WAR developer Mythic allowed pre-order customers to get some face-time with the highly anticipated MMO this weekend, allowing yours truly to adequately form some initial thoughts on the game.
Don’t worry – it will not be savaged. Let’s just say there is room for improvement.
First, the good news.
The first toon I rolled was a Dark Elf Disciple of Khaine. I have long been a fan of the Mallus Darkblade series so rolling a Dark Elf was a no brainer. But when I zoned in, I was stunned. Evidently the Witch King was laying siege to Ulthuan and in the background was a fleet of corsair ships with a monolithic Black Ark towering over it all. It was amazing. The same treatment is in each starting zone, with each given a certain amount of flavor of the player’s race shining through as they lay siege to an enemy town or castle. The Chaos starting area was a camp set opposite an Empire town. Orcs were laying siege to a Dwarven stronghold. The natural environments are also given the same treatment and looked beautiful on my PC. The use of shadow and atmosphere lend the quality of the environment a distinctly creepy aspect that I felt belonged in the Warhammer world.
Here is a video that shows off some of the environments from the game, though it doesn’t do them justice.
Characters in the game receive a treatment that leans heavily on realistic appearances rather than the cartoonish quality of WoW. The models are very detailed and, depending on the class and race you play, the toon you are playing reflects the characteristics of that race. For example: Orcs are basically what you think – huge, warmongering brutes as mean as they are green. You can specify what kind of tusks they have; if they are chipped, covered in gore, or capped in iron. Chaos has a series of different stigmata that they can employ to lend them that chaos-touched appearance.
Hitting “p” I brought up my items for my Chaos Maruader and browsed through the character inventory pane. My character was basically running around in a loincloth and boots – much like I do at work – and was sporting a mutated arm that could become a claw or a sword with what looked like eyes along the underside of forearm. But the slots in the character pane were interesting. You have the usual equipment slots; head, shoulders, back, chest, legs, boots, gloves, wrists, melee and ranged weapons, but there is more. There is a slot for a “standard,” which in Warhammer lore can be a number of magical standards you can carry into battle. There is also two “pocket” slots which suggested trinket items. Perhaps more interestingly was the four “trophy” slots in which you are able to decorate your toon with any number of grisly trophies, depending on your race. Skulls, hands, gems, et cetera.
The map is basically what you think it is, yet has all the mods that you would download from Curse.com. The map mode go from where you are currently to an general map that shows the area and which PvP points are still contested or captured, to a world view that was basically blank to me – but then again I really hadn’t been anywhere but the starting area. There is a longitude and latitude function that allows you to give your coordinates but numbers are incredibly long and not easy to give, if say you were in a PvP battle and trying to give your location over Ventrillo. By the time you have given your location, you’re probably dead.
Character creation is interesting, but not a whole lot of variety. Still, there is enough to play with. Rolling my Disciple of Khaine, you are given the normal options: face, skin color, eye color, hair color, et cetera. And each toon has options that reflect the race you are choosing. But what really interested me were the great details. I played around with an Empire Bright Wizard, and the options were great. I could bedeck him in arcane tattoos, have his hair ala Dragon Ball Z or give him a short spike. What was impressive was the way the facial models were both realistic and grizzled on the males, though all facial models had some sort of scarification or battle wounds that were readily apparent. Face cleaved by an axe? Check. Missing an eye? Check. Showing signs of Chaos possession? Check. Good attention to detail like that made for a more distinctive appearance. This is a game in which the characters look as if they have been living a lifetime of violence and strife.
I have to tell you – 48 hours was not enough time to really get into the game as much as I would have liked, nor is it enough time to really give you an honest assessment of combat. What I saw I liked; melee combat was varied and the animations were dynamic, as opposed to the ill-fated Vanguard MMO where the fighting looked as if performed via marionette. Magic looked ok from what I played, but at the low levels didn’t really show what I wanted to see – which was huge fireballs rolling across a field to detonate amongst a horde of greenskins. There are all sorts of interesting NPC’s that run around – I haven’t seen any Skaven yet! – and for the Dark Elves having Executioners standing around, looking menacing with their draichs – it sent a chill up my occipital. Wandering NPC’s will turn their head and stare at you as they walk by, maybe even throw a comment. The interaction and immersiveness felt very polished.
Here is a video showing a Dwarf Engineer. Note the variety of combat animations. Not sure about the voice acting though. The Dwarf female sounds like she has a two-pack a day smoking habit.
I readily admit that when it comes to lore that I am a purist. I have rambled at length on this blog about the need to adhere religiously to lore at the games peril. So it irked me when I was able to choose Dark Elf male sorcerers. Anyone who knows the game – and the lore – knows that there is no such thing. The Witch King is the only male magic user in the Dark Elf lore. Of course there are renegades, but they are hunted down and killed. At the same time, there is no option to create a female Chosen – even though in the lore there is such a thing. Speaking of Chaos, I found it a little disheartening to find that only Tzeentch represents the whole Chaos army and pantheon. Yes, yes… I know that to include all four Chaos powers would have taken Mythic a long time – and with the Slaanesh included an “M” rating for the MMO – but still it feels limiting.
Before I complain I want to preface my petulance with a nod to the fact that there are six races represented in the game – seven if you consider goblins to be an offshoot from Orcs. But the character creations, while detailed, had very little difference. Empire faces especially had that worn, haggard, Clint Eastwood visage ala “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” And while you can cover up the faces with beards, hair, scars and hats… they all still looked the same after a while. Orcs all looked the same, no matter what face I gave them. Dwarves, well… they are hidden under a huge layer of beard. Shave it off at your own risk. And is it too much to ask to not have evil races or classes not be stoop shouldered? I don’t understand why if you are evil you are predisposed to have posture related back problems. The Chaos women look like pre-necrophied Forsaken from WoW.
This is the WAR equivalent of the WoW “hearthstone.” Basically this tome sits in your inventory and when you want to go back to wherever you are bound, you right-click the book and you are teleported back to whence you came. The animation is nice enough and on my Dark Elf it looked great; he took the book out, read it – speed read it actually – and then he was back in the starting area. And while this animation looks good on elves, and the humans to a greater or lesser extent, it is absolutely out of place on huge Black Orc. Since when can an Orc read anything other than the huge runes they cut into everything? Orcs are not a very literate species! Yet here’s this huge Orc, reading the fine print. Mythic, if you are reading, please change this. Give them a totem or fetish to shake to Mork. Thank you.
That I cannot play a Skaven Assassin makes me sad, but the fact that Skaven aren’t even in the game makes me so sad that I’m about to listen to The Cure. What the heck, Mythic? Sure it might be tough to do the Vampire Counts, Beastmen, or Tomb Kings but what do you have against the Skaven?
There were few things that made me flinch in the game, so even this may seem like nit picking. Mythic has done a great job with the Gamebryo graphics engine they are using, but at lower settings this game is going to a bit pixilated. Cranking up my own computer – which can run Crysis on the highest settings – the game looks sweet. But for others who do not have the sheckles to splurge on a high-end computer, the game may not look as good as they would like it too. There are also multiple clipping issues where teeth, hair, or beard disappears into the toon’s chest. There were also NPC and mob glitches that I encountered while playing that made me smirk. At this point, I expected a little more polish to a game that has gone gold and is about to be released.
Yes, I know there are a bazillion – and yes, I also know that is not a real word, thank you – classes in the game, but would it be too much to ask for some mounted classes? Cold One Knights for the Dark Elves or Knights Panther for the Empire, or even Silver Helms for the High Elves would have looked great. And only one Orc class – when there are so many to choose from in the
I am a sneaky bugger, and all my favorite games revolve around stealth. Likewise, my favorite toons in World of Warcraft are all stealth based or utilize stealth skills. So it makes me curious as to why there are no stealth units in the game even though there are stealth classes available. Shadow Warriors in the lore are well-known for their powers of stealth and guile, and the infamous Dark Elves have the scariest assassins in the whole game – yet only their melee classes are available. Are stealth classes inevitable? I’ll ask Mythic this weekend at PAX.
In conclusion, this plays like a very fun game and I am excited to really lay into it. Even with all my complaints, it is my hope that these problems will be ironed out before release. There is always one final bit of polish before a game like this goes live, so let’s hope that Mythic is making it happen as I speak.
And for God’s sake – just a few Skaven, please?
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