I agree with your post.

I will not be buying WAR because i'm tired and bored of the gameplay it offers.

Originally posted by 1234aaa

 I just can't believe all of you comparing WAR to WoW.

 

Either: you haven't played WoW or you haven't played WAR.

 

They are just SO different. WoW = burnt out, tried, mindless, linear, worthless pvp. BUT it has mildly interesting PvE (which gets boring after discovering how to defeat bosses when new raid instances come out). 

 

WAR = PROPER RvR, VERY GOOD 'battlegrounds', innovative siege warfare (e.g. you can enter 1st person to fire siege turrets... just like an fps).

 

 

LOL yeah because WOW and WAR are nothing alike I mean their gameplay mechanics are nothing alike...........

They are like twins that look the same but have some differences like moles.

There's only one thing that annoys me more than stuck up WoW noobs, and that's people who over-use the word "fanboy".  They label ANYBODY who says something negative about a game a fanboy.  For the love of god stop, you sound like absolute fools and that word is spreading way too quickly on the internet.

And OP, I agree with you.

Great review OP. Thanks.

Good review.  I still have 3 copies of WAR coming and it hasn't changed my mind about anything.

The PVP in WoW stinks, especially the E-Peena.  I have 3 70s all decked out and I am completely tired of it.  On the other hand, I love the graphics and since WAR is where they actually stole the ideas from, I'm looking forward to something new with a much much better PVP system.  To each his own.  Most of the people who are against WAR in this thread have likely already spent their money on WOTLK, and yet they call others fanbois because they support WAR.

Newsflash - we are ALL fanbois.  The huge percentage of MMO players don't even come here to read these "opinions" we all have.

Originally posted by Wolfdor

As someone who has been in beta for a few months now, I find your review pretty fair.  The WoW comparisons are going to happen no matter who reviews the game.  If a new fast food burger joint opens up, people are going to compare it to McDonalds and like it or not, WoW is currently the McDonald's of the MMO world (I prefer Wendy's!). 

The really bitter reviews are going to come from the hardcore DAoC fans who are going to expect this game to be old school RvR, which it's not.  Warhammer's PvP is its own game and can't really be compared to the other games PvP systems.  Some of your favorite features that you are expecting, will be there.  But other features that you were expecting might not.  You'll really have to get your own hands on with the game to judge it for yourself.  Some of the people I played with on Warpstone loved the game, when they didn't think they would.  And others who have been itching for this game for years, tested it for a month before giving up on it because they felt it was nothing they haven't seen already.  Make your own choice when you get your chance to play.

Only negative thing you'll hear from me, is that September might be just a bit to soon for release as there is still many bugs, lots of CTD's (they're so frequent they actually have a CTD survey going now), many problems getting stuck in the terrain, and lots of lag on the bigger battlefields.  Hopefully they'll keep rolling patches out before release to correct most of those issues, but I personally would rather see them polish this game and release it right. 

EDIT: One other negative thing I remember, some of the Races have less custom  appearance options then Vanguard did!  Hopefully they just haven't patched the newer features in yet!   :D

QFT

I've also been in CB for a few months now. From the moment you first encounter WAR's UI the WoW comparisons are unavoidable. The gameplay is unmistakenly similar to WoW. No matter how you parse it. The questing is similar (with the exception of the PQ's WAR's big shining improvement to the genre), the UI is similar, the combat is similar. Even many of the classes have a similar feel. As the OP said, it is NOT something new and strikingly diferent. It is an evolutionary game, not a revolutionary one.

It is a good fun and polished game. And it is ready for release, something we have not seen in a long time. It does get you into PvP faster then WoW does. But makes up for it by not offering any PvE instances or dungeons until end game.

But please do not berate the OP for offering his opinions to you. He is not a fanboi or a plant as some have accused him of. His opinion seems honest, and it is certainly in line with the actual game that I have been testing for months. I don't agree with all of his opinions, but he reaches a legitimate view based on the game itself. Not on some dream of how awesome it may be. And that game has alot of real clear unmistakeable similarities to WoW.

Originally posted by ColdSun

Good review.  I still have 3 copies of WAR coming and it hasn't changed my mind about anything.

The PVP in WoW stinks, especially the E-Peena.  I have 3 70s all decked out and I am completely tired of it.  On the other hand, I love the graphics and since WAR is where they actually stole the ideas from, I'm looking forward to something new with a much much better PVP system.  To each his own.  Most of the people who are against WAR in this thread have likely already spent their money on WOTLK, and yet they call others fanbois because they support WAR.

Newsflash - we are ALL fanbois.  The huge percentage of MMO players don't even come here to read these "opinions" we all have.

You may actually be a little disapointed by WAR's graphics. It's hard to put a finger on and describe, but they just lack something. It is sort of like the art team tried to split the diference between WoW's cartoony style and other games like AOC's more realistic approach. The end result doesn't work perfectly. The graphics look nice, but seem to lack that feeling of being alive that even WoW's cartoony ones seems to have.

On top of that the art and animations were rather apparently done by the same folks as DAoC's. and it really shows. Sadly not in the best of ways. Many animations or character stances will seem disturbingly familiar to DAoC vets. Especially the Elves and humans.  Even the spell animations seem to be somewhat ported over from DAoC. Now this wouldn't be a bad thing, if they had used Albions glorious spell effects... but nope WAR got lots of Hibernia's poofs pf purple smoke and shadowbolts.

edit: as a follow up to my coments on that "hard to put your finger on" thing that makes the WAR characters feel flat. I've been obsessing about it all evening and I think I finally figured out what causes it. (and please forgive me, but given the racial similarities of WAR and WOW, direct comparisons are unavoidable. Dwarf to Dwarf, Elf to Elf etc). The WoW character models have a very broad range of extremely subtle animations, including one that you almost never notice. They breath. The WAR character models dont do this (not do they have much in the way of subtle animations). That subtle act of breathing, that is so minor as to be almost subliminal really brings the characters to life in ways that you don't notice until it is gone.

Originally posted by ColdSun

Good review.  I still have 3 copies of WAR coming and it hasn't changed my mind about anything.

The PVP in WoW stinks, especially the E-Peena.  I have 3 70s all decked out and I am completely tired of it.  On the other hand, I love the graphics and since WAR is where they actually stole the ideas from, I'm looking forward to something new with a much much better PVP system.  To each his own.  Most of the people who are against WAR in this thread have likely already spent their money on WOTLK, and yet they call others fanbois because they support WAR.

Newsflash - we are ALL fanbois.  The huge percentage of MMO players don't even come here to read these "opinions" we all have.

QFT

To the OP ... good review and I don't completely disagree with you. (That is to say I agree with your facts, but not necessarily your conclusions/opinions)

On the one hand I will agree that MMOs need to change ... on the other I've seen where they've tried in the past ..... Shadowbane was a great idea, but the technology wasn't there for it to come together. Eve is a great game, and I'll give you that having player controlable area/keeps such as in Eve (and Shadowbane) would be awesome ...

The flip side is space ...EVE can get away with it because it is in space (and thus it is essentially limitless) anything set on a world is going to be limited by the space of that world. Basically if they tripled the space in WAR you'd still be looking at a vast expanse of unbuildable areas and in a relatively short time those areas where cities/keeps/etc could be built would be claimed, and likely claimed by a relative few on the server. Yes, they'd have to fight to keep them (probably all on their own as their realm mates would want them to fall so they could try to take it back and get it for themselves) but either 1-they'd be ultra hardcore guilds (or huge zerg guilds) and able to keep it easily, or 2-they'd loose it and it would eventually end up in the hands of a guild that fell into catagory #1.

SWG showed that if you allowed building anywhere it takes very little time for there to be buildings everywhere. Tatoonie went from a vast wasteland to having cities crammed as close together as the game would allow you to place them. (There was a bit of this in SB as well) ... so with that I'd say capturing(and defending) exsisting keeps makes just as much sense, because before too long that's all it would be anyway.

I would like to thank you for your review.

I am also a fan of sandbox, skill based, open world games were death has meaning.

I fully understand that you wish WAR could be like Eve, UO or SWG pre-cu but its not.

You can not go into a review like this with a Sandbox mentality.

Once I start playing WAR I will toss all my skill based, sandbox loving fanboi isms out the door.

WAR is a roller coaster and easy to get into, hold me by the had fun ride.

It has set classes, no death penalty and no player made structures, why would you even bother reviewing this with a "i want a new sandbox attitude"?

We need to keep the roller coaster MMO's and the Sandbox MMO's away from each other.

Earthrise, mortal online, dark fall and fallen earth will be what your looking for.

I wish you would of stated that you were a sandbox fan before you posted the rest of your review, I wouldn't of bothered reading it.

I am fully aware that War is a simple mmo with a kick ass RvR mechanic.

It doesn't sadden me in the least that War isn't the revolutionary game you hoped it would be.

I know WAR has tact on crafting, limited Dungeon pve and isn't a skill based system, thats fine.

However I do care about the stability of the game, if it's fun, and if it has enough roller coaster content to keep me happy.

Once again thank you for your post.

A good read, OP. Thanks for taking the time to share your insights. Coming from almost the same playing history than you, I feel WAR will be the same for me as it is for you. I also wanted to play Witch Hunter and also preferred Order, but as you write it, Witch Hunter doesnt sound so fun anymore.

I am mainly dissapointed that Zerg has a place in WAR. I really had hoped for a different PVP approach, especially since WAR is so much centered around PVP, I find it a huge letdown, they werent able to prevent Zerg as a successful tactics. Its something I always loathed, people running, lolcoptering and zerging, taking out all the interesting strategic possibilities. I too will try WAR out at start, but the more I hear the more dissappointed I get, tbh. Its just a collection of more and more small things which drag down WAR for me, like itemization, character customization, cities and classes getting deleted... it goes on.

Like AoC it sounds like WAR is going to be an ok game, but mediocre.

Originally posted by greymann

 Don't listen to them.  For years we've been hearing, "Oh just wait till the NDA drops, they just can't tell you how great the game is yet."  Well now the time has come and those who still can't except that war isn't the best thing since swiss chocalote will be in denial. 

Are you blind? the game is receiving more praise for its beta than any mmorpg released over the last 5 years.

Not to mention, its hard to consider you a credible source, when you cannot even spell chocolate correctly.

Piss poor trolling attempt guy.

I like the review, it was well thought out, the only thing I totally disagree with is this quote:

Warhammer Online is really nothing revolutionary. I don’t think many people were expecting it to be, but I think it’s a shame that it’s not. Warhammer follows the same game play elements we have all seen before and doesn’t try to break out and try something new

While the basics of game play are the same (that goes for any MMO out there with avatars that swing and cast spells. I see the PQ's, the tomb, and many other aspects of WAR are revolutionary in there own rights. No one has ever had PQ's, no one has ever had objectives in an open world RvR (pvp) setting were you gain actual experience in leveling (ranking) and more. Loot drops from players etc etc. the list is large.

While you definitely will find the similarities to WoW here, Warcraft was going to be Warhammer when it was first made as an rts, but Warhammer owners said "no way". So Warcraft was born. So those similarities in lore are definitely there, the game play is similar it is an MMO, however there are allot of features and the biggest one being RvR that no others do no matter what label you throw on it.

 Edit: Ps, zergs work in beta because it is beta, nuff said, when you come across organized guilds, good luck with your zerg , we will welcome your zerg to our organized wall anyday.

   Anyone that claims he's a Fanbois because he compares it to wow is a complete moron, played for 2 months now and think it's about as close to exactly like wow as u can get without getting sued, only diff at all is everything in the game is about PVP, Thats all fine and good, except PVP really isn't all that much fun it's Zerg against Zerg unless your with your guild or people on vent, then it's a little better, but basically a controlled Zerg, and if anyone can't simply read his review without being biased, that simply means your a WarHammer Fanbois, which in itself is pretty fuc*in sad, there is nothing new in this game at all, there is nothing revolutionary in the slightest, the only reason it has taken off so well is because it's so much like wow, there was no learning curve what so ever, personally i think war and wow both suck, what I'm getting at is he made excellent points weather u wanna try to deny the truth or not is your problem, in the end this game will be as much epic fail as wow has become. (End of story)

   U don't need to respond, I could care less what any of u Fanbois on both sides think, both games suck equally, that u both fighting over which sucks less, simply proves what a joke u guys are. I was simply clarifying that he gave a good review albeit extremely long, I was generally shocked at the complete ignorance of 80% of the responses, simply showed a complete lack of intelligence,  I hope u all go brain dead playing either of these sh!ty games.