Week of WAR – Final Thoughts
So this weekend wrapped up the week of my Warhammer Online free trial. Have I decided to purchase the game? Probably. But it was not because I was wowed by the first 12 levels, it is more because I am a whore for MMOs.
Also, I might be able to talk some friends in WoW to start playing with me. A lot of them are bored with the content now after getting all the server firsts for raid bosses and mastering 3-drake Sartharion. We might try to schedule a weekly or bi-weekly Warhammer night.
My final opinions of what I experienced over the last week is mixed. I can see where this game has potential. I can see how it would be fun with a group. For people with a 7 day trial, I think it will end up as a missed opportunity for most because a lot of people spend those 7 days soloing and unguilded. If you do not have a group of friends or guild to play with regularly, I can see the game wearing out its welcome sooner rather than later.
Next, I feel the game almost has TOO MUCH content. Three public quests per chapter is too many. In the lower levels, you are in a chapter for a few hours at most and majority of that time is spent in scenarios or the RvR lake. Three scenarios per tier strikes a good balance, I think, but three public quests per chapter is too many. I think one public quest per chapter would be good enough. With one PQ per chapter, you could make each public quest exciting instead of some rather boring ones.
For instance, one of the normal public quests for what I think was either chapter 5 or 6 (whatever is the first chapter in tier 2), has you fight 40 boars, 12 champion minotaur men, and one giant boss minotaur man. It was really boring. I liked the first chaos public quest you encounter. You are sacrificing soldiers to a demonic sacrifice, but a bright wizard screws things up so that a blood god demon gets summoned that you have to fight. That is exciting. Fighting a couple waves of boars and minotaur men is not.
Soloing is a bother as a zealot. I am sure it is fine and fast enough if you are a dps class, but as a zealot, I am struggling to kill things before they respawn on top of me. In the first quest hub in tier 2, you get a quest to enter a crypt to fight some cultists or something (yes, I skip the quest text in this game). I was level 12 and these enemies (cultists, bats, skeletons and ghouls) are all level 10-12. They are not hard to kill, but as a zealot it just takes time. The mobs were almost respawning on top of me because things went so slow. I do not know if every class has this much trouble or if it just my slow DPS as a zealot.
I do not know about other classes, but you do not really get a feel for how the zealot plays until you get your level 8 abilities. (I do remember someone somewhere saying that you do not usually get a feel for the character style until level 8). Why? Why should I have to wait until level 8 to decide if the playstyle works for me. In WoW, with all classes but the hunter and druid, you get a good feel for the character style within the first 4 levels (druids because you do not get all your shapeshifting forms right away, and hunter because you do not get a pet until level 10, which I never liked). Within the first two hours, I should have a good handle on how my class plays, not after the first five to eight.
With all of this talk, it probably seems like I hate zealots and the game. It is actually neither. I love zealots, with the caveat, in a group. But then again, I think everything is better in a group. That should just be motto for this game. "Scenarios are okay, but in a group they are awesome." "Public quests do not work solo, but in a group they are amazing." "Open world RvR sucks by yourself, but in a group it can be the best gaming experience you will have."
I may not pick up the game within the coming days as I have some XBox 360 games I want to finish up (my second playthrough of Fable 2 and my first playthrough of Mirror's Edge), but I can see myself picking up the game in the very near future.
I just need to find myself a good group to play with.