Warhammer: Age of Reckoning
I'm about a week into WAR now, with one Rank 16 character and a few others between 5 and 9. Some things WAR does much, much, much better than WoW. Other things it does not so good. Keep reading for some comments.
We Has the Elfiest Elves and the Grottiest Grotz.
The first thing I said after making a High Elf White Lion and loading into the world was "Damn, these elves are elfy." Seriously, the character design is incredible, and the customizability of your character's face is pretty high. You can't change build or height, of course, and each given class has a pretty solidly-locked-in look and feel to it, but between dyable armor and 20 classes to choose from you can make yourself look pretty badass.
By which I mean you can make yourself look like a Warhammer character. Even for the elves, one of the facial options is "which horrifyingly disfiguring facial scar would you like?" ("None" is an option. So is "the eight-pointed star of Chaos branded around my left eye. Which is glowing.") The gobbos are little with raggedy ears and pointy noses and variably-colored teeth. (No hair, so they had to do something with that slider, I guess.)
The Warhammeryness of everything is carried through into the game itself, too. The Empire Spearmen guys look like a collection of Citadel miniatures ready for their closeup in 'Eavy Metal. The High Elf buildings look graceful and arching. Everything Dark Elf has an unnecessary spike on the top. The High Elves are the proud, doomed remnants of a mighty people who will not yield in the face of certain death. The dwarves like beer. The orcs like hitting things with other things. (Early orc/gobbo quest: Sumfink in the Water; open barrels that turn out to be full of dwarves. Later orc/gobbo quest: hurl yourself via catapult to the top of the stunty dam, put some stunties in barrels, send the barrels over the dam.) Even the ability names and icons are super-Warhammery. Basic Squig Herder melee attack? "Stabbity." Compare to Shaman spell "'Ey, Quit Bleedin'!"
Okay, I have a soft spot for the greenskins. Granted.
However, the look is not as polished when it comes to the more generic environments. That tree looks like a video game tree. That bird looks like a video game bird. (Bonus points for putting in a cardinal critter. Negative points for having every single creature in the game attack my Chosen on sight if I leave my aura on.) The terrain itself looks a little whatever, and all of it is a little bit too ... grey? Realistic? There's no Zangarmarsh or Felwood or Sholazar Basin here, at least not that I've seen. The fact that the majority of the buildings are closed off and non-interactive doesn't aid my immersion, either.
I'd put it this way: WAR beats the pants off of WoW when it comes to character design. (My Chosen put on a breastplate and suddenly BAM, he's a freaking CHOSEN OF TZEENTCH and don't you forget it! My orc warrior in WoW put on a breastplate and his chest changed color.) WoW still reigns when it comes to environment. The WoW universe doesn't look very real, but it does look very appealing. There's more to be said for bright colors and pleasing shapes than you'd think, I guess. Moving on.
Wot's All Dis About Arr-Vee-Arr, Den?
Where WAR shines and stands head-and-shoulders above the rest is in its "RvR" combat system. WoW will never be able to compete because in WoW, the PvP is tacked on as an afterthought. In WAR, the multiplayer combat is the whole point. It's integrated at every level. Literally; at level 1 you can get a quest to go jump into the appropriate starter RvR scenario and start killing dudes. AND you'll get xp, renown, and loot for doing so. (Renown is like Honor in WoW, only better. As you gain "Renown Ranks," you unlock more powerful purchaseable gear and you get bonus stats and abilities.)
Some words on how RvR is integrated:
1) You get intangible rewards for RvR success. Like conquering keeps and hanging your guild's flag above them. Oh, and your flag can LEVEL UP and get new powers. How sexy is that? That's a feeling of accomplishment!
2) You get tangible rewards for RvR success. Aside from previously-mentioned renown rewards, you get loot off fallen foes just like any other monster. And Keep Lords and City Lords (the NPC guards whose life or death flags the keep or city as standing or fallen) drop serious boss loots.
3) Siege Engines! I just got a Chosen ability thats only purpose is to protect me and my group from boiling oil. Because that's a real concern when you're trying to ram a keep door open. And keeps are things that you want to take.
4) So far, at least, the RvR is 100% consensual and optional. You get flagged for RvR combat when you enter an RvR zone. (There's even a big friendly 10 second countdown for you when you cross a threshold, so you can turn around and run away.) You can't get ganked. Actually, let me say that again.
5) You can't get ganked. Not only do you have to willingly jump into an RvR zone or scenario, so you can't just get jumped while questing, but - BUT! - when you do, if you're below the average reccomended level for the zone, you are instantly "bolstered" up to that level. So if you go into a Tier 1 Scenario or Zone at level 1, you are Bolstered to level 8. If you go into a Tier 2 zone at level 11, you magically find yourself bolstered to level 18. All the Bolstering does is jack up all your numbers - DPS, HP, stats, etc. - to an appropriate amount. You don't get new abilities, but the abilities you do have hit as hard as they should at your new level. Even your gear gets jacked up to keep up with the Joneses. A level 16 dude is still more dangerous than a level 11 dude even if they're both Bolstered to 18, but you're not gonna embarras yourself, even if you are at the bottom of the Tier in terms of rank. And you're not gonna have a Level Skull guy destealth behind you and one-shot you, ever, anywhere.
There's still a middle zone above the Bolster rank and below the maximum rank for the Tier (levels 9-11 for Tier 1, for example) where you get to be the Big Dog for a bit. But if you're above even that level, then as soon as you step into the zone ... you become a Chicken. Like, seriously. A bird. Squawk. And you can't hurt anyone as a Chicken.
6) RvR: Tanks and Healers. Well, anyone who PvPed at any level in WoW knows that Healers are essential... but tanks? Yah, really. Every tank ability has RvR utility, from soaking half the Sorcerer's damage as long as I stand next to him to Holding the Line, making everyone behind me harder to hit. Oh, and there's collision detection, so I can do my job literally just by standing in your way and having a lot of hit points. Even Taunt has a useful function, where it makes me deal extra damage to you. And Ironbreakers have this neat Grudge mechanic where if you hit their buddy instead of them, they WTFPWN you. The healers have a little RvR twist to them, too. So far I've only played 3 healing classes, but they all have their ways of encouraging you to get stuck in. Warrior Priests need Righteous Fury to heal you. How do they get Righteous Fury? By hitting dudes in the face with a hammer. Gobbo Shaman get better heals if they have enough Mork's Waagh built up. (Or maybe Gork's. They have two kinds, I get them confused.) How do they build up Mork's Waagh? By blasting dudes with spells. How do they buils up Gork's Waagh, that makes their blasting spells better? By healing dudes, of course. Even the Chaos Zealot, the most pedestrian of the healer classes I've played, has a solid "I heal you by leeching the life out of that other guy over there" vibe to them. This has the added benefit of making their PvE experience more fun, too.
Hey, nice segue!
But I'm a Carebear!
So, okay, the RvR is hot. How's the PvE? Well, I'm not really 100% sure. See, it's so EASY to just go KILL DUDES that I've been largely doing that. I haven't done a dungeon yet (you know, those things that WoW is so very good at?), but I have done quite a few of this other thing that WAR has that's pretty neat: Public Quests.
A Public Quest is like a little minizone with a scripted event path, generally three stages of objectives. Stage I is always untimed, so you can just show up and kill some dudes (it's usually "kill X dudes" in Stage I) to get a quest done, or get some influence, or set things up for your group as they assemble. Stage II and III are always timed, and they have objectives like "So and So must not die" or "Kill Y Champion-level dudes" or "Destroy the bell while waves of bad guys run at you!", and usually end with "Here's a hero level guy. Good freaking luck." They're usually gonna need a tank/healer/DPS combo for the later stages; almost certainly for Stage III. And anyone who happens to be in the area can help out and pitch in.
But why would they do that? Glad you asked! There's two good reasons to do PQs: Influence and Phat Lewtz. Each "Chapter" of the game (which is like a sequential series of quest hubs) has its own set of Influence rewards. If you get the maximum amount of Influence, the last reward is usually a seriously nice toy. PQs are the only way to get Influence, and you don't even have to complete the PQ to do it. If you just kill Stage I dudes over and over again, you'll get enough Influence to get your toy even if you never get to Stage II on anything. (Although it's much faster to group up and just run the PQ straight through.)
Also, when you complete Stage III of a PQ, a big glowing treasure chest drops with a bag of loot for you! Well, maybe for you. See, each PQ will give out X loot bags. Every person present at the completion of the quest rolls a die (magically), and they get to add a bonus based on how much they contributed, according to the computer, to completing the quest. Healing and tanking seem to get lots of points, so it's not just who got the most killing blows or anything. I'm not sure what the rubric it uses is, but it's pretty savvy. You also get a bonus if you ran that PQ earlier and got no loot, a "persistence bonus."
Doing a PQ takes about 15 minutes if you have a group that's actually prepared for it, and the loot you get from it is, I'd say, equivalent to an instance boss in WoW. Plus you get Influence that adds up to a really sweet toy, guaranteed. And the PQs are often stunning experiences, like "ZOMG There's a Chaos Giant coming someone stop it! But we're only level 4 Oh Sigmar We're Gonna Die!" That or you get the giant drunk and he blows open the stunty gate for you. You know; one of those. So maybe the fact that the game's a little dungeon-light makes more sense now. PQs seem more friendly than dungeons, anyway. You wander by and find two guys locked in a life-or-death battle with some wood spirit? Throw a heal, throw a DoT, get stuck in! Blast first, ask questions later. Hey, maybe you'll get loot! Maybe you'll make a friend!
Where WoW Wins
WoW still rules in some other ways. Your girlfriend probably won't play Warhammer. Neither will your mom. But they might play WoW. WoW is more user-friendly, more attractive to most palates, and smoother overall. It's incredibly polished and doesn't take itself too seriously. Warhammer has some bizarre holes in it, too. There's a /special command. Do a /special with your zealot and she floats in the air and does a backflip. Your chosen glows as a wave of power consumes him. Your goblin shrieks and does the homer-simpson-run-in-circle-on-the-floor, then transitions into the Monster's Inc. butt-scooch. Your Warrior Priest pulls out a Sigmar puppet and does a little show.
But do a /dance? "No. You refuse to dance." Can you sit? I don't know, I've never seen anyone do it. Warhammer trimmed out all that "pansy fluff" and then told you you're a loser for wanting it. A little doublethink-y, there, for a game where you can dye all your armor purple, but there it is.
Warhammer's crafting feels unfinished. It's more ... hmmm. I'll think of a word for it eventually. To make a Talisman, I place the ingredients, in order, on the table, then hit "FUSE." There's no WoW "choose from the list and hit Make" option. You have to mix the ingredients according to a recipe that you may or may not know ("What happens if I brew a squig spleen in some tepid water and add some elvish parsley to the mix? KABOOM!"), and the results may be unpredictable. There's a cultivation skill, where you plant a seed and ... it grows. Into a plant. That you can then sell or use in Apothecarying. There's only two craft-craft skills so far, Talismans and Apothecary, with a slew of Gathering skills, including Scavenging, Salvaging, Butchery, and Cultivation.
Anyway. A bunch of people are going to leave WoW and enjoy WAR a lot more than they ever did on the other side, and they'll never look back. Blizzard will just have to console themselves with their millions and millions of dollars, as even more people are going to take one look at WAR and say "wow, that looks too hard" and stay way away. Which camp you'll be in you can probably figure out for yourself.
We Has the Elfiest Elves and the Grottiest Grotz.
The first thing I said after making a High Elf White Lion and loading into the world was "Damn, these elves are elfy." Seriously, the character design is incredible, and the customizability of your character's face is pretty high. You can't change build or height, of course, and each given class has a pretty solidly-locked-in look and feel to it, but between dyable armor and 20 classes to choose from you can make yourself look pretty badass.
By which I mean you can make yourself look like a Warhammer character. Even for the elves, one of the facial options is "which horrifyingly disfiguring facial scar would you like?" ("None" is an option. So is "the eight-pointed star of Chaos branded around my left eye. Which is glowing.") The gobbos are little with raggedy ears and pointy noses and variably-colored teeth. (No hair, so they had to do something with that slider, I guess.)
The Warhammeryness of everything is carried through into the game itself, too. The Empire Spearmen guys look like a collection of Citadel miniatures ready for their closeup in 'Eavy Metal. The High Elf buildings look graceful and arching. Everything Dark Elf has an unnecessary spike on the top. The High Elves are the proud, doomed remnants of a mighty people who will not yield in the face of certain death. The dwarves like beer. The orcs like hitting things with other things. (Early orc/gobbo quest: Sumfink in the Water; open barrels that turn out to be full of dwarves. Later orc/gobbo quest: hurl yourself via catapult to the top of the stunty dam, put some stunties in barrels, send the barrels over the dam.) Even the ability names and icons are super-Warhammery. Basic Squig Herder melee attack? "Stabbity." Compare to Shaman spell "'Ey, Quit Bleedin'!"
Okay, I have a soft spot for the greenskins. Granted.
However, the look is not as polished when it comes to the more generic environments. That tree looks like a video game tree. That bird looks like a video game bird. (Bonus points for putting in a cardinal critter. Negative points for having every single creature in the game attack my Chosen on sight if I leave my aura on.) The terrain itself looks a little whatever, and all of it is a little bit too ... grey? Realistic? There's no Zangarmarsh or Felwood or Sholazar Basin here, at least not that I've seen. The fact that the majority of the buildings are closed off and non-interactive doesn't aid my immersion, either.
I'd put it this way: WAR beats the pants off of WoW when it comes to character design. (My Chosen put on a breastplate and suddenly BAM, he's a freaking CHOSEN OF TZEENTCH and don't you forget it! My orc warrior in WoW put on a breastplate and his chest changed color.) WoW still reigns when it comes to environment. The WoW universe doesn't look very real, but it does look very appealing. There's more to be said for bright colors and pleasing shapes than you'd think, I guess. Moving on.
Wot's All Dis About Arr-Vee-Arr, Den?
Where WAR shines and stands head-and-shoulders above the rest is in its "RvR" combat system. WoW will never be able to compete because in WoW, the PvP is tacked on as an afterthought. In WAR, the multiplayer combat is the whole point. It's integrated at every level. Literally; at level 1 you can get a quest to go jump into the appropriate starter RvR scenario and start killing dudes. AND you'll get xp, renown, and loot for doing so. (Renown is like Honor in WoW, only better. As you gain "Renown Ranks," you unlock more powerful purchaseable gear and you get bonus stats and abilities.)
Some words on how RvR is integrated:
1) You get intangible rewards for RvR success. Like conquering keeps and hanging your guild's flag above them. Oh, and your flag can LEVEL UP and get new powers. How sexy is that? That's a feeling of accomplishment!
2) You get tangible rewards for RvR success. Aside from previously-mentioned renown rewards, you get loot off fallen foes just like any other monster. And Keep Lords and City Lords (the NPC guards whose life or death flags the keep or city as standing or fallen) drop serious boss loots.
3) Siege Engines! I just got a Chosen ability thats only purpose is to protect me and my group from boiling oil. Because that's a real concern when you're trying to ram a keep door open. And keeps are things that you want to take.
4) So far, at least, the RvR is 100% consensual and optional. You get flagged for RvR combat when you enter an RvR zone. (There's even a big friendly 10 second countdown for you when you cross a threshold, so you can turn around and run away.) You can't get ganked. Actually, let me say that again.
5) You can't get ganked. Not only do you have to willingly jump into an RvR zone or scenario, so you can't just get jumped while questing, but - BUT! - when you do, if you're below the average reccomended level for the zone, you are instantly "bolstered" up to that level. So if you go into a Tier 1 Scenario or Zone at level 1, you are Bolstered to level 8. If you go into a Tier 2 zone at level 11, you magically find yourself bolstered to level 18. All the Bolstering does is jack up all your numbers - DPS, HP, stats, etc. - to an appropriate amount. You don't get new abilities, but the abilities you do have hit as hard as they should at your new level. Even your gear gets jacked up to keep up with the Joneses. A level 16 dude is still more dangerous than a level 11 dude even if they're both Bolstered to 18, but you're not gonna embarras yourself, even if you are at the bottom of the Tier in terms of rank. And you're not gonna have a Level Skull guy destealth behind you and one-shot you, ever, anywhere.
There's still a middle zone above the Bolster rank and below the maximum rank for the Tier (levels 9-11 for Tier 1, for example) where you get to be the Big Dog for a bit. But if you're above even that level, then as soon as you step into the zone ... you become a Chicken. Like, seriously. A bird. Squawk. And you can't hurt anyone as a Chicken.
6) RvR: Tanks and Healers. Well, anyone who PvPed at any level in WoW knows that Healers are essential... but tanks? Yah, really. Every tank ability has RvR utility, from soaking half the Sorcerer's damage as long as I stand next to him to Holding the Line, making everyone behind me harder to hit. Oh, and there's collision detection, so I can do my job literally just by standing in your way and having a lot of hit points. Even Taunt has a useful function, where it makes me deal extra damage to you. And Ironbreakers have this neat Grudge mechanic where if you hit their buddy instead of them, they WTFPWN you. The healers have a little RvR twist to them, too. So far I've only played 3 healing classes, but they all have their ways of encouraging you to get stuck in. Warrior Priests need Righteous Fury to heal you. How do they get Righteous Fury? By hitting dudes in the face with a hammer. Gobbo Shaman get better heals if they have enough Mork's Waagh built up. (Or maybe Gork's. They have two kinds, I get them confused.) How do they build up Mork's Waagh? By blasting dudes with spells. How do they buils up Gork's Waagh, that makes their blasting spells better? By healing dudes, of course. Even the Chaos Zealot, the most pedestrian of the healer classes I've played, has a solid "I heal you by leeching the life out of that other guy over there" vibe to them. This has the added benefit of making their PvE experience more fun, too.
Hey, nice segue!
But I'm a Carebear!
So, okay, the RvR is hot. How's the PvE? Well, I'm not really 100% sure. See, it's so EASY to just go KILL DUDES that I've been largely doing that. I haven't done a dungeon yet (you know, those things that WoW is so very good at?), but I have done quite a few of this other thing that WAR has that's pretty neat: Public Quests.
A Public Quest is like a little minizone with a scripted event path, generally three stages of objectives. Stage I is always untimed, so you can just show up and kill some dudes (it's usually "kill X dudes" in Stage I) to get a quest done, or get some influence, or set things up for your group as they assemble. Stage II and III are always timed, and they have objectives like "So and So must not die" or "Kill Y Champion-level dudes" or "Destroy the bell while waves of bad guys run at you!", and usually end with "Here's a hero level guy. Good freaking luck." They're usually gonna need a tank/healer/DPS combo for the later stages; almost certainly for Stage III. And anyone who happens to be in the area can help out and pitch in.
But why would they do that? Glad you asked! There's two good reasons to do PQs: Influence and Phat Lewtz. Each "Chapter" of the game (which is like a sequential series of quest hubs) has its own set of Influence rewards. If you get the maximum amount of Influence, the last reward is usually a seriously nice toy. PQs are the only way to get Influence, and you don't even have to complete the PQ to do it. If you just kill Stage I dudes over and over again, you'll get enough Influence to get your toy even if you never get to Stage II on anything. (Although it's much faster to group up and just run the PQ straight through.)
Also, when you complete Stage III of a PQ, a big glowing treasure chest drops with a bag of loot for you! Well, maybe for you. See, each PQ will give out X loot bags. Every person present at the completion of the quest rolls a die (magically), and they get to add a bonus based on how much they contributed, according to the computer, to completing the quest. Healing and tanking seem to get lots of points, so it's not just who got the most killing blows or anything. I'm not sure what the rubric it uses is, but it's pretty savvy. You also get a bonus if you ran that PQ earlier and got no loot, a "persistence bonus."
Doing a PQ takes about 15 minutes if you have a group that's actually prepared for it, and the loot you get from it is, I'd say, equivalent to an instance boss in WoW. Plus you get Influence that adds up to a really sweet toy, guaranteed. And the PQs are often stunning experiences, like "ZOMG There's a Chaos Giant coming someone stop it! But we're only level 4 Oh Sigmar We're Gonna Die!" That or you get the giant drunk and he blows open the stunty gate for you. You know; one of those. So maybe the fact that the game's a little dungeon-light makes more sense now. PQs seem more friendly than dungeons, anyway. You wander by and find two guys locked in a life-or-death battle with some wood spirit? Throw a heal, throw a DoT, get stuck in! Blast first, ask questions later. Hey, maybe you'll get loot! Maybe you'll make a friend!
Where WoW Wins
WoW still rules in some other ways. Your girlfriend probably won't play Warhammer. Neither will your mom. But they might play WoW. WoW is more user-friendly, more attractive to most palates, and smoother overall. It's incredibly polished and doesn't take itself too seriously. Warhammer has some bizarre holes in it, too. There's a /special command. Do a /special with your zealot and she floats in the air and does a backflip. Your chosen glows as a wave of power consumes him. Your goblin shrieks and does the homer-simpson-run-in-circle-on-the-floor, then transitions into the Monster's Inc. butt-scooch. Your Warrior Priest pulls out a Sigmar puppet and does a little show.
But do a /dance? "No. You refuse to dance." Can you sit? I don't know, I've never seen anyone do it. Warhammer trimmed out all that "pansy fluff" and then told you you're a loser for wanting it. A little doublethink-y, there, for a game where you can dye all your armor purple, but there it is.
Warhammer's crafting feels unfinished. It's more ... hmmm. I'll think of a word for it eventually. To make a Talisman, I place the ingredients, in order, on the table, then hit "FUSE." There's no WoW "choose from the list and hit Make" option. You have to mix the ingredients according to a recipe that you may or may not know ("What happens if I brew a squig spleen in some tepid water and add some elvish parsley to the mix? KABOOM!"), and the results may be unpredictable. There's a cultivation skill, where you plant a seed and ... it grows. Into a plant. That you can then sell or use in Apothecarying. There's only two craft-craft skills so far, Talismans and Apothecary, with a slew of Gathering skills, including Scavenging, Salvaging, Butchery, and Cultivation.
Anyway. A bunch of people are going to leave WoW and enjoy WAR a lot more than they ever did on the other side, and they'll never look back. Blizzard will just have to console themselves with their millions and millions of dollars, as even more people are going to take one look at WAR and say "wow, that looks too hard" and stay way away. Which camp you'll be in you can probably figure out for yourself.