I don't know, in many ways WoW was previous MMORPGs in a new wrapper too. Even some of its new, upcoming ideas are taken from its predecessors. You can really just go on and on with that... I think it's a bit of an oversimplification for all of the mentioned games.

Reply

WAR strikes you as WoW with different lore and couple of new features?

Thats a bit harsh dont you think?

I really hope you get to play more soon and see it for what it is and not just a wow clone with a new bell and a whistle.

Im really glad you're looking forward to the game but in my honest opinion, i think you need to play the game again without the WoW blinkers on. Its like saying WoW is just EQ but with different lore, more polished and a couple of new features. Its not, they are very different games and offer many different features and experiences. The same goes for WAR and WoW.

Reply

you said September release date..

while everyone is speculating a Sept 23rd date, you know something everyone else needs to know?

Reply

Still waiting for this game patiently... more so waiting to hear the change in game play since the feature gouge.

Reply

"WAR strikes me as WoW mechanics wrapped in different lore plus a couple of new features."

How in god's name did you come to this conclusion? Because it has clickable hotkeys? The mechanics in WAR are vastly different from WoW - if anything the game shares striking similarities on the surface but how can anyone who has played the game for more than a few minutes say that WAR is just WoW's mechanics repackaged?

Reply

I had to stop reading after the second WoW comment, you say you are a long time player of MMO's? uh playing wow for two years doesnt really seem like a long time to me "but the thrill has been lost by repetitive gameplay. Now, many of us are looking to recapture that newbie experience again" um you are still a newbie to MMO's so anything you play should still be new to you, Ugh I will never come to this site again. get some better reviewers next time. god I hate wow Fanbos

Reply

Sorry but this screen shots look alot like WoW with more crappy graphics. I think Warhammer's beta is full with bugs still and they told many times they not ready and so on and just after the big content cut they come with the game is done it need just some code cleanup...?? Something is going on with WAR its likely to turn into a other age of conan....

But I hope I am wrong...

Reply

..... In response to Dan O'Halloran......

Dan, I didnt have an issue with #1 so ill just cover off points #2 and #3

The problem i had with your section about WAR is that you said it only had a couple of extra features. Its simply not true. Its got innovative systems throughout the game, especially in PvE. You may not of seen them when you were there but surely you researched your subject before writing that article?

You said that WoW cut out lots of bad things out of previous games and then polished which is true. They changed a few MMO rules and bang, the first quality MMO. But now you're complaining that WAR has taken good things and cut out the bad things of WoW and other games, innovated, added new systems, changed some rules and polished. Essentially the same thing WoW did in a previous MMO generation.

I can understand you wanting something different PvE wise to WoW but you're basing your opinions of WAR on a few minutes of running around without obviously researching the game properly. It is different but of course its not going to be something completely different, just as WoW wasnt completely different to those MMOs before it.

I really dont mind people being disappointed with games they talk about, (im not getting paid by a publisher) but i dont like false statements or those based on either a lack of knowledge of the game or opinions based on such a small glimpse. Like i mentioned previously, just because you didnt see something doesnt mean it isnt there. Instead of putting down a game you've barely touched, research the game and state you didnt see much different but admittedly you didnt get to see feature x or function y.

Anyway, thats the issue i had. I didnt have a problem with the vast majority of it, some comments though just seemed very very short sighted and lacking any sort of understanding of even the basics of the game.

Owen

Reply

In everquest you had to group in order to level up. WoW perfected the solo quest grind. I hope that the PQ system will bring back the need to group in the open world pve environments.

Reply

Then say "WAR did not give me that new player experience" instead of WAR is WoW's mechanics wrapped in a new lore and not a "new" experience.

See the difference between the two?

Reply

"Recent MMOs I have played have taken what worked in WoW and emulated it in their own game just like WoW did with those before it. But I'm finding that these recent games are borrowing too heavily, imho, and not innovating enough. "

I too am confused by your comparison to WoW. Is it the art style? The classes? The gameplay? Or just the user interface?

Nobody can borrow or emulate features from WoW. It was not the first in implementing any major features. I remember WoW being the first with the ! and ? quest icons and the auction house (maybe?). If Warhammer can be compared to any game it would be DAoC.

With art style, Warhammer tabletop rules just celebrated its 25th anniversary. They didnt borrow any art style from anyone but Tolkien. In fact it is debateable that Bliz borrowed a lot from GamesWorkshop...

"I'm not looking to play WoW with a different skin. I have WoW for that."

Same with me. 2 months ago I would have thought people were crazy for pre-ordering this game. I investigated its features and what I found was much more than I expected.

Heres a typical generic example of the biggest difference to me personally:

- WoW has quests such as kill me 20 rats in the basement. So you have a few solo people directly competing against each other to exterminate some rats. Doesnt sound very fun right?

- WAR has the same quest but it involves an opposite faction of players dropping rats into the basement to destroy your food in storage. Your job is to stop the rats and the enemy players responsible for the rats. The two factions are competing against each other and groups of players form helping each other out. Sounds much more fun to me. This is the way quests should be. This is the way PvP should function.

Reply

Oh also I would like to mention about the graphics. The only people currently seeing the close to final quality lighting is a few of the current beta testers. Probably wont be able to see these in full until the release of NDA. So no current screenshot or video will be any decent.

Reply

It's alright guys, you gotta understand AOL's cutting down the staff on all of their blogs. They probably let the best reviewers go, and now they're working with the reserves.
This is painfully obvious with this article, especially after having gone to Mythic's HQ for an extensive review of the game.
Anyway, that's what you get for cheap salaries: cheap reviewers.

Reply

WoW is more like AC2 then any of the mmos you mentioned.

Reply

I am not so quick to pull out the pitchfork because you made the comparison to WoW. Having only 45 mins and even less of that time tooling around in game I can see how you would say that. However I will say with PQs, Lairs, ToK, and such that the PvE is indeed different. Sure there are quests and stuff but there is enough other stuff that it doesnt feel the same.

I am some one that is in a similar rut with you, in being as I am tired of the same ole same ole. I have been looking to this game because DAoC were some of the greatest gaming years of my life. I am looking for that RvR experience again, and I think WAR will be it.

Yes I am in beta so that is why I am dancing around and not getting specific. Hopefully NDA is lifted soon, really hard to read forums and stuff like this and not respond with NDA breaking info >

Reply

DAoC is the king of RvR (PvP for those unattuned to the alarm-clock relic raids of server crashing proportions or the 4 hour long keep defenses ending in which side had the most TWF's and ST's laid).

I've played DAoC since before SI (DAoC's first retail expansion of five). The ONLY thing that game has over most MMO's is that its endgame is PvP, UNINSTANCED PVP, WORLD PVP. Originally, the instanced PvP idea sounded fantastic. Equal numbers EVERY time, pfft, screw constant rollage by the noobs who'll play their Albs/Hibs/Mids dept. on who has the most relics, I'm going to game XxX.

What you never realized is that the equal numbers provided by instanced PvP DOESN'T mean equal, most of the time. It also means you have NO choice who you play with, most of the time. In DAoC a well built, dreaded, 8-man could annihilate hordes (mid), zergs (albs) and frolics (hibs). Yeah, sure you might be outnumber at one point, so you lose, just like you lost in that instanced PvP that was supposed to be MORE equal. But in DAoC, you just go to another front, take another tower, camp a bridge relic, there were always ways to even the odds if you sere losing to shear numbers b/c the world for PvP, RvR, was probably their largest zone.

Enough of my rambling, but what will make WAR a unique MMO is going to be its world PvP, or as it is known, RvR. If it starts to rely too heavily on what 'sells' or with what other MMO's have been successful, i.e. raid dungeons, instanced PvP, and trying to cater to the casual gamer, it's just going to be lost like the other 10 dying and/or dead MMO's.

Ironically enough, I know a guy in the closed beta and he says with the directed testing methods they've been implementing, even most closed beta testers have NO idea how the game as a whole and a complete product will work. One thing to say about EA/Mythic or just Mythic, whatever it is these days, they have a way to raise speculation by not releasing much of anything about their product.

Reply

@ Kenar

You say the PvE is different? How so?
One thing I'm really hoping for is that fact that not everything is centered towards gear and better gear (the purple grind as it is in WOW).

Can you be a bit more specific about that?

Anyway, I liked the article.

Reply