Well, so far I’m loving Warhammer Online. I’m able to jump in for 30 minutes here and there and actually accomplish stuff¹. I don’t know if it’s because I’m still low level or not, but it’s nice.

The interface is very much like World of Warcraft, but don’t let that fool you. Although the fighting is similar to WoW², there are so many features they’ve added and tweaked that make this very unlike WoW. The public quests are quite fun. I’ve done them over and over just because it’s actually fun to be in a PUG³ in this game.⁴ The classes are all pretty much fun. I’m low level because although I’m normally a pet/ranged guy, I’ve been trying them all out. I’ve created a character for every class and am working on getting them all to 5 so I can see how they play.

The sorcerer is an extremely powerful caster. Can’t take a beating, but gets a deaggro⁵ pretty quick in the game.⁶ The mauler is cool because of the mutating arm and it’s fun to watch him slash away with it. My main, the squig herder, is also fun to play. The witch elf is kind of like the rogue from WoW when it comes to the melee damage she can do.

As for the PvE quests, they are very much like all other PvE quests in other games, however, there is a 100% drop rate, meaning you don’t have to kill thousands of them for 5 items. And everyone who kills it gets the item. Speaking of quest items…

There are many little additions to this game that make it where they have removed the tedious aspects of other games and just allowed you to have fun. For example, inventory management isn’t as bad because quest items are instantly put in a separate tab and take up no space in your main inventory. Quest areas on maps are highlighted so it’s easy to find the general vicinity of your quests.There’s a little arrow on the right of your inventory bags that lets you pick what items you prefer to go into what bags. For instance, I make it put my specific crafting materials and potions in my second bag so I know that most stuff in the first one is able to be sold or worn. The quests do not require long walks/runs so far. Everything is pretty close by⁷. And those are just a few of the little extras in the game. It’d take me another few paragraphs to talk about the loot system, which I believe to be quite nice.

When it comes to the environment, it SCREAMS Warhammer. They’ve done a great job of making it look like there’s a war going on around you no matter where you start. I’m a fan of the tabletop game, and this captures the spirit of it in many ways. Even the ground is littered with rust and bones. Many areas have constant animations providing a very living atmosphere. In the orc areas you have cannon shots raining down around you. In the elven area there are constant interactions with prisoners⁸. In the chaos area, there are cannons that shoot dead bodies. You are one of the ones who helps load them up. The world is very alive and the quests do a good job of making you fell like you’re contributing to that life.

And then there’s the RvR. I haven’t played with it much just yet, but from what I have done, it’s quite an amazing way of having PvP without the normal problems of PvP. The long queue lines for some of the instances get me aggravated, but I’ll just go do other stuff while I’m waiting and sometimes even forget I’m waiting for them. With more people joining every day, I’m betting those lines will get shorter as they match people up.

All in all, it’s been a very enjoyable experience. Will it keep me interested after that first month that comes free with the purchase of the game? I have no idea. I’m easily bored. But for now it has breathed new life into my MMO experience, at least until Stargate, Star Trek, or Champions is released, because I’ll probably try all of those too.

1. Which means you won’t need incontinence supplies to keep you going through a 24 hour session nearly as much. [«]
2. Which is fine by me. [«]
3. Pick-up group, meaning a party of players who just get together. [«]
4. That may be because we’re on the RP server and because of the strict rules about it, I haven’t seen any irritating people yet. [«]
5. An ability to make the enemies stop wanting to attack you so much. [«]
6. I used it often against the dragon in the first dark elf PQ. [«]
7. Other than one annoying quest in the elven lands that has you run all the way back north to turn it in. [«]
8. That you help capture. [«]

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