My review: 6/10, disappointed.

Omega3

I'm lvl 22 in WAR, played EQ, WoW, and i tought i'd continue for the entire trial, yet i'm not interested anymore in this repetitive grind-game. I commented on the game negatively in various threads but have yet to make myself the pleasure of a review.

Why is WAR an uninspiring game ?

Point by point review:

Graphics: they lack details and variety, textures are repetitive, and the amount of mountains/hills didn’t make the game feel vast or immersive. 6/10

Characters: they are very detailed and good looking, and do look mature; the armour models are also minimalist but I think they fit perfectly with the universe. 7/10

UI: Looks like a mod of WoW and in that respect it cannot be blamed. Lack of creativity tho 7/10

Chat: let’s face it, they messed up the chat on release, but with the latest patch they got rid of most of the spam on default setting and that’s good. It was just a matter of tinkering but yet most people spent 2 weeks with a deficient chat window that needed to be manually tweaked. 4/10

Community: hardly anyone talks, because you don’t need to with auto grouping and quick and easy paced quests/scenarios/PQs. 2/10

Fort assaults: when they are defended by the opposite faction, they can’t be taken. When the opposite faction isn’t defending them, it’s just a PvE encounter. Assault weapons are a joke: ugly, blocky pieces of Wood. Oh and while taking a fort might reward you a few realm points, defending them is completely useless and a waste of time… 3/10

world PvP action: some quests makes you explore the RvR area. If you do it at peak times, you

can’t do them, if you do it late at night/morning, it’s like a PvE quest. 3/10

Scenarios: weak version of WoW bgs, they are less interesting, they detract players from doing World PvP, and their easy access trough a click on the UI kills the RP aspect of them. In an open-RvR game, they shouldn’t exist, or reward much less than doing open-RvR. They should be a filler for low-pop times of the day, not the main way to get RvR points. 1/10

Class balance: class balance is there, since each faction has the same classes with different names and slightly different abilities. 10/10

Class appeal: let’s face it, destruction has much more cool factor attached to it and order classes and characters look bland compared to the opposite faction. Even though it’s one of those unavoidable elements of the warhammer IP, it’s still a disappointment. 7/10

Which leads to...

faction balance: because of class appeal, Destruction is more numerous than Order,and therefore controls most of the forts on most of the servers because of domination by numbers. 4/10

PvE: single quests can all be soloed under 3 minutes, public quests don’t require teamwork since the first part can be single-player farmed. No challenge, it’s just a repetitive grind to help you reach the next lvl. 5/10

So to sum it up:

Good points:

- stable graphic engine

- accessibility of the game mechanics right from the start

- good classes balance

Bad points:

- instanced scenarios kill world PvP.

- there is no incentive for players to group, communicate, or elaborate strategies since everyone is assured to win something by participating. Mediocraty at its best.

- PvE was made so easy that it holds no flavour, doesn’t involve you in the overall constant WAR aspect of the game, and the world feels like a giant safari hunting of no-AI, static mobs.

- PvE progression is a cookie-cutter path from one lvl to another with , and a very repetitive grind. i feel almost back in EQ.

- World PvP is not balanced because of faction imbalance and uselesness of fort Defense.

Overall the negative points outweight the good ones, making this game a deception. I’m not back to WoW, I’m back to nothing until Starcraft World.

OVERALL RATING: 6/10

 

Gylfi

Originally posted by Omega3


[...cut...]
Overall the negative points outweight the good ones, making this game a deception. I’m not back to WoW, I’m back to nothing until Starcraft World.
OVERALL RATING: 6/10

 

Very honest analysis, and with good points brought up, like the fact that scenarios take away attention from the open-pvp, very true.

A good review.

For some people the fact that some things are exactly like in previous game isn't a real flaw, i wonder why.

HensenLiros

Originally posted by Omega3

My opinions on your review:


I'm lvl 22 in WAR, played EQ, WoW, and i tought i'd continue for the entire trial, yet i'm not interested anymore in this repetitive grind-game. I commented on the game negatively in various threads but have yet to make myself the pleasure of a review. It's nice to finally see someone spending some time writing a review when most players who didn't like the game didn't even bother with arguments. I'm level 40 in WAR (on two characters) and my signature says what games I played.
Why is WAR an uninspiring game ?
Point by point review:
Graphics: they lack details and variety, textures are repetitive, and the amount of mountains/hills didn’t make the game feel vast or immersive. 6/10


I'm not sure what people mean here. The equipment (specially the high-end ones) don't lack details at all. But at level 22 you probably only had 2 or 3 different equipment sets, so there's no way you could know that. As for the gaming not feeling vast, I agree on that one, but even WoW seemed to lack vastness and immersion to me, so maybe I'm way too rigid on that one. I'd give it a 8/10 for graphics and 7/10 for world.
Characters: they are very detailed and good looking, and do look mature; the armour models are also minimalist but I think they fit perfectly with the universe. 7/10
Again, I think you shouldn't claim that armor models are minimalist at level 22. 8/10 IMO.


UI: Looks like a mod of WoW and in that respect it cannot be blamed. Lack of creativity tho 7/10

Chat: let’s face it, they messed up the chat on release, but with the latest patch they got rid of most of the spam on default setting and that’s good. It was just a matter of tinkering but yet most people spent 2 weeks with a deficient chat window that needed to be manually tweaked. 4/10
WoW lacks creativity as well. Check Everquest 2. But I'd give it a 7/10 as well because of the chat and such.
Community: hardly anyone talks, because you don’t need to with auto grouping and quick and easy paced quests/scenarios/PQs. 2/10
I think it's a little too early to say how the community is acting and to judge it's behavior. I however am not feeling very well about the community since most players leave the RvR empty in order to go for battlegrounds. 3/10.
Fort assaults: when they are defended by the opposite faction, they can’t be taken. When the opposite faction isn’t defending them, it’s just a PvE encounter. Assault weapons are a joke: ugly, blocky pieces of Wood. Oh and while taking a fort might reward you a few realm points, defending them is completely useless and a waste of time… 3/10
Losing a keep means giving free points to the opposing faction. Means you can lose the area and give even more points to the said faction. On tier 4 it means it's closer for you to have your capital sieged. As for the siege weapons you may be exaggerating a little. The old DAoC ones were better IMO, but WAR ones aren't bad at all. 7/10.
world PvP action: some quests makes you explore the RvR area. If you do it at peak times, you

can’t do them, if you do it late at night/morning, it’s like a PvE quest. 3/10 So if you enter a RvR area with a shitload of players you die, if it's empty you don't. The game sucks because of that. Alright. 7/10.


Scenarios: weak version of WoW bgs, they are less interesting, they detract players from doing World PvP, and their easy access trough a click on the UI kills the RP aspect of them. In an open-RvR game, they shouldn’t exist, or reward much less than doing open-RvR. They should be a filler for low-pop times of the day, not the main way to get RvR points. 1/10 I agree on that one. 1/10 would be a little of an exaggeration, don't you agree with me here? I'd say around 3/10.


Class balance: class balance is there, since each faction has the same classes with different names and slightly different abilities. 10/10 Well it's not a perfect balance though. Many mirror classes are unbalanced at the moment (wl x mar, eng x mag), but the balance is way above average for such a new game. 8/10.


Class appeal: let’s face it, destruction has much more cool factor attached to it and order classes and characters look bland compared to the opposite faction. Even though it’s one of those unavoidable elements of the warhammer IP, it’s still a disappointment. 7/10 Maybe you haven't seen the high-end order equipment sets yet (WP, Eng, etc), but I can assure you that they're VERY appealing overall. I'd give it a 8/10.


Which leads to...
faction balance: because of class appeal, Destruction is more numerous than Order,and therefore controls most of the forts on most of the servers because of domination by numbers. 4/10 I play both on Skull Throne and Volkmar (two most populated US servers if I'm not mistaken) and the last tier forts and keeps aren't really dominated by a single faction. Acutally it's pretty balanced. 8/10.


PvE: single quests can all be soloed under 3 minutes, public quests don’t require teamwork since the first part can be single-player farmed. No challenge, it’s just a repetitive grind to help you reach the next lvl. 5/10 The game isn't even PvE-enforced and you're asking for a need to group in order to do quests? I hope you're not serious.




So to sum it up:
Good points:

- stable graphic engine

- accessibility of the game mechanics right from the start

- good classes balance
Bad points:

- instanced scenarios kill world PvP.

- there is no incentive for players to group, communicate, or elaborate strategies since everyone is assured to win something by participating. Mediocraty at its best. Check tier 4 RvR.

- PvE was made so easy that it holds no flavour, doesn’t involve you in the overall constant WAR aspect of the game, and the world feels like a giant safari hunting of no-AI, static mobs. Try city rank 5 instances.
- PvE progression is a cookie-cutter path from one lvl to another with , and a very repetitive grind. i feel almost back in EQ. A grind? You can pretty much hit 40 within a month without doing A SINGLE PQ or QUEST my friend. You don't have to grind. You don't have to PvE.

- World PvP is not balanced because of faction imbalance and uselesness of fort Defense. Not sure if a word from a level 22 would go for that.
Overall the negative points outweight the good ones, making this game a deception. I’m not back to WoW, I’m back to nothing until Starcraft World. Good luck.
OVERALL RATING: 6/10   6.72/10.0

 

 

Omega3

Originally posted by c0nan999


{ Mod Delete }

 

Many gaming site use a rating for each aspect yet give an overall rating based on the feeling of the reviewer.

Altho most elements are disappointing because of failed mechanics or copycat of older games, the game overall is playable, just doesn't appeal to me. Giving it a 5/10 wouldn't be totally fair for a game which is at the core of it a bad copy of WoW PvE embodied with a bad copy of DAOC RVR

Omega3

Originally posted by HensenLiros

- PvE progression is a cookie-cutter path from one lvl to another with , and a very repetitive grind. i feel almost back in EQ. A grind? You can pretty much hit 40 within a month without doing A SINGLE PQ or QUEST my friend. You don't have to grind. You don't have to PvE.


- World PvP is not balanced because of faction imbalance and uselesness of fort Defense. Not sure if a word from a level 22 would go for that.
Overall the negative points outweight the good ones, making this game a deception. I’m not back to WoW, I’m back to nothing until Starcraft World. Good luck.
OVERALL RATING: 6/10   6.72/10.0

 

 

Not gonna answer to all but... i think i shouldn't have to reach max lvl to really enjoy the core mechanics of the game; WoW has the exact same problem: be max lvl or die.

But i disagree with you on the lvl argument: sure i didnt see city siege or Tier 4 RvR which will arguably be packed with players; yet at 22 i DID try Fort assault, scenarios, and world PvP, and that's supposedly 60% of what the game has to offer (rest being PvE raids and city sieges, which are PvP raids in a sense).



Also, you say i dont have to PvE to lvl... but chaining scenarios is a grind as well, and to reach lvl 22 i've done 50% scenarios, 50% PvE, not 90% PvE. Any kind of repetitive and mandatory action is a grind, and PvP in WAR falls in this category. Scenarios got me bored just like the repetitive kill quests.

Kokushibyou

Originally posted by Omega3


I'm lvl 22 in WAR, played EQ, WoW, and i tought i'd continue for the entire trial, yet i'm not interested anymore in this repetitive grind-game. I commented on the game negatively in various threads but have yet to make myself the pleasure of a review.
Why is WAR an uninspiring game ?
Point by point review:
Graphics: they lack details and variety, textures are repetitive, and the amount of mountains/hills didn’t make the game feel vast or immersive. 6/10
I agree, but the same can be said of WoW and I like to put average at 7, so I'm going with 7/10.
Characters: they are very detailed and good looking, and do look mature; the armour models are also minimalist but I think they fit perfectly with the universe. 7/10
The classes are also fairly well balanced for a newly released game with each having a unique and distinct role.  I also like that you get enough character slots to try out every class without having to delete any chars, and there are a lot of classes to choose from so there is one for almost everyone.  10/10
UI: Looks like a mod of WoW and in that respect it cannot be blamed. Lack of creativity tho 7/10
Agree,
Chat: let’s face it, they messed up the chat on release, but with the latest patch they got rid of most of the spam on default setting and that’s good. It was just a matter of tinkering but yet most people spent 2 weeks with a deficient chat window that needed to be manually tweaked. 4/10
Agree, but chat should be an easy fix I hope, and it isn't like it stops you from chatting with people it just isn't as polished as LOTRO or WoW.
Community: hardly anyone talks, because you don’t need to with auto grouping and quick and easy paced quests/scenarios/PQs. 2/10
I play Order on Ironclaw mostly and on that server the community is great.  I have talked to lots of people.  I have played a little destruction on Pheonix Throne, and when I joined open groups I could also get6 a conversation going.  I would say that if you like the game, but not the community, try a different server because there are ones with good communities. 10/10
Fort assaults: when they are defended by the opposite faction, they can’t be taken. When the opposite faction isn’t defending them, it’s just a PvE encounter. Assault weapons are a joke: ugly, blocky pieces of Wood. Oh and while taking a fort might reward you a few realm points, defending them is completely useless and a waste of time… 3/10
I disagree completely, I have been in PUG groups that have taken keeps that were defended.  It is just a matter of working together, and having at least a few more on the attack then on defense.  Also, the reason you might be having problems capturing a defended keep, could be your attitude towards asualt weapons, they are absolutly necessary to take a defended keep.   Get a ram in place, target a repeater on the oil cauldron, and get some cannons to take down ranged atatckers from the walls.  And, I have defended a lot of keeps, and in a good battle you get a lot of XP and renown from killing off the attackers. 10/10
world PvP action: some quests makes you explore the RvR area. If you do it at peak times, you

can’t do them, if you do it late at night/morning, it’s like a PvE quest. 3/10
You can do them at peak hours, you are just going to need a group.  Matter of tastes I guess, but I like having certain quests that require a little challenge from PvP players. 10/10
Scenarios: weak version of WoW bgs, they are less interesting, they detract players from doing World PvP, and their easy access trough a click on the UI kills the RP aspect of them. In an open-RvR game, they shouldn’t exist, or reward much less than doing open-RvR. They should be a filler for low-pop times of the day, not the main way to get RvR points. 1/10
The scenarios in WAR are much more diverse than the BGs in WoW.  You get 3 scenarios per tier (maybe more at 4 not there yet myself) and each is a unique experience.  Also, I don't see how they distract from open world RvR since you need to do open world RvR to control regions and get guild bonuses.  They are just another option for RvR.  10/10.
Class balance: class balance is there, since each faction has the same classes with different names and slightly different abilities. 10/10
Agree
Class appeal: let’s face it, destruction has much more cool factor attached to it and order classes and characters look bland compared to the opposite faction. Even though it’s one of those unavoidable elements of the warhammer IP, it’s still a disappointment. 7/10
I agree, but there is  a benifit from this:  Order is a much more mature community because of it, and I like that. 10/10
Which leads to...
faction balance: because of class appeal, Destruction is more numerous than Order,and therefore controls most of the forts on most of the servers because of domination by numbers. 4/10
True on most servers for now; however, it is not true on Ironclaw or a few other servers where Order has formed into a community and is working together to take down destruction.  As the OP pointed out above, order lacks the cool factor; which has filled destruction with a lot less mature players and that balances out their increased numbers and provides an opening for order.  7/10
PvE: single quests can all be soloed under 3 minutes,
True and I consider this one of WARs strengths.
public quests don’t require teamwork since the first part can be single-player farmed.
It is going to take you a long time to solo stage 1 chap 6 PQs, and you aren't going to solo stage 2 or 3 and you need to complete them to get the best XP or items from them
No challenge, it’s just a repetitive grind to help you reach the next lvl. 5/10
Maybe if you are only doing stage 1, but common why woul you?  Stick around for stage 2 and have some fun!
On the negative side, there are a limited number of stage mechanics (I have counted about 8 different ones) that are mixed up to form the various PQs.  It would be nice to have a few more, but there is variety and it is better than grinding the same dungeon over and over again. 8/10
 


So to sum it up:
Good points:

- stable graphic engine

- accessibility of the game mechanics right from the start

- good classes balance
- Very little down time
- Meaningful open world PvP
Bad points:

- instanced scenarios kill world PvP.

- there is no incentive for players to group, communicate, or elaborate strategies since everyone is assured to win something by participating. Mediocraty at its best.

- PvE was made so easy that it holds no flavour, doesn’t involve you in the overall constant WAR aspect of the game, and the world feels like a giant safari hunting of no-AI, static mobs.
- PvE progression is a cookie-cutter path from one lvl to another with , and a very repetitive grind. i feel almost back in EQ.

- World PvP is not balanced because of faction imbalance and uselesness of fort Defense.
Overall the negative points outweight the good ones, making this game a deception. I’m not back to WoW, I’m back to nothing until Starcraft World.
- Need more PQ stage mechanics to give a bit more variety
- Could use a bit more PvE grind areas for people who like it
OVERALL RATING: 6/10 8/10

 

 

Thank you for a thoughtful post with examples to back up your opions; it is appreciated.  Please see above for counterpoints.

 

Lonesamurai1

Originally posted by Omega3

Originally posted by c0nan999


{ Mod Delete }
 

 

Many gaming site use a rating for each aspect yet give an overall rating based on the feeling of the reviewer.

Altho most elements are disappointing because of failed mechanics or copycat of older games, the game overall is playable, just doesn't appeal to me. Giving it a 5/10 wouldn't be totally fair for a game which is at the core of it a bad copy of WoW PvE embodied with a bad copy of DAOC RVR

 

what isyour reasoning behind calling it a "bad copy" of either game? 

Cochran1

It' sounds more to me like your "rating" was derived mostly from the fact that you want a game that rewards those who have more time to game. Seems to me your personal gaming style set you up for disapointment. So far I haven't seen where server population has affected the outcome of RvR. Speaking as one who plays on a server that is full on both sides, it all comes down to how many join you on the battle field, which has little to do with the total population on a given server and more to do with the playstyle of the gamers. Defending a keep earns you 100rp every 10 mins or so even when it's not under attack, and you get faster rp from capturing and defending objectives in open RvR than in Scenarios. Just because many haven't broken that WoW BG mindset doesn't mean the RvR design is bad. It's also not bad PvE design just because you choose to follow the linear PvE rather than explore the PvE world. There is Pve content and things to discover if you actually look for it.

Yunbei

Originally posted by Omega3


I'm lvl 22 in WAR, played EQ, WoW, and i tought i'd continue for the entire trial, yet i'm not interested anymore in this repetitive grind-game. I commented on the game negatively in various threads but have yet to make myself the pleasure of a review.
Why is WAR an uninspiring game ?
Point by point review:
Graphics: they lack details and variety, textures are repetitive, and the amount of mountains/hills didn’t make the game feel vast or immersive. 6/10
Characters: they are very detailed and good looking, and do look mature; the armour models are also minimalist but I think they fit perfectly with the universe. 7/10
UI: Looks like a mod of WoW and in that respect it cannot be blamed. Lack of creativity tho 7/10

Chat: let’s face it, they messed up the chat on release, but with the latest patch they got rid of most of the spam on default setting and that’s good. It was just a matter of tinkering but yet most people spent 2 weeks with a deficient chat window that needed to be manually tweaked. 4/10
Community: hardly anyone talks, because you don’t need to with auto grouping and quick and easy paced quests/scenarios/PQs. 2/10
Fort assaults: when they are defended by the opposite faction, they can’t be taken. When the opposite faction isn’t defending them, it’s just a PvE encounter. Assault weapons are a joke: ugly, blocky pieces of Wood. Oh and while taking a fort might reward you a few realm points, defending them is completely useless and a waste of time… 3/10
world PvP action: some quests makes you explore the RvR area. If you do it at peak times, you

can’t do them, if you do it late at night/morning, it’s like a PvE quest. 3/10
Scenarios: weak version of WoW bgs, they are less interesting, they detract players from doing World PvP, and their easy access trough a click on the UI kills the RP aspect of them. In an open-RvR game, they shouldn’t exist, or reward much less than doing open-RvR. They should be a filler for low-pop times of the day, not the main way to get RvR points. 1/10
Class balance: class balance is there, since each faction has the same classes with different names and slightly different abilities. 10/10
Class appeal: let’s face it, destruction has much more cool factor attached to it and order classes and characters look bland compared to the opposite faction. Even though it’s one of those unavoidable elements of the warhammer IP, it’s still a disappointment. 7/10
Which leads to...
faction balance: because of class appeal, Destruction is more numerous than Order,and therefore controls most of the forts on most of the servers because of domination by numbers. 4/10
PvE: single quests can all be soloed under 3 minutes, public quests don’t require teamwork since the first part can be single-player farmed. No challenge, it’s just a repetitive grind to help you reach the next lvl. 5/10


So to sum it up:
Good points:

- stable graphic engine

- accessibility of the game mechanics right from the start

- good classes balance
Bad points:

- instanced scenarios kill world PvP.

- there is no incentive for players to group, communicate, or elaborate strategies since everyone is assured to win something by participating. Mediocraty at its best.

- PvE was made so easy that it holds no flavour, doesn’t involve you in the overall constant WAR aspect of the game, and the world feels like a giant safari hunting of no-AI, static mobs.
- PvE progression is a cookie-cutter path from one lvl to another with , and a very repetitive grind. i feel almost back in EQ.

- World PvP is not balanced because of faction imbalance and uselesness of fort Defense.
Overall the negative points outweight the good ones, making this game a deception. I’m not back to WoW, I’m back to nothing until Starcraft World.
OVERALL RATING: 6/10

 

 

Basically I agree mostly. The verdict is correct, one more overhyped game. Not bad, but far from the killer game we thought. Its the same sad story. Mags hype it over, fanbois defend it senseless, and people vote with their feet eventually, leaving the game as in AoC, VG asf. AoC is just WAR, one chapter ahead. Its a functional game and 6/10 is a perfectly fair rating IMO. All in all a very good analysis.

red_cruiser

I agree, but I wouldn't rate "Class Balance" as being so high.

There are definately "wrong" classes to pick at the moment, as well as "right" classes to pick.

MerrikHarts

Since were tossing around our opinions in the form of ratings, I'll give it a shot.

Graphics: Character Models are adequate with some being more inspired than others. The gear looks okay to me but not great. The terrain in some places is very interesting (Shattered Basin's terrain is pretty fantastic to me for example.) Animations are okay, most are smooth and I like how the Cold One mounts move quite a bit. Over all I'd give the graphical content a 7/10 based on content but an 8/10 over all, my reason being that while it does tend to be rather average looking, I'd rather actually be able to PLAY with people in a decent graphical environment than stand around in a wax museum ala AoC. Sometimes the most important part of graphical content is performance related, not just how pretty it is. I think they've struck a decent balance here. So, 7.5/10.

PvE: Average is the name of the game here with the exception of PQ's which I personally think are a fantastic addition. While its true that anyone can solo stage one (which is actually a good thing imo, otherwise people who played in off hours or who tend to play less don't get stuck totally unable to gain Influence) you still have to have atleast a decent group to beat stage three. I hear the linear line thrown arund a lot but that's only if you stick to just running the NPC offered quests. Don't want a linear story? Jump from pairing to pairing and mix it up. Also, the Tome and its unlocks are absolutely fantastic. The fact that most people can't actually be assed to READ is a black mark on the comunity, not the game. Over all, the PvE is what you would expect from any other MMO with a few new ideas. 7.5/10

RvR: Balanced, well thought out, team based fun. What I really love is the mxture of elements with not just keep takes, but also points of interest, scenarios for instant action and even RvR PQ's. The complaints about Scenarios being a grind is rediculous to me, since they are only a gind if you, you know, grind on them, which you are perfectly capable of choosing not to do. The fact that they give out the best bang for your buck as far as rps and xp simply means that people only interested in reaching the next level as fast as possible will burn out on them and thusly call the game shit in this departmet, just as those who will simply level in PvE by farming stage one pq areas call pqs crap. What could be done to better Scenario play is to reduce the rewards gained, but then of course you'd simply have the same crowd who grind on them for everything simply complain that they are now MORE of a grind. 8.5/10

Classes and class balance: The mirror aspect of the classes is good for balance and bad for diversity. Over al I think balance is the more important issue since its and RvR based game. Though not all of the pairs are equal, the over all realm balance seems to be intact. The calls for nerfing are unfounded imo, since I've personally witnessed both sides take and defend keeps sucessfully when the numbers are at least fairly even and inScenarios, one side get a ealthy lead and then blow it with some bad decision making. If the balance of class powers themselves was wildly out of whack, I think we'd see a lot less of scenarios swinging from one side to the other. I'm impressed with the damage output to healing to hitpoint ratio as well, it seems neither too easy nor too hard to beat a well organized enemy of about eqivilent makeup and levels.  8.5/10

Crafting: Tacked on at this point. While what they do have seems to work fine. My chosen prefessions of salvaging and talisman making are simply a pain in the arse. It would have been much better to seperate it into smaller tiers of ten instead of the giant leaps of twenty-five. Also, for salvaging at least, individual items should be marked if they can or cannot be salvaged. Talisman making is interesting, but not very worthwhile so far. Searching for everything you need to make a +5 int talisman when your int is 455 isn't worth the effort so far. What's more, having only two crafting professions and four gaehring professions means little variety in your choices. Over all, very meh. 5.5/10

Over all: WAR is a hybrid of its predecessors with a few new ideas added. It does nothing to blow the MMO industry out of the water, but that does not mean it isn't worth while. It blends much of the fun of my beloved DAoC while adding the usual fare of PvE elements with an enhancement or two. Mythic seems to have largely taken what was generally done right from its predecessors and made a fine mixture of those elements while culling the bad parts or at least mitigating them (with the exception of crafting). You'll not find anything really major that you have not seen before but you'll also not be subjected to: a) endles gear raids, b) leetest or gear based exclusionary pvp or rvr, c) a lack of variety in the ways to improve your character, d) nothing to do when you've attained the highest rank. Andfor these reasons, I gie WAR an above average 8.0/10 overall. It's a good fun MMO worth your time.