Well it's 19th September already! Warhammer Online is a new MMORPG by Mythic Entertainment and EA Games. Read On!
This review will be based on my experiences with the game as a Level 14 (At time of publication). Some things you might not agree with but this is based on a Gobbo's point of view.
-Graphics 8/10
Although not the best, for an MMORPG it is second to AoC in my opinion. Some things to spot are the apparent such as texture detail range. The range in which the textures gain the actual detail is rather short and might be quite annoying when you look into the distance only to see low texture detailed mountains.
The Shadows is a good start, although only you actual get a proper shadow while everyone else gets the generic dot on the floor style shadowing.
Skills look rather cool depending on what class you are. The Bright Wizard (Empire Ranged DPS) has nice looking skills except their AOE, which has the apparent effect of the low grade textures.
One thing I find very visually appealing is the realism of the arrow arcs, arrows when fired out of the bow of either the Shadow Warrior (High Elf Ranged DPS) or the Squig Herder (Greenskin Ranged DPS) do a nice little arc before hitting their target.
Another thing to mention about graphics is the model detail on equipments. Items are relatively high detailed and look 'cool'. I however, like the capes in the game. They seem to be like those extra long capes and scale nicely to the character models.
-Game Play 9/10
WAR has a special feature that I enjoy, this is their questing. With questing, gone are the 30 minute grinds to find an item such as bear paws from bears that are meant to drop 4 of them. (Come on! You've killed the bear, just rip it's paws off!) Every quest will ask you to perform simple tasks that are guaranteed to drop if you kill the right monster.
PvE in general is great, but I've noticed that if I am level 14 trying to kill a level 17 (Challenging at Level 14) it takes me forever to do. However killing it at level 15 (Drops to Equal at level 15) is much faster and easier.
PvP is amazing for an MMORPG. Warhammer is a game based on war and very easily ties PvP with PvE while still sticking to the lore of the IP. Pvp might seem somewhat long winded because of the high health characters start off with.
Another interesting feature is Bolstering. This buff will automatically increase your stats depending on what zone you are in to give you a better chance of actually surviving.
-Balance 8/10
Balance issues are present in this game, its not very surprising as they are very hard to get rid of. Ironbreaker(Dwarf Tank) and a Runepriest (Dwarf Support) are nearly invincible. The DPS of the physical ranged damage classes are rather low as compared with their magical counterparts. They both die just as easily in PvP so armour value is of hardly any difference.
With this said might I point out that these issues are not very seriousF and are minor. Actual balancing comparisons should be done at max level but since no one is there yet, I will have to review what I've played so far.
-Music 10/10
Seeing as it was played with a live orchestra, the music is superb and just by listening to the songs being play, it is very easy to identify what the music represents.
Skill sounds are not annoying and the background music while playing is of perfect amount; enough to have a sense of realism but not enough to annoy you.
-Model Art 9/10
Silhouette of characters are quite good and is quite easy to identify what you're up against or what is charging at you. All the classes have a distinct look to them that helps you indentify, such as the Black Orc's (Greenskin Tank) broad and buff look and the Bright Wizard's (Empire Ranged DPS) fiery hair and body shape.
-Fun 10/10
This game knows how to do everything in moderation. Things don't tend to get frustrating, even dying is not really a big deal and you simply respawn at your nearest camp.
PvP and PvE are good and scenarios have good replayablilty. You can level while PvPing, which is a rare thing to see in games.
Levelling is not very hard and since you can PvP to level, that makes everything rather easy.
Features such as influence and renown put more fun into the PvP besides the boring conventional shallow type of PvP, which has PvP because you can, not because you require it.
-Mechanics 9/10
I will explain the mechanics based on the four archetypes: Tank, Melee, Ranged and Support.
Tank
Tanks are actually quite imbalanced. They have a lot of health, a lot of armour and with their DPS option weapon, can dish out huge DPS despite their nature. This can used to your advantage with healers all healing this large unstoppable killing machine. Tanks have a lot of threat increasing skills that make sure the monster focuses on him, and not the healer.
Tanks in this game can hold off multiple mobs while dealing decent damage.
Melee
Ideally DPS tanks with less armour but more DPS. These are equipped with skills that are more damage orientated than Tanks. With lower armour, this means they cannot tank and they have no threat increasing skills. Melee DPSers are possibly one of the more effective archetypes in PvP.
Ranged
Ranged DPSers are proficient at aiding the tank as he keeps the monsters off you. Ranged DPSers are spilt into 2 types; Physical, which are the ones that do physical damage (Squig Herder, Engineer, Witch Hunter, and Shadow Warrior) and Caster which are the ones that cast magic (Sorcerer, and Bright Wizard) Both the casters have a risk involved, where they must build up their magic, which in turn allows them to deal more damage at a cost of possibly losing a large chunk of their health because of a backfire. Physical DPSers have a more stable form of DPS but tend to do less damage. No risks such as backfires are experienced as a physical DPS at the cost of reduced DPS. (This might sound quite unfair but let me assure you blowing yourself up while getting ganked is not such a good thing.)
Support
Support characters are healers, or well that's what the word support tends to refer to. In fact these 'Support characters' are effective as DPS just as any other archetype. They have skills relating to keeping people alive and some DPS spells for doing damage. Goblin Shamans (Greenskin Support) have the Mork and Grok mechanic, where their healing spells become more effective as they cast damage spells and vice verse. This makes healing less boring and puts some fun and active playing and strategic planning in it, instead of just pressing the same hotkey a thousand times.
-RvR and Features 10/10
RvR is a very interesting concept, where keeps and points of capture are present in an open PvP zone. Capturing them helps your realm reach the ultimate goal of raiding and sieging the opposite faction's capital. Which leads to killing their leader and getting awesome loot.
Keeps are large fortresses that guilds can capture for the realm; this then gives them a place to meet up like a sort of guild hall type of place. To siege a keep, it acts as a dungeon, where you have to kill levels of guards hired by the guild to defend the keep. This leads to the killing of the Keep Lord and gaining control of the keep for your guild. Keeps will change shape depending who surrently has control of them and it is easily identifiable who actually owns one.
Capture points are less visually appealing then keeps but still hold an important role of aiding the other tiers. This means low level characters can still feel that they are contributing to the overall war effort.
-Total Average 9.5/10
Warhammer Online is definitely a good game and I would suggest it to anyone looking for a MMORPG. You can check out all the classes and additional information at www.warhammeronline.com.
Have Fun!
Sedsigafew