Now that I've finally managed to get into the game and play for an evening, I thought I'd share my first impressions for anyone who hasn't taken the plunge and dived in with both feet yet.
I have now made it to the dizzy heights of level 5 Dwarvern Ironbreaker on the Burlak RP server. I'm trying to keep in mind that I've only scraped the tip of the iceberg in terms of game content, but as the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression and this is how the game appears to me right now.
First of all, it is definately not DAOC 2. Not that it tries to be, but deep down I really wanted it to be. What makes it different? Well primarily of course the game setting. I confess to not being a fan of the pseudo commical fantasy setting of which both the Warhammer and Warcraft worlds are set in. Give me Dwarfs, give me elfs, hell even put the bad guys in but please leave the guns and gnomish engineering. While we're at it, lets keep the witty banter to a minumum, the explitives muttered on behing hit is funny at first but gets tiring pretty quick.
Secondly, the graphics. We can argue with each other until we are blue in the face as to if good/life-like graphics are as important as good gameplay, however the fact of the matter is that for some people (myself included) they are, and this is where WoW fell equally short for me. I like my graphically environment to be realistic so that I feel fully immersed in the world, and Warhammer's cartoonesque does little for me. The flip side of this of course is the game engine's performance, I am able to play on a fairly moderate system with the settings turned up to the maximum, 30+ players and NPCs on the same screen and no appreciable graphics lag, which is certainly preferable to the stutter vision which LOTRO suffers from in similarly filled scenarios.
Thirdly, combat, the core of most modern MMOs. While writing this, I was reminded by a friend that at level 5 I can hardly expect to be able to put much strategy into combat, but even so it feels very much like an arcade game. It seems to be a case of enter combat, auto attack, spam a few strikes of various types which happen to be on the quickbar, monster falls down, rinse and repeat. Where has the fine combat system developed in DAOC gone! I want to make a block and react, evade a stab and strike back with a victorious sequence of moves. Sure it makes the system very accessible to new players (and dare I say it, WoWers), but where's the feeling of danger gone? I take no notice at all as to what the NPC is doing, just keep half an eye on the health bar with a view to running away if things aren't going in my favour (which seems very easy - is there a bug which prevents mobs from hitting you as you run off?).
Finally the quests. From the off you are lead through a series of progressively more challenging quests, possibly not as obviously as some current MMOs but about the right pace, introducing the various aspects of the game as you go. There's little doubt left in your mind that you go from area A to B to C clearing out the quests moving through progressively higher tier zones, without the feeling that you will ever return to these areas later on. The quests themselves are well narrated and of appropriate challenge, but I can't help but feel they are just there to allow you to level up to get you onto the meet and two veg of the game - RVR. Even the player quests, which to the best of my knowledge is a (great) new intellectual idea added to the great MMO pool of features that the next game "must include", feel like a quick and easy way to earn XP.
All in all I am left thinking that Warhammer is little more than an arcade game dressed in an MMO suit. Where is the epic immersion? Where is the feeling that that big orc standing in front of you with a great big meat cleaver is about to slice you in two? Where is the need to form fearless groups to head forth into the unknown to return with trousers soiled with the colour of fear? Dare I say it, where is the grind? No doubt Warhammer Online will prove to be very popular indeed
But seriously, there are some great concepts which would have worked so well in the epic environment. PVP with collision detection? WONDERFUL! But why isn't it in PVE? Why can't the forward tanks keep the enemy from reaching the soft back markers without the need of taunt tactics? Perhaps I will look back at this thread in 30 days time and think what a naive inexperienced banana I was for having such ridiculous first impressions. But at the moment, I miss DAOC
I have now made it to the dizzy heights of level 5 Dwarvern Ironbreaker on the Burlak RP server. I'm trying to keep in mind that I've only scraped the tip of the iceberg in terms of game content, but as the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression and this is how the game appears to me right now.
First of all, it is definately not DAOC 2. Not that it tries to be, but deep down I really wanted it to be. What makes it different? Well primarily of course the game setting. I confess to not being a fan of the pseudo commical fantasy setting of which both the Warhammer and Warcraft worlds are set in. Give me Dwarfs, give me elfs, hell even put the bad guys in but please leave the guns and gnomish engineering. While we're at it, lets keep the witty banter to a minumum, the explitives muttered on behing hit is funny at first but gets tiring pretty quick.
Secondly, the graphics. We can argue with each other until we are blue in the face as to if good/life-like graphics are as important as good gameplay, however the fact of the matter is that for some people (myself included) they are, and this is where WoW fell equally short for me. I like my graphically environment to be realistic so that I feel fully immersed in the world, and Warhammer's cartoonesque does little for me. The flip side of this of course is the game engine's performance, I am able to play on a fairly moderate system with the settings turned up to the maximum, 30+ players and NPCs on the same screen and no appreciable graphics lag, which is certainly preferable to the stutter vision which LOTRO suffers from in similarly filled scenarios.
Thirdly, combat, the core of most modern MMOs. While writing this, I was reminded by a friend that at level 5 I can hardly expect to be able to put much strategy into combat, but even so it feels very much like an arcade game. It seems to be a case of enter combat, auto attack, spam a few strikes of various types which happen to be on the quickbar, monster falls down, rinse and repeat. Where has the fine combat system developed in DAOC gone! I want to make a block and react, evade a stab and strike back with a victorious sequence of moves. Sure it makes the system very accessible to new players (and dare I say it, WoWers), but where's the feeling of danger gone? I take no notice at all as to what the NPC is doing, just keep half an eye on the health bar with a view to running away if things aren't going in my favour (which seems very easy - is there a bug which prevents mobs from hitting you as you run off?).
Finally the quests. From the off you are lead through a series of progressively more challenging quests, possibly not as obviously as some current MMOs but about the right pace, introducing the various aspects of the game as you go. There's little doubt left in your mind that you go from area A to B to C clearing out the quests moving through progressively higher tier zones, without the feeling that you will ever return to these areas later on. The quests themselves are well narrated and of appropriate challenge, but I can't help but feel they are just there to allow you to level up to get you onto the meet and two veg of the game - RVR. Even the player quests, which to the best of my knowledge is a (great) new intellectual idea added to the great MMO pool of features that the next game "must include", feel like a quick and easy way to earn XP.
All in all I am left thinking that Warhammer is little more than an arcade game dressed in an MMO suit. Where is the epic immersion? Where is the feeling that that big orc standing in front of you with a great big meat cleaver is about to slice you in two? Where is the need to form fearless groups to head forth into the unknown to return with trousers soiled with the colour of fear? Dare I say it, where is the grind? No doubt Warhammer Online will prove to be very popular indeed
But seriously, there are some great concepts which would have worked so well in the epic environment. PVP with collision detection? WONDERFUL! But why isn't it in PVE? Why can't the forward tanks keep the enemy from reaching the soft back markers without the need of taunt tactics? Perhaps I will look back at this thread in 30 days time and think what a naive inexperienced banana I was for having such ridiculous first impressions. But at the moment, I miss DAOC
