WoW first impressions

[Tallen]

Considering the FB is pretty much polished and wont vary much from the retail version, what are peoples honest opinion of the game so far?

For my part i think the graphics are great and the panorama is quite stunning at times.

The gameplay is smooth and the system works quite well, however....

Its very unorigional, to me it seems to be another mmorpg clone the same as the rest, just with some minor tweaks.

Combat is the same as all run-of-the-mill games, loot, stat bonuses, equipment, xp bars...all the same concept as the generic mmorpg cookie-cutter.

PvP (that i have seen) is a bit gutless, usually button mashing and no real origionality.

PvE is a constant stream of quests which i must admit a liking for, the quests are usually a bit vague meaning you have to do a little searching around to complete them...none of this, "head to loc xyz, kill mob x, return to me" simplicity (some are like this of course, but for most you actually have to read the quest to have any chance of completing it).

Races are, of course, based on the Warcraft games and so no real surprise. What is lacking here imo is race-specific classes. Blizzard have a great concept with faction specific classes (Shammy and Pally being unique and more powerful than the other classes), but i feel this is a missed opportunuty to introduce some real diversity into the game.

Flying, i love flying, i'd do it all day if i could

The control interface is nicely made, found it very simple being able to move with just a mouse, just a shame about the group window.

Grouping is still a bit alien to me, i find the arrangement of the character icons for your group a hinderence and its quite hard to keep track of what is happening sometimes...saying that grouping is a lot of fun and the combination of 2 classes seems to improve your effectiveness by greater than the sum of its parts.

Overall i like this game, its fun, well made and smooth. The cities are superbly crafted, panorama is incredible, but im a bit dissapointed at its lack of originality in the game play itself.

 

[Turamber]

If you wish to select other people in your group use the Function buttons - F1 picks yourself, and so on.

I hear what you are saying about the game ... there is nothing 'new' as such, it takes the best parts of lots of other MMOG's and polishes them superbly. (Saying that it could do with a Sidekick function like in CoH).

People whine incessantly about Paladin and Shaman as it is, more race specific classes would just lead to more whine - although I think expansion packs will probably introduce more gradually.

Personally I think the PvP combat is rather good, I also like the fact that all classes can solo to a degree and have a fairly wide variety of skills. I also like the minimal penalty for dying. Hopefully this will start a trend for future MMOG's. Making it hard to level doesn't make a good game in itself and only appeals to the sadomasochists among us.

 

[Ormorof]

well im loving it, though im seriously thinking of avoiding the PvP servers if the same type of morons that abound on them now are going to be staying for retail (by morons i mean people generally being abusive, greedy and damn irritating! )

play mage on beta 3 normal and its very relaxed and friendly, whereas on pvp 6 its all omg lolzor lets keeeeel1!!!111

only reason i can think of staying on the PvP server is that brother and many ex-prydwen players are there

was kinda getting on my nerves so i logged (yes, first time i logged out of frustration with WoW! )

 

[Khale]

Well I dunno if you've played DAoC but that has a lot of diversity with classes and you notice that it ain't very balanced against each other. So they kinda made a choice. Do I want completely different classes for each side and risk the chance that some will be FOTM (Favor of the Month competitions) or do I make all classes available (except for 1, maybe a test I dunno) to everyone and see how that works out. The beauty of the same classes is that if you change 1 class it will be for both sides. You wouldn't have that with the first option.

Furthermore we still have no idea what the hero system will contain precisely (many rumors about specific class names like blademaster, berserker etc.) so maybe that will bring some diversity in a class.

Then there's the Talents. Many choices available but it will be only take some time before the cookie cutter specs will come. And they are more of a boost to existing skills (although there are a few new skills in it but not that overwhelming).

But all and all I still think Blizzard has set a good first MMORPG for their company. And if I see what Blizzard has in store for us it could turn out to be a nice game to start with (like DAoC was in early days, a good game to start your MMORPG career).

PS. I'm not a WoW fanboy I do think the game has certain flaws as well.

 

[Yaemon]

Overall im pretty happy with the game.. wont be going back to Daoc again.
Levelling and crafting is more fun than it was in daoc.

How good WoW will eventually get depends much on how the pvp system develops (atleast in my opinion). Im really surprised with how smooth the game is when it comes to large scale battles.. Had a large fight yesterday with 40-50ish horde storming Sentinel hill.. but I feel that PvP needs a lot more development when it comes to rewards for killing enemies (rp system etc).

 

[Maghica]

DAoC was and will remain my most-played-game, but the posts of those 'Closed-Beta' testers got me quite intrigued and now I found out for myself why.

WoW is a pleasant change from DAoC, I actually enjoyed playing again. It takes a little time getting used to the moving-around-action and I do miss my 'face or stick' but now after a few days I totally got the hang of it.

The greatest thing is that you are not limited to only 2 english speaking servers and since I am mostly a solo/duo player for me those quests really are the greatest. While you run around questing you can gather herbs/skins or go fishing and put up a campfire to cook even!
I even found a d0rfie that sells booze in the middle of nowhere, a nice bottle of claret, broiled fishies ... what more do you want and ofcourse the view rocks also!

Trying out different race/class shows you the diversity of the game, there is a very huge difference between the worlds my Paladin or my Mage are living in. The buildings/chars/manner of speak and the 'vistas' are a new discovery for every race and will probably keep me busy for a looooooooooooooong time.

Maghica, gnome, mage lvl13
Cruella, undead, warlock lvl8
Catzilla, nightelf, bow-hunter lvl8
Bijou, human, paladin lvl7

 

[Aada]

I been playing us version now for like 2 months and i gotta say the game gets kinda boring after abit the only thing thats killing it for me is no real pvp system so i guess il judge when thats out.

However Mourning comes out soon and looks to be a truely awsome game..

Full pvp

Bloodlines

Skills (not lvl grind)

you can loot player characters

Perma death

head over to there website to check it out its being released next month and has quite a huge following already.

However i would say its pretty much for hardcore pvpers only or anyone that pvpd in UO as it has took alot of ideas from that game and expanded on them

 

[Turamber]

Sounds truly horrible Aada

 

[Aada]

Well people look at the perma death and go 'omfgwtfcrapzor'

but thats where bloodlines come into effect read the ideas on there website its not just another EQ clone its something original