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Warhammer: initial impressions after the 7 day trial
Hairwolf
Member Posts: 43
Just thought i'd post this for anyone interested in giving this a go.
Also thanks to nutha for very kindly providing me with a key. Cheers man:)
I'll try to be as unbiased as possible (considering the fact that i love the lore - never played any of the tabletop stuff but always read the sourcebooks)
I'd have to say the overall the trial was a positive experience for me.The game seems to have plenty of stuff to do, (highest i got a toon was level 13) and varied ways in which to do it.
I'd have to echo the sentiment i've seen in many reviews regarding the Public Quests, in that the idea is great, it's nice not to have to constantly spam 'LFG' into the chat window and wait patiently while people have dinner, run to the shops ,argue with their girlfriends or whatever before actually grouping and just doing the quest.Being able to jump straight in like that with a group of strangers is fantastic, and indeed i got to do a fair few of these over the course of the 7 days.
Again echoing what i've seen in many reviews, the tome of knowledge is a very nice piece of work, not only because it's a handy way of keeping track of virtually everything you're getting up to(and have gotten up to) in the game but the fact that it serves as a guide to the world and it's people is an awesome bonus. very cool indeed.
Once more i'd have to say my experience with the scenarios was again really positive, i must say i prefer games with a decent level of PvP and in this aspect the game didn't dissapoint, i never had problems getting into a game quickly, and always with 20 -30 players minimum in there, the game modes and settings seem varied and for the most part entertaining (wasn't a particularly big fan of Stonetroll crossing) and i had a lot of fun in there.
I must say here, at this point, that i didn't get to do much with keep sieges, but i'd also stress that i've got limited time to play each day and had to sample what i could when i could.
Those that i did get involved with were very entertaining and ,at least the server i was on, (Skull Throne) seemed to have a very active population.That said, i feel that, compared to other mmos, this is more pick up , play and leave than the others, which suits me down to the ground for the aforementioned reason. I'm not saying the gameworld isn't deep, in fact (again bear in mind i'm a huge fan of the lore), i thought the look of the world from the many varied landscape designs, to the peoples and creatures, was richly detailed and the models while low enough looking poly count -wise were stylish enough to offset any niggles i may have had about this.
I also loved the characterisation of the various races, Warhammer 's world was created with large dollops of dark humour and even lampooning of the stock fantasy genre and their takes on standards such as elves, orcs and dwarfs are fun, inventive and often far cooler than the original ideas, in my opinion.
The in game sound effects and atmospherics are great with some funny snippets of dialogue uttered by NPCs if you care to listen.
The music was pretty much non existant with only little vignette tunes playing when you entered zones, again just how i like it because i don't personally like being bombarded with big ,bombastic orchestral numbers when i'm trying to play a game, sure music is important in games, movies etc but, just not all the time.
Again in relation to the gameworld i didn't mind the zoning at all, the fact that each zone doesn't run seamlessly into the next (they appear to be paired off with two zones directly connected to each other at a time) only made the world feel larger to me, the transition time between zones making it feel to me like i'd left one country and traveled a good distance to get somewhere completly different rather than that unrealistic 'travel through 3 different lands in 2 minutes' feeling i've had with other mmos in the past.
This is all pretty positive up to now, but of course there were some things i didn't like.
One of them was the awful problems i had getting stuck numerous times, there seems to be some collision detection and clipping problems with the game and they happened often enough to become a slight annoyance.
Another thing was the respawn system, there were a few times i was into a quest, PQ or whatever and got killed and the game, because of the position on the map i was at, threw me into the next over respawn area in a part of the map i hadn't been to before and then having to slog my way back to the area i had been in, again nothing overly annoying but it pissed me off at the time.
Levelling was smooth and seemed devoid of any grind and i found myself naturally playing through the various quests, public quests and scenarios without ever really looking at the progress bar to see how far i'd gotten.
Overall then , i really enjoyed my experience with this game enough to convince me to go and buy it and continue on sampling this game and i'd say especially to those who may not have lots of hours a week to put into a game like this to maybe try it out and have a look at warhammers uniquely fun and skewed take on the fantasy genre.
Played: WoW, Lotro, AoC, Eve, CoX.
Shortly be playing: WAR and champions if the release date holds.
Comments
Let us know how it grows on you as you progress, hope it sticks ^^
This review is pretty similar to pretty much all reviews out there that have played to around lvl20ish or so. After that it goes downhill fast.
Well, as i said highest level i got to was 13, i'll reserve judgement on the rest until i've seen it of course, but it's left a very good first impression with me.
Played: WoW, Lotro, AoC, Eve, CoX.
Shortly be playing: WAR and champions if the release date holds.
Played: WoW, Lotro, AoC, Eve, CoX.
Shortly be playing: WAR and champions if the release date holds.
The honeymoon period is indeed pretty sweet.
I think everyone who has ever played the game would agree with you pretty much.
I mean even popinjay enjoyed the T1 experience I think! (and that's saying something).
I wish devs wouldn't rush the game out after barely working on the finishing half of the game. Hell AoC's opening 20levels were the best I have ever played in ANY MMO, and everyone knows how it turned out.
I guess hyping up the game and doping the customers would get you a massive boost of cash which will be used to develop the game etc. but is it better for the long term? I mean they'll be losing quite a lot of customers who might even boycott every product said company would release.
Evil times indeed!
Your opinion seems to be echoed quite a lot from what i'm reading about peoples views on the later part of the game, again, i'll give it a shot and see how' it 's shaping up when i get there.
Agree with you totally about AoC's polished first twenty - was indeed very very good - hopefully turnarounds in quality will happen there as it's a game i'd like to go back to someday.
Played: WoW, Lotro, AoC, Eve, CoX.
Shortly be playing: WAR and champions if the release date holds.
well i cant confirm this. im now lvl 28 and i still enjoy the game.
@ OP
anyways i think its to early for u to write a review. as u mentioned u have just plaid it for 7 days. there is to much u havent seen/recognized yet.
I have lvl 30 + (T4 toons) and am still having fun. I just think mythic needs to add more PVE content(more dungeons and quests), not because I like PVE but to draw more individuals to the game. More people would make the games PVP even more epic than it already is.
You've just been Shilled!
"I have to echoe the sentiment..." hahaha who tha hell speaks like this...
You've just been Shilled!
"I have to echoe the sentiment..." hahaha who tha hell speaks like this...
someone who can speak the language
Played: WoW, Lotro, AoC, Eve, CoX.
Shortly be playing: WAR and champions if the release date holds.
well i cant confirm this. im now lvl 28 and i still enjoy the game.
@ OP
anyways i think its to early for u to write a review. as u mentioned u have just plaid it for 7 days. there is to much u havent seen/recognized yet.
wasn't really a full review man, as we all know that's pretty hard to do with an mmo in the space of a week, just first impressions for people who might be interested.
Played: WoW, Lotro, AoC, Eve, CoX.
Shortly be playing: WAR and champions if the release date holds.
Yeah, Mythic did generate its fair share of hype, but I'd say at least 60% or more came from players having unrealistic expectations ("WOW KILLER!" anyone?). Paul Barnett...let's not include him because it's his personality to be excited and overactive. Sure, one might think that makes for a great PR guy, but I guarantee that he turned off as many people as he attracted. What I saw was the two lead developers explaining their game (they were proud of it and they showed it) through podcasts mainly. That's what drew me in.
AoC had a great, polished beginning, but a very incomplete middle and end. Whereas WAR, I feel, has the same level of "polish" throughout. The game isn't great but it isn't horrible either. I'm leveling pretty slowly (though I switched to Azazel and had to start over, that's a factor) and only have one level 31 Ironbreaker. I had a funny little first T4 RvR experience by winning a Gold Loot bag and getting Annihilator Shoulders from a Keep zerg of over 2 full Order WBs (I DO has a SS fer proof!). Thank you Mythic.
Now, to the OP: It really helps that you like the lore because if you try to rush through this game you won't enjoy it. The content is there, but there's barely enough. However, I thought it was an acceptable amount for a newly released game. Mythic expects people to focus on RvR for the endgame, and if they really want success they'll have to make that a little less repetitive and give it a little more "meaning". I thought sometimes the collision detection was a bit annoying, especially when I was jumping in crates and whatnot and got temporarily stuck, haha. But it makes for very painful battles in Keeps when there's an enemy tank wall at the top of the stairs and you're blasted by AoE. Hope you stick with the game and it grows on you.
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A human and an Elf get captured by Skaven. The rat-men are getting ready to shoot the first hostage with Dwarf-made guns when he yells, "Earthquake!" The naturally nervous Skaven run and hide from the imaginary threat. He escapes. The Skaven regroup and bring out the Elf. Being very smart, the Elf has figured out what to do. When the Skaven get ready to shoot, the Elf, in order to scare them, yells, "Fire!"
Order of the White Border.
Props to the OP for a well thought our post. I enjoyed it very much and it mirrors my experience as well.
I agree with this "review" in that the first 20 or so ranks are a blast but for some reason it kinda falls apart after that. Me, playing primarily a healer, feel that the super abilities start to come in effect after that and I cant keep up with all the DPS going on so my healing capability is just basically damage support, meaning I heal whoever is left standing after a skirmish rather than keep people alive. Because if anyone is under focus fire by an assist train, short of tanks, it is impossible to save that person no matter how much you heal.
That kinda threw me of as I felt healers didnt matter so much. I tried a nuker (Bright Wizard) and it is kinda fun but again if you get hit by an assist train (or a WE), which happens alot, you will die (healers or no healers) so getting killed repeteadly at rank 20+ again put me of.
So I tried a tank, but being a meat shield didnt agree with me much so right now Im a bit disillusioned. The game seems to be great but T3 and above it falls apart into zerging and DPS spamming with little or no tactics involved. Sad really because the part before that is alot of fun with alot of tactics involved beside joining an assist train.
My gaming blog
Nice review, I really hope you enjoy the game as much as I have. I have a level 40 Shadow Warrior, and level 33 Warrior Priest on Badlands. And I think everyone's opinions will very. I didnt experience what they are talking about on T3, not to mention they just released a patch that makes levels 20-31 or something like that faster to level.
I am not a blind fanboy and will tell you my opinion on the end game. There is a lot of fun to be had. A few level 40 dungeons will pop up that were previously unavailable to you in which you can get pve gear. The pvp equivalent gear can be found in keep, fortress, and city raids.
I think WAR has a great platform to build on, and am interested in seeing what the big annoncement is on the 29th of this month. If they can fix the stability issues on raids, or at least improve them and give more end game content in the form of better rewards for keeps etc... I think WAR will be sucessful. As of right now its not horrible its just lacking and repetitive. But if they really want to they can fix these things and give meaningful rewards and more reasons to hold keeps.
I would love to see some more dungeons and PQs added as well, without the need to add new lands. In the end if they dont fix anything, I will probably play another month or two and then get burnt. That being said I have no regrets playing the game and have had over 3 months enjoyment so far.
Anyways glad to hear you are liking the game
I loved WAR the first month. I played it a lot. I even payed for 3 months subscription before my "free" month was up. Like other people pointed out the grind starts at lvl20. I grind my way to the late 30's when I finally gave up on the game.
Sadly I still had 2,5 months left of my subscription when I stopped logging in. Now what's even more sad is that a few days ago when I checked my mail I got a confirmation saying my recurring subscription for another 3 months had successfully gone through. This will most probably mean I've been paying for a game I don't/won't play for almost 6 months. When that time is up that is. Ah well serves me right for not remembering to withdraw my CC information
Anyway, I'm glad the OP is having fun and I hope you've found a game you'll like for a long time. I'm however quite confident I'll never return to WAR. The way I see it is if you only play WAR for a month it's still a great value considering there's 30-day online play included in the deal. When I think of it why am I lurking in a forum for a game I'm saying I most probably won't return to? Who knows maybe they'll fix the game given time and I still have 3 months payed sub. Hell AoC - which I've recently re-subbed to - has totally redeemed itself in my opinion. The same could happen with WAR given time?
Enjoy your time in the WAR universe. It's a great value even if you only play for a month.
Last night I found myself in a warband defending a keep against a warband twice as large as ours. It was back and forth for about an hour and could have gone either way. The tactics used were varied and many - hide inside on 1st floor until battering ram is up then swarm (defense) - take a group of Witch Hunters incognito out the back of the keep to attack the casters at the back of the line (defense) - swarm the 2nd floor turret (offense) - swarm the 3rd floor (offense). Granted this is Tier 2 and most people in this post are complaining more about what happens in Tier 3 and 4, but as a longtime player of MMO's, I have to say this experience on a random week night sets a new high mark in terms of fun. When I first started playing, the RvR zones were ghost towns. The recent changes Mythic has made to encourage people to participate in RvR has made all the difference.
That's encouraging to hear.
Cheers for all the replies guys, look what we made, a thread with an actual discussion!:P
Played: WoW, Lotro, AoC, Eve, CoX.
Shortly be playing: WAR and champions if the release date holds.
I must say War totally grew into me. I'm playing from day 1 and will continue as long as it goes in the right direction. Patch with orvr incentives made great difference and it became completely normal to log in and expect rvr going on somewhere.
People say in T4 game sucks. I find it hard to understand really.. It's the most fun for me. I'm playing zealot and with proper gear/teammates/playing last long and can keep tanks alive under some decent focus fire.
I think War's greatest quality comes with organisation. It hit me when the other day my guild and guild from alliance prevented zone from locking just by playing clever with our numbers. I.e we were attacking order's keep while alliance guild fought order's wb on the way to the keep, thus preventing them to defend it. We made some premades for scenarios which we won and took objectives while we could..battle took hours and hours and I swear it felt like minutes. Always thinking how to outsmart your opponents.
Another example: order built victory points in all 3 pairings. None was close to locking. Destro fought in Dwarfs-Greenskin one, outnumbering order, taking keeps and objectives. What we didn't know is that order planned it to gather al forces in elves pairing, building points; so when we came there to prevent lockout it was too late.
On the other hand I agree, more content needs to be added, keeps and fortresses need to be tweaked, bugs fixed etc. However, I don't see any other mmo with better pvp on the market, so war is the only option I'm interested in.
Of course, ther are always trolls who spend their useless lives on forums trying to flame the game on hear-say incorrect facts from first months of the game. Interwebz wouldn't be the same without them I guess..
Looking forward to hearing Mythic's announcement on 29th!
Cheers
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Yeh, very much the impression i got form the gameplay i've experienced so far, very easy to pick up and put down - a plus in my book.
Played: WoW, Lotro, AoC, Eve, CoX.
Shortly be playing: WAR and champions if the release date holds.
i ve recently returned to warhammer after going back to warcraft to level my characters to 80 . upon which i found warcraft pvp endgame to be essentially brocken so i left . i agree with everything the op says . warhammer really is the only choice of mmo if you want a fantasy pvp game . it is pretty casual you can get a lot out of it within the first day of playing . you dont have to go through endless quests for months to get to the interesting content like in wow and the pvp is nt messed up and imbalanced .
I hit 31 and started having more fun... weird.
Always change your signature.
Yep I pretty much agree with the OPs post. Although I now cant stand the game and will never resubscribe to it, I did actually find it quite enjoyable at first.......but then that often happens when I start playing a new game. By the time I was into my second week though I was getting very bored indeed. It actually became painfully dull to play but I kept slogging at it as I wanted to try and get my moneys worth. Unfortunately by the end of the second week I just couldnt avoid the fact that I wasnt enjoying myself and found the game to be far too shallow and simplistic for my tastes so I actually felt very relieved when I quit my subscription early.