WAR (Warhammer Online)

My review, in no particular order:

~ Graphics nicely colored and detailed without too much demand on your comp.  The art is stylized without being exaggerated.  I find it quite pleasant.

~ Avatars look good.  Character customization is basic, nothing complex, but what I like is the availability of dyes to color your armor in just the way that you like it.  This should make for "guild colors" in the game.

~ User Interface is greatly customizable.  Click on the Layout Editor and do whatever you like.

~ Tome of Knowledge is fantastic.   It records nearly everything you do.

Example:  I went to some shoreline somewhere  (I am still basically lost wherever I am in the game), and I decide I want to swim across the ocean to a big island.  I jump in the water and start taking damage from "cold water squeezing the air out of my lungs" and I die.  I got THREE special ToK entries for basically killing myself and one of them was the "Silly" (yes, there is a category for Silly Titles) Title called "Hexed" -- which I wore proudly because nobody else had that Title!

~ Plenty of quests and they give BIG XP so that is the main way you level up.  Similar to WoW and LOTRO.  The mobs are for XP and are "walking lootbags" and respawn so fast (I hope they keep that up in Live) that you can camp your own private spot and farm the mobs as much as you want.  Some people love to do that.  Note: mob AI is funky at the moment and their combat responses can be bugged.  A fix is in the works.

~ Grouping is easy.  Click an icon near your character portrait and you will see what groups are open for you to join.  Click a group and you will automatically join it.  There is NO reason for spamming LFG!

~ The Living Guild system is probably the best, most versatile guild system ever made for a game so far.  Seriously.  (Six people are needed to form a guild, cost is nominal.)

~ Crafting is basic,  functional and practical, but not a major aspect of the game.  I tested Apothecary and Cultivation.  With no reading up on how to use the system, I learned it in about three minutes.  Making potions is GOOD.  Note: players without healing, make healing potions and place them on your Quickbar!

~ Transportation by Recall Spell (no reuse countdown timer, can reuse it repeatedly) and between Realms by Gyrocopter (for Order).  Cost is cheap.  Gyrocopter makes me laugh because it sounds like a badly built Dwarf contraption lawnmower-with-a-rotor that will fall out of the sky at any moment.  However, it is not like WoW where it is a several-minutes-long flight to get somewhere.  You see a live-cinematic (letterbox style) of you taking off, then a loading screen, then you are at your destination.  Takes maybe 30 seconds.  Note:  this is going to prove important in Realm versus Realm response time.  (Btw, mounts are available at Rank (level) 20.

~ Stealth ... a special mention.  Stealth is most definitely in the game.  It is not overpowering like in DAoC, and it has a fairly short timer (half a minute).  However, the two stealth classes that I am aware of CAN use this to get to the back lines and attack the squishies!  I ought to know, I can show you all the puncture wounds from Witch Elves (who, btw, are really sexy and beautiful, so it's hard to hate them -- they wear Victoria's Secret armor ).  Note:  you stealthers should travel in pairs and waste your target in the backlines and then get the hell out of there.

~ Zones are big.  When you do come to the end of a zone on a road, you will see a swirly portal thingy and when you hit it you will zone into the next area.  Since you can see into the next zone, you do not have a boxed-in feeling.  It is not seamless, but has that sort of EQ-ish feel to it where you hit a zone barrier, got a loading screen and zoned it.  Takes only a few seconds.  Note:  every area has it's own atmosphere.  Some are bright and sunny, others lush and green, or snowy and icy -- or dark and forbidding like the Shadowlands.  I loved the change in atmosphere.

~ Spell effects are adequate and some are excellent, but I don't think the game will win awards for Best Particle Effects.  They are, in my estimation, "good enough" without making huge demands on your computer.

~ Sound effects are nothing special, but are adequate to the game.  There is background music, but that can be turned down or off (currently bugged, however, in beta -- it'll be fixed).

~ Stability is excellent.  I know some people are complaining about crashes and I can only say I never crashed once this whole weekend.  So, frankly, it's not the game per se, it's some incompatibility between your system and the game.  Find out what it is and fix it.  Probably need to download drivers, I would imagine.

~ FPS even in heavily populated RvR battles is good.  My computer is aging now, an older Hyper-Threaded Sony but I have upgraded with a decent graphics card (Radeon X1650 512MB) and 2GB RAM.  So, for a middle-of-the-road, or even lower-end computer, you can still play the game, dare I say, as easily as you can play WoW.  There is no heavy demand on your computer.  You can also run the game at "Balanced" settings or "Fastest FPS" and it still looks fine.  If you want best performance, you can turn OFF all particle effects, which might be good for RvR.

Realm versus Realm

Which is why we are here, isn't it? 

If you are a former DAoC player, this is like deja vu all over again!  Except you no longer have to deal with all the annoying crowd control or insta-deaths or the constant presence of stealthers (although there are stealthers in the game).  Terrain, I feel, is much better done that in DAoC.  You can take tactical advantage of the landscape nearly everywhere.  Like DAoC, travel in GROUPS and fight in WARBANDS.

If you are a former WoW player, I think you will find WAR both similar to what you already know, yet with its own playstyle and excellent PvP.  (I think WoW has better PvE and WAR has better PvP -- that's the way I see it.)

I don't believe any side has an advantage over the other -- the way that Albion always seemed blessed by the Devs in DAoC (that's my opinion).

~ Tanks are tanks, and they do their job well.  Can soak up unbelievable amounts of damage and just keep going.

~ Melee DPS can pump out damage FAST -- beware of them.  They are semi-squishy but can cut you down, especially if they travel in pairs or packs.

~ Casters/Nukers/Ranged DPS are very squishy but pump out huge amounts of damage.  If you try to attack two or three Bright Wizards standing on a rock -- just prepare to die.  You will never reach them.  Special Note: the current Shadow Warrior bow animation has the bow cocked way too far into the air, and as a fussy person I would never stand for that.  Mythic does NEED to correct that.

~ Strategy.  If you played DAoC, you already know how it goes and what to do.  If you played WoW, prepare to be schooled quickly.

~ Special Freaking Note:  I have not witnessed any exaggerated amount of bunny-hopping.  It serves no particular advantage to hop all over the place -- HOWEVER -- as a melee fighter you are EXPECTED to move your ass around fast and strafe and circle.

~ Collision Detection.  This is excellent.  You can actually block people and form shield walls.    (You will need to jump around sometimes to get over your own people -- unless they somehow remove CD for friendlies in RvR ... I have no idea if they will, so you may just have to deal with it.)  Note:  overall I like the CD because it makes RvR feel "more real."

~ Healers/Support.  Be advised that they do damage in WAR and they will not go down easy or without a fight.  Healers have ways to reduce incoming damage by 50 percent for a short time, allowing them to heal up while you are pounding them.  They are not big DPS classes, but they have a combo of damage, debuffs and healing that makes them tougher than your ordinary squishy healer.

My feeling in a nutshell:

I like WAR and I am glad I preordered it.  Does it have some elements that seem WoW-ish?  Frankly, yes it does, and that is not a criticism.  In some ways, it also seems vaguely reminiscent of LOTRO.  But -- it is not WoW, nor is it LOTRO.

It mostly -- due to the RvR -- seems like Dark Age of Camelot wrapped in the lore of the Warhammer universe and I think if you want stimulating PvP/RvR this is what the game was made to do and what it fully delivers.

If you don't like WAR and don't want to play, then, in my opinion, you will be missing out on some great RvR action and fun -- but that's up to each individual to decide.

And ... I can't wait for the Head Start so I can keep my characters.