The Blood Boys

jack wisak · Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 10 Location: United Kingdom

I had the priviledge today of getting 45 minutes of beta time at my buddies house.

I thought i should say something considering its of high interest to a fair few of you here. I'm just going to bullet point these opinions.

1. Its so not ready in current Beta! I watched bad clipping, quest errors and some disabled features to do with the character. Also a crash after a death.

2. The gfx arent breathtaking. They are very nice, but nothing that gets you wet. In fact the scenery wasnt too much, the monsters and avatars though were the best of anything ive seen to date however. I think i was expecting Oblivion scenery. OK so DX10 isnt ready. but the shadows are realtime and good, lighting is nice, scenery appropriately realistic. The sound I actually commented on as being very good. in fact i recommend you invest in something that gives you some good "bass" during combat, it makes it all the better.

3. Characterisation is better than the SIMS. the facial tweaking works very impressively and carries on through the game to look right. More options than perhaps are neccessary but this will absolutely 100% ensure every character looks different to another. you can probably sculpt your own face to be honest.

4. The combat feels right. It feels physical. Its slightly violent. Early levels were quite easy and repetitive though but its different and requires a little bit of reaction. Models have physical forms you bump into and you hit multiple creatures with swipes. Much improved imo. Apparently the force of movement translates into combat at later levels with mounts.

5. Menu/interface seemed average, nothing amazing but i could work it right off so must be good then tbh. Looting was a bit clunky so far, too many clicks.

6. Quests, character interaction was good. Seemed personal like an adventure program. You respond to speech with optional replies that are truly optional in some cases. Questlines i have been told are well written and very imersive. Nothing like "Kill 10 rats".

Couldnt realy say anything else. i liked it, i solo played but i could walk away after 45 minutes feeling un amazed. However this does not deter me from viewing it as a wow replacement. The combat seems less mechanical ( i was a total wow mechanics geek and could work out in my head spell hit ratings on another class i didnt play without reference) and so it truly offers something different. But what will decide longevity is how the synergies of the classes to combine to make up what i found was the best part of WOW which was how a raid of 25 would come together to work as a team. And only time will tell this. As far as i saw there was enough of a mechanical aspect to 'swiping' to generate a solid base for the theorycrafters whilst bringing just plain old hack and visceral slash to those part timers to make it fun. So in effect when i say the combat "seems" less mechanical, what i am really thinking is that the mechanics have been hidden well enough that you can enjoy combat in a very arcade way.

i cant help thinking that my experience of wow's very strict mechanical teamwork isnt going to be an appropriate way to compare this game. I think team work may just be a little more simple. No, 2 tanks, 4 healers, 3 ranged DPS, 1 melee, mix up the buffs in the right teams, coordinate the work etc. rather a bit more along the style of "pile in and hump it silly" tactics. Thats oversimplified but in any case my own conjecture.

However....show me endgame!