PvP. Those people are usually griefers and care nothing about roleplaying aspects.
I like EQ and I like WoW. I like how WoW even uses the same key binds as EQ did, and same commands. Made it alot easier to get used to it.
Lying in bed, looking up at the stars, a single thought passed through my head. Where the fuc|{ is my roof.
-----------------Censored------------------