Dwarves are rubbish. Gold, beards, beer, shortness, regional accents - we've seen it a thousand times. Why play a dwarf when you could play a goblin with a pet squig or a Chaos marauder who can turn his arm into a fleshy club? So we're surprised to find ourselves playing as a dwarf. And loving it. Especially the shield bash, which knocks our enemies onto their backs with a bone-crunching thud, allowing us to get in a few very cheap axe blows before they get up. Dirty. And we like it. You still won't catch us being a bloody high elf, mind.
During this last decade of Peter Jackson and Blizzard defining the general public's idea of fantasy, it's been forgotten that Games Workshop quietly redefined namby-pamby Tolkien stereotypes decades ago. That's why Warhammer Online's dwarves feel like grim warriors, not comedic Scotsmen. That's why its orcs are genuinely ugly, not humanised. WAR is the same Light vs Dark setup as seen in, let's be frank, World of Warcraft, but that acronym is no accident. Neither is the omission of /dance. WAR is war. And it's going to be huge.
There are two opposing factions: Order and Destruction, each consisting of three races. It's High Elves, Dwarves and the Human Empire for the former, and Dark Elves, Greenskins and Chaos for the latter. Each race has three to four of its own 'careers' (classes), amounting to 20 in all. Though there are definite analogues, no two races have the same classes. Each of the two sides has one city to its name - purdy, Germanic Altdorf for Order, and the epic, otherwordly Inevitable City for Destruction. These aren't social or shopping hubs so much as enormous trophies and goals, the ultimate battleground for the RvR meta-game. Once one side has a decisive upper hand on the server, they get to raid the enemy capital. The zones eventually reset so war can begin anew, but in the meantime there's glorious pillage to be had.
Before we go any further, please indulge us in a brief look behind the curtain. Reviewing an MMO isn't the same as reviewing any other game. It takes months to see everything. It'll change massively not just over its lifetime, but in the first couple of months following release. Some aspects of it won't be properly up and running until the player base is big enough and the kinks are ironed out. So, making a final, final judgement on every part of the game based on our time spent in the closed and open betas ahead of full release just isn't honest. Server-side teething trouble hasn't helped, and is why you might observe the characters in most of the screenshots are fairly low level - in fact we've played multiple characters at much higher levels in the largely embargoed closed beta. We've spent dozens of hours immersed in this game, but we're not going to pretend we've played every class up to level 40 and run every battleground and siege it has.
So: this review will tell you what you can expect to get by buying a boxed copy of WAR and spending the next few weeks with it. OK? No more tears? No more yelling? Let's get on with it, then. Warhammer Online is comfortably the most important MMO since World of Warcraft. To a significant extent it adheres slavishly to the old ways, but at the same time it's the first that's interested in advancing the idea of what an MMO can be. Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Conan, Vanguard - each has its own achievements, but all they ultimately do is to add a few piercings and tattoos to the aging, out of shape EverQuest body that WoW so successfully dragged off to the gym. WAR might employ most of the same mechanisms - and the same aesthetic values - as World of Warcraft, but the difference is it often opts for 'Instead Of' rather than 'As Well As'.
Its Realm vs Realm aspect is a river that runs deep, not a superficial trickle of extra features. It isn't MMO v2 by a long shot, but it is a response to rather than simply an imitation of WoW. As well as incorporating Mythic's own RvR concepts from Dark Age of Camelot into a current-gen game, it's identified much of what has and hasn't proved successful in the last three years of MMOs. As a result, compared to all the other post-WoW MMOs, WAR is both dramatically more ambitious and an odd admission of failure on the entire genre's part. Where others have tried to set themselves up as huge worlds full of discovery and mystery, a place for adventurers, this is perhaps more cynical.
Most people don't want that, as evidenced by the likes of Thottbot.com. It was never hard to work out where to go and what to do for an MMO quest, and even if it was, you could always ask other players - the risk of someone calling you a noob aside - but the last few years have proven that a lot of people don't want journeys of discovery. They want constant achievement and progression, and they don't want to get lost or confused in the process. If WAR were a buffet, it would have a neat little label in front of each plate stating exactly what's in it, how many times you should chew it, and directions to the next plate.
It's not that the game is easy or moronic, but rather that a philosophy of no time-wasting underpins it. Everything is clearly marked on the map, tracked on the HUD and written up at length in the Tome of Knowledge. Throughout the game, giant messages spam your screen, forever keeping you aware of exactly what's going on. The more organic carnage of RvR scuffles aren't quite as prescribed, but even so to achieve the larger goals you need to grab precise locations and monitor a tidy little list of exactly how many NPC guards are left to kill. Even the siege machinery is limited to a fixed number of 'siege pads' - this is no organic war, but more a sport with specific rules and specific goals. There are two good reasons for that: balance and focus. It might be artificial, but it keeps things fair and thrilling.
Whether your preference is for PvP or PvE, the frustrations of aimless wandering and vague directions are gone. It is, though, a reflection of arguably WAR's greatest failing: it doesn't create much of a world, a sense of place. It leans on the constant war for this, expecting the omnipresent factional barney to be atmosphere enough. In a way it is - it's logical to argue that eternal conflict is the only preoccupation any player or character would need. It's presented as fundamentally game-y though, and for all the tight integration of PvP with PvE, there's no potential to convince yourself that this is all really happening. Stumble into an RvR area or Public Quest and the game as good as pops a neon sign announcing it out of the top of your monitor.
It might well be necessary, but it's an overly-obvious, immersion-breaking way to go about it. WAR's mechanisms have received far more attention than has its polish - it's cursory in much of its presentation. There's also no potential to explore or to be surprised. WAR is a sequence of combat-pockets, chained together and rarely far apart. You stumble from fight to fight to fight, with no stumbling off the beaten track. There is some genuinely incredible architecture to be seen, squeezing remarkable sights out of the toonish engine, but you're invariably shepherded to it. There is only war, and that's certainly a better thing than solemnly mining rocks or sewing cloth, but sometimes a boy just wants a jolly adventure.
WAR's real adventures come from personal narratives, not from its pre-generated world or narratives. An intense duel with an enemy player or a push-'n'-pull siege that lasts long into the night - the stuff you'll relate with friends after a long session. Don't believe the Angry Internet Men who scream that WAR is a PvP game and thus shouldn't be compared to WoW or LotRO or Conan. It's at least as much a PvE game as it is a PvP one - the telltale green icon marking a new quest is omnipresent, while achievements and XP can be had on a near-infinite basis from quests handed out by Kill Collectors and The Tome of Knowledge's Bestiary. So long as you're happy to grind away at infinitely (and frankly too quickly) respawning NPC mobs for long enough, anyway.
It's entirely possible to sidestep the Realm vs Realm altogether, and even to solo the game. You'd be missing out on its best features were you to do so, but one of the many lessons of WoW is that this is precisely what an awful lot of players want. They want Diablo. WAR tries to cater to these guys as much as to the most rabid PvPers. Trouble is, again, there's this sense of tokenism to much of it. The PvE is in there and it's hugely substantial, but it comes off more like Lineage. The quests are an awful lot quicker than that, but if you slow yourself down and actually observe what's going on, you'll see it's very obviously zoned killing fields full of brain-dead NPCs who pop back into existence faster than you can kill them.
It's a pure grind, the most cynical of all MMO conventions, but done at such high speeds that it's very difficult to be annoyed by it. Aside from a bit too much cheerless back-'n'-forth running, quests are over almost before you know it. There's also none of the "collect 20 ToothBeast teeth" rubbish, only to find that only one in every eight ToothBeasts have teeth. If you have to collect something from something, each instance of that something will have it. WAR doesn't jerk its players around, and that's very much something to be grateful for. With that, though, comes a bit of a shortage of imagination. It's not without its playfulness - early tasks such as firing yourself out of a cannon or mounting an enemy chief's head on a pole once you've vanquished him amuse the first time around, but generally quests are there to give you XP and nothing else.
Again though, Mythic have observed what hasn't worked out so well in earlier MMOs and come up with a few solutions. By far the best example is the Public Quests (whose inclusion are also all the proof you need that PvE is an essential part of WAR). Most people aren't playing MMOs to socialise. They're playing MMOs to play the game. In a public quest, you can achieve something larger (i.e. kill something massive) than you ever could on your own, but with none of the hassle of talking to anyone else, and associated risk they'll turn out to be a nutter who keeps talking about their foot fetish.
Players turn up individually but are all contributing to the same objective simply by being there. Everyone's rewarded for their individual efforts, while those who do choose to group do better out of it because the XP and influence is shared. The initial stage of killing 50 to 100 Somethings builds to just a few harder Somethings and finally to a really massive Something that requires everyone to pile on. It's a Raid with none of the organisation, essentially. You get the sense of accomplishment that only comes from group play, but you don't have to talk to anyone.
To sound all supervillain for a moment, this is brilliant in its simplicity. It extends beyond the PQs too - you can form an open group that anyone can wordlessly join if they're in the area. It's not just about avoiding talking to strangers, but also about not having to muck around with invitations and OK/Cancel boxes when you're in the middle of smacking a snotling around the chops. Especially during PvP, which open groups carry over into. A passer-by can come save your neck without worrying that he won't get any XP or renown out of it, and without distracting you with on-screen prompts.
So what of the Realm vs Realm itself? It's definitely the game's heart even if it's not as much its majority as you might think. It's fairly evident that's where the developers' love lies, as it feels much grander than the shallow PvE. This is the aspect that we're most reticent to pass judgment on just yet, as it likely won't be until a couple of months into the full release that the whole picture becomes clear. The high-level keep and city sieges could well be the most spectacular fights any fantasy MMO has ever offered, but it'll take a large, experienced population to make them work. The earlier, lower-key PvP definitely makes it an exciting prospect, however. There's a sense of intertwining to it, everything working towards a single purpose rather than being a collection of smaller, standalone tasks. Whatever your PvP activity, be it ganking RvR-flagged enemy players, seizing objectives in the open Battlefields or piling into all-out war in the closed Scenarios, it's all adding to your Renown points and your side's power.
Most of the game's loot is purchased via Renown, which reduces the obsessive drop-hunting of other games but does homogenise everything somewhat, as so many folk of the same Career and level as you will be picking up exactly the same kit. It's hard to feel like an individual in WAR - at first, at least. There is definite scope for difference in both your abilities and your appearance, but generally it's quite a templated game. That's not necessarily a failing - you are, after all, a foot soldier in a vast war, not the hero come to save the world. Another reflection of that is the class design. While they do all ultimately fall into the comfortable boxes of tank, DPS, ranged and healer, they really aren't the same old stereotypes. In how they look and how they play, each and every one feels versatile, powerful and an agreeably long way outside of the ancient D&D blueprint.
Similarly, despite their geographic separation, the PvP and the PvE are very much thematically intertwined - you're always fighting against the opposing faction, whether it's an NPC, a player or a mixed army of both. Maybe it reduces the variety a little, but it definitely strengthens the sense of purpose, and when you do take those first steps into RvR they feel natural and in keeping with the monster-bashing. Aside from that calamitous beta launch and the occasional minor bug, what WAR also is, or at least seems likely to be from where we're standing, is the most polished, complete MMO launch in history. With proper PvP and PvE there from the off, a vast choice of classes and a hatful of new ideas, it makes the likes of LotRO and Conan seem like footnotes, and even WoW's initial launch seems pedestrian by comparison.
Its similarities to and improvements on WoW - most especially in PvP - make it the natural next home for anyone either dispossessed by Blizzard's effort or who has held out from all MMOs in the hope of something a bit meatier. Playing Warhammer Online, it's easy to forget that this game stems from a hobby so often accused of nerdiness. It shares design values, fiction and certain concepts with the Warhammer tabletop game, but really it's only the name that binds them. Conan was supposed to be the so-macho MMO, but against this it seems a bit Sealed Knot. WAR is war. The associated intensity of this means it probably won't pick up anything like the audience WoW has, but it will get a large one. And a very, very satisfied one at that.
its decent...i got onto the beta..and played the headstart..but i quickly got bored..combat feels dettached..feels like 3D chess or something..cant describe it. and the worst thing is..some classes have a knockback..this is a huge knockback which is insanely annoying and pretty much put a final nail in the coffin for my time on warhammer!getting constantly blown 18miles away by other players is about as fun as dripping acid into my eyes. my verdict: 7/10 ups: great graphics, good pvp model downs: slow combat, insane knockback spells, boring classes, not enough melee dps
We need a new name. These aren't RPGs. They're massively multiplayer fantasy ..something to do with stats.
I predicted long ago that an RPG set in the Warhammer universe was going to be about one thing only - and that, in itself, made it un-interesting to me. (But fair play to anyone who likes that stuff)
This is just Diablo 5, another clickfest where players will be looking at their stats all the time.
We desperately tried to create some atmosphere in WOW by having campfires, storytelling, and much more - but we were always just told to stop spamming, because everyone wanted to sell their new sword, or look for someone with whom to attack something that would give them a new sword.
It's not fun. It's rewardism at it's most basic, and quite frankly, I'm scared of the people who enjoy it.
Someone please make an RPG that isn't so obviously a cash-machine to make you play just that little longer to get your next little "ding". Lab rats do that. Not people.
I'll go away now. *looks at an old issue of White Dwarf, and sobs silently*
We need a new name. These aren't RPGs. They're massively multiplayer fantasy ..something to do with stats.
I predicted long ago that an RPG set in the Warhammer universe was going to be about one thing only - and that, in itself, made it un-interesting to me. (But fair play to anyone who likes that stuff)
This is just Diablo 5, another clickfest where players will be looking at their stats all the time.
We desperately tried to create some atmosphere in WOW by having campfires, storytelling, and much more - but we were always just told to stop spamming, because everyone wanted to sell their new sword, or look for someone with whom to attack something that would give them a new sword.
It's not fun. It's rewardism at it's most basic, and quite frankly, I'm scared of the people who enjoy it.
Someone please make an RPG that isn't so obviously a cash-machine to make you play just that little longer to get your next little "ding". Lab rats do that. Not people.
I'll go away now. *looks at an old issue of White Dwarf, and sobs silently*
A setting that has potential to deliver a different experience is the universe of: S.T.A.L.K.E.R/Clear Sky whose games if studied already got a lot of MMO elements in it.
If you think about it the only thing you need to do structurally is to make the game able to incorporate around 100 people in one server together with some other changes and you would have a MMO
Though the technical problems of doing this are huge and making fire fights non laggy won’t be plausible today. But in the Future it will be plausible and then a truly Atmospherically mmo will be plausible to make
Basically if you didn't like WoW, you won't like this. Also if you liked WoW then got bored with it over time. You'll probably find that you get bored with this very quickly.
Basically the only way you can enjoy this for the long term is if you have had zero experience with any other MMO's.
I got a little bored of MMOs after a few years of Everquest and beta testing a whole range of them, but I've been waiting for WAR since it was originally announced (originally as a 40k game).
I didn't get a beta invite so I'm now waiting for a demo to appear, because that review didn't turn me off at all.
That said, I still prefer the 40k universe and I'm far more interested in the upcoming 40k MMO, as long as the combat isn't just pressing a button and waiting for that ability to refresh again.
there is in fact a warhammer 40k mmo in production so dont worry fans.
i'd /quit wow for a future based mmo..40k or starcraft..just dont release yet another ye-olde mmo again..it grows tiresome. imo, if warhammer online had been 40k online...id see a higher interest and wow ship jumpers.
btw if u dont like wow..you probably wont like this..although it's abit more of a new user friendly game. i.e ur selecting your class @ intro..your character is a tank..no matter what spec you are..your still basically a tank..
There are 2 points in that review that appeal to me.
1. The public quests idea sounds quite nifty (i'm a bit antisocial at times) 2. The classes aren't entirely typical
Besides those positives though the game sounds pretty shallow and lackluster, it doesn't sound like it offers the things I like.
As an aside, this reviewer doesn't give LotRO the credit it deserves. LotRO introduced proper story telling with decent production values. That is a huge step for MMORPGs imo, and I can't wait to see it applied to some others (Conan's attempt was very evident, but not so hot).
A setting that has potential to deliver a different experience is the universe of: S.T.A.L.K.E.R/Clear Sky whose games if studied already got a lot of MMO elements in it.
If you think about it the only thing you need to do structurally is to make the game able to incorporate around 100 people in one server together with some other changes and you would have a MMO
Though the technical problems of doing this are huge and making fire fights non laggy won’t be plausible today. But in the Future it will be plausible and then a truly Atmospherically mmo will be plausible to make
its a though that has run though my mind many times and im fully 100% behind you on this. Stalker could be a great mmo
I generally enjoy Alec Meer's articles, but this particular review was somewhat flawed.
He put the game in a good light overall, but for all those times he mentioned the word 'WoW', which I don't want to hear about, he could instead have praised the game so much more.
I started in closed beta about a month ago, and despite this game lagging like s**t on my computer, I absolutely adore it. One thing in particular which intrigues me is that on 90% of the levels you gain on your way to 40, you learn a new ability which really just makes your class's playstyle better. And I think the PvE is a bit better than what you are lead to believe by reading this review. I love the chaos that is public quests, and finally the last boss is piled on until he falls over. It's at this point that everyone simultaneously stops moving, and silence just falls over the quest area. You can really feel how much everyone is craving to get their share of what's in that chest and, surprisingly, the system is both fun and fair. Don;t get me wrong, RvR is the focus of this game, but this game does appeal to the diablo-esque audience, at least somewhat. Mainly due to the fact that you can get 'very rare' items long before end-game, and the gear looks fecking awesome compared to the weak sets you get in WoW. Christ, did you see season 4?
However, I whole-heartedly agree with the reviewer's description of the game as the most polished MMO release in history.
And yet... smoother mechanics, replacement classes, new cities? New races? Skaven vs Lizardmen?!VAMPIRE COUNTS??? This can only get better.
I played the demo for 15 mins at Gamesday and was the first group to play it so I am one of the FIRST members of the general public to play it!
All I can say is never playing an MMORPG before I was confused, very confused. All fights were was pressing 1 and 2 and repeat or are all MMORPGs like this?
It's good, to be sure, but the excitement over it will fade over time. People are just desperate for the next step in MMOs. This isn't it, though, and the fact is it just isn't as good as WoW. People complain about it now, sure, but that's because they've been pampered by it. They expect so much more by now. So WAR is new, but it won't do for MMOs what WoW did and, ultimately, when the hype fades, they'll both be games people want more out of, be disappointed of content patches, expansions, loot, endgame content, the usual… but WoW is the one I'll keep coming back to.
Just to start off i am no world of war craft fan boy and i haven't played for the past two years. I thought this game would be a lot better than expected and i got caught up in the hype.i have been playing this game since Thursday and i got pretty bored of this game fast. To be honest their is pretty much only 4 classes, tanks,ranged,close range melee and healing... It says their are over 20 classes and that is true but if you pick a tank class chosen or black orc. They have most of the same skills (just renamed) and each class does have a little different spin and this is for every type of class. The RVR is neat and so is the public quest which will be implemented in ALL MMO which i enjoyed. If you decided to be order over chosen have a fun time trying to capture the teir because its nearly impossible when their is almost a 1:2 order to chosen people population. And lastly the game play is so slow and takes forever to kill someone 1v1. game ranking 7/10
I have been playing for a week now and its easily on par with WOW on the PVE side and far superior on the PVP side.
For the PVE side -
Each of the 6 races have there own leveling areas up to the level cap, so you basically have 6 different paths to max level. Though you will skirt around the opposing factions leveling areas with a big open RVR area in between.
Public quests are great, you just wander into the area and you can open up the group page and it lists all the groups active in your area. Join the one doing your public quest and you are set. As you participate in the public quest you earn influence, which at various stages gives you various rewards, potions and gear mainly. If you do well enough and finish the quest you get a chance at a loot bag.
The public quests are split into chapters, with around 3 per chapter, so there are plenty to do.
As for the PVP side, no more stun lock and death, no more constant fear and being dotted to death, no more near insta deaths from a few lucky crits either. As a Chosen I can quite often run into an order battle line and punt one of the order players nearer to our side. I even live half the time.
The only real CC i have seen so far are snares, roots and various punts(knockback). Though from reading some other forums the roots are bugged and are not breaking when they should.
The various PVP scenarios are much like battlegrounds and you gain xp, renown, cash and loot, so you could entirely level doing nothing but PVP.
When you enter a scenario you get your stats boosted near the max level for that particular bracket so you are reasonably competitive.
I have 3 complaints about the game, so I'll start with them first: Not enough flight points, you cant get to the capital until you get to ch3 (around level , and by that point your bag is overflowing with stuff that looks like it should go for a decent amount at auction. The PQs could really do with a description from the rally master, yes, i realise that there is a backstory in the tome, but this is only just relevant to the quest in some cases, and is rather impersonal. No class specific quests. These would be very useful to give you a feel for the mechanics of the class earlier on, especially since you are bombarded with abilities and have to try and figure out how they fit into the playstyle
Other than that, its good. Been playing DoK for a few days now, and just about getting my head around healing and DPSing without horribly nerfing either. The PQs are awesome, though I would like a proper instance once in a while.
But when you take into account all the other things this game offers, I would have to argue that the people who are posting here have far too high expectations.
I love WAR. Awesome game imo, and i'm only level 9, and my computer lags horribly.
Compared to most other MMO this game actually encourages exploration off the beaten track. You can uncover hidden quests, gain special titles for completing side tasks (such as dropping large rocks on goblins), unlock entries in your Tome, accumulate XP for discovering new locations, and eventually even gain extra abilities for you character. It makes a change to rewarded with more than just pretty scenery.
One of my biggest gripes with MMOs, including CoH, WOW and LOTRO, is the laughable time-sink that is travelling across the map between quests with nothing to do. I never quite understood why spending 15 mins on autorun was considered entertainment.
In WAR the quests are usually close enough to be reached quickly. On the rare occasions when you do have to travel for more than a couple of minutes, there are usually plenty of optional distractions to break up the journey.
This really is a game where you can log on for an hour or so, have an enjoyable gaming experience, and actually achieve something towards developing your character.
If there is a real problem with the game, it is that the combat system feels somewhat sluggish. This is particularly apparent when compared to other games such as Guild Wars or City of Heroes. Your character does not always respond smoothly or quickly to commands, which can be especially frustrating in PVP. This is perhaps the biggest flaw in WAR, but hopefully it will be addressed as the game matures.
Game graphics are okay, but after making first 11 levels u dont see much to choose from when making new levels. Combat is too simple. Graphics is quite tidy but lack style, even the interface is quite disconnected from the way i want to control new character. Nothing like WoW U don't need much practice or thinking to level up and go through the game. Chances are, this game is made for people who are unable to raid in wow and are bored with grinding or have completed the game. This game is no challenge and not worth wasting your money. Also game is unstable, kept crashing on my mates AMD though it was well above system requirements. Marketing of the game: 10 out of 10. Game: 5 out of 10.
I've tried WAR and although it does have some re-deeming features it is just too cowardly made. I have seen it before.
For everyone that's tired on chewing the same formulaic sinew in all the "new" MMOs coming out (just face it, they are all Everquest clones with a twist or two) I advise you to try out DDO - easily the most overlooked MMO out there. It had too little content at launch and other problems, now it's an incredible game all MMO players tired of the trite should test.
Best combat of all MMO's (no stare-at-screen-wait-for-cooldown-press-key-then-repeat, instead you can block, evade, flank, tumble, take cover, aim with missile weapons etc., as often as wanted, fighting is exciting in DDO), wonderful handmade quests (no get 20 yeti skins, adventures with stories instead), great setting, awesome player-base (and mature, very few l337-kids) and free updates... No ganking, no spawn camping, no running for an hour to the quest entrance, and the list goes on.
It doesn't cater as blatantly to the lowest denominator as the "big" MMOs does - it's a little harder and demands a little more attention - and it rewards player skill instead of encouraging a mind-numbing grind.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
, and by that point your bag is overflowing with stuff that looks like it should go for a decent amount at auction.
