Travis Hill

Game Information  Company & Author: Mythic Entertainment / EA Games  Type of game: MMORPG  Price: $ $14.99/mo  Minimum stated hardware requirements: OS: Windows XP or Vista CPU: 2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent RAM: 1 GB (Windows XP); 2 GB (Windows Vista) Disc Drive: 8X or faster DVD drive Hard Drive: At least 15 GB of free space Video: Direct ® 9.0c or later compatible video card Sound: Direct ® 9.0c or later compatible sound card  Actual hardware requirements: OS: Windows XP or Vista CPU: Better processor recommended RAM: More RAM recommended Disc Drive: Any DVD drive should work Hard Drive: At least 10.8 GB of free space Video: Best video card possible (better than mine at least ) Sound: Any sound card, but best possible for top sound quality

Game Summary  Quick Overview: This game is basically like World of Warcraft on steroids. The controls are nearly identical and so is the gameplay.  Story Line: The game is set in the medieval era with opposing sides, Order vs. Destruction. Also similar to World of Warcraft, there is a long storyline (lore) involved, but basically you join an ongoing war between Order and Destruction, choosing your side.  Player’s Role: The player chooses which side they will fight for, between Order and Destruction. They complete quests for them (some PvE and some PvP). They can also play just to fight the opposing realm (without completing quests).  Installation: Installation of this game took about 30 minutes total. It included using the DVD to copy the files onto the computer, registering the game online and creating a new subscription account, and patching the game for the latest updates.  User Interface: The UI is very similar to WoW as well. You have your quick cast bar at the bottom, mini-map at the top-right, experience bar, quest tracker on the right, etc. Most of the key mappings are the same, although they can be customized.  Game Play: The game goes basically like this: the player goes to a quest giver, picks up a quest to do, goes out and completes the quest (usually to retrieve an object, kill a certain kind of mob, or win a PvP battle), then goes back to the quest giver to turn the quest in and get experience. Enough experience leads to gaining ranks, which makes your character more powerful, up to a ranking cap of 40 (as far as I can tell).

Game Summary, cont.  Scoring: This game doesn’t have a “scoring” system, per se. It does have ranks that you can move up, similar to gaining levels in WoW. Players also gain reputation by engaging in PvP combat. One difference between WAR and WoW is that when you engage in PvP in WAR, you also gain experience for killing enemy players…in WoW you do not gain experience, but instead you gain honor.  Artwork: The artwork in WAR is more detailed than in WoW. Movements when casting spells, etc. look more as you would expect them to.  Sound and Music: The player wouldn’t really think much about the sound while it is turned on, but would definitely notice something missing if it were turned off.  Special Features: There were special in-game items given to players for pre-ordering the game at certain places, like Best Buy. I didn’t pre-order the game so I didn’t get anything .  Manual: The manual shows how to install the game, tells you about each of the different characters you can make, teaches you the controls of the game, and what the objective of the game is.  Bugs: At least one thing that will be changed (I hope) is that users must accept the EULA every time they log on, as opposed to only when it changes. Game will sometimes randomly close out with no error messages on some computers. If the computer doesn’t run the game well, the characters sometimes move without moving their legs. There may be others that could be attributed to my crappy computer.

Game Review  What is good (fun) about the game? Why? You have the ability to build a character and save all changes to this character, so you can get absorbed into the game as see yourself improving and get feedback from that by having an easier time killing enemies that were once harder. If you couldn’t save changes after you turned the game off, this game would not be fun at all.  What is bad (not fun) about the game? Why? Sometimes repetitive actions during questing, like “kill this mob 20 times….ok now kill this mob 20 times, etc”, can be annoying, but it is recognized that they are necessary to make fun because if it didn’t take any work to get your character very strong, the game also wouldn’t be fun.  How does it compare to similar games in the same genre? Obviously it is quite similar to World of Warcraft, but the main differences lie in the level of detail of the visual effects. There are a few more things that are cool, like public quests that you do with others in the area without being in a party.  Why is it better or worse than similar games? It is better than WoW because of the higher level of detail of the artwork and movements, but worse because it requires better hardware to run, thus limiting the audience more.  What is the appropriate audience for this game? The game is rated for teens and above, and I’d agree with that because the game does involve killing, bloodshed, etc. Not to mention the fact that the game is played with other people, who are able to chat in-game, which means subjects/language may come up that may be inappropriate.  Are any design mistakes present? Only the fact that the user must sometimes do repetitive quests.

Summary  Overall strengths and weaknesses: The game is fun to play, but part of what makes it fun is that it will require a lot of time to be put in to improve your character, along with sometimes repetitive quests. It has good artwork and animations, but this requires better hardware adding to the already high cost to play the game.  Is the game worth purchasing? This game is worth purchasing if your computer is already capable of running it smoothly and you can afford the monthly $15 fee. If your computer is not good enough, I’d say stick with WoW.  How could it be improved? It could be improved by allowing the player to adjust the game settings more drastically, allowing a wider range of people to play the game. The advanced artwork should not be sacrificed to people with upgraded gaming PCs, but should be able to be turned down enough so the game can be played by those without gaming PCs.