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My view on my Beta experience
arkanev
Member UncommonPosts: 82
This is my own opinion, it shouldn't be taking as The Truth. Also bear it with me english is not my first language.
My background in games:
I used to play PvP games 18 years ago (MUD back in the days). I played lot of RPGs and MMO in the past years. I can say (w/o bs) I think I've tried for more than 40% of the MMO with forums on MMORPG.com for more than a month.
I've been a Games-Workshop fan for the past 9 years now. (Mostly 40k but some interest in fantasy too)
My Take on WAR beta (for the first 2 tiers):
Gameplay: 7/10
First I must say I like the game but I wouldn't be sure for how long the interest in the game will stay.
Maybe I'm getting older (close to 30) but many games now don't give me memories as older one used to. For exemple I remember with passion PvP on MUD, playing UO for hours, training skills in Asheron's call or just having fun in SWG. As you see I don't really have nice memories about WoW or EQ. For me those games were more of a task than fun.
Warhammer Online shows some action in different part but I feel the game play to be a little bit to narrow for a MMORPG, still I find it more interesting than WoW.
I got to level 19 in rougly 3 days of play time (72 hours of gameplay). At some part I was just wondering why was I playing the game as I found myself into a "grinding" pattern. But most of the time I was enjoying exploring new land.
The chicken rule give me the impression that you can't really get back to try what you missed if you get to high level. It give the impression the game will be narrow since it close itself behind you.
Since I know Warhammer IP contain a lot of other races I can imagine it will be interesting to have new races-pairing expension in the future which sound interesting.
Graphics and animations : 9/10
The graphics even on my puny computer were incredible. I found myself immerged into the game and some scenes got me into awe.
Translation from table top to game look awesome. The table top feeling is kept through the game.
For the animations I found them very nice. Some might notice if you take them apart analysing them one by one it might look a little rough. But if you combine them and put them into a real fight (using more than 3 actions) you find yourself immersed into a real combat.
Classes : 8.5/10
Tho I didn't play many classes those I took (Chosen and Bright wizard, and shadow warrior) felt all a lot different and intriguing.
I can't praise enough the Tankability of the Chosen, he's a beast. Even if some might complain he doesn't do enough DPS. I can tell you he's not the kind of guy you like to keep alive.
Aura system is very nice on Chosen.(Auras allows you to have buff(group)/debuff(enemies) up around you)
Combustion system bright wizard allows you to channel power to increase crit. Tho I played it till level 8 I think it really come to life later on. I didn't got mass fireball spell or aoe ones (which look incredible in RvR).
For the shadow warrior, he has stance system and didn't really suit my style of play but I guess he can be deadly in hands of someone who master that system (Stance give you bonus and allows you to use certains abilities)
PVE: 7/10
PQ quest system is very nice, see awesome. But some of the PQ quest look a little more like fillers. But more complex and different PQ are interesting.
PVE as killing mobs look always as fun, tho having 3 mobs on yourself solo can be deadly. I kinda hate how you can pull 1 mob when an other standing close (or even sometimes sparring with him don't aggro too)
I found out that there's plenny of different items you can gather around from PQ or Quest or drop to set yourself a set that can set you a little bit apart from others. I didn't see people with same set except for Pure-RvR people with there RvR set.
A big let down is I was hoping to see Paul idea about questing in the game. (A refresher) Paul talked about having a quest giver behind bears. Once you killed the 20 bears he would ask you as a quest to get rid of them as you just did.
Seem like this idea was dropped out of the game. Which give to most quest system a huge Deja vu feeling.
RVR: 8/10
RvR, if you take a step back looks like WoW system. One or two ideas different. You get battlegrounds (with same ideas: capture the flag, hold the flag etc) and open world pvp.
I'm not sure if controlling a keep really means anything. I mean I'm not into Epeen contest and the bonus you get for having them is for your faction (so far I saw) so who care if YOU don't capture it.
I love siege weapons... nothing more funny than snipe enemy with a darkelf bow 
For the direct zerg/fighting I just love the total mayhem and chaos it bring to the game. Animations are neat and you really feel like your fighting. I didn't see much of bunny-hopper around and collision system in PVP is nice.
For the Renown rank (which is your PVP exp level) I love it. It allows you like a second Talent system which you can cusomize freely (no cost to respec)
So my take on RvR : WAR!! but.. for what?
Skill system: 9/10
I love so much the fact that you get a new skill each level and its power improve over you leveling.
There is so many different combination with morale/tactics/skills that you can do. I just love it. I also really enjoyed the fact that everyone plays a little different even if they have the same arch-type.
At low level I used to use 2-3 actions in a PVE and RVR fight. But at level 20 I was using 9 to 10 different ones in one fight.
Conclusion: 8/10
I'm not the best a doing reviews of a game. But I can say there is many hot things into WAR, many improvement over lackluster from other MMORPGs. But I kinda wonder if we needed an other MMO that keep doing what we saw before.( I know you don't drop a winning pattern) But the idea seem a little used at this time into the MMORPG industry.
Also I'm really scared and I wonder if being level 40 gonna be fun or boring as hell. As some people used to says in WoW getting to 60 was a lot more fun than being 60. Will it happen with WAR? I don't know and I can't say "No" which kinda scare me.
Pro:
Awesome graphics.
Improve a success full MMORPG system
Fight is fast paced.
Con:
Doesn't take a new approach to the genra as it was announcing
Feel small and narrow as gameplay
Scared of End game interest.
P.s.: What a really suggest you is to get yourself a copy of the game and try it. Best way to see if you're gonna like it. If you have question about game I'll try to answer them.
Comments
Great read.
I notice lots and lots of post now at: http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=109
Futilez[Do You Have What It Takes ?]
I am not sure if you are missing something about the chicken rule.
You only turn into a chicken in RvR areas unless you to go to a non-Core server in which case you always turn into a chicken.
Were you on a non-Core server? If so that is the price you pay for tryign to circumvent true RvR rules. Otherwise you can go back to PvE areas just fine on a Core server.
Sorry I can't remember if I got a timer before turning from PVE to RvR flag. But I know it happened fast. So I'm not sure if it will be easy to dodge RvR area.
"A big let down is I was hoping to see Paul idea about questing in the game. (A refresher) Paul talked about having a quest giver behind bears. Once you killed the 20 bears he would ask you as a quest to get rid of them as you just did.
Seem like this idea was dropped out of the game. Which give to most quest system a huge Deja vu feeling."
This was a miss conception dude, there are a few NPCs that do not require you to have their quest to get Xp for killing them, they have a sign over them saying "kill collector".
Just thought I'de point that out
It is incredibly easy to avoid the RvR area.
Yeah I guess it was a missconception from me. I though it could have had a bigger use into the game tho.
Did you say grind? I thought this game wasn't a grind at all like wow.
If you have a job that you thoroughly enjoy, but you have to go to it everyday, is it a grind? You're doing it over and over aren't you? Every MMO has some type of grind, the difference is it feels more like a grind in some games, while in others it doesn't feel repetitive at all until you do it for a very long period of time, probably a year or more depending on the quality of the game.
Then of course no matter how good the game is some parts will feel like grind...it's all relative to the person.
Good read. I can't wait until open beta
Just thought I'd let you know why you want to RVR and why you should care. If you want to further customize your character besides the standard Career & Tactics system you have to PvP to gain Renown Points. You use the Renown points to buy perment Stat changes, more tactics and I believe more morale abilities later on as well.
The reason to take and own the keeps is the simple fact if you want to Train in Renown or buy Renown gear (best damn gear in the game way better than the PvE gear especially if you don't ever PvE) you have to own atleast 1 keep for the Tier your at. Starting at Tier 2 the Renown Trainers & Gear sellers appear in only the Keeps except for the super high level mega renown gear people inside the cities.
Also the reason you want th ekeeps...You can't open up End Game City Seiging (which includes massive pve parts) without the taking of Keeps for Realm control. While you can dominate a Tier and realm without them you can't Lock them Down for Sieging without them.
Those that want to PvP are going to love the RvR system those that are more PvE epeen types are going to love the Dungeon Systems. Don't kid yourself PvE'ers have just as big an epeen problem as the PvPers but atleast to me the PvP is done in a way that its to much fun (well it gets a lil boring if you're sieging a keep for over an hour with little progress due to crap leadership lol) and anyone can do it and gain points. PvP isn't about the ePeen even the biggest baddest mo fos can be taken down because eventually groups will simply target that person in mass. ePeens get you no where in RvR
thats just my opinion of course.
<personally likes PvE & RvR, but the PvE gets old if thats all you do all day long I like the fact I can shake it up a bit and still get XP and buy really really damn nice instead of pve grinding the same couple static quests over and over>
If you have a job that you thoroughly enjoy, but you have to go to it everyday, is it a grind? You're doing it over and over aren't you? Every MMO has some type of grind, the difference is it feels more like a grind in some games, while in others it doesn't feel repetitive at all until you do it for a very long period of time, probably a year or more depending on the quality of the game.
Then of course no matter how good the game is some parts will feel like grind...it's all relative to the person.
Jobs that I thoroughly enjoy don't have me doing the same thing every day.
If you have a job that you thoroughly enjoy, but you have to go to it everyday, is it a grind? You're doing it over and over aren't you? Every MMO has some type of grind, the difference is it feels more like a grind in some games, while in others it doesn't feel repetitive at all until you do it for a very long period of time, probably a year or more depending on the quality of the game.
Then of course no matter how good the game is some parts will feel like grind...it's all relative to the person.
Jobs that I thoroughly enjoy don't have me doing the same thing every day.
My def for grind is : OBLIGATION to do things over and over to obtained a NEEDED objective.