Setting the Pace
Speaking of pacing, I found the pace of Warhammer Online to be absolutely optimal for a game focused around competition. While most massively multiplayer online games are loaded with various time sinks, WAR is chuck full of things to do and easy ways for you to do them. Want to go RvR? Simply jump in a queue. Feel the need to do some PvEing? Go run out and get it done! Want to do both? That's absolutely possible.
On top of all that, the leveling in the game is frenetic. In just a few hours each day, you can easily progress your character up to the midway point with two weeks, and it's entirely possible to move to the high end of the game - the level 40 areas - within a month with only a few hours spent each day. In a game focused on competition, it makes sense to really give players the feeling that they're driving towards a competitive level, and the quick way players earn ranks is a great way to accentuate this competitive environment.
The pace of WAR is very fast; there are lots of things to do.
As an example, at the end of this week of gaming, I had a level 15 Archmage, a level 6 Squig Herder, a level 8 Swordmaster, a level 4 Shaman, and a variety of other characters dotting multiple other servers. And I certainly don't play that often compared to most hardcore gamers; I get in a few hours every few days at most.
Some Frustrations
But all of this fun doesn't mean that there aren't some frustrations with the game. I have to admit that there are a variety of early points in the game where new players can easily become confused and sidetracked with their gaming. That said, tutorial windows aren't always the best option for this sort of thing either. For example, the first time I encountered a public quest, I was eager to see if I could get it completed and see what I would earn. I had heard great things about the public quests, but I was in an area that was devoid of other players. I began grinding through the monsters, only to eventually reach a point where I couldn't complete the quest on my own. It was frustrating to spend all the time plowing through the monsters, only to reach a point where I couldn't get any further simply because of the lack of players online.
I also found that figuring out the crafting system in the game is a relatively touch-and-go sort of experience. Even with my tutorial windows turned on, I never quite figured out how to go about making talismans and the rest of the crafting professions weren't much easier to discern. I'll certainly spend some time looking at this element of the game for my review, but it's hard to make any sort of judgement on a piece of content when a player can't figure out the ropes.
What's Next?
Finally, there are a number of elements that I still need to participate in before I can pen my full review of Warhammer Online. By all accounts, keep sieges seem to be a very enjoyable experience for everyone involved, but they seem to be limited to players that are at least level 20. The high-end RvR game still needs to mature quite a bit before any reviews should be issued, especially with the capital city attacks apparently being the highlight of the Warhammer Online experience.
After that, it's basically trying to get a grasp on whether many of the technical sort of issues of the Warhammer Online experience will be leveled out or not. Server queues and scenario wait times are of particular concern to players, but it's still incredibly early in the game's life span and a few more weeks of maturation are certainly in order.
For all intents and purposes, Warhammer Online looks to be an incredibly enjoyable game. Every player that I've talked to has been really impressed with the RvR experience, and almost every gamer wants to try their hand at multiple classes. If you can judge a game by the "buzz factor" alone, WAR would be winning awards left and right. But what will a few more weeks hold for the game?
Cut Out the Fat
But even as I jumped into and out of various scenarios, I began finding other elements of WAR that were in stark contrast to various elements in other popular MMOGs. After I found my race's war camp, I found that I could instantly fly between the various realms with the click of a button and the short segue of a "flying" cut scene. My bag space grew as I leveled up, giving me more space right when I felt like I needed more bags. Mailboxes litter the landscape and quest hubs are stocked with enormous numbers of quests. Death penalties are basically non-existent. Item degradation does not occur ever. You don't need to sit down to regain health and action points.
Many of the annoying elements of MMOGs have been cut out of WAR, leaving just the quick gameplay.
Yet I didn't even realize that these elements existed until I paused and really took account of what I was doing in the game. The developers really didn't make a big deal of these new elements; there was nothing in the game stating that "You don't need to buy bags!" Instead, the inventory spaces just appear as you level up.
What does this mean for the gamer? As Mark Jacobs said in his exclusive interview with our staff, it really just cuts out all the "annoying" elements that players had gotten used to in their games. Rather than keep these elements in as a "traditional" option, Jacobs and staff cut them out. It was that simple, and it really makes the game feel *much* faster.