Customer Reviews

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This review is of Beta and of the first 2 days of release, there are some fine reviews further down and I suggest you check them out!
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Let me start out this review saying I am addicted to MMO's.I was in beta for Ultima Onlina, Everquest, Anarchy Online, SWG and WoW. I then went on to play each MMO for several hundred hours if not days. I played WoW for at least 20-40 hours per week for 4 years. My characters averaged 40 days played. That being said (not to brag but to say I know WoW), here is my review of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

If there were any times that you played an MMO and thought that, something was missing... I am sure that the folks over at Mythic Entertainment thought the very same things. As the torchbearers for RVR or Realm vs Realm battle they understand how to do an MMO right from the beginning. What Mythic did was to build a game where the player vs player was not an afterthought to keep high levels occupied, instead it IS the game. After you are slightly acquainted with the interface you are then thrown head-long into battle. War is all around and they mean it. This game is about fantasy WAR and not about phat lewt, (although there is that sorta, more on this later).

Another feature that is built in is the amazing Tome of Knowledge. If you ever downloaded addons for WoW for use as a record keeper then you will know how this feature works. The really cool part is that this tome is utilized as a bragging tool and it also unlocks character titles. It keeps a record of the number of mob x you have slain, the number of sales to merchants and so on. You'll have to see it to completely get the power of this tool.

Another great feature is the open group system. Being I am almost 40 years old and have 2 kids of my own, the last thing I want to do is log in and be begging for groups with pre-teen jerks angry at the world because some girl turned them down for a date...etc. How the open group system works is there are areas you may be running through and need to kill "X" monster. Well just run into that area and do a group lookup. You will see who is there what step they are on and bam! you can join them. You don't even need to talk to them "omg roxx0rz!".... As long as you participate in the quest and don't just stand there then you'll get the quest done. Which leads me to the final cool feature;

Public Quests (PQ);
Public quests are there to help you complete quests that require a group. Basically same as the open group system except that these quests have several stages and you did not have to have this quest before you came to the area. You can join in at any point in the chain and depending on how much you contribute to the final boss section then the better the loot and experience. So you could walk away with a healing potion or the Sword of 10000 truths. Whatever you get it WILL be usable by you! That's a huge difference from WoW.

So why all the WoW comparison? Many people will say that this is WoW 2.0. I will have to disagree with that. Let me explain it this way. If you are into playing first person shooters. And say, you are looking over the barrel of your gun. Is Gears of War a Wolfenstein 3D ripoff? Well that viewpoint (looking over the barrel), comes directly from one of the first 3D shooters ever (Wolfenstein 3D). Mythic has the same sort of complaint against it. "It is trying to be like WoW too much". To be honest WoW took alot from Dark Ages of Camelot which was the MMO pre-wow. The look of the orcs comes directly from Games Workshop which is where Warhammer comes from. If you are playing an MMO would you rather the players playing not have an idea how to play or would you rather everyone could play pretty well on their own. Being that mostly everyone coming to Warhammer has played an MMO before it is a benefit to everyone that Warhammer has a "similar feel" to all other MMO's that predate it.

The game allows for massive customization of your character. You can customize it internally. Meaning you can get abilities and skills that are more about power on the field of battle and less about the glowing codpiece of doom. The graphics are at this time (just after release) moderate and do use DirectX 10 to some extent. They are scheduling to allow people with ubermachines to ramp the setting up soon. Just realize though when you get 200 people on the field fighting, you may not wish to be able to count the nose hairs on each player, instead blast them first and count nose hairs later.

I am beginning to get the feeling this this is a much more mature players game and less for the kids to show off in. It's like that Nivia for Men commercial, " they got to see me, I got to attract them somehow". Being there isn't a huge glowing customizable look it may be off-putting to some that feel they NEED to have a glowing sword. The artwork in this game is amazingly real and very beautiful.

Final thoughts, the look of this game is one of realism and is very close to what tabletop Warhammer players would find appealing. You can play greenskins that are crude and really fun to play, or be a serious Von Helsing type character that looks like a swashbuckling hero. Either way you should have no problem finding something you like among the 20 classes.


Hope to meet you ingame!

Mythic knows how to run a successful MMO. They make the big, hard decisions. When class balancing and fun was at stake, they cut four classes in order to both balance the races, but also because the classes weren't up to snuff. And when all six capital cities were being problematic, they took out four of them and will release them as free content later.

Coming from Dark Age of Camelot, a game that unbearably belongs to the first generation of MMOs, Mythic decided to take the Warhammer lore and craft a game that they know best: realm versus realm. Warhammer Online (WAR) takes everything they tested, tried and made work from DAoC and pushed it forward into a new generation. Writing this review is tricky, because on the surface WAR is like most MMOs out there. But it's the details and the small things that make it something completely different.

Let's start with the way the game is set up. From the beginning, PvP is important as one of the first quests you receive will be to complete a scenario. In this way, WAR emphasizes its committment to more than PvE. In fact, a PvP'r could spend his or her time entirely PvPing and level all the way to the endgame. It helps that scenarios are constantly running and chances are you'll be in one before you know it.

The distinction, though, is that if you don't really care much about PvP, there are other opportunities. Firstly, literally hundreds of quests are out there, each with rewards that are specific to your class, meaning you won't be doing a quest for a nice axe that you, a healer, can never use. The zones begin as approximately 80% PvE content, 20% PvP. As you continue through the zones and into different tiers, that percentage will change, but there will always be PvE content.

One complaint I hear all the time is "I don't like PvP," which usually means...I don't like to be ganked by people twenty levels higher than me when doing a quest. Don't blame you, which is why the PvP system in 90% of the WAR servers is perfect. PvP only occurs on your terms, by entering a designated zone. Stay out of those zones and you won't have to worry about that pesky Bright Wizard. What about balancing in the zones? I don't want a level 40 PvP'r heading into a level 1 zone and laying waste to everyone. Don't worry, if someone enters a PvP zone too low for them, they are turned into a chicken.

Then there are the dungeons, all made to be completed by a small group and not some bloated raid. And with each dungeon being split into wings that should take 1-2ish hours to complete and having armor sets, there's plenty of fun content to be had.

But that's not all. Spread throughout the entire game are approximately 300 (according to developers) Public Quests (PQs). These PQs are areas within each zone that are open to everyone of your side to participate in. No matter whether you're grouping with someone or not, you'll contribute to the various stages of these areas (stages that range from killing a number of things, fighting a boss like a dragon or destroying urns) and, when the PQ is over you roll on a loot bag. What makes this work even better is that each loot bag will have a piece of equpiment that your class can use, guaranteed.

Additionally, there's a bar that tracks your story chapter's PQ progress and awards you three different items (usually a potion or talisman, followed by equipment and then a weapon) as you progress through three tiers.

Awards abound at every turn, even in PvP as you are tracked separately by your PvP level. At certain levels, or renown ranks as they're called, you'll have access to not only powerful equipment but also renown skills that will help you in both PvP and PvE. But let's not stop here; each of the race pairings have zones that are grouped into tiers, with tier four being the high content. Each zone has PvP areas with towers and, as you progress into tier two and beyond, keeps. Both sides (Destruction and Order) can take over a keep and, if your guild is high enough in rank (more on that later), you can capture a keep in your name.

But keeps are also treated like PQ areas, being populated by NPCs and a very strong leader that also supplies equipment. Fighting into a keep can turn into epic encounters, with siege weapons, rams to break down the keep's walls, boiling oil for the defenders to pour onto wouldbe attackers, places for ranged attackers to unleash devastating spells and arrows...it's quite a rush to be involved in one, especially as both sides start to get more aggressive, calling in reinforcements to help.

And as the game progresses, these types of battles become more common. Which is a huge difference from the elephant in the room, World of Warcraft. WoW crafts a similar structure, with two side duking it out...but it was never meant to be a truly PvP-centered game in the way WAR is. From the very beginning, you are immersed in this warfare, from the very first level all the way to the end and beyond.

And all of this is before you get into how many bars/levels there are to tackle. Sure, the game is capped at level 40 at launch, but that's not taking into consideration that each chapter of PQs has a bar with loot associated to it or that there's 80 renown ranks that will take a lot of PvPing to hit, or that your guild actually levels up to 40 based not on how many members you have in your guild but on their accomplishments, a system that benefits both small and large guilds. Guild ranks are actually important as they provide you with a ton of abilities, from being able to carry benefit-providing standards to having a guild vault to access to guild auctions, crafting vendors, quick flight paths to the dungeons, the ability to take keeps, etc.

There's just so much here, so many shinies to grab your attention. And it's all tied into the Tome of Knowledge, a large compendium that tracks everything you do from quests to accomplishments to titles, etc. It's so indepth that you have to wonder how Mythic pulled it off. And pulled it off, they did. WAR is a monumentous game that feels as relevant and genre-shifting as WoW did when it came.

So, there you have it. A very rambling review that didn't even touch on half of what the game has to offer (did you really want to be here for another century?), but will have to remain incomplete. Because, here's the thing. Even when you strip away all the little details, the leveling and all of that junk that I spent forever typing about, what we find is...this game is fun. And diverse. And it's just what I wanted and needed from a MMO.

This really is a great game. At first I thought I would hate it, but it grows on you fast.

Ignore all the negative things you have heard about it. The graphics aren't bad, they were locked on low during beta. This game doesn't need a super computer to play. It isn't a copy of WoW. There aren't many bugs and it is having a pretty good launch.

So what is good about the game? This game is about RvR combat (good vs bad). Starting at level 1 you can pvp and get experience from it. You don't have to level to 70 then spend 6 months raiding for gear just to pvp. The classes are very well balanced. The fights take longer then 5 seconds. Leveling can be done many ways including pvp. This is player vs player combat at it's finest.

Don't want to jump into pvp at the beginning? There are lots of quest and a great story line. Want to solo? You can do that easily. Want to group? There are public quest where you will learn to group, get great gear, experience and meet some new friends. Are you a casual player? This is the game for you. You don't have to devote you life to it.

In no way do I mean to put down other mmorpg's. They are great as well. Warhammer has enough of "other games" built in to please the masses, but has fresh new gameplay to make you want more.

Does this game look like WoW. Yes, but it is totally different. In Warhammer you are either Destruction or Empire and there for one reason, you are at WAR.

Warhammer Online is all about the RvR (Realm vs. Realm or another way of saying PvP). The game is broken up into Tiers that represent a block of levels for a player (ie. Tier 1 is levels 1 - 10, Tier 2 is 11 - 20) and each Tier is filled with both RvR content and more traditional PvE content. The forces of Order and Destruction are in a constant battle to control each zone, which gives your side bonus in the form of things like reduced prices at Merchants.

There are large areas made specifically for RvR with capture points as well as a keep that must be assaulted and controlled in each RvR area. Taking these keeps pushes your side much closer to taking control of the zone, but you also help the WAR effort with almost everything you do, including participating and winning Scenarios (similar to battlegrounds in WoW except more varied and more PvP oriented).

My favorite scenario so far is one where a single artifact must be picked up and held on to. Killing enemies while holding the artifact nets your team greater points than without and while you are fighting to protect the artifact carrier, the other side is working to bring him down ASAP. Definitely leads to some intense battles.

Outside of the RvR content there are the awesome Public Quests. They are almost like mini-raids, that anyone can join in and at point and participate. They are generally structured into increasingly difficult stages. At the end everyone who participated gets to roll on bags of loot, where those who contributed the most get bonuses to their roll. In addition to the bags, each group of PQs has Influence rewards that are chosen when you get enough Influence, which you gain from participation in the PQ it itself, so you are guaranteed an item eventually. These can be lots of fun and are a nice change of pace from the standard quests.

The Tome of Knowledge is a great addition to the game as well. It's basically a quest log on steroids. Just about everything you do in the game is tracked and you receive acheivements from completing various activities. These achievements yield experience and can also yield titles for your character or even items you can wear. There are even achievements for things like fighting in RvR with no armor, or clicking on yourself 100 times.

Not only do characters level, but guilds do as well. Everything you do in-game contributes to your guild's rank, which gives you perks like a guild bank, guild auction house, and even a standard that you bring to battlefield where you can unlock stat bonuses for using the standard. In addition, the major cities in the game have levels as well. Completing quests in the city among other things will increase it's rank and allow your guild to use some of the bonuses it's earned, as well as unlocked more city PQs and instances.

The launch has been moving along pretty well and considering the starting point, it will be great to see how the game grows in the future. Definitely recommended for any MMO fan that enjoys battling it out alongside their fellow players. Where games like WoW focus more on the PvE content, WAR focuses much more on the RvR and it shows.

To people checking up on the reviews, trying to make their minds up about whether to buy this or not:

Please read all of the low-scored reviews. Most of them are poorly written, based on beta experiences, or simply a low rating because Amazon handled the pre-order system poorly. I highly recomend reading all of the reviews, how many people found them helpful, and maybe even some of the comments on them.

Having said that, I simply love this game. I've been playing it for a few months (from closed beta through head start and now post-launch) and I've got no real complaints.

This game is more polished at launch than most games are a year after release. Set your worries of another Age of Conan type launch aside. This is a complete game, the functions are there, the mechanics are there. They were in beta for an extremely long time, and put that time to good use.

Gameplay: 5/5
This game doesn't revolutionize MMO gameplay. It's standard WASD + numbers, point-and-click interface. The interface is admitedly very similar to WoWs. But it's also similar to AoC, EQ 1 and 2, DAoC...the list goes on. If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Most classes have a special mechanic, from the Ironbreakers Grudge, to the Shaman's Waaaugh! to make each class feel different and interesting.

Innovations they have made:
Morale abilities: powerful 60 sec cooldown abilities that you get access to by staying in combat for long periods of time
Tactics: Buffs (7 in total when maxed out) that you gain from leveling, exploring, specs, and Tome of Knowledge (see below) unlocks. These can drastically alter your play style, or subtley boost abilities that you particularly like.
Tome of Knowledge: The completists best friend. Thousands of unlocks for doing anything from slaughtering X number of Rats, Skaven, Ghosts, players of a given class, etc, to exploring a new area. Some unlocks give you a background story for an area or character, others give you a new title. All of them give you free experience, and for people like me who love to explore every corner, it's fun to try to find as many of these as possible.

Graphics: 4.5/5
People complain that it's the same as WoW. Spend 30 minutes playing this on a decent computer and judge for yourself. Screenshots may look similar, but once you're in game, you see the difference as easily as night and day. I find myself going through areas that seem similar to WoW sometimes, yes, but more often than not I find myself wandering around gazing at the environments liveliness and thinking "no way....there is NOTHING like this in WoW...not even close"

The character animations (especially casting animations) are particularly interesting. OH, and the Goblin jumping animation is the best thing ever.

Sound: 4/5
Music is a bit sparse, but good when it is playing. Sound effects are very good, I personally turn the music off and play my own through iTunes quietly with the sound effects on in-game.

Customer Support: 5/5
I feel sorry for our European counterparts who had such a hard time with Open Beta. Having said that, in the good old USA, it's been one of the smoothest launches of MMO history. Server outtages, lag, downtime, all of the things that you associate with a new MMO? They're gladly missing.

INTRO

Let me start by saying I have been playing MMO (massively multiplayer online) games since the original Everquest was released in the 90s. I've seen many games come and go, and I've seen many fail. It is my belief that this game is destined to succeed by epic proportions!

NOTE: This review is based on gameplay in the beta up to and including the first 2 days of release. It does not cover high end content.


GAME PLAY AND PRESENTATION

The world of Warhammer is not new. It has actually been around longer than Blizzard's World of Warcraft. And, much like WoW was at its release, it is exciting to see the Warhammer world take shape as a multi-player game. Warhammer Online has a comfortable (and very customizable) interface. Players coming from other MMOs will feel immediately comfortable with the game mechanics, and the visual feedback is intuitive and easy to navigate. Some noteworthy additions are quest locations shown right on your map, a dual targeting system (that keeps your last friendly target targeted for you healers out there), and several inventory management improvements over other games (for example, your quest items no longer take up space your main inventory slots - they have their own tab). Graphics and sound are very good - as would be expected in today's game worlds. And the atmosphere exudes WAR!

PLAYER VS. PLAYER

Warhammer was built from the ground up as a PvP (player vs. player) game. Having played WoW on a PvP server, I was a bit concerned about this aspect of the game - I like the occasional PvP battle, but I hate getting "ganked" when I'm trying to just level in the game. I was pleased to find out that, even though WH is PvP to the core, it is presented in such a way that the PvP doesn't become a hindrance to the game play, but it instead becomes an integral part of the experience. First, the fear of some super high level character coming by and annihilating you with one shot is removed, as any high level character going into a low level zone will be turned into a chicken that can only do 1 point of damage. Second, much of the game world is only PvP by consent: you have to say you want to participate (or attack someone else that is participating) to be flagged for PvP. Third, there are battlegrounds - explicit PvP zones - where you can join in the carnage by simply clicking a button on your screen. Don't feel like battling? Don't click the button!

Another major part of the game experience is RvR (realm vs. realm), in which you can choose to participate in massive battlefields that include such wonderful excursions as laying waste to entire enemy cities. Being able to take part in a massive war with hundreds of real players is an exciting prospect! Of course, there are plenty of rewards for participating in battles, so the desire to participate is even higher.


PICK A SIDE

From the second you enter WH, you are very aware that the world is at war. You can choose to create characters on the good side, or the evil side. And let me say - the evil side isn't the "little bit" evil side, but more the "stab you with a knife and eat your puppy while you bleed" evil side. Either side you pick, you will find a wide selection of classes to pick from. And each race has a very uniquely presented atmosphere that doesn't look like any of the others. It is interesting to note that neither side has the exact same classes, so you will be a unique force on the battlefield.


PLAYER VS. ENVIRONMENT

Although WH has been built from the ground up as a PvP game, it also provides ample content for those days when you just don't feel like PvPing. The PvE (player vs. environment) content contains much of the same look and feel of many other MMO games: plenty of quests to complete and creatures to slay, many dungeons to explore, and even a limited tradeskill implementation. Besides these normal experiences, PvE content has been extended in ingenious ways. For example, players can participate in PQs (Public Quests). Simply walk into an area where a PQ is occurring, and you will be notified of what is going on, what needs to be done, and how long the players in the area have to complete the tasks. There is no need to talk to anyone, or group up with random people. Just walk into the area and you are automatically part of the quest. As you participate, you actually build up influence points - a kind of currency that allows you to purchase special items from a vendor in a nearby town or outpost. Running the quest a few times usually ends in an enjoyable experience, as well as some new loot (and that's why we play these games, right?). But, to make the PQ system even more interesting the player is rewarded by participating more. At the end of the quest, [x] number of players will receive a special loot bag containing goodies - the system will automatically roll for each player to determine if they win. Players who helped the most will receive a bonus to their roll, increasing the chance they will receive some goodies.


CONCLUSION

Overall, I was extremely pleased to get an invite to the beta for Warhammer Online. I am enjoying the game's unique presentation to an increasingly competing market. There are plenty of new aspects to WH that makes it stand out among all of the other games out there today, and that will certainly help to spark a renewed interest to those that were starting to get bored with the "same-old" offerings from other games. If you are totally 100% against the idea of PvP, then this game might not be for you. But, for everyone else - even those that only casually enjoy PvP games - this one is a keeper!

Games I have played: FFXI, Age of Conan, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online

Everyone always starts off by mentioning World of Warcraft and I think I will as well. I love World of Warcraft and have waisted many hours in World of Warcraft. I had a 70 tier 6 Troll Shamman, 70 tier 5 Human Mage, 62 Human Paladin, and a 54 Tauren Druid. I still think that World of Warcraft has the best raiding content in any game I have ever played.

This being said I got tired of the way that World of Warcraft did PVP. This is where Warhammer really steps it up. In World of Warcraft, most of the game was being stunned/feared/sheeped. I do not enjoy loosing control of my character and waiting for my character to be killed without being able to do anything. I am currently only a 23 Ironbreaker/ 10 White Lion but already find pvp, or referred to as rvr in Warhammer extremely fun. The scenarios give you experience when you compete in them, and is also probably the fastest way to level up.

Now I am going to discuss the game and what my impressions of it were.

I got into this game because several of my friends had started playing it and talked me into trying it out. The first class I tried out was an Archmage. I found the class ok but it did not mesh with my play style. Then I created an Ironbreaker with a friend when we were playing together and absolutely fell in love with him. This seems to be the way the developers wanted you to play the game. Some classes you will like, some you will hate. I definitely recommend trying a few.

Warhammer brings some interesting new things to the game. For one I enjoy I no longer have mana. Every character now has energy. This energy continuously regenerates so that you can continue to fight for any amount of time.

The second is something called tactics. You can pick and choose which tactics you have on but think of them as selecting which buffs you are going to have active at any one time. You can switch these out after being out of combat for 10 seconds. This means that in an RVR or siege you can hot swap abilities if you need to adjust for a situation.

Warhammer also gives you abilities that you can set called Morale abilitys. Your morale abilities charge the longer you are in combat. The higher tier ones typically give group buffs or group damage. For example my tier 3 morale ability the other day lets me makes my group within 30 yards of me take 50% less damage of all types for 10 seconds. Morale has a maximum of four levels and anytime you use any morale ability, you loose all of your morale.

Another thing Warhammer gives you is a class specific self buffing system. For my archmage I would start to cast faster, do more damage, or more healing if I cast spells in the same school like 4 healing spells in a row. My Ironbreaker gets grudge which is used to increase damage I do and to activate special abilities that take no energy at all. I have not played all of the classes yet so I can not tell you what every class gets but everyone gets something to help them out and make them even a little more unique.

Warhammer also allows for some interesting world RVR. I was a part of a siege on a keep. Let me tell you setting up battering rams and ballistics are just amazing. You have to have healers healing the people on the ram because everyone is getting burning oil poured on them. This is something you need to participate in to see what the end game type of pvp is going to be like. The end game of this game is trying to capture the enemy's capital.

I will now leave you with my thought on MMO's out there at this time that I have played.

FFXI - Fun to play, I hated the xp penalty for dying, the exuberant amounts of time required to level and the zero availability to solo in this game. I spent most of my time on this game looking for leveling groups.

World of Warcraft - I have played this game more than anything else to date. It is great fun, well polished but extremely tedious after going through content once. The PVP is horribly imbalanced and is just not as fun. The raiding content can not be matched by any game in the mainstream market today.

Age of Conan - I got bored quickly, interesting ideas but the lack of focus of any objectives made me not like it. Open PVP was just horrible because there were no factions and no real reason to do anything other than just bragging rights. I hate it when a developer instances normal zones like Guild Wars.

Warhammer - Extremly fun. Lack of endgame PVE, best PVP in a game so far to date. I wish that when you left Tier 1 zone, to Tier 2 zone it did not have a loading screen. Interesting that not everyone has an exact copy of your character on the opposing side.

Warhammer is such a great game!

The graphics are amazing! There is such great attention to detail that it is very easy to become immersed in the game's environment. This coupled with a great musical score and exciting game play really adds up.

The servers are very stable. I have very little lag even during realm versus realm combat.

The game has done away with many of the time consuming and/or annoying aspects of some other MMORPGs like long flights from location to location, downtime for drinking/eating in player-versus-player combat, constant interruptions of game play in order to repair equipment, looking for group systems that require you to stay in queues for hours just trying to get a party going to name a few. There is none of that in Warhammer. Mythic really did a good job of making a game this is more fun to play and less like a tedious job.

The lore is great and the story lines are engaging. Public quests are fun, quick and challenging. Realm-versus-realm combat is very easy to find and you can start off fighting other players at level 1 if you choose to. You are able to level from 1-40 from realm-versus-realm combat, player-versus-environment or a combination of both, whichever works best for you.

The user interface is highly customizable and very user friendly.

There are still a few minor graphical bugs but they seem to have ironed out most of the bugs that affect gameplay.

I was hesitant to stray from World of Warcraft after playing that game for 3.5 years and investing so much time an energy into my characters. It is understandable that many World of Warcraft players will react negatively to a new MMO on the scene but please give this game a chance. I've only played Warhammer Online, Lineage II and World of Warcraft so I am no expert on MMORPGs but based on my experience this is the most fun I have had playing a MMO to date. I highly recommend it!

Ok i am going to review this game not just on a current quick play. I'll go in depth as much as i can so bear with me please.

I will be the first to say this game has had many issues and has been fighting an uphill battle on a hill made of ice. I know.. i stayed none the less (largly due to i beat GW and GW2 isnt out yet... and i am a mythic loyalist despite their many many many faults). They have had serious issues with bugs, balance and grinding, among other things. thankfully much of it has been fixed and more is coming, very soon! I won't sit here and tell you it's the perfect game because it's not but i will tell you whats wrong has been wrong and whats been fixed and is being fixed now or in the future.

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First thing, i've been on WAR for over a year now and i am dead sick of people comparing it to WoW. It is NOT WoW get over it.
1. wow has been out for years... multiple expansions and time to fix stuff. WAR has been out barely a year. Compare WoW at 1 year to WAR at one year. At 1 year WAR has more content and fewer bugs than WoW... looks promising to me but most people have gotten so used to zombifying to an old game that has been in the market for years they are to impatient to wait for a new game to fix itself thus slowing down the fixing process when everyone impatiently leaves thus preventing the compony from having enough money to support all of its employies...
2. It is PvP primarily not PvE primary... so dont bother grinding for PvE and then complaining it's a grind fest... it isn't you can start PvP right off the bat, no grind and if you so choose you dont even have to touch PvE at all, as you can level in PvP as well.

Ok it's been a year what now what then?
1. Ok there are still bugs but they aren't all the same they are new bugs from new content. And they are fairly minor bugs that hardly effect gameplay. Not to mention i see bugs vanish every couple of weeks as they get fixed.
2. They have had more content added, not just simple oh hey here's a new quest or armor piece but an entire expansion worth. Guess what. It's free... as of right now WAR is aiming at making their expansions free, they have considered making a pay for expansion maybe (i stress maybe) somewhere down the road but likely keep it at free. Entire zones and classes have been added. And i expect new races even in the next year or... (hopefully not) two years.
3. Revamped: The game is being revamped based on player, not developer but player feedback. RvR and PvP has change drasticaly making it run smoother and quicker... no more wasting 24 hours to take a capitol city.
4. Revamped: Major complaint was class balance. This is gonna be fixed in the next month. They are putting through a major patch that will make the classes on order and destro sides mirror eachother more closely like they were meant to. Same skills diferent names and apearance... but same skills essentialy. Also crowd control is finaly being fixed and is no longer the mass spam nest it has been. It will be harder to get, have more requirements to trigger, and will be more limited class wise (most classes will lose most of their crowd control, tanks will gain crowd control making them better at their job).

Leveling and costomization did suck... end game was lacking and what was with the repetitiveness?
1. Ok if you are playing PvE and you were so sick of hitting that brick wall at one tier or another... they fixed it... leveling is much smoother like it was meant to be...
2. Customization is getting much better. There are more trophies, armor sets (and more armor set design variation), and even mounts. granted some are a little harder to get than others but that's how it should be... some stuff easy some hard...
3. Even the repetetiveness as fallen down... now the live events are more frequent and more varied... dont worry though they aren't one time only things... They plan to bring them back...
4. end game... the end game has been revamped so much... now things are easier so you can access more of the end game content, and more end game contect has been added (for example an entire continent of new stuff)

Ok the bugs, population and the graphics.
1. i hear people quit due to crappy graphics. that is no longer the case. the graphics are much much better than they were in clossed beta and early game... and rumors abound about another graphics update.
2. Graphics have been ironed out more solidly so there is far less lag... much much better.
3. Population issues are next to mute now. Before it was sad... the server was maxed on pop, and yet you could hardly find anyone. Well they finaly fixed it. They merged most of the servers into i believe 7 servers, and raised the pop cap tramendously. I never log on and find things feal dead... lots of RvR and PvP, or PvE its amazing!!!
4. The bugs are so much less than they once were... most of them are hardly even noticable much less effecting your play. Server stabability can get 50/50 right after a major update to the game but usualy gets fixed in 1-2 weeks... or at least lessened till they find a more permanent fix.

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In End Note... the game is tremendously much better than it was... much much better. I did dock a star due to the bugs and such we still have but with the fixes going through right now and as fast as they are working i know this game can pick itself back up. (as long as they don't let EA rush them anymore). I would also like to note that they are under new management now, and the new management so far is much smarter... they have been more willing to tell us the players stuff straitforward with less beating around the proverbial bush. And they listen to the players much more than before. It is also promissing to note that another major compony is jumpin on the wagon and depending on how they handle things we may see things spead up as well on the game.. Looks promissing... can't wait to see what happens in the next year after the last years performance.

My first introduction to MMOs was WOW and I fell in love. I have tried a few since this, EQ2, LOTR, Tabula Rasa, and while good they never kept me coming back like WOW did. Now, I have heard of Warhammer and I know the history it has, so I was very excited with I heard they were doing a MMO. I also knew that WOW took a lot, and I mean a lot, of their ideas from Warhammer. So if a game could be created that was as easy to pick up as WOW plus had the rich history of Warhammer it would be great. Well, I think they have succeeded with that.

The really big difference with the game is the PVP. It is so easy to get involved in a PVP battle without having to have some huge leveled up character. The public quests are also great. If you come across a quest that is going on you can just jump in and help and then be eligible for any rewards from that quest.

If you really like WOW and are ready for something new, give Warhammer Online a chance. You will not be disappointed.