Early impressions: Your thoughts?
Early impressions: Your thoughts?
I’ve been busily filling out QUESTionnaires as I complete each quest, but I thought a more fleshed-out post might be valuable for the developers.
Some quick background: I’ve been playing WoW since the stress test beta. I’ve got 3 70’s and working on my 4th. At various points I’ve gotten very, very bored with the game, as I’m part of a small guild and hence endgame raiding wasn’t usually a legitimate option for me (which I’ve always seen as a failure of the WoW game design, and resented). Twice, my group of players have hooked up with larger guilds to pursue that content; both times have begun promisingly enough but ended in acrimonius splits. Since the last one, I’ve been in the Warhammer Online Beta (August of ‘07) and the AoC retail launch (for as long as I could stand it).
So, as down on WoW as I have been at times, and having taken long, direct looks at your closest competition, I’ll say this: I believe Wrath will be a far superior product for anyone save extreme niche PvPers or people who don’t want to play WoW to begin with (probably not your target audience, heh). Spoken by someone who’s been actively looking for “the next big thing”, it’s my opinion that this is a powerful statement in your favor. So, why am I making it? Here’s what’s turning me around already:
1. Models! My first foray into Wrath was with a copied-over level 70. Things seemed fairly pedestrian to begin – kill x of Bugs, collect Y of crates, etc. Then I got my first Uncommon set of quest rewards, and couldn’t believe the detail on the weapon models. Aesthetically speaking, the starter weapon models outstiripped many TBC epics I’ve seen, particularly the Warsong Bow. It would seem that you have a very good handle on the effect that pleasing character model aesthetics have not only on endgame raiders, but on those of us who can’t raid Illidan but also don’t want to look like escapees from the Hobo Clown Circus. This is another good step in the right direction for the game, visually speaking. Nobody wants to be a Hobo Clown.
2. Raid-scaling. While I haven’t experienced this myself, obviously, I can tell you that word of raid-scaling was the single biggest reason I began closely following the new expansion. Your endgame has really been large-scale (40 and 25-man) raiding, and I haven’t seen a single one since Blackwing Lair. I’d have loved to have been able to see Hyjal, and take on Illidan himself, but I despise pugging and, honestly, most of my friends feel the same – we’re simply too elitist and demanding of performance for most non-hardcore players to tolerate us for long. Yet, we simply don’t have the time to raid 30 hours a week, either. So, the idea that we can at least see truncated versions of content and have something to do in the end that doesn’t involve running the same 10-man instance for months on end, with alt after alt, is pretty compelling. This was something we’d mused about for many months; glad to see it being implemented.
3. The Death Knight experience is great fun. I have no intention of playing one at retail release, but I felt I’d be remiss as a tester if I didn’t fully explore the Death Knight and its starting area. I can tell you that I find the model breathtakingly beautiful in its dark and sinister way, the quests much more “flavorful” than those for any other race in the game (although Tauren and NE’s are close), the mechanics smooth and enjoyable. I’m close to the end of the Scarlet Crusdaer campaign (at least, based on the quest descriptions), and what can I say: Swooping down on an undead dragon and eating up Scarlet Crusaders was pretty damned cool.
I obviously have a lot more to experience, and will report back in again when I make more serious progress. However, the first few hours of gameplay is a critical time for any new expansion release – it’s either going to set the hook firmly in place, or justify growing apathy about a product . In my personal case, my growing apathy has once again been negated by immersion in a new, superior product. For me, the hook has been re-set, my WAR preorder cancelled, and barring some sort of catastrophic fail, my (and likely many of my friends) presence in WotLK likely secured.
I’ll be back in a week or two with an update. And thanks for letting me playtest your game, I surely do appreciate it.
I’d be curious to see what my fellow testers think so far. Like it? Hate it? Let’s hear it!
Filed under: World of Warcraft