..I'm really enjoying it. It was my first time playing WAR yesterday, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. There were alot of reasons why, but overally I just didn't "get" it.

However, after playing for a long while since Friday, my opinion of the game has changed for the better, though I still have a few worries and complaints.

<PVE>

I've played a Bright Wizard, Magus and Sorceress each up to level 10. First of all, I joined the game with a few friends, but they were more interested in doing only RVR, so I was on my own to try out the PVE. Overall, I can't say too much about the PVE, except that its a little dull. Even though everything ties into the war game, even though the quest dialogues are well written, its still the same old, albeit set in an amazingly detailed world. I know the game is RVR focused, so with that in mind, the PVE side of things is somewhat fulfilling.

It is pretty cool to start off in a war zone, seeing NPCs fighting eachother and feeling like you're actually part of a huge conflict, starting out as a newbie soldier. So quests I found boring, then I tried Public Quests and found them wanting as well, there were two reasons for that: too many people doing them, and I found them to be basically a mad-rush grind fest.

The crowded PQs I had very little fun with, but as I started doing more and more and venturing into the zones where it was less crowded, I started enjoying them. I thought they were a waste of time at first, but after a few rounds I found that they are worthwhile. I even won first place at the loot draw a couple of times.

I guess my complaints about the PQs right now are the vegas loot system and that there is very little teamwork or communication with other players, its just kill kill kill, and everyone is greedy for the loot. Still, they are an okay distraction.

<Tome of Knowledge>

I was a little confused with the ToK the first time I opened it, didn't really understand it. But as I started collecting a multitude of unlocks, I found that the ToK is actually one of my favorite features. While I was waiting for a friend, I sat in a warcamp and pulled out my ToK and just started reading all the lore and bestiary entries, and hadn't realized that ten minutes had gone by. I think it's amazingly well done. However, the story and lore sections could use a little more work. Everything is fragmented and I found it a little confusing to follow the stories, but overall I was highly impressed with the Tome.

<RVR Scenarios>

When I had reached level 5 on my Magus, I decided to start up a scenario and joined the queue. This was a big mistake for me. I wasn't too sure about playing a Magus in RVR, and, well... let's just say I stood out too much.

The scenarios are pretty neat, but if your team has a bunch of low levels who just started, or the other team is organized,  then its no fun to get steamrolled. I really don't like the fact that you can join scenarios as a party. There were a few times where a party of rank 10's or higher from the same guild joined on the opposite team and just clobbered us.

I think there should be two kinds of scenarios, the random ones, and the ones that allow parties to join.

So I joined one with my Magus on Friday, the Chaos vs Empire one, and was with a team of people around my level, and a few higher levels. It didn't go so well at first, alot of players went rambo and got themselves ganked, but those of us who stayed together and fought for the objectives did well. However, as a Magus I was literally slaughtered everytime I got back into the fight, even while trying to stay at long distances. When the enemy pushes forward, it seems like they all target the Magus. I did a few scenarios again with her, and the same thing.

So I tried my Bright Wizard and Sorceress once they were around level 6, and had MUCH more fun. Also I had noticed that the teams were more organized on Saturday than Friday, people knew what they were doing and stuck together. The fights were really fun, even the hopeless ones.

I liked scenarios, even though the queues to get in are often quite long and the fact that an entire organized group can join while the rest is random solo players.

<Open World RVR>

Now, my other taste of first time RVR was the open world RVR on the Dark Elves side with my Sorceress. I had a blast! I didn't know what to expect and went in alone for my first time, expecting to get killed alot. I walked all the way to the big red circle on my map showing the RVR region, and geared up at the warcamp just on the PVE/RVR border. I was level 8, with decent gear.

I saw some people running into the RVR side from the warcamp and decided to follow them. I saw on the map that the region was controlled by Order, both battlefield objectives were theirs. So I followed a group of three to one objective, not seeing any Order the whole way. I fell behind while following the group, and saw that a level 11 Dwarf was chasing me. They spotted him as well, turned around and together we all destroyed him. A few seconds later I was invited into their group, and we charged towards the first objective, cleared it out of the NPCs guards and then secured it, while another team secured the other objective on the far side.

Once that was done, we encountered sporadic resistance, high elves and dwarves who fled most of the time. Another group joined ours and formed a Warband, and together we moved into the second RVR zone called Chrace, and captured the objectives there.

Then we moved back to the first zone and encountered an enemy warband who had us on the run for awhile after a huge battle. It was push and retreat for a while. I died a few times, but jumped right back in. Anyways, these little skirmishes continued until finally another group of ours showed up and we sent them running back to their warcamp, and held the lines there for about half an hour, effectively cutting off all their reinforcements.

It was amazing.. I really wasn't expecting it to be so much fun. There was good communication, teamwork.. I was very satisfied, and I'm not even an avid PVP'er. http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/2901/midianf000lq8.jpg

<Overall>

Based on my experiences from the Preview weekend, I am satisfied with Warhammer. It is not as perfect as I thought it'd be, but its definetly worth the cover charge in my opinion. There are still things I'd like to see changed and added, but the game is looking good. After playing through the RVR, I began to understand what they were talking about in the dev videos when they said that the game is basically all about RVR. I also think that, being mostly a PVE and Roleplayer myself, that this could be the game where I'll actually enjoy the PVP and really get absorbed into the WAR.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my experiences.. thanks for reading.

Thank you for posting. Nice review and showed us your opinion of the game. Again thank you.

Nice but a word of advice, don't judge a MMO from the first day or two. I remember when I first started playing Asheron's Call. It had a very steep learning curve when it came to spell weaving and I was bitching about it to my friend. But once I figured out recipes and began to make my own awesome spells, it was the greatest thing ever.

WAR has a decent learning curve. It's not WoW where they tell you what to do at every turn. I remember when I first entered the game I stood around in the middle of a Player Quest trying to figure out why everyone would suddenly run in another direction (they were going to where the next objective spawned). I must have been dumbfounded for at least 10 minutes and I was sitting there clicking doors and trying to figure out if I was doing something wrong. But now...I am Mr. Renowned and loving it.

Well I tried not to judge it too harshly on my first day, glad I stuck around

Originally posted by Narshe

Well I tried not to judge it too harshly on my first day, glad I stuck around

I made the same mistake with LotRO too. 

tnx, atlast some construktive review posting

Really love the  ToK. Its like the XBOX 360 achievements system, but with hundreds of random goals.

the magus at low level is poor for RVR, and the first scenary is biased towards order (everybody know that).

on that scenary (norwardh) you have to get the lighthouse, to stop reinforcements, or soon you will be camped on your own base.

so you played something biased against your realm, with a lame class, hence.. you haven died too much.

Originally posted by Teiman

the magus at low level is poor for RVR, and the first scenary is biased towards order (everybody know that).

on that scenary (norwardh) you have to get the lighthouse, to stop reinforcements, or soon you will be camped on your own base.

so you played something biased against your realm, with a lame class, hence.. you haven died too much.

 

Well, I later came back to that scenario with my Sorceress and the destruction side decimated them a few times.. not really sure how the scenario is biased.. but yes, the Magus is a lame class currently.

I have been in beta since beta 2 and I have seen the game come a long way.  The OP had it right. I hate how some people are so judgemental of this game in beta no less. They have 3 weeks of beta left and people are compairing it to games that have been out for years. I even saw one review as if the game had been released. lol I have played games at release that were complete disasters and unplayable. This game is 95% stable and 80% done with the starting mechanics (crafting is a mess, loot tables are in need of work).  I have seen some bug fixing and content reshaping that would boggle your mind.  Beta 3.3 patch notes were like 30 pages or so.  Mythic has got a very good game and most poeple will enjoy it but its not for everyone. If you dont like it dont play it and if you do then go nuts.

thanks, great review!

you have had probably the best review ive seen all the others were its so amazing or i hate this game and life all around....so ya good job

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Originally posted by Narshe
Well I tried not to judge it too harshly on my first day, glad I stuck around

---

You were objective and that's a more practical way to approach it.

Best review ive read. Didnt think a review was possible without calling WAR either total fail or epic wow killer.

Thx for the fun read

Just a thought:

Great games grab you immediately, within the first half hour of play.  Games that take several levels to appreciate are not great games.

Something to keep in mind when evaluating new games in beta or upon release.

Yea, if there is an organized team in the scenarios I just quit.

Originally posted by pencilrick

Just a thought:

Great games grab you immediately, within the first half hour of play.  Games that take several levels to appreciate are not great games.

Something to keep in mind when evaluating new games in beta or upon release.

Ehhhh....not necessarily.

I've had games that hooked me from the start... I've had games that needed grow on me.

It depends on the game... and, more so, on the person.

For example...

I've started playing The Witcher and... pretty much hooked from the start.

Another game, even in the same genre, might take me a bit longer to really get into.

Originally posted by pencilrick

Just a thought:

Great games grab you immediately, within the first half hour of play. 

AOC grabbed me within the first half hour. After 10 hours I uninstalled it. There's something wrong with your definition.

Originally posted by RexNebular

Originally posted by pencilrick

Just a thought:

Great games grab you immediately, within the first half hour of play. 

 

AOC grabbed me within the first half hour. After 10 hours I uninstalled it. There's something wrong with your definition.

"Great games grab you immediately, within the first half our of play" does not mean that all games that grab you at the start end up being great.

Just saying a truly great game will hook you early. 

The whole point of my post, is folks might trust their gut level reaction early instead of building false hopes and hanging on.  A lot of folks treat MMO like stocks in the stock market; they don't want to believe the price is falling and convince themselves that downward movement is just minor fluctuation.