Oh Boy.

Oh Boy ... first impressions.

Some day I may need to do a complete review of this game. But ... honestly. I don't get it anymore. Perhaps playing too many MMO's lately. Far too critical and far too much Wow playing I suppose.

But the game is stable. That I can say. Only 1 time crash in 4 hours playing. And the fact I played for 3 hours and managed to get to 6 ( - I know - you can't possibly judge a game completely by level 6).

But ... sorry for the fan boys/girls it won't be the new "IT" in MMORPG's. What's lacking?

Well let's say you play WITH an Avatar, you are NOT your avatar. The character floats over the landscape, you are not IN the landscape.

In fact you're not IN a world it seems. I had the exact same feeling with Tabula Rasa. There is stress, there is this kind of running everywhere, but you're not IN a MMORPG world.

Cause? I think its the graphics and the general programming. It is lacking. Animation and movement of the avatar is NOT better than LOTRO. And that game suffered from it.

Saying the game is the same as Wow.... couldn't be further from the truth....

In "that" game when you approach an enemy camp, you feel it, mobs react, danger surrounds you. You are IN that camp in that world. In WAR I don't get that feeling. My character is there but everything around it isn't 'done right". Mobs don't react like they should be, you hardly ever see things as 3D world experience.

I will certainly play it in the next month and perhaps even beyond. But WAR won't stay on mosts HD very long I am afraid.

No need to react to this and say things like go away to fucking XXX etc.

Not needed . The only thing is that it is sad really. Another lost opportunity in a very small field of qualtity MMORPG's.

Opinions don't even matter. Just be sure the game won't get those 1 million subs. THAT I know after playing it for a few hours (too much MMORPG tested and played these last years).

Played 5 scenarios, did the quests, particpated in the first PQ (and even got loot in 8th position killing that beautiful giant on the third level- good design btw)., but the game isn't touching anything we haven't seen before done better on the micro scale (and believe me that counts for most). 

So this is not my final review. But a first impression and it doesn't score above TR or AoC content wise. It IS more stable and has better play value than AoC, but not much.

PvP is very odd at the moment. No one speaks. It's one group bashin another group and the bigger group wins. First scenario is weak: respawns at your camp: taking the same techniques after 3 playing already.

No this is just a first impression, so I should stop rambling I know, but it won't be a long term interest for most.

I had similar impressions. I have been playing since monday. WAR won't beat WoW, i'm pretty sure of that. I will probably play WAR until WotLK expansion is released.

Although this is still a beta and it takes some time before MMOs "mature" after release. I hope the NPCs become more responsive and they do away with the "Target is not available" bug. Pathfinding could use some love. I also though the customization is rather limited. You can dye your armor, but there isn't very much variation of armor and weaponry. Everyone pretty much looks the same. I have only played rank 1-10 though, but comparing with the almighty wow you can start customizing your avatar early. Almost every piece of equipment has at least different texturing.

I did enjoy public quests quite a bit. Although communication is pretty low, I think people are just more interested in seeing all the content and stuff right now. I know I am. But it's really good if you don't like waiting for groups and just want to do something epic right now.

I'm not at all a PvP player, but even I thought the scenarios was kinda fun. Although I don't see any difference from the battlegrounds in Wow.

Haven't played AoC since beta, but I get a more solid experience from WAR then I got from AoC. Mythic has done a good job thus far in my opinion. They never claimed WAR was going to be a wow-buster and I think it is a good alternative for more PvP oriented people.

Meh, to each his own.  Although the hyple-level meter was at 7.42 or so before open beta, it's at 7.35 now. 

Originally posted by Eunuchmaker

Meh, to each his own.  Although the hyple-level meter was at 7.42 or so before open beta, it's at 7.35 now. 

From what I can tell, the Darkfall community is responsible for that.

Originally posted by memoir

Oh Boy.

Oh Boy ... first impressions.

Some day I may need to do a complete review of this game. But ... honestly. I don't get it anymore. Perhaps playing too many MMO's lately. Far too critical and far too much Wow playing I suppose.

But the game is stable. That I can say. Only 1 time crash in 4 hours playing. And the fact I played for 3 hours and managed to get to 6 ( - I know - you can't possibly judge a game completely by level 6).

But ... sorry for the fan boys/girls it won't be the new "IT" in MMORPG's. What's lacking?

Well let's say you play WITH an Avatar, you are NOT your avatar. The character floats over the landscape, you are not IN the landscape.

In fact you're not IN a world it seems. I had the exact same feeling with Tabula Rasa. There is stress, there is this kind of running everywhere, but you're not IN a MMORPG world.

Cause? I think its the graphics and the general programming. It is lacking. Animation and movement of the avatar is NOT better than LOTRO. And that game suffered from it.

Saying the game is the same as Wow.... couldn't be further from the truth....

In "that" game when you approach an enemy camp, you feel it, mobs react, danger surrounds you. You are IN that camp in that world. In WAR I don't get that feeling. My character is there but everything around it isn't 'done right". Mobs don't react like they should be, you hardly ever see things as 3D world experience.

I will certainly play it in the next month and perhaps even beyond. But WAR won't stay on mosts HD very long I am afraid.

No need to react to this and say things like go away to fucking XXX etc.

Not needed . The only thing is that it is sad really. Another lost opportunity in a very small field of qualtity MMORPG's.

Opinions don't even matter. Just be sure the game won't get those 1 million subs. THAT I know after playing it for a few hours (too much MMORPG tested and played these last years).

Played 5 scenarios, did the quests, particpated in the first PQ (and even got loot in 8th position killing that beautiful giant on the third level- good design btw)., but the game isn't touching anything we haven't seen before done better on the micro scale (and believe me that counts for most). 

So this is not my final review. But a first impression and it doesn't score above TR or AoC content wise. It IS more stable and has better play value than AoC, but not much.

PvP is very odd at the moment. No one speaks. It's one group bashin another group and the bigger group wins. First scenario is weak: respawns at your camp: taking the same techniques after 3 playing already.

No this is just a first impression, so I should stop rambling I know, but it won't be a long term interest for most.

 

Back to WoW for you then - good, c ya!

Memoir, you've been trashtalking WAR from the getgo, I dont think the concept ever really sat well with you.

Im loving it and hadnt noticed any of the problems you talk about. My opinion is that your opinion is wrong. Frankly I have no idea what you were hoping for, but I wish you the best of luck with finding it. Toodles.

Really a sort of limited experience by your own admittance and yet you felt the need to bash the game, if it's not your thing and your tired of WoW then just admit you need another mmo, and in my opinion the game has none of the flaws that you point out. 

WoW is a fine game but i like the gritty realism and the attention to detail that Warhammer is bringing, it's a finely made world that will get more development attention after release.

Play WoW if you choose but leave the criticism to people that have played this game more then a couple hours.

Thankyou for sharing your thoughts and for giving a 'first impressions' review. I quite enjoyed the read. I am pretty sure I will not be getting WAR, none the less, it is good to hear opinions from players on any of the new and hyped MMO's. I have only been playing MMO's for about 2 years now. Through that time I have played about 9 P2P MMORPG's and sadly most of them do not really feel like an open and free world. Obviously due to servers, loading times and what-not, it is difficult for these games to truly be 'seamless'.

Not saying I dont like the games I've tried. In fact I have really loved pretty much all of em, at least for a few months. The way I play games, it always seemed like WAR would turn out the same as the other MMOG's I tried in the past. So for now I am going to continue playing EVE as it on of the few games that to me, really does feel open, free and full of life with plenty of players. Still looking forward to seeing how, Aion, Darkfall and some of the new 'sci-fi' games turn out too though. Thanks again for the post OP :)

i had a similar impression then the op

aoc for me looks great and has a very nice immersion, mature setting and i like the character controlls
war has awesome pvp, cool humor tons of evovled ideas and stability

if i had a magic wand id fuse both together (and add a bit of ddo and lineage 2) but as it seems i have to jump back and forth between the 2 games playing war the next few month as main game while waiting for funcom to finish aoc or break.

Originally posted by craynlon

i had a similar impression then the op

aoc for me looks great and has a very nice immersion, mature setting and i like the character controlls
war has awesome pvp, cool humor tons of evovled ideas and stability

if i had a magic wand id fuse both together (and add a bit of ddo and lineage 2) but as it seems i have to jump back and forth between the 2 games playing war the next few month as main game while waiting for funcom to finish aoc or break.

AoC is dead, not dead as in people stopped playing there are still alot of delusional people who think the game is gonna recover, but its not, the game was a major flop, NO SANE PERSON is gonna invest money on AoC, all your gonna see over the next year is the dev team getting smaller and smaller and fixes coming in at longer intervals due to lack of developers.

Totally agree with the floating disconnected avatar feeling - Lotro suffers from EXACTLY the same problem.

Don't know why these devs can't employ some really great animators...

And yes, hate it or love it WoWs animations ARE brilliant, you feel part of the world with your avatar being so responsive and alive - I'd even say this is a huge reason why WoW is so popular.

Its that little bit extra quality that sucks people in and keeps them engaged in the game.

Originally posted by donaldduck

Totally agree with the floating disconnected avatar feeling - Lotro suffers from EXACTLY the same problem.

Don't know why these devs can't employ some really great animators...

And yes, hate it or love it WoWs animations ARE brilliant, you feel part of the world with your avatar being so responsive and alive - I'd even say this is a huge reason why WoW is so popular.

Its that little bit extra quality that sucks people in and keeps them engaged in the game.

Although this issue don't have much to do with animation per say (it's more a technical issue related to networking), I do agree with you. It's the little things that count.

Not going to say the OP is wrong about his opinion but it passing judgement on only 6 levels of the game in open beta just doesn't hold enough water. Open beta is about testing and not turning it into a free trial. You can also check out warhammeralliance.com for the recent update changes coming to the game.

www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php

herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war

1. I prefer WAR over other mmos because I don't have to waste 3 hours just to raid for gear. In WAR I can just do public quests, get gear from influence rewards and RVR.

2. The pvp in WAR is better than any mmo game that is currently out now. Yes at the moment it has flaws but it is alot more fun and alot better than what other games offer.

3. Don't judge the game's content because when other game's launched they didn't have a ton of content either but between RVR and pve there is plenty to do until the expansion comes out. Plus the majority of people will be making plenty of alts just like myself. For those who can afford to play 24/7 I can see how some could say the game doesn't have much longevity but for those like me who work will not be finishing the game anytime soon.

Sad but at the same time relieved someone mention this. I didn't play LOTR for same reason. Hopefully they will fix it.. but chances are they won't.

I think developers don't realize the importance of the feeling you get from good  animations and smooth controls. And the character touching the ground of course (doh). Is it that so difficult that only WOW seems to master it nowadays? We had a good feeling with EQ! Not amazing animations maybe.. but good enough.

Originally posted by memoir 

 

PVP?

- PvP with a downtime for 2(!) seconds before the next abiltity can be played.

- Another (lag?) downtime of 1 to 2 seconds before even the castbar shows.

- Complete out of synch animation that ruins the real time feeling?

- Complete lacking Crowd Control that only contains root, knockback for the classes (no sheep, no blind, no decent stun effects, no fear, no cyclone, no nothing ....leads to zergfests - bigger group healed wins)

- And where is the "managing" class specific bar: no mana - no rage - spec energy: ALL classes same bar.

Yep that is PvP for handicapped allright. Players dying of old age should be pleased with it.

PVE?

- The first 2 dungeons are unplayable at the moment: falling through the floors. It even makes the first 2 Conan dungeons polished.

- How about some pet pathing and some "intelligent" moves for NPC instead of "waiting there".

RvR?

Where are those "epic open world keep and capitols sieges?". The keeps all have the same combat: knocking on the door - fixed siege eqt inside - NO collapsable walls (infact useless walls) and always the same strategy through the door.

What's left to brag about then?

Perhaps the professions or the auction hourse? (which 3 weeks before lauch it isn't even in yet). I guess this doesn't even need to be tested.

How much further saves on developping CUTS do you want ?

Originally posted by memoir

Well, ladies and gentlemen : today I saw the new footage of LW. Just one word: awesome.

WotLK > WAR by a great distance.Sorry fanboys/girls. :))

If this zone with all the machinery shown (land artillery and airplanes) will be non instanced, they just beat up Mythic with their own stick: open world PvP.

Yes this world pvp zone and machinery rocks, have no doubt about that. This WotLK Video show what no other War video ever showed.

The destructable fortresses are SOOOO big, The standard Wow BG's look so tiny compared to these fortresses.

If Blizzard can make this rock in non-instanced world PvP: no doubt who will win this PvP war.

I doubt they can pull this off in world PvP (200vs 200 ???), but even with lag this is a PvP dream come true. You may be a WAR fan booy/girl but negating this non instanced zone slip through your fingers, is just unthinkable.

Finally. After 3 years Blizzard delivers. Pfff about time... (sorry took my breath away or was it the 100 dash in the Olympics :)))

The moment new players will come to the zone: watch out for a slippery floor: the drooling will be a danger to your partner.

 

 

Here are two previous posts from you from a little while back.

Interesting.  I think we knew where you stood long before you had to wait 47 grueling hours to get into OB.  I bet you were just sitting there tapping your toes in anticipation.  You have been trolling these boards, and have been an avid WoW fanboy forever, and now you want to pretend to fairly judge WAR.  Give me a break, and tell me why I should even spend 1 minute more than I already have constructively discussing this game with you.

I have hated almost every MMORPG I've played for the first few days. Breaking out of your play style and expectations from the previous game, getting over the hump on the learning curve, finding the right class for you, etc...

I must have close to 40 hours played time in WAR total and I'm still learning things and adjusting my plans for my first week live. I'm also adjusting the way I play the game to maximize my enjoyment for my play style.

It's easy in this game to fall in an unnecessary rut of doing one thing i.e. playing just scenarios, just doing PQs, etc...

One theme in some comments I don't get is the assertion that PvE content is lacking. It can seem that way if you've spent most of your time grinding Scenarios or PQs, but I've sat down and played a character to 14 almost exclusively through PvE and I've found tons of content. (So far, a lot more just in my racial tier than needed to level).

Is most of it treading over familiar ground? Sure, but with in the framework of what makes an MMORPG just that, there is going to be a lot of familiarity for people who are vets of the genre.

I do agree with some of the criticisms in this thread and elsewhere. For instance, currently there are few situations were you can't pull just one mob from a crowd. Respawns and patrols can ruin your day, but knowing you can almost always pull a single from a crowd takes away some of the excitement. I'm sure this will be tweaked as time goes on.

As far as immersion in the world, you really need to focus on PvE for a while to get yourself firmly implanted in the environment. I think that's one negative for the quick access to Scenarios. They make a great diversion, but if your first four hours is playing the same Scenario over and over again, you probably aren't going to feel immersed in anything!

Final thought, I know animations, character models, etc... can be very subjective. However, as a person who has played games where these elements have made it hard to enjoy the game, I can say I have had zero problems here. It could be that some races have issues that I just haven't seen, but if so that's just more reason to advise people to try different races and classes in this game until they find something they like.

Originally posted by ProfRed

Originally posted by memoir 

 

- Complete lacking Crowd Control that only contains root, knockback for the classes (no sheep, no blind, no decent stun effects, no fear, no cyclone, no nothing ....leads to zergfests - bigger group healed wins)

 

 

 

CC is WoWs biggest flaw and its terrible pvp system makes me wanna cry and is the reason i never pvp there, minimal CC is good because players have to trust there own Health and not allways rely on someone else. Was also why i went AoC but unfortunatly the game has no point to it, stats dont make sense for raiding, if you take a battlekeep, what then? no pvp outcomes etc etc..... Warhammer is in a very fit state as it is now, it has rewards for all activitys and its all in a dummy proof guide like wow was(another reason it was popular). Im sticking around and playing i like the instant cast healing system and the way they have built there heals, all the diffrent sort of power bars get a bit confusing at first, but with a bit of time spent reading them you can understand it fast. Theres no review in the world anyone can listen to till a player has seen a touch of end game content.

I will admit that its not very gripping from the first few levels, Because most of us have been there done that and all just want to get to or be near the mid/high end content so you have more skills and options open. The only other problem i got are the spell animations are very weak, this will probally get sorted anyway. I think it will do well, apart from the BETA registration the game has nothing game breaking that will damage its sales. People will either want to play it or not. Id also liek to mention i was one of the people who was slagging this game to the ground and i actually am enjoying it alot. Maybe its because i didnt expect much but it delivered more than i thought it would.

Originally posted by Zoulz

...pretty much looks the same. I have only played rank 1-10 though, but comparing with the almighty wow you can start customizing your avatar early. Almost every piece of equipment has at least different texturing...

Oh pleaseeeee, wow is the biggest clone fest gathering ever..... i just laughed so freakign much, at that sentence, hell it was like hearing a politician meeting, gosh, when you know someone is lying to your face and he just keep doing it.

anyhow... cheers.

Originally posted by calyptic

Originally posted by ProfRed

Originally posted by memoir 

 

- Complete lacking Crowd Control that only contains root, knockback for the classes (no sheep, no blind, no decent stun effects, no fear, no cyclone, no nothing ....leads to zergfests - bigger group healed wins)

 

 

 

 

CC is WoWs biggest flaw and its terrible pvp system makes me wanna cry and is the reason i never pvp there, minimal CC is good because players have to trust there own Health and not allways rely on someone else. Was also why i went AoC but unfortunatly the game has no point to it, stats dont make sense for raiding, if you take a battlekeep, what then? no pvp outcomes etc etc..... Warhammer is in a very fit state as it is now, it has rewards for all activitys and its all in a dummy proof guide like wow was(another reason it was popular). Im sticking around and playing i like the instant cast healing system and the way they have built there heals, all the diffrent sort of power bars get a bit confusing at first, but with a bit of time spent reading them you can understand it fast. Theres no review in the world anyone can listen to till a player has seen a touch of end game content.

I will admit that its not very gripping from the first few levels, Because most of us have been there done that and all just want to get to or be near the mid/high end content so you have more skills and options open. The only other problem i got are the spell animations are very weak, this will probally get sorted anyway. I think it will do well, apart from the BETA registration the game has nothing game breaking that will damage its sales. People will either want to play it or not. Id also liek to mention i was one of the people who was slagging this game to the ground and i actually am enjoying it alot. Maybe its because i didnt expect much but it delivered more than i thought it would.

This was written because of the features and descriptions in the game's old beta forms of 2 months ago.

The present day playings were like I stated in my OP.

I never encoutered CC in the fights at the lower levels, but already I felt the lack of it. Having a stun just to free me up from the headbangers around me would have been a relief.

Like I said : no need to react even to a first on hand impression of a Wow player, but also a player who played and tested about all other MMORPG's in the last years.

It won't matter what you or I say, but what matters is what the first impressions are for those who know the MMORPG's out there. I think I summed them up very briefly and without any pretention of having the thruth., because opinions do vary in time.

I am just happy I can play now with a game, and not battling the Wow hate of a hyped myth. Because you can't play a myth.

Originally posted by memoir

I am just happy I can play now with a game, and not battling the Wow hate of a hyped myth. Because you can't play a myth.

 

Huh?  What do you mean 'not battling the Wow hate of a hyped myth.  Because you can't play a myth.'?

WoW hate doesn't come from any one game.  It comes from MMO vets who can't stand:

a) How linear it is.

b) How there is NO World PvP.

c) An end game that consists of: Endless gear grind via repeatable raiding, and repeatable arcade style PvP where you can't even advance or experience in a fun manner until you are at cap.

d) Boring linear quest based mostly solo advancement from 1-69 where the fun of item c in this list starts.