Posts Tagged ‘PC’
Warhammer Online Review: The Sequel
I played Warhammer Online shortly after it launched last year. Overall I liked the game but I found it got boring pretty quick. About 10 days ago, I decided to give it another shot……and so far…..I like what I see.
My first play through I had 3 main issues.
1) The Realm vs. Realm combat felt VERY stale after a while.
2) The servers were barren outside the starting areas.
3) The game ran slowly and anything outside a small scale PvP fight was unplayable.
On my second go-around, I noticed some vast improvements.
1) The Realm vs. Realm combat seems more interesting. The first thing I noticed was changes they made to Keep defense. Keep defense is just what it sounds like. In the original game, assaults on a keep were pretty much useless if there was even a small force defending. The defending force would be able to block the one avenue of advancement to the Kings quarters. The only way to take keeps was to deploy a network of spys who would look for undefended keeps and try to assault quickly. Talk about boring PvP. The new changes open up multiple avenues of attack which make defending a bit harder and more fair in my opinion.
2) They merged a ton of servers. This has helped the game immensely in my humble opinion. I hate playing a MMORPG only to play for hours and not see another Toon. It also helps one of Warhammers greatest strengths….it’s Public Quests. These are setup for public groups to get together and try to accomplish a single goal. With some of these being in RvR (Realm vs. Realm/Open PvP) areas, the action can get quite intense….as long as you have other players involved. Hopefully the Warhammer Online player base continues to grow. The starting areas are still hopping but some of the second and third tier areas look a little bare.
3) (Full disclosure: I did upgrade my PC a bit between play cycles. I went from 2 GB of RAM to 6GB of RAM) I still notice some slow downs and stuttering but the large scale combat is generally lag free. Since I am playing as a healer, timing my heals and insuring that the “health bar” I am looking at is an accurate representation of what is happening is a huge issue. Lag makes playing a “healer” a pain in the butt…..but whatever changes they did on the back end seem to make it smoother.
Overall, I think the game has changed for the better. I wish there were less “FedEx” quests and that they continue to work on class balance. At the same time, I would love for them to come up with a way to further customize your characters abilities. What I love about “skill based” MMORPG’s vs. “class based” is the character customization. In UO, I used to run a Grand Master Wizard/Blacksmith…..why…..because it made him interesting. I hate “cookie cutter” avatars. Give me something different. I fear that the “Class Based” system will be what forces me to quit again. I am trying my best to enjoy it but it is going to take some time.
