So I decided to purchase the game that I have beta tested since early 2007 and was not happy with the beta. I quit testing the game about 5 months prior to its release because from the look of things 5 months ago this game was not going to make it close to the almost exhausted potential of WoW.

Last weekend I took a look at GameSpot and saw that there were some good reviews from the staff about the game so I figured what-the-hell, things might have changed and got the game. I carefully purchased a month to month recurring subscription and was off to the World of Warhammer.  ;D

To my surprise the game did change and for the better. All the major bugs and annoyances were dealt with. The game play was smooth except for some lag in the main city but that was expected. The game itself has a sinister, gritty feel laced with dark humor. Questing is fun, especially the public quests and the reward system as well as integrating the story line/chapter with public quests.  The Tomb of Knowledge (a book that records everything that you encounter throughout your WAR experience as well as titles, rewards, bragging rights etc...) is also an amazing feature. The RvR (PvP) is more exciting than what you would find in WoW (I’m playing on an Open PvP server). With RvR there is also a leveling system that provides you with rewards including gear. The graphics of the game look good even on my old computer with an XFX 7900 GT card.

Overall WAR offers quite a bit more (as expected) than what WoW did when WoW went live. Warhammer is not a WoW killer and there will never be a game that just comes out and converts 10 million subscribers right away, WoW is a more developed and refined game but people at Mythic/EA put out a MMO platform in Warhammer that is stable in terms of game dynamics and has the potential to grow into WoW’s shoes and even beyond.

Verdict: Buy the game; it's a great WoW alternative.

It just comes down to if you want to play a pve focused game or pvp focused game. I had high hopes for Warhammer, and really just feel let down right now. I pre-ordered Warhammer, and have tried two classes... apparantly they're the two worst classes in the game right now, but whatever.

I'm a much bigger fan of raiding, and guild versus bosses type games. I enjoy the gear-as-rewards mentality, and I think it's satisfying when I get a new, better piece of gear from a boss that was difficult to kill. I just feel that anyone can grind out stuff by pvp'ing all the time. Me feeling that way is probably why I just don't enjoy pvp - not even on Warcraft. That's just my opinion, though, and that's fine.

Warhammer, though, has it's share of gameplay issues, right now - understandable. To me, though, the issues were game breaking. I can't put up with them, for now. Animations are choppy, as if there's a slide show going on, when characters and npcs are beyond a certain distance. I can't tell if this is intended as kind of an artsy thing, or if it's a bug. The UI is completely customizable, though, which is good. Caster animations are a joke.

Honestly, during the course of playing this game, it really reminds me of a Ultima Online Everquest hybrid, with better graphics. That means that the game has a mid 90s feel to it. The RvR battlegrounds remind me just of Warcraft's - I played several and didn't see anything new. I'm not sure what people are seeing that I'm not, besides the keeps, which are coming in the next Warcraft expansion. PQs are fun, though. They're well scripted, but when combined with the laughable animations the fun is just kind of fizzled.

I'm a pretty harsh critic of games, though. So I don't know. I actually re-installed Warcraft after playing Warhammer, though, if that says anything about that.

Edit: I should at least mention that the game does have a lot of content, so there's not a lot missing like there was in age of conan. The game has great graphics, I think. The character models are very detailed - they just move, and have horrible combat animations. The world graphics are basically exactly like wow's, but maybe slightly better looking because of the real dynamic shadows, which make this game look real well. The client supports addons just like wow, using lua scripts or whatever. So theres that big time opportunity for interface customization and addons.

[quote author=chyea link=topic=17671.msg179952#msg179952 date=1222320040]
It just comes down to if you want to play a pve focused game or pvp focused game. I had high hopes for Warhammer, and really just feel let down right now. I pre-ordered Warhammer, and have tried two classes... apparantly they're the two worst classes in the game right now, but whatever.

I'm a much bigger fan of raiding, and guild versus bosses type games. I enjoy the gear-as-rewards mentality, and I think it's satisfying when I get a new, better piece of gear from a boss that was difficult to kill. I just feel that anyone can grind out stuff by pvp'ing all the time. Me feeling that way is probably why I just don't enjoy pvp - not even on Warcraft. That's just my opinion, though, and that's fine.

Warhammer, though, has it's share of gameplay issues, right now - understandable. To me, though, the issues were game breaking. I can't put up with them, for now. Animations are choppy, as if there's a slide show going on, when characters and npcs are beyond a certain distance. I can't tell if this is intended as kind of an artsy thing, or if it's a bug. The UI is completely customizable, though, which is good. Caster animations are a joke.

Honestly, during the course of playing this game, it really reminds me of a Ultima Online Everquest hybrid, with better graphics. That means that the game has a mid 90s feel to it. The RvR battlegrounds remind me just of Warcraft's - I played several and didn't see anything new. I'm not sure what people are seeing that I'm not, besides the keeps, which are coming in the next Warcraft expansion. PQs are fun, though. They're well scripted, but when combined with the laughable animations the fun is just kind of fizzled.

I'm a pretty harsh critic of games, though. So I don't know. I actually re-installed Warcraft after playing Warhammer, though, if that says anything about that.

Edit: I should at least mention that the game does have a lot of content, so there's not a lot missing like there was in age of conan. The game has great graphics, I think. The character models are very detailed - they just move, and have horrible combat animations. The world graphics are basically exactly like wow's, but maybe slightly better looking because of the real dynamic shadows, which make this game look real well. The client supports addons just like wow, using lua scripts or whatever. So theres that big time opportunity for interface customization and addons.
[/quote]

I don't agree with you regarding the animation and choppiness. Everything looks good and works well; this problem must be unique to you and your system/graphics card.

[quote author=Invert link=topic=17671.msg179955#msg179955 date=1222331157]I don't agree with you regarding the animation and choppiness. Everything looks good and works well; this problem must be unique to you and your system/graphics card.
[/quote]

Possibly my graphics card, but not just me. I've seen the majority of the people on warhammeralliance forums complain about this same issue. The animations are fine when I'm standing next to NPCs, or people but once I get like 50 yard from them, or something, they look rediculously choppy.

Yours does not do this? What kind of video card do you have? I've got 5GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM, on Vista 64-bit, with a "high end" 256MB video card - it's an ATI Radeon. I could use a graphics card upgrade... haha.

I play Age of Conan, and it's great. The graphics are mature, and not cartoony looking. The content is mature also, along with other things. I know Age of Conan had a bad launch, but alot of things have/are being fixed. You guys should check it out.

warhammer's graphics are cartoony, but i would call them mature, too. it's got a darker tone to the game, that wow.

I played age of conan for awhile right when the game first came out and it just wasn't able to hold my interest. I haven't bought warhammer but a good friend of mine did and says it's a great game overall.

This may be off-topic but the new expansion for lord of the rings online will includes items and such that get stronger as you do it sounds interesting and i may check it out.