WAR (Warhammer Online)

NDA has been lifted, except for a few clauses.

First off congrats to the Mythic team for making a fine product.  It is the smoothest beta I have ever been in, be it MMO or any other genre.  A lot of people were worried about playability at launch with all the cuts, well there is no need to worry about that.  I found little lag, very few bugs, and everything seemed to just run smoothly.  A month before launch in a beta you can generally tell how smooth launch will go and I expect this to be a very smooth launch.

I expect WAR to really shine once all of the living guild elements are in place and endgame RVR is fully fleshed out.  This is stuff I haven't fully experienced and should make note of now. 

Having said that, WAR does a lot of things really well, but doesn't feel like the next big leap in the genre, but more like a different flavor added to the same recipes that are currently out there.  WAR at times is its own worst enemy,  Take for example RVR.  Now this is the one thing that is supposed to set WAR apart from the pack, true world PVP.  Now they already have non instanced persistent RVR in the game so why they decide to also have instanced RVR is a mystery to me.  You can call them scenarios or whatever you want, but it is instanced RVR that takes detracts from world RVR.  WAR is everywhere, but if you have people doing instances, scenarios, world pvp, etc... it starts to feel less like a WAR and more like a disjointed mess.  I found more players taking part in the instanced PVP than the real world, and when instanced PVP starts taking from world PVP,  you are really hurting what makes world PVP special.

Well you cannot avoid comparisons to the elephant in the room so lets get that out of the way.  If anyone has a right to clone elements from WoW it is WAR.  The very first Warcraft RTS ever put out screamed Warhammer, which was there first.  And yes, WAR feels a lot like WoW, more than any other game out there.  I have heard people say that MMO A or MMO B is a WoW clone.  Well those people are really gonna be screaming that now, unfortunately most of them don't credit Warhammer as being there first with its Orcs and Humans.  That point should be made anytime someone criticizes WAR for being WoWesque.  The instanced PVP in WAR especially feels like battlegrounds with even the same final scoreboard being put up at the end and presented in the same fashion and even the same colors.  I know beta testers have been screaming for the instanced PVP to take a back seat and I really wish Mythic had tried to focus more on their world PVP and less on trying to be everything to everybody.  PVP has gotta feel different from WoW, or the people who have so much time invested in WoW are gonna be hard pressed to leave for a game that is so similar.

A little more about PVP.  Many in the PVP community have been screaming that they are sick and tired of PVP fears, stuns, mezzes, sleeps, etc.. Well WAR has listened and you will find that you are in control of your character throughout much of a PVP fight.  This is good and bad.  The frustration of not being in control is taken away, however, it does have more of a stand and spam feel to it.  Its a double edged sword that will most likely come down to personal preference.  WAR feels a little deeper with regards to PVP skills and you will find yourself using more skills to be more effective rather than just spamming 4 or 5 different abilities.  However, I found the stand and spam to feel a little less dynamic and it made me rethink my criticisms about all those fears and stuns.

A little about the classes.  One of the things I was looking forward to was how there was going to be all these different classes.  Unfortunately there really isn't.  A Sorcerer is pretty much the same thing as a Magus is the same thing as a Bright Wizard.  The skills have different names and colors, but thats about it.  Found the same thing held true for the other classes as well. Will say that I absolutely loved not having to manage mana (energy) as much.  WAR got that right.  I wanna be fighting, not sittin on my arse drinking mana potions.

The things that WAR does in an original fashion, are the things it really shines at and they really should have pushed that envelope more.  The tome of knowledge is incredible cool.  Felt like I had a big old weathered diary at my disposal that I didn't have to write myself.  Its such a cool feature that WoW appears to be cloning it in their expansion.  Public quests are a blast.  Its like world PVE and something I bet other MMO's start trying to incorporate as well. 

Graphics.  The graphics are very well done, but again, has a very current gen feel to it.  You can tell by the graphics alone that we have yet to leave this current generation of MMO's.  I loved the character animations and models.  You can tell by how some of the races run that WAR has a nice sense of humor about itself.  The interface is also well done, but again, nothing new here. Collision detection, didn't even notice it really.  One thing I was dissapointed in, and its really a minor point and doesn't effect gameplay much, is the inability to swim underwater.  Games that were developed years ago have this, and when I see a current game that doesn't allow this, I just shake my head a little.  The sound and music are also very well done.

I will sum up by saying if you are a pvp'er who isn't currently playing an MMO but is looking, then look no further, this is a game worthy of your time.  If world RVR endgame ends up being a smash hit, then this could be a good alternative to the major MMO's out there, if not, then WAR may not offer enough to draw people away from their current MMO of choice.  I think MMO'ers have been constantly waiting and clamoring for that next big leap in the genre, I don't think WAR is it.  But WAR is a very stable smooth running game that is grand in scale and an excellent alternative choice in the genre.  Thats more than I can say about the last several big name releases. Mythic knows how to make an MMO and they have made a fine one. Its just not all that fresh.