Warhammer Online. A game that promissed great things, gave great things, but was the victim of fickle and flighty player
First, you have to understand a few things about the game. While it may of been hyped up as being the 'WoW-killer', it was never intended to be such. WoW and WAR are two different games, and WAR was never meant to emulate WoW, even from it's earliest builds. While the two games at first seem similar and have a similar apperance, this is misleading. Ofcorse, many MMOs are going to appear to follow a similar patter of apperance as WoW, just as WoW followed a similar apperance to Everquest. For one thing, it helps new players that are changing games if the user interface is similar enough that they dont have to spend alot of time getting used to things.
So what makes these two games different? Aside from the setting, quite a bit. If you're looking for a game to mindlessly grind away a few hours, then WAR isnt for you. While you could grind your way through the game, just like in WoW, you're not intended to spend your time like that, and the game encourages you to move away from a strictly PvE play towards playing a mix of both PvE and PvP, or even just a purely PvP experience. While this is good, and makes the game more engaging, having to face real opponents rather than pre-scripted encounters, the constant nudging by the game, having quest chains end in missions which take you into the PvP areas, unfortunatly scared away some players, particularly those that were trying to avoid any PvP content. While they could simply ignore those quests and continue with their questing elsewhere, this meant that they had to leave many quest chains unfinished, which caused some players to feel like they had wasted their time on those quests.
And on the topic of quests, dispite trying to nudge players to engage in PvP, alot of thought was put into the content of the quests in War. In a nutshell, every quest was designed around the central theme of Warhammer, that is, that there was a constant struggle between the two factions in the game, Order and Destruction, and that a player's every action is in some way effected by and is part of the larger war effort. Not just in helping your faction accumulate points for controlling the zone in which you were questing, but also in the nature and description of the quests. You're always either fighting NPCs that are working for the other side, looking to sabotage something, or trying to recover some item to help your side in it's battles. You wont find quests where someone wants you to venture into an insanely dangerous dungeon just to recover his favorite spoon, or kill 200 monsters just to get 5 bits of fur so some NPC can start his own fur trade buisness. Every quest has a meaning behind it. And speaking of kill quests, There is no grinding on dozens of monsters, just to get a quest item with an insanely low drop rate. If a quest requires you to kill a monster for an item, every monster you kill will have one of them. You need 12 unicorn hooves? Well, you always get at least one hoof for each one you kill. No wondering who a unicorn is getting around without any hooves. It's all part of the goal of the quest designers, which was to minimize the amount of grinding the players are required to do.
Questing by yourself wasnt the only way to advance through PvE in WAR. Probably one of the most praised features of the game was what is called Public Quests. Now, alot of other reviews have already talked about these, so I wont go in depth about them much, but I will say that they were a great change to the usual dynamic of following just a continuing chain of quests. Often, several other quests would lead you into these Public Quest areas, and you could freely take part in them while working towards your own personal quests. Not only that, but you could do them over and over, to your heart's content. Didnt get there soon enough to get the reward you wanted? Just hang around and do it over again. Dont care and already got what you needed? Just walk off with no obligation. And not only that, but if you did hang around and helped complete the PQ, when you return to camp, you'll have another reward waiting for you. As you do Public Quests, you'll gain Influence with the NPCs at the local camp, and they'll reward you well for your work. And, just like with every quest in the game, these rewards are tailored for your class. No more considering if the quest is worth doing just for an item you cant use. Every quest reward is specific to your class, and while they may not always be an improvement to what you have now, you know you'll always be able to make use of them. Even if you run through the same quests with a different character of a different class, the rewards will change to suit your class.
There's also one more unique way that WAR rewards you for your efforts in PvE and helps to lessen the amount of grinding you have to do in the game, one which has been generaly overlooked by most people. Kill Collectors. In many camps through the game, you'll find these NPCs standing around. Talking with them will give you a small little story, and a suggestion. Maybe he's looking to resupply the troops and needs boar meat. Or maybe the local basilisks are causing a problem. Or maybe he just really hates spiders. Killing these monsters, which are usually found scattered somewhere close by, may or may not be part of another quest, but returning to the Kill Collector after killing a few will earn you a bonus exp reward. You can continue gaining this bonus several times before he stops rewarding you and you'll have to move on. While there may not seem to be any point to this at first, it's always nice to get something extra for your work, and a boost in your exp is a welcomed sight later on in the game.
Now, alot has been said along the lines of WAR lacking a solid PvE experience. People talk about it lacks the big raid dungeons that are so popular in other games. Well, the fact of the matter is that WAR does indeed have raid dungeons. It's true that there's not many of them, and they are mostly end game instances, but one must also remember that WAR is a fairly new game, as of writing this, the game is only a year and a half old. Most MMOs are always adding extra content as the game progresses, and WoW was no exception. For the longest time WoW had only a hand-full of raid dungeons, and they have spent alot of effort in adding new ones over the years. WAR is just the same, only they have to juggle their efforts between adding more PvE content and adding more PvP content. And they have indeed put efforts towards answering the call for more raid content. Two new dungeons were added since the game's release. One an end game dungeon in an entirely new zone, where players not only have to fight their way through monsters and scripted encounters, but also avoid deadly traps on their way to the dungeon's end. And ever the ones to push the bounds of what's expected in an MMO, they even added the twist that if your faction doesnt hold the zone for long, you may have enemy players attempting to battle you for the right to complete the instance. The second new raid dungeon is actually a lower level instance, situated in one of the starting zone, giving new players a chance to experience what raid dungeons are like in WAR, and help to dispel the myth that WAR is nothing but a PvP game.
And on that note, one would not be totally wrong in saying that the main focus of WAR is the game's PvP content. While the game does offer a mix of the two, and the PvE content the game offers is strong and well constructed, it is the PvP content that shines as the game's best feature. This is probably the reason it's PvE content is so overlooked, as new players and those looking into the game will see page after page of people talking about PvP, and little about the PvE. Indeed the game does nudge you towards taking part in PvP, and a large amount of the game's end content is centered around PvP battles.
Every zone in the game has a mix of PvE content and PvP areas. In early zones, the PvP is mostly centered around a small area, allowing players to progress through PvE and get a feel for their characters before letting them face other, possibly more experienced players. But as you advance through the zones you'll see the PvP area becoming larger and larger, till eventually the majority of an end game zone will be PvP area.
This does provide a simple way to separate one's self from either PvP or PvE content. Simply staying out of the PvP areas means you wont be subject to attacks from enemy players. If you happen to accidentally wander into a PvP zone, you'll be given a warning, counting down in bold numbers on your screen before you'll be flagged and open to attack by the enemy. While the game may nudge you towards taking part in the PvP, and offer an ever-increasing amount of PvP content, you're given ample warning incase you'd rather avoid it. But should you choose to take part, the game is still on your side. One of the problems with PvP in many games is that it's hard to get involved when you're facing more experienced players, often ones of much higher level than yourself. WAR has a way of greatly lessening the blow in this aspect. When one enters into a PvP area, you'll suddenly find that your level has changed. If you werent already a particular level or higher for this zone, you'll be 'bolstered', that is to say, your stats, health, and damage will be raised to be in line with someone of that level for your class. Not only that, but your equipment will also be bolstered, your piddly little level 2 longsword suddenly having the stats of a level 10 longsword. This ensures that everyone has a fair chance in the open world PvP, where a player's skill and tactics mean more than who spend time grinding levels first. That isnt to say that a player of a higher level doesnt have any advantage. Aside from having equipment that may be slightly better than the bolstered equipment of lower level players, they also have access to abilities and spells that the lower level players dont have yet. While bolstering may improve your stats and equipment, it doesnt grant you use of abilities you dont normally have yet, and it's here where a higher level player still has the advantage. Even so, a higher level player must still be cautious, as just cause he may have more abilities, he can still be taken down by a skillful player of lower level.
WAR even goes a step further in helping newer players enjoy the PvP. Should of player of a level much higher than is normal for that zone's content attempt to enter into a PvP area, he'll be in for a nasty surprise. Alot can be said for what happens, but simply put, he'll find his true motives reflected for all to see. He will become a chicken. Now, alot of people have said that this breaks any sense of realism in the game, or that it could be considered the developers trolling on their players. However, the truth of the matter is that this little feature is put in simply to prevent one very disruptive problem that alot of games suffer from. High level players griefing lower level players. Many players have had their games ruined, just as they were getting into the swing, and making progress towards a PvP goal, by having a hand-full of high level players come in and utterly destroy them with no hope of defending themselves. And while this may seem realistic, it promotes bad sportsmanship, and causes hate amongst the players. Pushing new players away from PvP, believing they have to grind through PvE till they themselves are high level, just to experience the other side to the game. WAR prevents this by use of the chicken. When a player becomes a chicken, they loose all of their abilities, have little more than a smidge of health, and only ever deal 1 point of damage. Needless to say, this makes high level griefing, or 'noob-stomping' as it's sometimes called, all but impossible. This brought up alot of arguments amongst some players. Some worried that a group of low level players could find a high level player who was flagged for PvP and just swarm him without him being able to fight back, or that it took the fun out of being a high level player. Unfortunately it seems alot of players may just be looking to cause problems for others. Thankfully these worries were largely unfounded. Being too high for a zone's content and flagged PvP will turn you chicken even if you are in PvE areas, a clear sign that you should move on to lands more suited for your level of power. In this way the chicken is also a tool for the designers to show you should progress forward rather than hanging back in areas you dont really belong in.
Even with the shadow of the chicken hanging over the heads of higher level players, some actually end up enjoying it. There are actually a large number of achievements and unlockable titles from being a chicken. Players have even held their own events centered around being a chicken. Chicken fights, where groups from each side gather in a PvP area and fight each other as chickens, became a popular form of silly fun on some servers.
All that aside, the PvP content in WAR has alot to offer for any fan of PvP. The most basic, and wide spread is the Open Field PvP. While at first this may seem to be just a place for random player versus player encounters, there's actually alot more to it. Each zone has Objectives, important locations within the PvP area that each side can capture and hold, offering rewards as well as quests for players. These give the Open Field PvP a constantly flowing and shifting dynamic, where players must decide how best to assault or defend their Objectives, or confront the opponents in the open on their own. Objectives are to be found in every zone in the game, but once a player progresses from their starting zones to the higher tiers of the game, they encounter the main focus of Open Field PvP and, in my honest opinion, the most fun aspect of the game. Keeps.
Like Objectives, Keeps are positions within the PvP areas that players can take and hold for their faction. But unlike Objectives, Keeps offer a whole new dynamic of PvP. The most obvious difference is the Keep itself. These structures offer defending players a place to fall back to should they encounter opponents in the open, letting them heal and recover in relative safety without having to run to the nearest NPC camp. Each Keep is guarded by NPC guards, offering players defense should they be followed by their opponents. However, the real game gets going when a Keep itself is under attack. Each Keep is guarded over by a Lord, and as long as he remains in the Keep, it is held by that faction. To take a keep for their side, players must kill the Keep Lord and replace him with one from their side. But first they must make their way into the Keep. When players attack a Keep, they must bring down the Keep's doors to get inside, while defending players may freely move through not only the main doors, but also a rear entrance. This allows defenders to attack from the Keep's walls with ranged attacks and spells, or to move in and out of the Keep to engage the enemy in melee. Players on both sides can also bring more powerful weapons to bear. Cannons, catapults, rams, and pots of boiling oil can all be used by both sides in their efforts to take or defend a keep.
Keeps also offer defenders an advantage, as they can fall back from the walls to heal and recover should the doors still hold, and while on the walls they are out of reach of the opponent's melee classes, a relatively small group of defends can hold a Keep against a much larger force of attackers. Ofcorse, once the doors fall, all that may change. The inside of a Keep offers a few points where defenders can hold off the attackers, and the Lord himself is a fearsome opponent, but where as defending the walls was about holding the enemy back, it quickly turns into a bloody melee where both sides clash in violent combat. At this point, the battle can only end one of two ways. With the attackers routed and pushed from the keep, or with the Lord falling and the Keep turning to the attacker's faction.
As players advance through the game, Keeps become larger and more impressive, with outer walls requiring attackers to break through multiple defenses, more powerful siege weapons and defenders, and greater rewards for capturing a Keep for your side. Not only that, but player guilds may lay claim to a Keep. Not only does this give the guild access to special merchants within the Keep, it also allows them to upgrade many aspects of the Keep. Stronger doors, better weapons, more powerful guards. These can make defending a Keep much easier, and help push the guild's faction towards it's ultimate goals.
Another aspect of the PvP in WAR is the Scenarios. These are instanced PvP games that players can join from anywhere in the game. They are divided by level, and players can expect to face players within their same level range. In a Scenario, players are grouped into two teams, one for each faction, and they battle against each other with objectives that change from one Scenario to the next. One Scenario may have you holding on to three points on the map, while another may have you attempting to run a respawning item back to your starting location. Killing players along the way gains points for your side, but completing the objectives for the match earns you alot more. So a side that's outnumbered may still be able to pull ahead by going for the objectives, or one that cant manage to 'get the ball' may still win by gathering enough kills. Most Scenarios play till one side gathers enough points, but even if neither side makes it to the goal, if time runs out, then the match will end with whichever side with the most points winning. This ensures that players wont end up stuck in a Scenario that drags on for hours, or have to wait all day for one Scenario to end so they can get in on a new one starting.
And PvP isnt just about killing other players for the joy of it, though it is pretty fun. Reguardless of if it's Open Field or Scenarios, players that engage in PvP gain rewards in several ways. Firstly, you gain experience not only for killing other players, but also for completing Objectives both in Open Field and Scenarios. This way, if a player wishes, they may advance through the game purely on it's PvP content. Secondly, players gain Renown. Renown is like a secondary experience level, which players spend to purchase new abilities and stat boosts independent of their actual class levels. Your amount of Renown also effects certain items they can take as rewards. Just as an item may have a level requirement, items you gain as PvP rewards will have a Renown requirement aswell. Players also gain tokens from objectives and killing other players, that can be exchanged for some of the best items in the game, aswell as gaining Influence, just like from Public Quests, that they can turn in for class specific reward items.
All this PvP eventually leads a player to the game's ultimate PvP goals. The taking of the enemy's capital city. This happens at the game's final zones, and is a great undertaking, requiring a large amount of players from each faction to work together for their side. As Keeps in the upper level zones are taken, they will eventually lead to that faction taking control of the zones themselves. As a side holds more and more zones, this will eventually open up the enemy's city to attack. When this happens, it's a major battle for both sides. The side under attack will be shut out of their city, players moved to a 'refugee camp' where they can still access some but not all of the NPCs from their city, most notably they will not be able to turn in or get quests from the city while it's under attack. Only those that have made it to the final levels of the game may enter into the city. There it's a struggle to either pillage the city or to save it from the attackers. Inside the city it has become an instanced battle, where each side are formed into groups. They must battle each other over objectives, just like in a Scenario, but here the battle moves in stages, with each side trying to push towards the next stage for their side while preventing their opponents from doing the same. All this leads up to the ultimate prize, of opening the enemy's king to attack. The city itself has changed aswell, now a half-destroyed ruin with NPCs from both sides attack each other aswell as the players. Should the defenders win, the attackers are pushed from the city and the whole campaign is reset, allowing both sides another chance at claiming victory. But should the attackers win, the defenders are pushed from their city, locked out for a time till the pillaging is done and the city can rebuild before the city becomes open again and the campaign resets.
All this makes WAR an engaging game, where players can freely move from PvE to PvP, and be rewarded for their efforts. Where fighting scripted encounters and pre-designed battles are not the only thing to look forward to as you near the upper levels of the game.
Now, some of you may be asking, 'why hasnt WAR done better than it has?' Unfortunately there isnt an easy answer for this. While WAR has alot to offer, and it executes these features very well, the reactions of players is often hard to predict. Many felt the game's seriousness wasnt as enjoyable as more light-hearted games. Others felt it was too serious, with too much of a focus on Player versus Player and not enough on raid instances. Still others were hesitant to move on to new experiences in an unfamiliar game. WAR released with a strong opening, with a large player base that grew larger following the game's opening. But over time this player base started to dwindle, as other games came onto the market, and older games started releasing expansions to entice players back with new content. In part, WAR's own focus on not forcing players to grind through levels partly contributed to it's own decline, with players able to progress quickly through the lower levels and not having to work as hard to advance to later portions of the game. Not to mention the almost tunnel-vision like focus many reviews had on describing WAR as only a game for PvP players.
Some players claimed that the graphics of WAR seemed to be a step or two behind most other current games, that it looked as if the graphics used were outdated. This is, unfortunately a misconception. Colors and details in WAR often appear more muted than in other games, an attempt to give the game more of a realistic apperance rather than presenting a player with bright and almost cartoon-like colors. Not only that, but many people had to run the game on lower graphic settings, further reducing the quality of the graphics they saw and further hurting the game's image amongst reviews.
So what went wrong with WAR? In my honest opinion, and Im sorry to have to say this, but it seems like, atleast to me, that it was the players that failed the game. For me, the game's most enjoyable aspect was it's PvP content, and for a game like that, it is heavily dependant on it's players. In a game where the focus is on PvE content, players do not matter as heavily into if it is enjoyable or not. Whether there are 10 players or 10,000, the content of the game is still there and can still be enjoyed by those players in a PvE game. But for PvP content, if there are no other players to engage with, then the game does not progress, and the content is wasted. As a game like WAR looses players, the amount of PvP content becomes infrequent and less engaging. It does not matter how well designed and executed that content is, walking into a battlefield with no one to fight is no fun.
As WAR lost players, it eventually started to close down servers, an effort to consolidate the remaining players together. Unfortunately this was met with a rather negative reaction by alot of players, unhappy with being forced to move servers or break up guilds, the efforts to keep the game alive resulted in more players leaving. The more recent 'endless free trial', allowing new players to play the game for free but restricting them to the starting zone of the game, has improved the apperance of the game, making it more active, but only in the starting zones, leaving the zones intended for mid-ranged level characters almost empty as those on the free trial never progress further, and those with subscriptions eventually all ending up in the end game zones. The hope that an endless free trial would entice more new players to subscribe backfiring tragically, with players not willing to pay for a subscription to advance through the game, those that do decide end up running into dead zones with nothing but PvE to run through till reaching the endgame, resulting in many ending their subscriptions to go back to endlessly being stuck in the starting zones.
So why do I still give Warhammer Online a 10 score, even with these problems? The problems WAR faces has less to do with the game itself and more to do with the players. A game that makes all the right moves in it's design and execution is still a great game, but when players abandon it, even a great game will suffer for it.