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The following is a review of
World of Warcraft, based on my experience during the beta stress test.
The format follows the mmorpg rating system we developed a few months
ago. 25 Screenshots are available at the end of the review. Enjoy!
--- Character Customization
---
There are approximately 10 hair colors and skin colors per race
(noticeably missing was pure white, dark brown, deep red hair colors).
For Dwarves there are 10 beard types and approximately 10 hair styles.
There are a number of different faces as well, but they all look similar
(especially for Dwarves and Humans). There is also no body
(height/weight) customization, there maybe issues with textures looking
"stretched", but if the differences were subtle, it probably wouldn't a
be problem. Rumor has it that there will be more character appearance
options at release.
There are no armor dyes in WoW. If you are using quested armor, instead
of store bought, your will look pretty silly after a while as the pieces
definitely do not match.
The "talents system" allows for some differences between characters of
the same class. Talents points are limited (I believe you get 50 points
in total, 1 every level after 10th) and are used to enhance certain
skills. They are almost like Alternate Advancement points in EQ, or
Realm Abilities in DAoC. However, they are pretty subtle boosts, unlike
DAoC's game-breaking realm abilities.
There are five character traits, Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intellect,
and Spirit. They are different for each race and they do make an impact
on your character's performance. In other words a Tauren Warrior will be
better than a Gnome Warrior all other things being equal. Attributes can
not be modified by the player at creation, but choosing a class will
automatically distribute additional points upon creation into the
approriate traits for that class. For an example visit:
http://www.thottbot.com/?cs=Warrior
It should also be mentioned that each race has some special properties,
I believe Dwarves have Treasure finding and Resistance to cold magic.
--- Sound Effects ---
WoW has ambient sound effects. This may not seem like a big deal, but it
helps with immersion when you walk through a forest and hear birds
chirping or wind blowing. DAoC didn't have ambient sound effects for at
least the first month or two.
Music was pretty good too. I never felt the need to turn off the music
in WoW. It usually isn't looping over and over, which is probably what
makes the difference.
Voices emotes are ok. However, everyone of the same gender and race
sound exactly alike. It would be nice if there were different voice sets
(like in Neverwinter Nights), but with the amount of voice comments your
character can make (probably close to 50) it would take alot of time to
re-record multiple voicesets for each race. Also, I feel that NPCs need
a "welcome" voice message at least. NWN has definitely spoiled me in
this regard. There was a time when a text welcome message was enough...
--- PvP Implementation ---
I did a bit of PvPing on the last day of the stress test. I was level 21
at the time and I found that PvP is definitely level based. I would say
that if someone has more than two levels on you, you will probably loose
(everything else being equal).
The penalties for dying in PvP were the same as in PvE. You won't lose
any gold or items, the only hassle is running back to your corpse to
resurrect.
With the game being designed as Horde vs Alliance, the role playing
enhancement is there. It's not you vs everyone, it is good vs evil. For
example, if an enemy attacks one of your guards you can freely attack
them, no more resorting to indirect tactics like training monsters on
them. On PvP servers, enemies are freely attackable for simply entering
your lands. I think this form of PvP is best for a roleplaying guild
such as ours.
When the battle grounds and a player reputation system are implemented,
it will add another level of purpose to PvP other than just good vs
evil. I am very excited about PvP in WoW.
--- Starting Towns ---
Kaladim used to be my benchmark for Dwarven cities. It was well
designed, had some great Dwarven landmarks (the mining cap, the pubs,
King's hall, etc), and had a very unique feel from the rest of the
cities in Everquest. To put it bluntly, I loved Kaladim. After
"downgrading" to Haggerfel in DAoC, I was worried I'd never recapture
that wonder and awe of having a Dwarven city I wanted to defend to my
last breath.
Ironforge has brought back that wonder. It is my new benchmark for
judging Dwarven cities. I still like Kaladim, but it more like a quaint
or rustic delving, whereas Ironforge is like a mighty Dwarven fortress.
So, I am pretty pleased with the Dwarven starting area. There are six
starting towns (three for each faction) and they all have a unique feel
to them.
Racial starting towns are essential for roleplaying in my opinion. WoW
gets an A+ in this department. (Though I wish they'd boot the gnomes out
of Ironforge, perhaps in an expansion...)
--- Quality Assurance ---
There were very few bugs during the stress test. Most of which are
already being addressed in the next patch. The only trouble I had was
with the game not launching on the first attempt, or launching very
slowly on occasion. This which would require a exiting and restarting
the game. A slight annoyance, but hopefully, this will be completely
resolved by release.
System requirements are also very reasonable. I am currently running:
AMD Athlon 1400MHz Processor
512MB DDR PC-2100 Memory
GeForce3 TI-500 4X AGP Video Card (64MB DDR)
I ran the game at 1024 x 768 with the default settings, increasing the
world detail to maximum. The only time I had problems was when there
were 40+ people on the screen, or when I was in a forest and was looking
straight out (and that problem was fixed by setting world detail to
defaults).
--- PvE Content ---
A good variety of monsters, tons of quests, hunting grounds everywhere,
unique-looking areas and dungeons, challenging encounters, resource
gathering, bustling cities, etc. Blizzard has done a great job of
creating satisfying PvE content.
My experience in the stress test was reminiscent of my early days in EQ.
Every zone in EQ had a different feel to it, as do all the areas WoW
(there are no zones in WoW). This is definitely a good thing. I rate
EQ's PvE content very high and judge all other games by it. WoW will not
disappoint if questing, exploring, and monster bashing are your thing.
The only thing I missed was the lack of weather effects, no rain, no
storms, no snow... I hope this is implemented at release.
--- Questing ---
Finally, a game where questing doesn't seem boring and tedious and is on
par with single player games for variety and fun. Questing in WoW is
truly amazing.
Let's start with the quest log. The Quest log lists every quest you are
currently doing. When you click on one of your current quest, an exact
copy of the NPC quest-giver's conversation is displayed to you. No more
forgetting where to go, or what to do.
The rewards for questing are huge. Not only do you get alot of
experience, money, and good items for your level, you are taught about
the lore of the world. To me, this is the ultimate reason behind
questing - teaching the players about the world to help foster
roleplaying.
Quest NPCs have an exclamation mark over their head (yellow for
available to your level, grey for unavailable). A yellow question mark
over the NPCs head is used to indicate that your quest is complete and
you need to speak to them, a grey one means that you do not have the
quest completed yet. I know the floating punctuation may hurt immersion,
but once you have multiple quests running, you will come to appreciate
this feature greatly.
Not only are their alot of quests, they are not all the same kind. Some
require exploring an area, some require killing monsters, some require
killing an end boss, some require gathering items, some require
escorting an NPCs, some are runner quests (take item X to NPC Y), and
some are class or tradeskill-based quests only available to your
character.
If you are not working on at least one quest while you are out
adventuring, you are not advancing efficiently.
--- Ownership ---
To date, Ultima Online is the king when it comes to player ownership.
You can own houses, boats, mounts, and NPCs in UO. Unfortunately, WoW
only allows you to own mounts. I personally feel that player housing
(and NPC hirelings for the house) are essential to satisfy the player's
need to own things in a game. I heard that housing in WoW is planned,
but the details are unknown, and it will likely come in the form of an
expansion, so be prepared to start saving your coins ;)
The player bank is quite vast and allows for the storage of several
items. Additionally, there is a mailbox outside the bank which can be
used to transfer items to other players. The mailbox is great feature
because you can trade items with people not in the same zone or who are
not even online at the same time as you. However, it is a bit clunky in
the sense that a new message much be created for each item (or stack of
items) you send.
--- End Game ---
Too early to comment on this one, however, it will probably be epic
dungeon raid-style events (like EQ), and/or battleground warfare. If
both are equally important and interesting, I feel that WoW will succeed
in satisfying both the PvE and PvP crowds, which has been unprecedented
to date.
--- Death System ---
When you die in WoW, you respawn in a graveyard as a ghost. Typically, a
grave will not be more than five minutes away from your corpse (yes
there are a fair number of graveyards). When you die, you leave an
unlootable corpse behind - you do not lose any money or items upon
death. You can return to your corpse as a ghost and resurrect with half
your HP. When you resurrect in this fashion you lose ZERO experience.
If you die in a hard to reach area, you can resurrect at the graveyard
itself. There is a spirit NPC that will perform this task for you.
However, you do lose some experience when doing this, maybe 5% or so.
Lastly, you could have a Priest or Paladin revive you and return you to
the point of your corpse. There are no experience penalties for this,
however you do have a resurrection sickness which dramatically reduces
your effectiveness for two minutes. This is the only time you suffer
from rez sickness.
--- Dwarven Guild Viability ---
WoW allows Dwarves to become Hunters, Mages, Priests, Paladins, Rogues,
and Warriors. We have access to the trio of RPG combat (healer, tank,
caster), and I expect that there won't be one area in the game that we
can't access (unlike EQ which was a struggle to hit certain areas
without the help of other races). Additionally, Dwarves have access to
all tradeskills. An all Dwarf guild in WoW would definitely be viable.
--- Economy ---
With the number of quests being so high and item rewards being very
useful, the economy for player-made didn't seem to be that strong. I
expect this to be the case at release unless player made items are
unique in appearance or have some other draw to them.
The biggest thing being traded during the stress test were resources
gathered through harvesting tradeskills or found off of monsters (cloth,
ore, etc). This is primarily because gathering large quantities of ore
was difficult due to the randomness of ore deposit spawns and the
respawn times on those deposits.
Hopefully the importance of player made items increases at higher
levels, only to add another dimension to the game, not because getting
good gear is difficult in WoW (it most definitely isn't at lower
levels).
--- Grouping ---
Group sizes are a maximum of five players. This is far too small in my
opinion. EQ had six, DAoC had eight, and Shadowbane had ten. Supposedly
groups can be merged, but I don't think it was available during the
stress test. Hopefully this will be implemented at release, or
raid-style events will be a hassle with players complaining about
experience and loot.
Coin loot was evenly distributed, and the party leader can set group
looting rights such as round robin, free for all, and master looter. If
several members of your group are on the same quest, setting looting
rights to free for all makes the most sense.
If you are exp-grinding, the most efficient grouping was pairing up with
someone of the similar level. Groups larger than two didn't seem to
advance any faster.
Being in a guild, I never had the need to see if there are any "Looking
For Group" features, so I am not even sure if they are implemented.
--- Guild Development ---
Guilds are fairly easy to create. All you need is a free guild charter
from one of the six starting towns, and nine other signatures on it.
When you have the final signature you bring the charter back to the
guild registrar and the guild is automatically formed. There is no
gathering of all the founding members into one location at the same to
get the guild formed. You simply get the signatures when the founding
members are available.
Once the guild is formed you can design a guild Tabard for 10gp. There
is a good variety of tabard options and emblems. You can adjust the base
color, the trim color and style, the emblem color, there are probably 50
different emblems, but I am not sure if the same ones can be used for
both Horde and Alliance. I hope not.
It costs 1gp to purchase a tabard for your character. The only complaint
I have about the tabard is that the emblem is covered up by cloaks, and
if you play a Dwarf with a long beard, no one will be able to see your
tabard. I'd like to see the importance of cloaks reduced dramatically or
be made just for show, or have the guild's emblem visible on cloaks
and/or shields
Guild leaders can set a guild message of the day, customize rank names
and rank privileges. There are only five guild ranks in WoW: Initiate,
Member, Veteran, Officer, and Leader. I would like to see up to ten
available as in DAoC, as we have eight ranks in our guild: Initiate,
Member, Experienced Member, Veteran, Elder, Level 60 Character, Officer,
and Leader.
To my knowledge there is no guild ranking system at this time. Hopefully
that will change when the battle grounds are implemented.
When and if housing is implemented, I would definitely like to see guild
halls that can be adorned with the guild's banner inside and out, as
well as a shared bank.
--- Combat ---
I played a Warrior during the stress test. Warriors have something
called rage, which can be considered the melee equivalent to mana. The
only difference is that you generate rage by fighting and use it up when
performing special moves. Playing a pure melee in WoW was not boring.
I use DAoC melee combat styles (special moves based on position relative
to your opponent, or follow up moves after parrying, blocking, etc), as
a benchmark when judging combat in other games. WoW has similar follow
up combat moves, but when your character parries, there is no graphic
indicating it, other than the big word "parry" floating about your head.
In DAoC, your character would raise their weapon and parry your
opponent's swing. I got used to that visual in DAoC and find it hard to
perform follow up moves in WoW. Perhaps I will get used to this.
Also, I really missed the guard ability in DAoC, where you can block
almost all blows on a party member if you are using a shield and
standing near the target your are guarding. I hope that this get
implemented in WoW or that it is available at higher levels.
There is some strategy when fighting multiple mobs. Of course, there is
the old assist routine, and performing interrupts on casters. However, I
never encountered any mobs that were weak vs a particular attack type or
combination of moves and/or spells. I feel that this is where WoW's
combat is lacking, particularly when you consider that EQ2 will have
some sort of sequence of co-operative moves for group members to use to
improve their damage output.
--- Crafting ---
I have tried crafting in Ultima Online, Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot
and now in World of Warcraft.
What I really liked about crafting in WoW, was the simplicity of item
creation. All you do is click on a recipe, and then click create. No
dragging and dropping of components into a forge, no repeated scrolling
through a list of recipes after each successful creation, etc. You still
needed to be near an anvil to blacksmith items, but you never had to
click on the anvil.
I also liked the fact that there were trade-specific animations and
sound effects during the creation process (sometimes this was bugged
however and you would do a generic animation, hopefully this gets fixed
at release).
WoW will be the first game I attempt to master a tradeskill.
--- Game Developer / Publisher History ---
Blizzard probably has the bet reputation in the gaming industry, and
rightfully so. I have played most of Blizzard's games, including the
original Warcraft when it first came out in 1992, which I foolishly sold
to a friend a number of years ago.
I have not found their games to have any terrible gameplay-stopping
bugs, and with the ever-changing world of an mmorpg, it will take
skilled programmers and testers to keep things running smoothly.
Also, Blizzard's approach to the beta test is far more customer-friendly
than SOE's. There was no NDA and they just let 100,000 people try out
their game. Conversely, SOE has a gag order on it's testers, and only
people who have been forking over $40/month for EQ, wasted $50 on a
crummy strategy game, or are being bribed to say good things on a fan
site get to test the game (generally speaking).
--- Graphics ---
"Cartoony graphics" has been used to describe World of Warcraft. I am
pretty sure I have said it myself. However, the graphics do look alot
better in motion when you are running through the world than in still
pictures.
After having played the game and being immersed in the world, I can say
that WoW is a gorgeous game and I feel that Blizzard has employed some
extremely talented artists who can make alot out of a little (the game
doesn't require a super-computer to run).
There are a number of graphic options, such as clip plane, world detail,
texture sharpness, resolution, etc. Which will allow most computers made
within the last 3-4 years run the game with no problems.
I don't believe WoW uses alot of dynamic lighting, but the way the
textures are drawn, you'd never guess it. Also, there are no real-time
shadows, just a black dot under your character.
--- Interface ---
WoW's interface is extremely clean, and does not interfere with your
gaming experience. The only complaint here is the fact you can not
resize your chat windows. Movement is flexible you can either use your
cursor keys to move, or your mouse pointer. There is an auto run and
auto follow feature. It would be nice if rotating the camera would leave
you in that same view, but it automatically snaps back to 3rd person
view from behind your character... ok so that is two complaints.
--- Roleplaying ---
While the future of an official roleplaying server at WoW's release
is unknown, I can say that WoW has alot of elements in it's game design
to enhance roleplaying: good vs evil PvP, quests that teach about the
environment, racial starting towns, etc. If Blizzard designates a couple
of RP servers at release (preferably, at least one Faction vs Faction RP server),
then it will attract alot of roleplayers to its game.
- Warfield Goblincleaver, Dwarf Lord of Stone and Steel
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