Right, let's get this out of the way first: This may seem like a review, but that's not the point. I'd like to hear if my first impressions are the same as yours, and how you felt the game turned out as you kept playing (if you did).
//EDIT: If it turns out that this is too much of a review then I appologize for posting it the wrong forum.
Alright, now, I've played some MMOs before, but it's been over two years since I said farewell to my most recent one, Vanguard. Obviously, I've also played WoW (for like a year-and-a-half after release), but I left that before BC came out. The reason I've even considered playing an MMO again is that I haven't been able to get a job this summer (I'm a college student), so I'll be sitting at home all summer, bored half to death. At least this way, I shouldn't have that problem. At first, I was considering going back to WoW, but being a former Warhammer nerd, I gave Warhammer Online a try instead.
After three days, having brought two characters, a shadow warrior and an archmage (yes, I played High Elves in the table top game), to rank 8 and 10 respectively, I regret that decision. But, I know it's too early to tell if I will feel like this in two weeks if I tough it out and really get into it, so that's why I'm posting this.
First the mandatory comparison with WoW... WAR has better graphics, but eye candy isn't my thing, so it doesn't score any points for that. I clearly remember WoW having more responsive controls, though. Targetting is more difficult in WAR, in particular. The game doesn't always seem to care that I press tab or click on a target. It's nothing major, but it's annoying.
WAR's party interface just sucks. It's basically the same as WoW's, but the portraits and won't update properly. I can look straight at a party member who's alive and well, having respawned like minute ago, but according to his portrait, he's still dead. Also, health bars fade away when full, which takes a lot of getting used to. "Empty" health bar = no need to heal, almost empty = MUST HEAL NOW!!! Man... That's just weird... I'm sure at least the latter problem can be solved by user-made add-ons, but that brings up something I hated with WoW: Why should I need user-made add-ons to add things that should have been there to begin with???
As for the standard PvE quests, I find them pretty much the same as WoW's, with one exception. There doesn't seem to be any need to group. Ever. In WoW, Vanguard, EQ2, and GW -- yeah, I think that's all of them... -- it's made clear early on that some quests are virtually impossible to handle alone. I'm still waiting for such a quest in WAR. Now, that's clearly not the case with public quests, though. But no one seems to be doing PQs. Everyone solos or focuses entirely on RvR. Guess the part of WoW that I thought was the most fun is something no one in WAR wants anything to do with...
So, what about RvR? My first impression was that it was insanely poorly balanced. Not by design, though. My impression is that Order players in general stay away from the tank and healer classes, whereas those are the ones that are the most popular on the Destruction side. That means Destruction virtually always wins, as Order groups are made up almost entirely of squishy DPS:ers. Hopefully, this is just a trend with the current "generation" of recently-created characters on my server, but my experience with WoW tells me that nothing ever changes on that front. Certain character types are unpopular, and they will always be unpopular (everyone wants a healer around, but no one wants to BE the healer...). Hopefully I'm wrong. Anyhow, regardless of why Order always loses, this makes RvR incredibly boring. I do see the potential for a lot of fun in it, though, and I like the fact that you earn XP in it, unlike in WoW PvP, which I really never saw the point with. I mean, if the game is about doing quests and gaining XP to get to the end-game where the real challenges are (raids), why bother with PvP? All you get out of it is gear that makes you better at PvP... It always seemed pointless to me. A fun distraction at best. At least in WAR, you can use it to level up.
So, now, what was your first impression? And how did things turn out later on for you?
//EDIT: If it turns out that this is too much of a review then I appologize for posting it the wrong forum.
Alright, now, I've played some MMOs before, but it's been over two years since I said farewell to my most recent one, Vanguard. Obviously, I've also played WoW (for like a year-and-a-half after release), but I left that before BC came out. The reason I've even considered playing an MMO again is that I haven't been able to get a job this summer (I'm a college student), so I'll be sitting at home all summer, bored half to death. At least this way, I shouldn't have that problem. At first, I was considering going back to WoW, but being a former Warhammer nerd, I gave Warhammer Online a try instead.
After three days, having brought two characters, a shadow warrior and an archmage (yes, I played High Elves in the table top game), to rank 8 and 10 respectively, I regret that decision. But, I know it's too early to tell if I will feel like this in two weeks if I tough it out and really get into it, so that's why I'm posting this.
First the mandatory comparison with WoW... WAR has better graphics, but eye candy isn't my thing, so it doesn't score any points for that. I clearly remember WoW having more responsive controls, though. Targetting is more difficult in WAR, in particular. The game doesn't always seem to care that I press tab or click on a target. It's nothing major, but it's annoying.
WAR's party interface just sucks. It's basically the same as WoW's, but the portraits and won't update properly. I can look straight at a party member who's alive and well, having respawned like minute ago, but according to his portrait, he's still dead. Also, health bars fade away when full, which takes a lot of getting used to. "Empty" health bar = no need to heal, almost empty = MUST HEAL NOW!!! Man... That's just weird... I'm sure at least the latter problem can be solved by user-made add-ons, but that brings up something I hated with WoW: Why should I need user-made add-ons to add things that should have been there to begin with???
As for the standard PvE quests, I find them pretty much the same as WoW's, with one exception. There doesn't seem to be any need to group. Ever. In WoW, Vanguard, EQ2, and GW -- yeah, I think that's all of them... -- it's made clear early on that some quests are virtually impossible to handle alone. I'm still waiting for such a quest in WAR. Now, that's clearly not the case with public quests, though. But no one seems to be doing PQs. Everyone solos or focuses entirely on RvR. Guess the part of WoW that I thought was the most fun is something no one in WAR wants anything to do with...
So, what about RvR? My first impression was that it was insanely poorly balanced. Not by design, though. My impression is that Order players in general stay away from the tank and healer classes, whereas those are the ones that are the most popular on the Destruction side. That means Destruction virtually always wins, as Order groups are made up almost entirely of squishy DPS:ers. Hopefully, this is just a trend with the current "generation" of recently-created characters on my server, but my experience with WoW tells me that nothing ever changes on that front. Certain character types are unpopular, and they will always be unpopular (everyone wants a healer around, but no one wants to BE the healer...). Hopefully I'm wrong. Anyhow, regardless of why Order always loses, this makes RvR incredibly boring. I do see the potential for a lot of fun in it, though, and I like the fact that you earn XP in it, unlike in WoW PvP, which I really never saw the point with. I mean, if the game is about doing quests and gaining XP to get to the end-game where the real challenges are (raids), why bother with PvP? All you get out of it is gear that makes you better at PvP... It always seemed pointless to me. A fun distraction at best. At least in WAR, you can use it to level up.
So, now, what was your first impression? And how did things turn out later on for you?