Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
My MMORPG Review
aurick
Member Posts: 317
This is not a fanboi's or hater's review. I'm trying to look at each rating category fairly and objectively. I've already posted it in the Ratings, but am also posting it here for the simple reason that anything in the Ratings section gets buried fast. Hopefully people will find it helpful.
Graphics - 9
The IP itself forces a look that on the surface is very similar to WoW. However, on closer look the two are very different. WAR's models have more polygons, and are therefore smoother. While not photographic, textures don't have the hand-painted, cartoony look that WoW sports, and are bump mapped. Overall, the graphics look the most like LotRO, but with a darker and grittier feel. The fact that this many polygons can be pushed with PvP battles of 200 people or more while still being minimally instanced is just astounding. Animations are sometimes mediocre, but certainly not terrible. Effects are often truly great, with a prominent example being the Bright Wizard's spells. In short, the graphics aren't bleeding edge, but are certainly a cut above WoW. The game also has a very streamlined interface right out the gate. It's immediately familiar to any MMO player, but also has a ton of customization options that don't require learning XML and LUA.
Sound - 8
Needs EAX support. Otherwise, the sounds are very good with enough diversity to not become annoying. Music is good. There are enough audio controls to let you hear what you want to hear, although I wish that there was a separate control for voices as these are often drowned out by background sound.
Role Playing - 8
The game has all the hooks for excellent RP. Tons of lore everywhere, especially through the Tome of Knowledge and quest text. Each race has very distinct personalities, and their motives are clearly defined. It's likely that some groups will get solid RP going as the game matures. Until then, though, the rating can't be any higher than an 8.
Fun - 10
I haven't been this addicted to an MMO since the early days of WoW. This is a game where the longer you play, the more depth you discover. Combat becomes more involved and more frantic. Morale, Tactics and Masteries add into the mix. Players have ranks in both their class and their PvP history. Guilds have levels of their own and offer more as they advance. Achievements add to the mix. I personally have always hated the meaningless gankfests of other MMO's PvP, but have found myself sucked into WAR's and having a blast. Public Quests are very cool and will no doubt be copied by every MMO from here forward. As characters reach higher levels and action becomes spread across multiple tiers and fronts, the game should only become more fun.
Community - 8
This is a tough one. No MMO has a strong community to begin with. But WAR has the makings of a great community for many reasons. Most importantly, WAR is very group oriented. Public Quests cannot be completed alone. Some are difficult to beat with a war band of 12. World RvR is suicide to go into by yourself. Scenarios automatically group you, but are also too fast-paced for you to even think about socialization. On the other hand, the group had better work together or they'll lose, which does foster a sense of community. The guild interface is superb, and the fact that guilds advance with increasing privileges encourages a sense of community within the guild. Another great innovation is the Open Group concept, where parties and war bands can be viewed and joined by anyone looking for one. (Groups can also be closed, but I've seen few that actually do that so far.) Want to group up with your friends? If it's an open group you don't even have to ask. Just type /join and the name of anyone in the group. Also, anyone in the group can invite another player, with the group leader getting a pop-up to allow the addition or not. This sort of streamlining gives WAR all the tools for a great community. Now it's up to the players, but it's still too early to tell if they will actually follow through on that. And by the way, would-be gankers will hate this game because it makes such activities impossible on the most common server type. (Core servers) For the rest of us, PvP is fair and challenging, which in itself is good for community.
Performance/Lag - 10
WAR sets the new gold standard for a AAA MMO launch. There are some performance issues, but Mythic is working through them extremely quickly. The number of them is much lower than I've seen with other new launches. There are also almost no serious bugs, and even relatively few minor bugs. Broken quests are almost nonexistent. The game also allows truly massive PvP battles without craptactic frame rates. To help with this, the graphics options include a combo box to select between "Custom 1" and "Custom 2". This means you can have one configuration for regular play and a second with lower graphics settings for situations where you know performance could suffer. But I also remember how WoW chugged for months (if not years) any time you went to Ironforge or any other place with large numbers of players. Not to mention how groups could actually crash the server. WAR is pulling off larger groups with better performance.
Customer Service - 10
In the three weeks now that I've been playing, I have had only one case where I've needed to petition a GM. This happened during prime time on the last day of the standard edition head start, so tons of players were online. Despite the huge number of players, I got a GM response in under 5 minutes. The GM was courteous and helpful as well. To have this level of support at launch blew me away. Additionally, the petition system is very well implemented, and was clearly designed to be efficient. There are small refinements here, such as a rich categorization system (which also allows GM's to focus on the most critical issues first) and even the ability for a GM to issue a pop-up window letting you know to check your chat window because they're trying to talk to you.
Value - 10
WoW became a hit because it took all the fun aspects of the games before it, and put them together in a very accessible package. WAR has now turned the tables on WoW by doing that same thing, but with four more years of "other games" to look at. WAR is also Mythic's second major MMO, where WoW was Blizzard's first and the experience shows. This game doesn't reinvent the wheel. Instead, it combines a lot of really fun elements that are found separately in various other games, sprinkles some good humor into the mix, and adds a few truly unique things like the Public Quests. This is clearly a game that's going to be around for quite some time. Already at launch it offers more content than WoW did at launch, with fewer bugs and greater server stability. In some respects, it offers more content than WoW does today. If Mythic releases new content of equal quality to what WAR has now, and does so at a faster rate than Blizzard puts out new stuff, then WAR could ultimately dethrone WoW.
Overall score is 9.13 -- Easily the highest rating I've ever given to an MMO. If you're looking for something revolutionary, you're going to have to keep looking. Probably for a very long time. If you're looking for the opportunity to have a ton of fun with your friends, WAR delivers.
Comments
I'd say this is a fanboys post. Because I would not put the graphics at no 9. I love the game so far, but 9? Come on.
"like WoWs, but take a closer look!" please...
A 8 would be kind. I'd say 7 at the most.
I'd really argue that War has next to no community nor do I see that changing anytime soon.... There is no chat channel in the game that a community can use. 99% of the time there is NOTHING in chat. And when there is it is so rare nobody notices...
I'd give community a 0.
---
Ethion
I like the graphics more than any MMORPG I've played except for AOC. Certainly better than games like EQ2 or Vanguard which just looked ugly to me.
Now the animations I wouldnt' rate higher than a 6 or so, but Graphics I'd probably call an 8.
find a guild buddy...in my guild the chat is almost flooded...lol and I didnt even ask for being recruit...
but tell me what do you want to see in a general chat ?...spammers ?..idiots telling blond jokes ?...I mean we are at WAR and like many people said there is no new mechanics in WAR so we do not rly have to ask for tons and tons of questions
QUESTION:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xridnasa:
-
What's a "grocery store"? Is that like McDonald's?
-
ANSWER:
Quote:
Originally Posted by sidimazz:
-
Kind of, just without the rapist.
OP when you say things like:
"In some respects, it offers more content than WoW does today. and ... , then WAR could ultimately dethrone WoW."
These (and a lot of other stuff in there like "excellent RPG elements" (huuh?)), are fanboy wishes and not based on facts.
... the credibilty of your post is failing completely.
"There is no chat channel in the game that a community can use."
Umm, yes there is, I've seen questions and comments posted in the "Area" chats all the time.
And as to the guy above saying this a fanboys post, it's a persons opinion, you can't qualify opinions or state that they are wrong. You can just state you disagree.
For the record, I'd say that a 9 for graphics isn't out of the question, if the person rating is is judging it on style and art quality instead if its technological, shiny, over-polygoned bump mappiness. As I've said before, a high rez, high poly, bump mapped, shiny, self shadowed piece of crap is still a piece of crap, ala AoC. AoC would get a 5 outa 10 from me on it's graphics cause it's art sucks, WAR would get higher. Don't confuse graphics and technology.
find a guild buddy...in my guild the chat is almost flooded...lol and I didnt even ask for being recruit...
but tell me what do you want to see in a general chat ?...spammers ?..idiots telling blond jokes ?...I mean we are at WAR and like many people said there is no new mechanics in WAR so we do not rly have to ask for tons and tons of questions
Exactly.
Lord of the Rings Online had a great community and there was barely any chat going on in any global chat channel.
World of Warcraft has a horrible Community and there is always chat in the global chat. Stupid spam Chuck Norris Jokes, anal "skill link" jokes, etc do not make a community.
Warhammer will have a good community it has the framework for a good community without the idiot stuff that WoW has. (and don't get me wrong I still have an active WoW account but the community is horrible in the game and always has been).
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Regarding graphics, I factored in BOTH style and technical aspects. This is something that most people seem to forget when talking about graphics, choosing to consider only the style. They're also letting personal taste get in the way of objectivity, which I did not do here. I looked solely at how well the graphics style accomplishes what it set out to do, and how well WAR implemented available techologies. In short, I was objective, rather than subjective.
As far as style goes, WAR is less cartoony. It is stylized, however, and that does turn some people off. I feel that it does extremely well at what the developers set out to do: capture the look and feel of the Warhammer IP. That look is stylized by its very nature, and very similar to Warcraft. This is where most people seem to get hung up on WAR's graphics. They fail to realize that if the game had taken a different art direction, it would no longer have been true to the Warhammer IP.
The style of WAR has plenty of eye candy. It has nice textures that don't look watercolored like WoW's. It has a lot of atmosphere. It's true to the IP. It succeeds at what it set out to do, but will certainly not be everyone's cup of tea. For style, I rate WAR an 8. Remember, I'm being objective on this count, and avoiding letting my personal tastes in art get in the way of my rating. If my personal tastes were allowed to play a factor, then I would give the game a lower rating. But an objective review can't do this.
The second aspect of graphics is the technical implementation. How many polygons and textures can you get on the screen at one time without performance suffering? I work in the CG industry, and know what's involved on this front. A computer can only handle so much data at one time, character models have a huge amount of data compared to NPC's and environments, and MMO's put tons of characters together in one place. MMO's also add on lots of special effects as players use their abilities, demand a lot of animations (which are more system resources being drained), etc.
As a rule of thumb, the more photorealistic a game looks, the fewer players it can have in one place. For an MMO, that forces more instancing. Age of Conan is a case study in this. It has the most technically beautiful graphics ever achieved in an MMO, but was forced to resort to massive instancing in order to pull that off. And found that they have no hope of achieving their much talked about dream of 200 vs. 200 PvP battles.
WAR sets out to put hundreds of players together in large scale battles. This imposes certain limitations on what can be done with model density and texturing. WAR's engine is capable of putting more players in one place during full on combat than any other MMO on the market, and it does so with a minimum of instancing. This is a serious technical achievement, worthy of a 10 rating.
If you combine an 8 for art style with a 10 for technical implementation, you get a rating of 9. Which is what I gave the game.
find a guild buddy...in my guild the chat is almost flooded...lol and I didnt even ask for being recruit...
but tell me what do you want to see in a general chat ?...spammers ?..idiots telling blond jokes ?...I mean we are at WAR and like many people said there is no new mechanics in WAR so we do not rly have to ask for tons and tons of questions
I got a guild. I came to the game with my own community. What I'm saying is that the GAME has no community I do. But if a new person came into the game they would get virtually no player support or contact. /1 hello do you like the game? ...... Nothing. /1 Hello can anyone hear me? ..... Nothing.
Thats a personal experience. I've seen maybe a handfull of messages posted in chat and generally no response. The area chat is too small and area to be significant. Areas are these small sub areas in the zone. I doubt you have access to a dozen people with your /1 message unless maybe you are in a PQ but even then people don't respond.
So War community = non existant.... What is community? players helping players not players playing the same game. My point is there is no interaction and the game is kinda breeding this non intereaction situation because people are pretty much learning to ignore chat altogehter since there is never anything there.
So I'm a new player and want to get help or ask a question - war doesn't support this. I'm a new player and want to just chat with some poeple - not supported. I'm looking for a group and want to ask if someone wants to group - not supported, other then the autojoin groups. I want to tive away a helm of something - not supported. Anyway I'm beating a dead horse and clearly people either don't care or are too much fanbois to hear anything other then positives.
---
Ethion
Sorry, but the sheer amount of 10's being handed out makes this clearly a fanboi post. 9 for graphics? The graphics are on par with WoW(possibly even worse), and your giving the community an 8 based on what it could be?
Please. 10 should be reserved for the ABSOLUTE best, you are handing them out like candy on halloween
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
And this is what makes you clearly a troll ...
Whether you think they are better than WoW or not is your opinion, but I think everyone can agree they aren't a 9. I would put AoC around a 9 for graphics. I would give WAR maybe a 7 for graphics.
But of course, I'm a troll because my opinion on one matter differs from yours, but the OP is just in rating WAR the best MMO eva!
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
And this is what makes you clearly a troll ...
Whether you think they are better than WoW or not is your opinion, but I think everyone can agree they aren't a 9. I would put AoC around a 9 for graphics. I would give WAR maybe a 7 for graphics.
But of course, I'm a troll because my opinion on one matter differs from yours, but the OP is just in rating WAR the best MMO eva!
WAR graphics are on par and in some places better then WoW's graphics. That is my opinion. graphics for Warhammer id say 7 as well, and WoW's graphics would have to be a 5. This is comparing other games ive played like The Witcher and Crysis ofcourse. those were 9-10 graphics. Anyway..The gameplay is what truely makes the majority pay the 15 dollars a month, the graphics can be the best, but there is no way im gonna pay money and not get good gameplay *COUGH* AOC *COUGH*
Graphics 9? Community 8?
A bit high if you ask me, if i was to rate warhammer it would be:
Graphics: 7 sound: 7 Role playing: 8 Fun: 8 Community: 6 performance: 9 service: 9 value: 9 Overall, a 8.6 (not average)
Game's good fun, but not without its faults.
i agree with abraham.the grafix not that great ...nor is the game..i bought it and i want my money back >.<.i dont want to get into why i dont like it and why i should but what i wanted to say is why the hell do people keep compareing grafix from warhammer to wow..its not like wow's grafix are something to jump up and down about.they are both cartoonie as hell. the community of mmo's are clearly appeal to the "jonny 5yr" that loggs on for 1-2hr that has to pay with there dads cred. card...good job main stream..keep milking that 8-17yr old fan base
sandbox4life
Its not horrible but it is just more of the same "fast food" culture fare. This game is meant to be a short lived distraction for gamers until the next shiny thing comes along to trigger the A.D.D. That most of society seems to be suffering from these days.
I actually prefer VG for what it is compared to games like WAR and WOW. Unfortunately the culture has deteriorated too far to appreciate anything epic.
Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.
well put star..now all the kiddies will post and say .."you have to play past lvl 1 " blah blah BS lol
sandbox4life
Certainly better than EQ2? : O Have you played EQ2 on everything maxed out? It looks way better than WAR
Certainly better than EQ2? : O Have you played EQ2 on everything maxed out? It looks way better than WAR
That's a matter of opinion, my friend. What one person loves, another will hate.
I have played EQ2 on maxed settings. Some areas look really nice. Especially Qeynos. But IMHO, none of the world environments or character models look nearly as nice as WAR or LotRO.
EQ2 gives you more character customizations such as facial morphs and body height. But the vast majority of that is indistinguishable from a couple of feet. Hair looks like a piece of plastic stuck on someone's head. The environments and many armor pieces are seriously overbumped.
Take EQ2's absolute newest environments -- the stuff from Kunark. Screenshot that and put it next to a screen of the Shadowlands in WAR. There's no comparison. WAR has greater texture diversity, more eye candy, more polygons, and more atmosphere. Water looks more realistic as well.
Again, the art style of this is purely subjective. What I like is something that someone else will hate. But on a technical level WAR certainly beats EQ2.
Yes I have. I would say that WoW overall graphics (graphics engine+art etc) are as good as EQ2's as well. EQ2 is not an attractive game at all.
Well, I'd have to say your review was more subjective than objective. In reality, this is the nature of reviews as everyone experiences things differently. No problem, really. If you like the game, all the more power to ya but trying to argue that things like graphics and sound can be objective is pushing it. We both know people hear and see things differently, hence why people enjoy different forms of music and art. I personally find the graphics to be just above mediocre at a 6.5 and the sound at a 7, as the ambient sounds can be good, but at other times are completely horrible. That is the nature of such things.
I'd just say that if this were my review that it in fact was all subjective to my own point of view, instead of trying to convince people you somehow looked at it objectively. Your avatar and sig also can make your review seem a little biased, which is fine. My only point, really, is that subjectivity is not the evil some people make it out to be (when found in reviews and such).
http://www.youtube.com/user/Metallica8589/videos?view=0
What people don't understand is that a review will always reflects the writers feelings towards the subject. It is almost impossible to avoid. If the writer is having a massive amount of fun and loves the game at the time it will reflect in the review.
People here expect reviewers to be like robots and ignore any amount of fun or misery and just rate the game based on other games in the genre. If you bring any amount of your emotions into the review you become a troll or a fanboy. This is ridiculously absurd and false.
A fanboy and troll are easy enough to identify. Loving the game and writing a review about it is not a crime, and neither is hating it if you bring up valid points and reasonable opinions.
You are not a fanboy or a troll unless you just randomly spout out stuff that is 100% emotion with no fact, misinformation, or 100% opinion with no fact.