WoW killer- No, but it is better in many respects. 
By A1KKE6VX8VPWZK on 2008-09-16
This review is of Beta and of the first 2 days of release, there are some fine reviews further down and I suggest you check them out!
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Let me start out this review saying I am addicted to MMO's.I was in beta for Ultima Onlina, Everquest, Anarchy Online, SWG and WoW. I then went on to play each MMO for several hundred hours if not days. I played WoW for at least 20-40 hours per week for 4 years. My characters averaged 40 days played. That being said (not to brag but to say I know WoW), here is my review of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.
If there were any times that you played an MMO and thought that, something was missing... I am sure that the folks over at Mythic Entertainment thought the very same things. As the torchbearers for RVR or Realm vs Realm battle they understand how to do an MMO right from the beginning. What Mythic did was to build a game where the player vs player was not an afterthought to keep high levels occupied, instead it IS the game. After you are slightly acquainted with the interface you are then thrown head-long into battle. War is all around and they mean it. This game is about fantasy WAR and not about phat lewt, (although there is that sorta, more on this later).
Another feature that is built in is the amazing Tome of Knowledge. If you ever downloaded addons for WoW for use as a record keeper then you will know how this feature works. The really cool part is that this tome is utilized as a bragging tool and it also unlocks character titles. It keeps a record of the number of mob x you have slain, the number of sales to merchants and so on. You'll have to see it to completely get the power of this tool.
Another great feature is the open group system. Being I am almost 40 years old and have 2 kids of my own, the last thing I want to do is log in and be begging for groups with pre-teen jerks angry at the world because some girl turned them down for a date...etc. How the open group system works is there are areas you may be running through and need to kill "X" monster. Well just run into that area and do a group lookup. You will see who is there what step they are on and bam! you can join them. You don't even need to talk to them "omg roxx0rz!".... As long as you participate in the quest and don't just stand there then you'll get the quest done. Which leads me to the final cool feature;
Public Quests (PQ);
Public quests are there to help you complete quests that require a group. Basically same as the open group system except that these quests have several stages and you did not have to have this quest before you came to the area. You can join in at any point in the chain and depending on how much you contribute to the final boss section then the better the loot and experience. So you could walk away with a healing potion or the Sword of 10000 truths. Whatever you get it WILL be usable by you! That's a huge difference from WoW.
So why all the WoW comparison? Many people will say that this is WoW 2.0. I will have to disagree with that. Let me explain it this way. If you are into playing first person shooters. And say, you are looking over the barrel of your gun. Is Gears of War a Wolfenstein 3D ripoff? Well that viewpoint (looking over the barrel), comes directly from one of the first 3D shooters ever (Wolfenstein 3D). Mythic has the same sort of complaint against it. "It is trying to be like WoW too much". To be honest WoW took alot from Dark Ages of Camelot which was the MMO pre-wow. The look of the orcs comes directly from Games Workshop which is where Warhammer comes from. If you are playing an MMO would you rather the players playing not have an idea how to play or would you rather everyone could play pretty well on their own. Being that mostly everyone coming to Warhammer has played an MMO before it is a benefit to everyone that Warhammer has a "similar feel" to all other MMO's that predate it.
The game allows for massive customization of your character. You can customize it internally. Meaning you can get abilities and skills that are more about power on the field of battle and less about the glowing codpiece of doom. The graphics are at this time (just after release) moderate and do use DirectX 10 to some extent. They are scheduling to allow people with ubermachines to ramp the setting up soon. Just realize though when you get 200 people on the field fighting, you may not wish to be able to count the nose hairs on each player, instead blast them first and count nose hairs later.
I am beginning to get the feeling this this is a much more mature players game and less for the kids to show off in. It's like that Nivia for Men commercial, " they got to see me, I got to attract them somehow". Being there isn't a huge glowing customizable look it may be off-putting to some that feel they NEED to have a glowing sword. The artwork in this game is amazingly real and very beautiful.
Final thoughts, the look of this game is one of realism and is very close to what tabletop Warhammer players would find appealing. You can play greenskins that are crude and really fun to play, or be a serious Von Helsing type character that looks like a swashbuckling hero. Either way you should have no problem finding something you like among the 20 classes.
Hope to meet you ingame!
Exactly what I needed
By A268EEWUXYCA8Q on 2008-09-24
Mythic knows how to run a successful MMO. They make the big, hard decisions. When class balancing and fun was at stake, they cut four classes in order to both balance the races, but also because the classes weren't up to snuff. And when all six capital cities were being problematic, they took out four of them and will release them as free content later.
Coming from Dark Age of Camelot, a game that unbearably belongs to the first generation of MMOs, Mythic decided to take the Warhammer lore and craft a game that they know best: realm versus realm. Warhammer Online (WAR) takes everything they tested, tried and made work from DAoC and pushed it forward into a new generation. Writing this review is tricky, because on the surface WAR is like most MMOs out there. But it's the details and the small things that make it something completely different.
Let's start with the way the game is set up. From the beginning, PvP is important as one of the first quests you receive will be to complete a scenario. In this way, WAR emphasizes its committment to more than PvE. In fact, a PvP'r could spend his or her time entirely PvPing and level all the way to the endgame. It helps that scenarios are constantly running and chances are you'll be in one before you know it.
The distinction, though, is that if you don't really care much about PvP, there are other opportunities. Firstly, literally hundreds of quests are out there, each with rewards that are specific to your class, meaning you won't be doing a quest for a nice axe that you, a healer, can never use. The zones begin as approximately 80% PvE content, 20% PvP. As you continue through the zones and into different tiers, that percentage will change, but there will always be PvE content.
One complaint I hear all the time is "I don't like PvP," which usually means...I don't like to be ganked by people twenty levels higher than me when doing a quest. Don't blame you, which is why the PvP system in 90% of the WAR servers is perfect. PvP only occurs on your terms, by entering a designated zone. Stay out of those zones and you won't have to worry about that pesky Bright Wizard. What about balancing in the zones? I don't want a level 40 PvP'r heading into a level 1 zone and laying waste to everyone. Don't worry, if someone enters a PvP zone too low for them, they are turned into a chicken.
Then there are the dungeons, all made to be completed by a small group and not some bloated raid. And with each dungeon being split into wings that should take 1-2ish hours to complete and having armor sets, there's plenty of fun content to be had.
But that's not all. Spread throughout the entire game are approximately 300 (according to developers) Public Quests (PQs). These PQs are areas within each zone that are open to everyone of your side to participate in. No matter whether you're grouping with someone or not, you'll contribute to the various stages of these areas (stages that range from killing a number of things, fighting a boss like a dragon or destroying urns) and, when the PQ is over you roll on a loot bag. What makes this work even better is that each loot bag will have a piece of equpiment that your class can use, guaranteed.
Additionally, there's a bar that tracks your story chapter's PQ progress and awards you three different items (usually a potion or talisman, followed by equipment and then a weapon) as you progress through three tiers.
Awards abound at every turn, even in PvP as you are tracked separately by your PvP level. At certain levels, or renown ranks as they're called, you'll have access to not only powerful equipment but also renown skills that will help you in both PvP and PvE. But let's not stop here; each of the race pairings have zones that are grouped into tiers, with tier four being the high content. Each zone has PvP areas with towers and, as you progress into tier two and beyond, keeps. Both sides (Destruction and Order) can take over a keep and, if your guild is high enough in rank (more on that later), you can capture a keep in your name.
But keeps are also treated like PQ areas, being populated by NPCs and a very strong leader that also supplies equipment. Fighting into a keep can turn into epic encounters, with siege weapons, rams to break down the keep's walls, boiling oil for the defenders to pour onto wouldbe attackers, places for ranged attackers to unleash devastating spells and arrows...it's quite a rush to be involved in one, especially as both sides start to get more aggressive, calling in reinforcements to help.
And as the game progresses, these types of battles become more common. Which is a huge difference from the elephant in the room, World of Warcraft. WoW crafts a similar structure, with two side duking it out...but it was never meant to be a truly PvP-centered game in the way WAR is. From the very beginning, you are immersed in this warfare, from the very first level all the way to the end and beyond.
And all of this is before you get into how many bars/levels there are to tackle. Sure, the game is capped at level 40 at launch, but that's not taking into consideration that each chapter of PQs has a bar with loot associated to it or that there's 80 renown ranks that will take a lot of PvPing to hit, or that your guild actually levels up to 40 based not on how many members you have in your guild but on their accomplishments, a system that benefits both small and large guilds. Guild ranks are actually important as they provide you with a ton of abilities, from being able to carry benefit-providing standards to having a guild vault to access to guild auctions, crafting vendors, quick flight paths to the dungeons, the ability to take keeps, etc.
There's just so much here, so many shinies to grab your attention. And it's all tied into the Tome of Knowledge, a large compendium that tracks everything you do from quests to accomplishments to titles, etc. It's so indepth that you have to wonder how Mythic pulled it off. And pulled it off, they did. WAR is a monumentous game that feels as relevant and genre-shifting as WoW did when it came.
So, there you have it. A very rambling review that didn't even touch on half of what the game has to offer (did you really want to be here for another century?), but will have to remain incomplete. Because, here's the thing. Even when you strip away all the little details, the leveling and all of that junk that I spent forever typing about, what we find is...this game is fun. And diverse. And it's just what I wanted and needed from a MMO.
A Better Comparision with World of Warcraft patch 3.02
By A3FVRUH0YAAWRI on 2008-09-17
Note: You will not understand this review unless you have played World of Warcraft (WOW) and know the game well.
------------------ Graphics ------------------
Graphics are beautiful, colorful skies and atmosphere, though more realistic earthly colors than WoW. You can color your own gear with dyes. Character creation has many different hairstyles (braids, free flowing, locks, short cut, bald, ponytail, bifurcated) and effects (ie glowing eyes, tattoos, scars).
------------------ Game Mechanics ------------------
PVP:
Enter BGs from LV 1-40 anywhere, anytime through a button on your menu. After the BG, you will resume whatever you did before you left for the BG. You gain EXP, $, and titles for PVPing in battlegrounds. You can PVP your way to LV 40 without PVE-ing. Every 10 levels (tier) you will PVP in completely different BGs. So you can't play the same BG again unless you are in that tier (ie WSG only accessible from LV 1-10). If you are low level, WAR will level you up for the BG temporarily (ie from LV 4 to LV 8). If you are 10 levels above a person you're trying to gank, you will be turned into a chicken (ie Unlike WOW, a LV 70 can gank your LV 10 arse forever).
Public Quests: Random PQs go on in all zones. Just enter the scene and fight. No raid OR party needed. If you participated enough, you will get extra bonus points on your /random roll and have a higher chance to win loot.
Leveling: Built-in Quest Helper mod directs you to quest destinations on minimap. Keyboard mapping, NPC trainers, Buying/selling, AH, and movement is similar to WOW with a low learning curve. However, WAR is laggy, requires polishing, and melee/spell actions are not as instant as WOW.
Server types:
Open RvR (Realm vs Realm) meaning PVP - very little safe spots like WOW's PVP.
RP (Role play) - Serious reputation, do not take lightly. Much more intense RP than WoW's RP servers.
Core (normal servers) - Predetermined PVP areas like WOW.
------------------ Story ------------------
Warhammer has 25 years of history, since the 1980s. The history is very well developed and linear, unlike WOW, which is slapstick comedy at best due to its lack of linearity and flip-flopping changes to the storyline. You can read your own history and lore as it develops while you participate in quests (menu option -"Tome"). This is pretty much the same thing as WOW's "Achievements" system.
------------------ Music ------------------
There is very, very little music. Most sounds are ambient, background noises, yelling.
------------------ Raiding ------------------
As for raiding, I have not experienced that part yet. I have not seen any instances around my level however. Are they any? Please comment if you do know of them.
------------------ Social/Guild ------------------
No lack in player base, however there is a dearth of public chatting overall. Most chatting is within the guild. Guilds gain exp points and level up as the players in the guild level. Guild taxes allow you to tax your guild members on all their loot a % amount.
------------------ Opinion ------------------
If you enjoy PVP, buy the game. WAR has many, many opportunities dedicated to PVP in many different BGs. WAR has more PVP opportunities and BGs that are unique and exciting. So far, Bright Wizards are OP. There are many tanks/healers on the Destruction side with a shortage of ranged DPS. A lot of ranged DPS on Order side and not enough tanks. IMO, I don't think women will enjoy playing this game in comparison to WOW. It is more for the hardcore PVP gamer focused on the mechanics. There is little chatting involved, little hang out-type crowds, and all about leveling. 'Course, I've only been in 3 servers, maybe it's different on other servers...
Great game. Give it a try. 
By A3PVOW5WGDIEZP on 2008-09-17
This really is a great game. At first I thought I would hate it, but it grows on you fast.
Ignore all the negative things you have heard about it. The graphics aren't bad, they were locked on low during beta. This game doesn't need a super computer to play. It isn't a copy of WoW. There aren't many bugs and it is having a pretty good launch.
So what is good about the game? This game is about RvR combat (good vs bad). Starting at level 1 you can pvp and get experience from it. You don't have to level to 70 then spend 6 months raiding for gear just to pvp. The classes are very well balanced. The fights take longer then 5 seconds. Leveling can be done many ways including pvp. This is player vs player combat at it's finest.
Don't want to jump into pvp at the beginning? There are lots of quest and a great story line. Want to solo? You can do that easily. Want to group? There are public quest where you will learn to group, get great gear, experience and meet some new friends. Are you a casual player? This is the game for you. You don't have to devote you life to it.
In no way do I mean to put down other mmorpg's. They are great as well. Warhammer has enough of "other games" built in to please the masses, but has fresh new gameplay to make you want more.
Does this game look like WoW. Yes, but it is totally different. In Warhammer you are either Destruction or Empire and there for one reason, you are at WAR.
Best Game Ever or Game of the Year? You decide!
By A1F92EK0MUNOVR on 2008-09-22
"Warhammer is to PvP as Warcraft is to PvE."
That sentence should sum it up sufficiently for a lot of you. But I'll elaborate:
Warcraft took over the market not by doing anything radically new and special, but by taking common fun elements from a lot of other games and packaging them together with a good interface and a solid game engine. The really special thing about WOW was that there was nothing special to complain about, provided what you wanted was a PvE game -- players fighting the environment (monsters, quests, computer controlled bad guys in general).
Warhammer is taking almost exactly the same approach, but where WOW focused almost exclusively on PvE, WAR is focusing heavily on PvP -- players fighting other players.
There is nothing radically special about Warhammer as a game engine. It's not going to knock your socks off. The graphics are a small step up from WOW but still clearly aimed with "mass appeal" in mind (where "mass appeal" means "runs on 4 year old computers"). The design elements are things you will recognize from other PvP games. But like Warcraft, it takes these pre-existing elements and packages them together very nicely in a game that lacks the major flaws of its predecessors.
So to rephrase my first sentence a bit, World of Warcraft brought PvE to the masses. Warhammer Online is bringing them PvP.
And I think they're ready for it.
Warcraft whet your whistle with battlegrounds but Blizzard has never really understood the potential place of PvP in a game. Here we are, what, 4 years into WOW's lifespan and there are only 4 battlegrounds? And some Arenas you can run across in the space of 15 seconds? They toyed around with open world PvP, but nothing serious. And yet despite these limitations, a lot of WOW players spend a lot of hours playing battlegrounds, Arenas and looking for an excuse to get into open world PvP. People who are into online gaming generally expect to be able to engage in battle with other online gamers and WOW's failure to deliver on this has always baffled me. A lot of players want more PvP.
Warhammer gives you more. You can literally create a level 1 character, plop down into the world and immediately, without moving, queue for a PvP battleground ("scenario"). In your first 11 levels you have 3 different battlegrounds to choose from. Your next 11 levels will open up 3 more and I'm not sure how many open after that (I haven't gotten there yet!). You may find yourself engaging in meaningful world PvP ("RvR" -- Realm vs Realm) within your first day of gameplay. You certainly will if that's your aim.
However, they didn't completely abandon PvE. The only thing I think you'll see missing compared to WOW are the breadth and depth of "epic endgame PvE raids" -- WOW's bread and butter, the semi-mandatory "honey, hold all my calls, I'm going into a dungeon for 2 hours" gameplay that WOW made into its core. In Warhammer you'll still find ample numbers of regular quests and even some dungeons if you want to take a breather from PvP, but you're not meant to spend 2 hours locked into a dungeon fighting a computer. They've also done an interesting thing called "Public Quests" and "Open Groups" but I'll let you read up on that elsewhere.
Long story short, I won't say that Warhammer is a "WOW killer" because frankly they're going after different audiences. However, anyone playing World of Warcraft for the PvP element is wasting their time. Warhammer Online is the holy grail of PvP gameplay.
- Don't just look at the number of stars
By AVR42AUPGWHHV on 2008-09-19
To people checking up on the reviews, trying to make their minds up about whether to buy this or not:
Please read all of the low-scored reviews. Most of them are poorly written, based on beta experiences, or simply a low rating because Amazon handled the pre-order system poorly. I highly recomend reading all of the reviews, how many people found them helpful, and maybe even some of the comments on them.
Having said that, I simply love this game. I've been playing it for a few months (from closed beta through head start and now post-launch) and I've got no real complaints.
This game is more polished at launch than most games are a year after release. Set your worries of another Age of Conan type launch aside. This is a complete game, the functions are there, the mechanics are there. They were in beta for an extremely long time, and put that time to good use.
Gameplay: 5/5
This game doesn't revolutionize MMO gameplay. It's standard WASD + numbers, point-and-click interface. The interface is admitedly very similar to WoWs. But it's also similar to AoC, EQ 1 and 2, DAoC...the list goes on. If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Most classes have a special mechanic, from the Ironbreakers Grudge, to the Shaman's Waaaugh! to make each class feel different and interesting.
Innovations they have made:
Morale abilities: powerful 60 sec cooldown abilities that you get access to by staying in combat for long periods of time
Tactics: Buffs (7 in total when maxed out) that you gain from leveling, exploring, specs, and Tome of Knowledge (see below) unlocks. These can drastically alter your play style, or subtley boost abilities that you particularly like.
Tome of Knowledge: The completists best friend. Thousands of unlocks for doing anything from slaughtering X number of Rats, Skaven, Ghosts, players of a given class, etc, to exploring a new area. Some unlocks give you a background story for an area or character, others give you a new title. All of them give you free experience, and for people like me who love to explore every corner, it's fun to try to find as many of these as possible.
Graphics: 4.5/5
People complain that it's the same as WoW. Spend 30 minutes playing this on a decent computer and judge for yourself. Screenshots may look similar, but once you're in game, you see the difference as easily as night and day. I find myself going through areas that seem similar to WoW sometimes, yes, but more often than not I find myself wandering around gazing at the environments liveliness and thinking "no way....there is NOTHING like this in WoW...not even close"
The character animations (especially casting animations) are particularly interesting. OH, and the Goblin jumping animation is the best thing ever.
Sound: 4/5
Music is a bit sparse, but good when it is playing. Sound effects are very good, I personally turn the music off and play my own through iTunes quietly with the sound effects on in-game.
Customer Support: 5/5
I feel sorry for our European counterparts who had such a hard time with Open Beta. Having said that, in the good old USA, it's been one of the smoothest launches of MMO history. Server outtages, lag, downtime, all of the things that you associate with a new MMO? They're gladly missing.
- Welcome change of focus in the MMO genre
By A2ODKTFCD2Q9QP on 2008-09-18
Warhammer Online is all about the RvR (Realm vs. Realm or another way of saying PvP). The game is broken up into Tiers that represent a block of levels for a player (ie. Tier 1 is levels 1 - 10, Tier 2 is 11 - 20) and each Tier is filled with both RvR content and more traditional PvE content. The forces of Order and Destruction are in a constant battle to control each zone, which gives your side bonus in the form of things like reduced prices at Merchants.
There are large areas made specifically for RvR with capture points as well as a keep that must be assaulted and controlled in each RvR area. Taking these keeps pushes your side much closer to taking control of the zone, but you also help the WAR effort with almost everything you do, including participating and winning Scenarios (similar to battlegrounds in WoW except more varied and more PvP oriented).
My favorite scenario so far is one where a single artifact must be picked up and held on to. Killing enemies while holding the artifact nets your team greater points than without and while you are fighting to protect the artifact carrier, the other side is working to bring him down ASAP. Definitely leads to some intense battles.
Outside of the RvR content there are the awesome Public Quests. They are almost like mini-raids, that anyone can join in and at point and participate. They are generally structured into increasingly difficult stages. At the end everyone who participated gets to roll on bags of loot, where those who contributed the most get bonuses to their roll. In addition to the bags, each group of PQs has Influence rewards that are chosen when you get enough Influence, which you gain from participation in the PQ it itself, so you are guaranteed an item eventually. These can be lots of fun and are a nice change of pace from the standard quests.
The Tome of Knowledge is a great addition to the game as well. It's basically a quest log on steroids. Just about everything you do in the game is tracked and you receive acheivements from completing various activities. These achievements yield experience and can also yield titles for your character or even items you can wear. There are even achievements for things like fighting in RvR with no armor, or clicking on yourself 100 times.
Not only do characters level, but guilds do as well. Everything you do in-game contributes to your guild's rank, which gives you perks like a guild bank, guild auction house, and even a standard that you bring to battlefield where you can unlock stat bonuses for using the standard. In addition, the major cities in the game have levels as well. Completing quests in the city among other things will increase it's rank and allow your guild to use some of the bonuses it's earned, as well as unlocked more city PQs and instances.
The launch has been moving along pretty well and considering the starting point, it will be great to see how the game grows in the future. Definitely recommended for any MMO fan that enjoys battling it out alongside their fellow players. Where games like WoW focus more on the PvE content, WAR focuses much more on the RvR and it shows.
- Generic run of the mill MMO with poor visuals
By A2J6CU6VA3ZH56 on 2008-09-16
After having played most of the classes and features and checking out everything there is to check out with Warhammer Online, I have say I'm completely disappointed.
First of all the graphics. Wait til you see the character animations and faces, you'll cry, they are that bad. The graphics for everything look like they took the 1999 EQ1 engine and slapped on better textures. All the items look blocky and from a game 5 years ago.
There is NO character customisation, because they don't care about the poetic or roleplay side of the game, the whole game was designed for kiddies (PvP) who love to run around murdering others in a virtual environment.
I can't believe that in 2008 we're still hand animating running and fighting instead of motion capturing real actors. WoW, EQ2 and LotR are still LIGHT YEARS ahead of the graphics for this game. Even Vanguard walks all over it visually
The gameplay is standard MMO fare. If you like playing MMOs you'll like playing Warhammer, if you hate MMOs you'll hate Warhammer. It's just another MMO, nothing innovative. Love em or hate em.
But playing Warhammer just felt clunky and out of date. Give this a major miss and stick with WoW or whatever you favourite current MMO is.
- An amazing MMO
By A109IF09XK3YNQ on 2008-09-20
Summary
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Client Stability: 10/10
The installation completed without issue. The initial patching process was swift, taking approximately 10 minutes to complete. Subsequent patches have taken between 10 to 30 seconds to download and approximately 15 seconds to apply. I haven't experienced any crashes, poor latency, or any other anomaly associated with a poor client or connection.
Setting and Presentation: 9/10
The graphics and animations are clean, vivid, and adequate - they serve their purpose well but they're nothing ground-breaking. The overall setting and ambience is terrific.
Player-versus-Environment Gameplay: 10/10
There's a wealth of PvE content - thousands of quests, many quest hubs scattered throughout the various zones, a huge world to explore, and unique implementations such as the public questing system and open parties
Realm-versus-Realm/PvP: 10/10
RvR/PvP is heavily focused upon in Warhammer Online, and it does not disappoint. Combat is well balanced, there are many organized and instanced mini-games to play (known as "scenarios"), and a complete system for realm-vs-realm combat that allows the capturing and occupation of zones
I picked up Warhammer Online via pre-order. I participated in the open beta and was allowed to begin playing two days prior to the official release. To date I've played around nine days worth of Warhammer Online at between two and four hours a session. I've attained rank 13 (they refer to levels as ranks in Warhammer Online).
Class
------
Warhammer Online features a large amount of classes to chose from - 20 to be exact. You join the ranks of either the armies of Order or the forces of Destruction. Order is composed of your standard fairer races such as high elves, dwarfs, and men. Destruction is the seat of beastly races such as goblins, orcs, and dark elves.
I chose an Ironbreaker, a dwarf whose main job is to "tank", which is to soak up incoming assaults and defend his allies - your standard warrior archetype from many other MMO games. Core strengths are a large health point pool and exceptional damage mitigation. Many of the Ironbreaker's abilities have a secondary effect, such as a temporary increase of defense or some negative effect upon your enemy.
In addition to an action point system that is similar to the energy bar rogues use in World of Warcraft, the Ironbreaker also utilizes what's known as "grudges". You accumulate grudges each time you're attacked, and they can be expended to perform attacks and skills. The more grudges you have the more powerful your abilities become.
Ironbreakers can swear an oath with another friendly player/ally. When doing so, any beneficial "buff" that are granted by your abilities are also bestowed upon your ally. In addition, each time your ally is attacked you accumulate more grudges.
The Ironbreaker's duty in RvR/PvP combat is to intercept opposing players before they can reach his allies, buff and otherwise increase the effectiveness of his allies, and hamper enemy forces with an array of movement impeding abilities. In addition, Warhammer Online features collision physics, meaning it's possible to physically block another player by merely placing yourself between them and your allies.
Setting and Presentation
-------------------------
* The presentation, graphics, and sound are superb. A fair comparison would be to first visualize stylized animation-influenced graphics of World of Warcraft. Now, take away the cheerful music, corny shtick, and slap stick comedy. Replace them with more detailed textures, better realized landscapes populated more thoughtfully and purposefully (no wasted space or large open ranges of game world filled randomly with bears, wolves, and pigs), and throw in dynamic and immersive computer-controlled elements. There's a vivid ambiance of world war that remains constant.
* The world transitions between PvE and RvR areas in a very organic and natural way. War camps exist between PvE and RvR areas that play into the lore somehow and serve as launching points and safe havens (well, relatively safe) for players looking to venture forth and conquer the enemies battlements. While you're never very far from any battle front, you are not forced to travel through RvR areas. You can safely progress and explore the huge world without ever exposing yourself to RvR.
* The zones are HUGE and filled with many, many things and places to see, quest hubs that feel alive, and points of interest that populate your Tome of Knowledge (more on this later) when you discover them. The underlying theme of "war is everywhere" smacks you in the face as soon as you step into the world; the very first thing I was greeted to upon entering the game world was an artillery battle between dwarfs and orcs. This rampaging war has remained a constant and prominent theme.
PvE Game Play
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* Quests are plentiful, and the limit of quests that can be actively pursued is quite high. Quests come in the form of personal quests, public quests, and RvR-related. The game designers appear to have made a conscious decision to deviate from the typical "kill X amount of beavers and bring me their tails" school of class design. 99% of the quests I've accomplished were of a more interactive variety. Mundane kill quests are regulated to certain "kill collector" NPCs, who I suspect exist to satisfy grind-loving players coming from World of Warcraft and other grind-prone MMO games.
* Public quests (PQ's): littering the world are scripted events that all players in the area can contribute to and participate in. Some are realm only and occur in areas where members of the opposite realm likely are not to be present. Others place the forces of Order and Destruction into competition to complete the objectives first.
When you enter a public quest a dedicated area within your UI is populated with pertinent information: the current stage of the quest, the goals or objectives of the current stage, and the progress made towards reaching those goals. If it is a competitive PQ then you will also see the opposing realms progress. The top contributors are rewarded with special rewards upon the successful completion of a PQ - more on this later.
* Warhammer Online also introduces the concept of "open parties". When you form a party it is filed into a category depending upon the type of activities your group is currently doing: RvR, PvE, or PQ. Players looking for a group simply open a tool on their interface, look at the available groups, and choose one. Voila. No more dealing with angsty tools that want to critique your "build" or class before you join their party. You can make your party private if you wish.
* The "Tome of Knowledge": Your Tome of Knowledge keeps track of all of your accomplishments, statistics, and experiences. It contains a bestiary complete with illustrations. It provides historical information (lore) about the zones you've been to, notable characters you've met or defeated, battles that you have served in, back stories for public quests, etc. It also keeps track of all of your quests in excruciating detail. The Tome of Knowledge is a very strong and immersive tool for players that enjoy PvE, and especially role playing. It essentially becomes the player's own personal account of his or her time in Warhammer Online.
For example, imagine you just entered a new zone and are directed to aid an encampment that lies North of your current position. You access your Tome of Knowledge and read up on the history and lore of the area and of the camp you're visiting (why is it there? Who's founded it?). When you arrive at the camp you find that you're in the middle of a public quest, perhaps the residents of the camp are laying siege to a nearby orc fortress. Your Tome contains a history behind the PQ, including pictures and maps and links to other material.
* Gearing up your character is not a time consuming task as it is in World of Warcraft:
- Quests offer selectable rewards that are tailored for your character; you are never presented with a reward that your class cannot use.
- Enemy players occasionally drop loot when they are vanquished in RvR
- You gain "influence" by contributing to public quests. Influence can be spent to purchase gear from special vendors. These vendors are found within every zone, sometimes as many as three per zone (that I've personally seen). Each vendor sells three unique tiers of rewards. The first tier consists of potions, the second armor, and the third weaponary (including shields).
- You can also purchase RvR gear, known as Renown rewards. The gear that is available for purchase improves as your reknown rank grows. I was able to purchase my first set of RvR gear at about rank 4 without participating in much RvR at all. So as you can see, unlike WoW, Warhammer does not force you to progress deep into the game in order to start reaping the benefits of RvR.
- When a public quest has been successfully completed all participants engage are automatically entered into a lottery of sorts. The players that contributed the most to the public quest (did the most damage and/or healing for example) are given bonuses to their rolls. The highest rollers are able to select a loot bag from the PQ chest (which appears at the conclusion). The loot bag contains a series of selectable rewards for the players: always one peace of gear (weapon or armor), some crafting related items, occasionally potions, and some currency.
- Repairable items also drop from mobs in the world. These are of varying quality and can be returned to usable condition by vendors. And, as is the case with all MMOs, loot drops randomly from mobs. More powerful gear is dropped by enemies in dungeons or instances.
* Class specialization and advancement is predictably linear thus far: you gain one or two skills per level, and can begin specializing (also referred to as "speccing") when you reach rank 11. In addition, you are also able to spend RvR rank points at special NPCs to further specialize your character.
Realm versus Realm (PvP)
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* RvR/PvP is less about big hits and crowd control ("CC" - stuns, fears, roots, etc) and more about maneuverability, timing, and exploiting enemy weaknesses. It may resemble WoW PvP when you see the videos on Youtube, but I assure you it is infinitely more balanced and tactical.
* Scenarios ("Battle Grounds" in World of Warcraft) can be queued and played anytime and anywhere by simply clicking on an icon next to your mini map. Each contested region has two scenarios that I'm aware of, bringing the current total to six. Some are basic "king of the hill" type games, some are capture the flag, and others are based upon raw conquest. On my server, Averheim, the typical wait time to enter a scenario is about 2 minutes during prime time and about 10 minutes in the middle of the night.
* When you enter a scenario as a low level your rank is adjusted to make you more competitive - referred to as "bolstering". You do not gain any of the additional skills or attacks associated with your enhanced rank, merely the additional health, mana, action points, etc. This helps to even the playing field and allows players to be viable and have fun even if they're many levels lower than the intended audience. You will still be slightly weaker than a player that is of appropriate level, of course, and you will be at a disadvantage skill-wise since your arsenal is more limited. But, at least it gives you a fighting chance. This is in direct contrast with World of Warcraft, where lower-level characters that participate in battlegrounds are vastly weaker than other players and have a noticeably negative impact upon their team.
* If one side holds all of the RvR objectives of a particular set of zones known as a "Teir", they essentially push the battle front back to the next tier of objectives. There are four tiers in total, the final being the opposing army's main city. Yes, you can actually lay siege to, capture, and then sack entire cities in Warhammer Online.
* You gain experience by killing players in RvR, capturing objectives, and participating in scenarios. You can progress and gain ranks/levels on RvR alone. My personal experience: I quickly gained over half a rank in a short amount of time doing nothing but PvP my second night on the game.
Conclusion: if you enjoy MMOs, there's really no good reason not to give Warhammer Online a try.
- There's a new behemoth on the MMO block
By ARXGKOCF0G0UB on 2008-09-19
INTRO
Let me start by saying I have been playing MMO (massively multiplayer online) games since the original Everquest was released in the 90s. I've seen many games come and go, and I've seen many fail. It is my belief that this game is destined to succeed by epic proportions!
NOTE: This review is based on gameplay in the beta up to and including the first 2 days of release. It does not cover high end content.
GAME PLAY AND PRESENTATION
The world of Warhammer is not new. It has actually been around longer than Blizzard's World of Warcraft. And, much like WoW was at its release, it is exciting to see the Warhammer world take shape as a multi-player game. Warhammer Online has a comfortable (and very customizable) interface. Players coming from other MMOs will feel immediately comfortable with the game mechanics, and the visual feedback is intuitive and easy to navigate. Some noteworthy additions are quest locations shown right on your map, a dual targeting system (that keeps your last friendly target targeted for you healers out there), and several inventory management improvements over other games (for example, your quest items no longer take up space your main inventory slots - they have their own tab). Graphics and sound are very good - as would be expected in today's game worlds. And the atmosphere exudes WAR!
PLAYER VS. PLAYER
Warhammer was built from the ground up as a PvP (player vs. player) game. Having played WoW on a PvP server, I was a bit concerned about this aspect of the game - I like the occasional PvP battle, but I hate getting "ganked" when I'm trying to just level in the game. I was pleased to find out that, even though WH is PvP to the core, it is presented in such a way that the PvP doesn't become a hindrance to the game play, but it instead becomes an integral part of the experience. First, the fear of some super high level character coming by and annihilating you with one shot is removed, as any high level character going into a low level zone will be turned into a chicken that can only do 1 point of damage. Second, much of the game world is only PvP by consent: you have to say you want to participate (or attack someone else that is participating) to be flagged for PvP. Third, there are battlegrounds - explicit PvP zones - where you can join in the carnage by simply clicking a button on your screen. Don't feel like battling? Don't click the button!
Another major part of the game experience is RvR (realm vs. realm), in which you can choose to participate in massive battlefields that include such wonderful excursions as laying waste to entire enemy cities. Being able to take part in a massive war with hundreds of real players is an exciting prospect! Of course, there are plenty of rewards for participating in battles, so the desire to participate is even higher.
PICK A SIDE
From the second you enter WH, you are very aware that the world is at war. You can choose to create characters on the good side, or the evil side. And let me say - the evil side isn't the "little bit" evil side, but more the "stab you with a knife and eat your puppy while you bleed" evil side. Either side you pick, you will find a wide selection of classes to pick from. And each race has a very uniquely presented atmosphere that doesn't look like any of the others. It is interesting to note that neither side has the exact same classes, so you will be a unique force on the battlefield.
PLAYER VS. ENVIRONMENT
Although WH has been built from the ground up as a PvP game, it also provides ample content for those days when you just don't feel like PvPing. The PvE (player vs. environment) content contains much of the same look and feel of many other MMO games: plenty of quests to complete and creatures to slay, many dungeons to explore, and even a limited tradeskill implementation. Besides these normal experiences, PvE content has been extended in ingenious ways. For example, players can participate in PQs (Public Quests). Simply walk into an area where a PQ is occurring, and you will be notified of what is going on, what needs to be done, and how long the players in the area have to complete the tasks. There is no need to talk to anyone, or group up with random people. Just walk into the area and you are automatically part of the quest. As you participate, you actually build up influence points - a kind of currency that allows you to purchase special items from a vendor in a nearby town or outpost. Running the quest a few times usually ends in an enjoyable experience, as well as some new loot (and that's why we play these games, right?). But, to make the PQ system even more interesting the player is rewarded by participating more. At the end of the quest, [x] number of players will receive a special loot bag containing goodies - the system will automatically roll for each player to determine if they win. Players who helped the most will receive a bonus to their roll, increasing the chance they will receive some goodies.
CONCLUSION
Overall, I was extremely pleased to get an invite to the beta for Warhammer Online. I am enjoying the game's unique presentation to an increasingly competing market. There are plenty of new aspects to WH that makes it stand out among all of the other games out there today, and that will certainly help to spark a renewed interest to those that were starting to get bored with the "same-old" offerings from other games. If you are totally 100% against the idea of PvP, then this game might not be for you. But, for everyone else - even those that only casually enjoy PvP games - this one is a keeper!
- Very disappointing
By A2M1R62VDEI7QY on 2008-10-10
I don't understand why there are so many positive reviews on Amazon for Warhammer Online. I believed 'em, bought the game, and couldn't last more than two days (of intense playing - I got a good 16 hours /played in).
Let's look at the main "pros" that others have mentioned:
Balanced PVP
Public Quests
PVP is "balanced" only because there are only 5 classes when it comes down to it - tank, DPS melee, ranged melee, ranged caster, and healer. They don't vary enough between race - for example there are differences between the Shaman and the Runepriest but I felt as though I was playing the same character - in PVP you just click the same buttons over and over but the graphic/animation is different...you get used to seeing the same animation over and over very quickly. People talk about strategy - yes the strategy is to conquer the areas and stay together as a group. That's it, stay together as a group - thats the extent of the strategy. This might as well be WoW. Well...that was entertaining for the first hour or so, I guess?
Public quests are interesting until you realize you have to do the same one over and over and it takes eons to form a group. I couldn't believe how lonely I felt in the game. You'll see in some other reviews - in general people don't talk in game. I might as well be playing by myself - in fact I will be because this game is going back into the bookshelf.
Overall this was a very disappointing experience. I stopped playing WoW because the PVP was frustrating and unbalanced....in my opinion Warhammer Online does NOT live up to being the alternative most people are looking for.
Update:
As you can see I got a few comments on this review, mostly from people who are obviously enamored of this game. Since having initially written the review I got bored and put another 2 days of playtime in and ultimately got myself up to rank 20 as a Dwarven Runepriest (having gotten up to 10 with several other class combinations).
Some of the comments misinterpreted my statement about forming groups...I know that you can join a group in an area by clicking under your portrait/name. That will generally hook you up with 2 or 3 other characters...but it takes a whole heck of a lot more than that to achieve success in your average Public Quest. Also, this type of grouping system contributes to the feeling of loneliness I was talking about - with such impersonal grouping you're just lumped together and go around killing things - each player only interested in what loot they can get and not in socializing (since they didn't even have to socialize to get into a group to begin with!). I hate to talk about socializing this much because I can sense that the fanboy minds out there are just waiting to jump on that - "errr, maybe you don't like PVP games, go back to your chat rooms, nub!". I bought this game for PVP, according to my initial review, remember? But PVP ain't any fun when you feel like you're playing with a bunch of bots!
A few others have accused me of not liking MMORPGs. I beta tested and played Ultima Online, I beta tested and played Everquest, I played World of Warcraft, I played Guild Wars, and now I've played Warhammer Online. I've got a decade of MMORPGs...it isn't that I don't like them. All of the games I just mentioned are more fun than Warhammer Online, with the exception of Guild Wars (god, that sucked!). So, if you liked Guild Wars, maybe that means you'll like this game? (faulty logic, I know, I'm kidding) In fact, let me say it to placate the Warhammer Online fanboys who think I have nothing good to say: If you liked Guild Wars, you'll love Warhammer Online! Buy it now!
I stand by my original review - after this latest attempt at playing, I've had it, just uninstalled this beast. This game is garbage - if they can't make the first 20 ranks fun, I'm not going to blow another 3 months in the hopes that the higher levels will somehow be more fun (looking at any MMORPG we know that isn't the case - when you max out it just becomes a grind).
- I honestly hate this game
By AIPJK5O8JYWCX on 2008-11-13
I was really looking forward to this game but it has turned out to be a game that I really really hate. Everyone keeps saying give it time, just wait, they will fix the issue. BAH! Here is my beef...
I am a PVE person, I don't really enjoy RVR or PVP. PVE content is shallow at best. The Public Quests (PQ) are fun IF you can find enough people to play. Most of the time, only the first PQ has anyone and the rest are empty. So much for one of the best ideas of the game. There really isn't enough PVE action to justify spending [...] bucks a month trying to grind out a level. Want to play solo, not this game. You HAVE to RVR which means you are thrown into a group of strangers who couldn't play their class to save their sorry little lives.
RVR.. What a joke. Lv 1 characters are thrown in with lv 10s. Can you say not a chance. The same issues as you level up, characters 10 levels higher than you will beat the snot out of you. The healers will only stay alive is they have a wall of tanks to protect them but wait... No wall of tanks. Most people in this game care little about team work and couldn't work together to make toast. Healers try to DPS, another joke. Casters drop very very quickly. Not to mention, your own spells hurt you. What a horrible stupid idea. As if you weren't easy enough to kill, now you can do your enimies a favor and blow yourself up while trying to DPS. Did I mention what a STUPID idea?
I tried (I really really tried) this game for 2 months but I just have to walk away. It had great potential but only people who want to beat on other people will find any enjoyment in this game. Anyone else who wants depth, look elsewhere. (I know there isn't much out there at this time)
This is the only game where I had to log out after 30 minutes of RVR because of frustration and anger. I am a long time MMORPG gamer (EQ, EQ2, WOW, Vanguard, etc) and have enjoyed many years of fun games but this one truely will give me an ulcer if I continue to force myself to play it. You will find rabid fans of warhammer who will die trying to protect its honor, but when 5 of my friends who started the same day I did all left the game with the same issues, there is something seriously wrong. This is one of the few games and only MMORPG that I truly hate. Sorry warhammer, I will spend my money elsewhere.
On a side note, you would think mythic would know something is wrong when their paying customers are fleeing the game. The population levels are so low on the servers that they are offering free transfers to get people on the same servers.
- Kind of Sad
By A1JNGE2D4808DL on 2008-09-18
I have been playing online games for a while DAoC, WoW, CoH, CoV EQ etc.... I figured I would try this game for a break from WoW, since it has been 5+ years since I played Mythics DAoC I thought the game play and graphic as well as the servers would be better. It made me sad to see they are using almost the exact same game engine from DAoC, servers a tad laggy (have not had a big raid to see if they crash like DAoC always did when you went over 200 players in an area). They did a good job trying to change up the normal mmorpg classes (i.e. no real stealth) but it is the standard Mythic leveling treadmill and slow progress (much slower than WoW, although perhaps I am just much better at that game). Quest system that shows general locations is a nice change. Overall I just cant get over the graphics and general lack luster appearance of the game (and yes I have the settings all maxed on a beast of a computer system). I wouldnt plan on dumping any other MMORPG accounts to play this one, but I realy wish I had waited for a 10 day free trial or something that wouldnt have cost me $50.
For having years to work on interface and game engine issues there should be more of an improvment in quality and usability. Perhaps as it evolves it will get better. With WoW still strong and WoLK coming soon I would bet this game will suffer the same slow death of DAoC.
- Really?
By A2FXK0LJX1XKJB on 2008-09-19
After all the hype and this is what this game looks like? Really? I don't care if it's got a kergillion quests and solid PvP, it looks like 2001. Like watching Tron after watching Return of the King. The game was made for Windows 98 and is simply trying to be WoW, but not. I won't renew no matter how many updates they make because the basic game engine is retarded and ultimately insulting to gamers. Activating a Fire Storm in Guild Wars looks better (way more satisfying) and it's three years old. What the h3ll were they thinking?
ZERO and I mean ZERO customization options. Let me repeat... NO CUSTOMIZATION. A coupla hair styles and some skin tone and that's it. Really. My gawd, it's making me what to go back to the hinky and horrible Age of Conan just to feel like I'm in the 21st Century.
You'd be better off playing one of those free Asian mmo's like Shaiya or Perfect World. Even the worst game on an XBox 360 looks better than this one.
Knock, knock... it's 2009. We've all got multi-core processors, state-of-the-art graphics cards and 64 bit computers (well ok, some of us do)... hello? Anybody home? Jeez, what a freakin' let down. The trailers were SO a con.
- This game is so much fun !
By A39KFTH8S609TZ on 2008-09-19
GOOD POINTS:
-- Graphics are creative, colorful and inspiring.
-- The Public Quest system allows you to get the advantage of a joining a raid (big monsters, big fights, big rewards) without having to deal with typical raid/guild politics.
-- There's real world PVP to enjoy. In fact, you get XP from PVP.
-- The game is pretty smooth, stable and unbuggy for launch, so that's great.
-- The classes are relatively balanced. Most important, the class abilities and spells are FUN to play and explore.
-- The Realm-Versus-Realm experience really does give you a sense that you're part of a larger war
-- It's not a grind. You level up without really noticing it. There's no boredom from treadmilling from one level to the next.
BAD POINTS:
-- None so far.
- Don't let the negative reviews fool you!
By A3U3M5QZQ7JEFE on 2008-09-19
Warhammer is such a great game!
The graphics are amazing! There is such great attention to detail that it is very easy to become immersed in the game's environment. This coupled with a great musical score and exciting game play really adds up.
The servers are very stable. I have very little lag even during realm versus realm combat.
The game has done away with many of the time consuming and/or annoying aspects of some other MMORPGs like long flights from location to location, downtime for drinking/eating in player-versus-player combat, constant interruptions of game play in order to repair equipment, looking for group systems that require you to stay in queues for hours just trying to get a party going to name a few. There is none of that in Warhammer. Mythic really did a good job of making a game this is more fun to play and less like a tedious job.
The lore is great and the story lines are engaging. Public quests are fun, quick and challenging. Realm-versus-realm combat is very easy to find and you can start off fighting other players at level 1 if you choose to. You are able to level from 1-40 from realm-versus-realm combat, player-versus-environment or a combination of both, whichever works best for you.
The user interface is highly customizable and very user friendly.
There are still a few minor graphical bugs but they seem to have ironed out most of the bugs that affect gameplay.
I was hesitant to stray from World of Warcraft after playing that game for 3.5 years and investing so much time an energy into my characters. It is understandable that many World of Warcraft players will react negatively to a new MMO on the scene but please give this game a chance. I've only played Warhammer Online, Lineage II and World of Warcraft so I am no expert on MMORPGs but based on my experience this is the most fun I have had playing a MMO to date. I highly recommend it!
- Frustration hampers fun
By A24CZIF3XO1BIS on 2008-09-20
I heard all the hype about this game about it being the hope that gives WoW a run for it's money. I decided to give it a try, having met my ends with WoW and still trying to fill the void of free time available. I went in solo - my friends were hesitant to get into a(nother) MMO.
PvP is where the game is at and I really like that I can jump in at level 1 and still compete with the higher levels, since your stats are bolstered to level 8. Personally, it's great that I can level up this way and get decent gear from a merchant, but ultimately, if you want to win you still need more levels to be effective since you won't have as many skills or good enough gear as the level 10s. Who wins usually who has more the higher average level and player skill levels. I often find people too cowardly, who turn and flee which invites the enemy to charge and take objectives. It's really frustrating since I play as a healer. Playing as any other class, I find it frustrating since I receive little to no support, so my game play essentially evolved to being a front line battle healer.
Doing solo quests is super easy as a healer. I often go rambo and run through multiple things using DoTs and instants to kill stuff and HoTs and instant heals/shields to keep me up. I can solo pretty hard stuff, but when it comes to public quests, it's a lost cause up with DPS classes in terms of contribution. If I come late, like in phase 2, I might as well forget about a chance at getting in on a loot bag roll. Oh well, each class has it's positives and negatives. It's still frustrating though. I can imagine many quests being difficult for non-healing classes, so I'm grateful that I chose being a healer.
I really didn't notice it at first, but after hearing other people complaining about it, I really found the game quite buggy. I thought it was lag with the number of people around, but the way animations and spell casts work where if your spell is delayed from taking hits and/or repeatedly mash your keys, it's hard to tell if spells go off and cooldowns are triggered without you knowing it. Like I would cast my cast time nuke while 3 things are beating on me, while attempting to cast my instant cast right after, which has a short cooldown. It would bug out and I would lose use of my instant for an unknown amount of time. The same with my flee skill, if I tried to use it as soon as it available after cooldown... it would drain my power, but not give me the speed buff. Annoying while traveling.
The graphics are ok, but aren't spectacular. It's really weird how when watching others fight, their animations seem to skip frames (slideshow style). It might be a setting to reduce CPU calculations, but I never seen that in any other game.
The people you are playing this game half decent folk and half scum. The amount of perverts in this game is disturbing. Naked elves running around begging and flirting. Especially disturbing when you know guys are playing them. Elitists and "back-seat commanders" will yell at anyone who do not meet their expectations. They charge alone into the middle of 4+ enemies and expect to to kept up. Although, I find myself doing the same at times, I don't expect to be kept up. Back-seat commanders will sit back contribution no more than the worst player on your team and berate others for being horrible. It's really frustrating to put up with such people. As you get higher level, the population thins out and public quests which were full of people only have 3 or 4 total and the end boss really needs a tank. Don't go out to elf lands expecting do these with only witch elves, sorcs, and disciples of khaine on the field.
Quests are sometimes buggy and frustrating. There were times I had a very hard time finding things. Typos in quests (go to the forest to the north when it was actually east), odd completion method that appears as a sudden dialog pop-up which cannot be completed if you accidentally close it, and needing to get/kill rare things in which you end up competing with others with (who refuse to accept group invitations).
Solo PvP outside of the RvR scenarios isn't great solo when you're doing quests. There's so few people around on your side that getting help killing someone is totally unexpected. I couldn't kill a tank from their side, but they couldn't kill me, so I tried to flee since it was pointless. The guy actually kept me snared (-50% run speed) all the way back to my town. I couldn't believe that he wouldn't give up until he saw level 55 guards. Oh, and about those level 55 guards... they're placed in outposts and will kill you in one shot. I stepped into a dwarf bar and right inside the door there was a level 55 guard waiting and I instantly realized that I guess a siege on a small town is frowned upon. I mean, the max level a player could be is 40 and I doubt that anyone can survive one of those guards.
I haven't played long enough to see the keeps that you are supposed to siege, but I can't wait. It's a very frustrating road and I think my money I put in this has gone to waste. Comparing my experience in this compared to WoW's level 1-30, WoW was challenging and fun, but wasn't rewarding in terms of in-game loot all the time. This game's rewards are always useful, a gear upgrade, potion, or money. I'm not sure if the economy will be as good in WAR, but WoW has a fairly decent one.
The interface is terrible in general. I can't tell what's going with me and I often run into range and line of sight issues trying to heal people. The reticle system helps to alleviate a bit, but I guess I miss WoW's interface. If someone put a nasty drain/debuff on me that took away my action points, I would like to know.
Overall, I can easily say this isn't a WoW-killer. It doesn't even come close. I'd consider this a B rated MMO. Needs much work and to be paying $15 a month getting a trickle of updates and dealing with downtime... no thanks. Especially when you half to deal with an online community, half consisting of unfavorable types which I would like to avoid.
- Good features but very buggy release
By A1BUM32V46OG33 on 2008-09-21
I've bought a copy of this game as a replacement for warcraft.
Good parts:
I like the graphics, the environment is a lot more exciting. Things are always blowing up, fighting is going on, houses burning. It does give a good sense of excitement.
The quests are a lot wilder. For example in warcaft they had a quest where you would beat lazy peons with a stick. The Warhammer version of that for the greenskins is you take the lazy peons, and stick them in a feeding barrel for a troll.
A lot of the abilities are pretty cool also.
However, the game is really, really buggy.
Some of the major ones:
When I installed the game, it wasn't added to my program menu, and there was no shortcut to it put on my desktop. I had to sort through the different files to find one that would load the game.
Terminal crashes - When the game locks up so I have to load it again or I exit it, I'm not able to play the game again unless I reinstall the whole thing. I use the perform full file check but it doesn't do anything. The screen just flashes and I can't play again unless I reinstall all over, and repatch everything which takes forever.
Laggy:
I have a high speed DSL connection, a decent graphics card but I'm still seeing the game freeze up from 5-20 seconds frequently during play even with the 'fastest framerate' selection. Thats a game killer in pvp.
Flaky intros:
Some of the intros work, others like the chaos faction I regularly just get a black screen with someone talking.
User agreement: I find myself having to click ok to the user agreement over, and over. Every time you logoff to try a different character you have to do it, or your server disconnects and you try to get back in. Worse, it comes up IN BETWEEN other menus. So you might have it on your screen while you're in character selection. Having to sign it every time you play is annoying enough, you shouldn't have to sign it over and over again during the same playing session.
Some of the class features with pets are really buggy too. I find my squig hunter's pet controls dissapearing with no way to get them back other than to summon a new squig, or my pet will randomly dissapear or I'll get multiple pets instead of the one you're supposed to have.
I'm hoping they'll be able to fix some of these issues soon, it looks like once they get the bugs ironed out it will a really good game.
- You can stop at anytime. No midnight or 1am, why am I too tired to go to work days.
By A23GI8RZPK93F2 on 2008-09-23
I've been playing MMO for awhile, meaning I'm one of the millions of ladies who began playing with the WOW movement. I continued through my 12 steps of getting out of wow and still had the entertainment from other MMO including a few Betas which have not seen daylight.
Warhammer online is not a replacement to WOW, but with a few years of content upgrades to it's PVE content it may be, or it may just be another game to play when you're done with WOW (it happens, I promise, or when WOW is down for the day). It is on the other hand a much better set up for it's PVP environment. It's friendly for young folks joining, has swear filters for those who desire them already turned on, has good sysop support for problems, and a friendly MMO audience well versed in new players, player support, and MMO intro. It wont have you upset to the point of tears because you can't play, your gift can't be enjoyed or used, or it's constantly down for hours the days you even have time to play. You don't have to worry about logging in before you start dinner so you only have to wait 30 min for your que to be over.
I say congratulations on their set up, and foresight. This was the smoothest I've ever seen the first few weeks of an MMO go. Honestly it's smoother and has less interruptions to play than WOW did for the 3 years I played it. The strange thing, I've played it. All weekend. ALL WEEKEND. I think I got kicked for 1 min and was back on in 3min. Just amazing.
You can play anything, any part of the game, at any time and aren't horribly disadvantaged because of the adjustment that interveins and modestly adjusts you to play RVR in an area. So you can PVP with your friends who played all the first 2 weeks and your level gets adjusted so you can hang out or they can have a character in 12 or so levels from you and you can all get together. Lovely. You find groups incredibly quickly if you want. There isn't a 30 min delay while WOW asks you to waste time staring at your flight screen ( get a drink, make a sandwhich, watch tv.. oh.. is it time for me to play again?), or 3 hours waiting to get a party for an instance, because you can only have a certain numbers and even then you need certain folks, and even then, it take 3 hours to do and you need to find folks who aren't going to leave in the middle so it takes you 12 hours to do one scholomance run, and these are the 5 folks dungeons.. not the 40 or 20... etc. Just so much hassle. Waisted life. WAISTED. Still played it. Almost 1 year total /played (if characters added).
So quick. Everything is refreshingly quick in warhammer. Play for 15 min, for 30, or for hours. Quick, lvl quick, never feel too low to play anything, always something to do. Some fun to be had. PVP (or RVR) EVERYWHERE in multiple fun ways. Or ignore it all together and play the game PVE (which is short).
There have been at MOST 15 min - 20 min portions of my time where I didn't want to log out to finish something. Easy stopping points. No life remodeling to play this game needed. Thank you. Thank you Warhammer. Seriously. If this was another of those, I'd have to sign off the whole class to remain functional in society and still play. Seriously. You can play this MMO and have friendships and life emergencies. And just enjoy your play experiences. Just well done for the lifestyle.
Thank you.
- Nide
Cons:
It's new and they are doing updates. It's a short game PVE still. Some of the PVE quests need someone to run through them and ask the question, is this fun? (wow had the same problem, hense Ohforf's comic with the rat quests). Some begining instructions are on some races and not on others. I'm still not sure how one puts points into subsections to rank up. It did needs some outside support for play, but those websites made by fans are already set up. Thank you warwiki and wardb, will fill in those gaps, but they are gaps. I miss buffing folks not in my party when you pass them as a social greeting.
Is the view similar. Yes. Folks who liked the look of WOW will like the play/look of this. They went for more realism in shading/skin look/color choices (not are orcs real, seriously) which may have been difficult back when WOW launched, may like this. You can see your characters, have really good control of your image on your screen. Which helps me get into the play. I like it and am happy they have it in there. That and it's fantasy and has a similar spell bar. That's it for me.
For both, still need the chat overlay Ventrillo or others to be a contender, especially in RVR/PVP. But really is a joy. Playing both, it really is different. I thought it was going to take the place of WOW in my heart, and I really am enjoying it. It's not the same. I can't wait to see this game in 3 years. I've got 2 more healing classes to play through. I can't wait. A fun game. Grab it and enjoy.
- WAR is amazing and offers a lot of new features.
By A37AO20OXS51QA on 2008-09-27
First off, I played WoW for 4 years, and though I enjoyed a majority of my time there, some of the drawbacks never were resolved and some other annoyances cropped up over time do the nature of a PvE-loot-focused game. a LOT OF THE PROBLEMS OF WOW ARE FIXED IN WAR.
What WAR does superbly well:
1. RvR or PvP - REALM VS REALM - Mythic is the master of RvR, from Dark Ages of Camelot, and they have perfected it in WAR. You can literally join the WAR from level 1, and RvR all the way to rank 40 if you choose. There are scenarios (battlegrounds), open RvR just fighting people at random, and keep/city sieges. Keeps and Cities are taken by storming the castle walls with siege equipment and battering rams, defeating the players trying to slow your advance, and then slaying the Keep Lord or City King..and then they try to take it from you. Scenarios are plentiful, with 3 at tier one (levels 1-11), 3 at tier 2 (levels 12-21), 6 at tier 3 (levels 22-31), and 9 at tier 4 (levels 32-40). They include many different objectives such as capture the flag, plant the bomb, murderball, and other variations and combinations to always keep it interesting. 21 scenarios at launch, and WoW gives us 4 stale battleground after 4 years of making 150 million dollars a month? Its hard to fathom.
2. PUBLIC QUESTS - Yeah, you've read about them, yeah you might have an idea how cool they could be. This is truly innovative and never-before-done in ANY MMO to date, and its incredible. There are anywhere from 2-7 Public Quests in each map. They are so easy to join, just walk into them, and you can participate in them from any part. They are 3 stages long and when completed, you receive a participation score based upon you healing and damage, and add to that a random roll to see who wins the loot bags. And all loot bags always have about 6-8 options in them, and the gear ALWAYS matches your career.
3. OPEN PARTY SYSTEM - If you hated finding people who inspected your gear and deemed whether you were worthy to join their exclusive club..fear no more! You can search all open parties with 15 minutes of your location, and join them, its that easy. It can be for a PQ, some RvR, or just some regular old PvE questing. Ingenius, and future games won't be able to ignore this amazing feature.
4. CLASS BALANCE - There is no OP class. People keep asking, ok who is the warlock or druid from WoW that can just steamroll people. THERE ISN'T ONE. Each class has many strengths and weaknesses and abilities to lend to solo, small group, and large battle play. THE NAME OF THE GAME OF WAR IS SKILL AND TEAMWORK.
5. MONEY IS NOT AN ISSUE - You easily gain enough money from RvR and questing to pay for your training, your mount, and even a few pieces from the AH, with plenty to spare. This will really keep gold farmers at bay, as there isn't much of an issue with being able to buy epic gear for thousands of gold like in WoW. You earn gear through Renown Rank, which you can do solo, in small groups, or huge warbands.
6. REALM BALANCE - each side, Order and Destruction, is capped at a certain equal population to prevent one side from having an unfair advantage. My server is always full and thus equal on all nights and weekends, making for a fair and fun fight!
Some other seemigly minor, but amazing features:
1. No corpse running. You respawn at the nearest camp.
2. No item decay, no repairing.
3. No food or water, incredibly short downtimes.
4. No flight paths to learn. Once you are the level, you can fly there.
- Laggy, unstable, not good enough
By A151R01M3AL59K on 2008-09-29
Run on a 2.6GHz Intel with 2G RAM, GeForce 6200 Video current drivers, Win XP SP3. Using the White Tower server.
This game runs like a dog. The disk is thrashing continuously (yes I have defragged it) and the lag is abysmal. The whole game runs like WOW IF on a busy day. It crashes periodically (once every 1-2 hours) with no error message. Some areas are so dark you can't see a thing but there is no way to adjust the brightness. I got spammed by gold diggers within 5 minutes of starting play and I can find no way to ignore players, report spam or any of the things I expect to be able to do. In fact the game is most noticable for all the things the player cannot do.
One other thing is the mob respawn rate is way too high. Several times I got agroed by 3 mobs and by the time I killed the third the first one had respawned and agroed again. I estimate the respawn time is about 30 seconds for many of the mobs. Perhaps Mythic thought a lot more people would be playing but there are very few players around.
The graphics aren't really that good either - not noticably better or worse that WOW.
Better than PotC, worse that LOTR, much worse than WOW.
I liked a few things about this game. The map highlights the areas that your open quests reference. Now that I think about it, that was the only thing so far I like.
- Its ok...
By AM8RLO5K85ALN on 2008-10-04
Terrible graphics compared to all other games out there, monotonous quests, same old MMORPG style with nothing new. The public quests are cool, but more often than not, no one else is around to help you with them. I was very disappointed. ...But it's better than Everquest II.
- Imbalance
By A2OKU05HZ2OD5X on 2008-09-20
I originally give this a 2 star rating for this game. And it still remains a 2 rating after 30 days of playing.
Warhammer has gotten better since its release, the primary reasons being the result of the quick and rapid fire response team from Mythic. Client stability issues have markedly improve since its release. Framerate is still an issue, but is acceptable at the (highest framerate) when in PvP. It still have lots of improvement, but for now, I am at least enjoying the PvP without periodic crashes.
However, the obvious imbalance is a problem. It's not a secret that Desto line in Warhammer has been given an obvious advantage. Mythic's marketing emphasis on Desto chars also proves the point. Face it, Desto chars and landscapes are much cooler than Order. And the buff/debuff/enchant for the Desto line are much better than Order, especially at lower levels. It is not a wonder that fully 3/4 of Warhammer population chooses the Desto line, rather than Order. This translates to more Desto controlled region, more Desto controlled realm. That is to say, all the much hoopla about RvR will never materialize, because there are not enough experienced Order characters to play against. And if they were, they were of lower rank, and pretty much underwhelmed in their skill sets.
Often times (too often in fact) the Scenarios that I am in, is suddenly terminated because of this imbalance, a dozen Desto vs just 4 Orders. And this is increasingly becoming a turn-off for me, hence my return back to GW.
They are attempting to improve this though, with increase rank and renown points for Order for a certain period of time, but they have got to do more than just this. Their marketing emphasis have to be equal on both sides, not just a heavy bent towards Desto. Order skills sets have to be improved and rebalanced, especially at lower levels. The Order characters could be made more fun, and/or stronger/sexier, e.g. Sorceress (Desto) are pretty much nikid, whereas all Order chars are all fully clothed. Order Elves, male & female alike looks like those Emo Sissies without a clue, whereas Desto Dark Elves are lanky, tall, sexy, curvy and have purposeful mean attitude. Desto Chaos are tall, strong, gruff and mean, Order IB (IronBreaker) otoh are short and stumpty and looks like your bearded grand father.
RvR is too hyped, the obvious imbalance (heavy bent towards Desto) that is designed into the game, cannot and will never be able to sustain the RvR play style. Warhammer will ultimately become just another PvE gameplay that fails to live up to its potential.
***************************************************************
My original 2-star review below:
1. Toon movement is not fluid. It's very toony, ala WoW.
2. RvR is an interesting take on PvP. But I have seen this before with Guild Wars Factions. Compared to GW's PvP, War PvP is off by a thousand mile to the primitive side. It's just point and click folks. What's up with not being able to hit anything unless you click something. No death penalty, ok, but the respawn rate is way too long. And they need to limit the chars that can play RvR to lvl 15 or something like that.
3. PvE lacks depth. But I care less about this anyway. So not much comment here.
4. Buggy as hell.
If I can sum it up, War is a cross over between WoW and GW. A lot of people have commented that War is the WoW killer. But I think each has its place. If you are solely looking for PvE, then I would suggest WoW. If you are for PvP, then I would suggest GW, its monthly tournaments is one of the best in MMO world. If you are are for a lite PvE with a dab of lite PvP here and there, and if you withstand the bugs, then War is for you.
- Off to a Shaky Start as usual
By A1RMGCJY22YIMZ on 2008-09-20
Looking at this game reminds me of another hasbeen that tried to infiltrate the PVP market and failed miserably. Anyone remember SHADOWBANE??? The activities in this game remind me a lot of that one and because this one is also so pvp based it is already doomed to failure. The market out there is PVE based. Most and the majority of people buy and play these mmorpg games for the PVE elements, even Guild Wars massive population is PVE based though some do delve into the PVP aspect, but, and this is a BIG BUT, pvp is by choice and not forced and that must remain with all mmorpg games present and future if they want a massive subscriber base. The developers are in for a rude awakening if they think this game is going to hold a million subscribers with so much pvp the emphasis of the game. The AMerican and European market just aren't into pvp like the koreans and asian markets. Linage I & II really have that pvp market sewed up.
So, in a nutshell I don't recommend buying this game unless you are a PVP fanatic because that is the main element of this one. This isn't a WOW by a long shot since WOW is dedicated to the PVE element. It's better than a Guild Wars in the pvp atmosphere, but, I think Guild Wars 2 is going to solve that issue as it too will have realm vs realm type atmosphere/wars like this, BUT, without destroying the PVE game or forcing people to participate in the PVP element. As you can see the price is already dropping drastically from the initial retail. People are already trying to unload this as a lost cause.
- One of the best MMOs out there
By AZKROJ6S1JNE4 on 2008-09-22
Ignore the negative reviews, this is a great game and something definately different from most of what else is out there. The graphics are not the top of the line, but they also are NOT bad. In a game designed for massive RvR battles you can not have top-end graphics as the majority of the subscribers'/buyers' computers would not be able to handle the game.
This is a game rich in the Warhammer legacy, and the RvR aspect is done outstanding. They took what made Dark Ages of Camelot (DAoC, also developed by Mythic) great, added in some of the really good concepts that have come in from other games since then (auction houses, some quicker travel options, certain instanced-RvR scenarios) added in their own innovations (open grouping among other things is great, and the public quests are awesome), and topped off the wonderful concoction with the least down time of any MMO I have ever played when it comes to "levelling", which with the additional bonus of the levelling being far more fun and interesting with the Public Quests and other features than any other game I've ever played.
It's not a perfect game. Even if the graphics can't be top-of-the-line, it would have been nice to have more customizability (although some of this was dictated by Games Workshop who want the game to adhere very strictly to their "ethos" and background). The crafting, though unique, is not as strong as either WoW or DAoC either.
But minor issues asside this is a game that offers something no other game out there does, and it does it in an extremely fun fashion. Big thumbs up on the game.
- Painful
By A3DZJMUU7NGR4T on 2008-09-27
This game is painful both literally and physically. The physical pain may not seem like a big deal, but makes it hard to play for a long time. The cause for the pain is that you cannot swap the mouse button actions. As a VERY left handed person, that is a big deal. After about 30 minutes of game play my forearm and shoulder begin to hurt. That also means that I cannot navigate around by using the arrow buttons, which I have become very used to. This may seem very petty. If you think so, swap your mouse to the other side and rearrange the buttons. Now, try to play WOW for a while. You will see what I mean.
The first metaphorical painful item that I ran across is in the startup screen. You are forced to watch each company logo for everyone involved, plus the game's logo. It's kind of like they are trying to say isn't this cool when all I want to do it get to the game. If that was not annoying enough, you then have to accept the terms of service EVERY SINGLE TIME I start the game. Good grief, that's annoying. Once you finally get in, now you get more annoyance.
The next painful item is character creation. First, you are locked into picking Chaos or Order from the very beginning. You cannot change your mind unless you change servers. That's not really a big deal, but annoying. Then, the character creation is not very good. There are several options to change, but the impact of each change is very slight. The only characteristic that has much impact is hair or tusk. Otherwise, the changes are so subtle that it is not really worth doing.
The rest of the pain has to do with the game play. The content is very weak. It is not very interesting story lines. Now, I do like that the map shows regions where you can go to work on a quest. That is very helpful. As for the characters, the characters have very little interesting actions. The movements are boring and robotic.
When I look at this game, I feel like I am playing a game from the late 90s. It very much reminds me of Dungeon Siege, the original one. It was a good game ... for its time. The bar has moved, and Mythic did not keep rise to it, let alone surpass it.
As for the skills, they are a real mess. OK, I get not really explaining what all they are and what they do. What I do not get is why they do not give you any in game explanation how to use them. For example, I chose Alchemy as the crafting skill. When I tried to make something, the only thing the game shows you is where to place the ingredients. Now, what ingredients do I need? Well, there is no recipe anywhere to be found. If it is just trial and error, then that is not very interesting to me.
The game is not the worst ever. At the same time, it is not worth the time and money I invested to play it. My advice to you would be to only buy it if you are really bored with whatever MMO you are doing now. I mean really bored.
- Ok game, it was just not my type of game
By A1D29LCVKK1W1Y on 2008-10-05
I have been monitoring the development of this game since it was announced roughly three years ago. I quit playing World of Warcraft for at least couple years and had been anticipating this release with great enthusiasm. I was a DAoC player prior to WOW, so I had great faith in Mythics to deliver another great mmorpg. After the release of WAR, I played for couple weeks and got two characters to lvl 15 and lvl 17 and I had enough. I am disappointed with WAR. I played WOW for about an year and half after it was launched, and WAR only lasted me two weeks. Here is my reasons why I canceled my subscription even before my first free month:
1. The graphics and environment lack personality. The graphics is not bad and not great. It is just average. I don't feel immersed in game. This is one of the major disappointments.
2. Quests: in this game you can earn experience points and realm rank points. I did mostly RVR to earn both experience and realm rank points. I almost stopped doing standard quests or public quests. Standard quests are just too boring for me. Public quests were more exciting because you do it with many other players, but there weren't that many people doing public quests. I played in a high population server and had real hard time finding folks to do public quests in tier 2. So everyday I logged on to join scenarios to RVR and leveled from 1 through 17. I had just too much RVR and the game started to feel like a first person shooter game than a RPG game. This is my second major disappointment.
3. The sense of community is lacking. 99% of time I only see guild chat. There is rarely any chat in the public channel and not much chat in scenario channel. Even when a keep was under attack, no body said anything. I always called up the map and see if there was any battle going on in a keep. Even when I made jokes in public channel, no body cared. I mean seriously, this is not a single player game, say something...
I was sincerely hoping that WAR would be more fun than WOW, and would bring back memories of great fun and originality of DAoC. Perhaps I set my expectation too high, and became disappointed. I just don't enjoy playing this game, and cancel the subscription.
- Tons here and even more to come.
By A295GMS743T019 on 2008-10-06
I have been playing warhammer since open beta. I had a lvl 8 witch hunter in open beta, and currently i have a lvl 26 warrior priest.
In this game expect to discover something new and exciting every day. Exploring in this game is very fun, and very rewarding, so its encouraged. PvP feels real, no class is "overpowered" and each class has something to add to a team.
Combat is very fun even as a dedicated healer. Keep seiging is brilliant and very stratigical. You feel like your a unit in an RTS, no mmo has gotten pvp as good as this game.
PvE is fun and is a great alternative to pvp. The pve content is enough to make it so you can dedicate your leveling to pve and still enjoy yourself. The only problem is finding others who think the same way you do. I've found it pretty easy to find pve groups, although it is a bit harder than pvp.
At this time there are a few bugs in the game, but the devs are constantly fixing them, and your feedback doesn't go unheard. Customer services is top notch in this game, and you never feel your wasting your time by submitting feedback.
Main cities are amazing, even at my level i have yet to not find something new. For example, yesterday i wondered into a house and found a lvl 40 instance beind a hole that lead to a sewer. I also found an enormus instanced place in the main city ( i believe is endgame content) that seemed like some type of seperate battlefield themed world. This game is simply breath taking, and is only going to get better.
-Edit-
Just to give you insight on how fun it is, this is what happend with my guild yesterday:
I log in to a frantic guild leader telling all 35 of us online at the time to hurry to the keep in badlands. We paired up with another guild we meet there, so total there was about 60 of us taking down a keep owned by destruction.
We break through the frist wall no problem, as we approach the second wall we are meet by about 4 destruction players who we easily kill. We go to break the door down but we are meet with hot acid and cannons. Our ranged dps takes care of them, then we finally build the ram and break down the door. The keep lord wasn't a problem and the castle feel to us, our standard bearer with flag in hand planted it on the floor taking the keep in the name of our guild.
About 15 minutes later we recieve reports of a large army of destruction players approaching our keep. I ride out to the top of the first wall to get an over veiw, and I see around 90 destruction players comming to take back what our guild had claimed. I tell everyone to report to the second wall, tanks and engineers at the door, archers and bright wizards on top of the wall, and healers where needed. We had about 5 cannons everyone had manned, and we were puring burning oil on them to stop them from setting up a ram.
After about 45 minutes they had finally destroyed most our weapons and had set up catapults and even a ram. As they begain to destroy the door everyone reported to the bottom of the first wall to form a defence. "THE DOOR IS AT 10%" alerted one of our officers thorough vent. "FALL BACK TO THE SECOND WALL THEY OUTNUMBER US TOO MUCH" I shouted in return. No one fell back, they wanted to fight, down came the doors, and sword meet with sheild in the narrow hall that used to be a haven for our door.
The collision detection works with enimies and friends so this made their numbers count for less, as only a certain ammount of people can fit through at one time. We held the choke point for a while, but it was too cluttered for many of our healers in the back. We ended up falling back to the second wall. Everyone rushed to the top to man the cannons and oil, we didn't hold them long before over 90 of them rush to the first floor of the keep and begain making their way up the ramp. We held the narrow path of the ramp for 5 min, before we noticed... their numbers ment nothing on the ramp, we stood a chance against the great army of orcs, humans, goblins, and darkelves.
We held the upstairs porton of the keep for around 30 minutes before the first wall was repaired, That cut them off from reinforcements, we had the upper hand. We took about 15 extra minutes to clear out the remaining forces from inside our keep when we recieved another report from the first wall that an even larger enemy force was gathering outside...
Thats a story for another day, and yes this was exactly how everything happened in the game, it was the most epic battle out of any mmo that i had ever been in, real players stragigize vs real players. The battle that took place after this was even more exciting than the one i just explained to you. This just just a taste of what this game has to offer, I FOR ONE AM SOLD!
- BEST MMORPG!
By A2VVF5Q6JI0WIF on 2008-09-18
Im playing WARHAMMER ONLINE and is an amazing
game.
It has everything:
nice graphics
cool quests
balanced PvP
20 professions or classes
- Muta
By A35ILRJD86NZ13 on 2008-09-19
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
I must agree with most of the negative posts. I have also played WoW since it first came out as well as several other games like Hellgate London, Lord of the Rings Online, and others. This was the worst one of the bunch. I feel short changed after buying it. The graphics look terrible, game play and story are painfully BORING at best. It feels more like working on an assembly line at a factory rather than entertainment or engaging in some enjoyable sport. I would still feel ripped off even if it didn't have a monthly subscription but paying a monthly fee to keep playing this game would be insane. It was horrible! Like I said, most of the negatives I've read here are on target. The game is boring, it is too busy, there is no customization (it looks like hundreds of clones running around), you SHOULD save your $$$ for something else.
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