I ended my 10-day gameplay token yesterday with a level 30 Night Elf Rogue. What an intense (read: exhausting) experience the past two weeks have been.
This is my first time playing an MMORPG game, so I was somewhat unsure what to expect. I did play Diablo and Diablo 2 before but those were pure slash fests with a top-down view of fixed, and limited, map environments. Even with the atrocious graphics rendering when I started my play out of my pathetic laptop, I was blown away by the complete and vast 3D environment I was "living" in.
New characters start out in beginner zones native to their race, where you immediately set out on tasks (quest) given to you by a nearby NPC to start training and improving your character's well being and performance. And this is just incredible. Let me repeat - you immediately do things - the interface is well designed and intuitive. It will not hesitate to offer you prompts and assistance on new features of the game, yet without making it look like a dedicated tutorial or more accurately, practical. Everything blends in naturally with the game. This hinting system is still in place even when you've levelled up considerably and ventured out far to other places, which make use of certain game features never before used.
I digress. Back to the topic of the world per se, the fabricators of the quests have done some meticulous work to make sure you really experience and appreciate the world around. The early quests had me running around and exploring the immediate environment, which was already quite a treat for me given my new experience. Soon the quests will grow larger in scale and reach and take you places far out from 'home country" and open your eyes to what the "real world" looks like beyond - massive forests, vast mountain ranges, sparse deserts, long beach stretches, marsh and swarm, caves and mines, boiling volcanoes, etc. This is one large (even if small by real world standards) and elaborate world crafted in pure digital. On top of that, the cities and towns sprinkle all around the map sport some magnificent architecture that spice up the life that populate this world.
Not forgetting to mention, the music that accompanies the environments one roams are amazingly well composed. From the grand intros and scores to welcome you into the bustling capital cities, to the calm tunes of serene woods, to the moody themes of darker zones, the ambience is augmented very nicely by the work of the composers. One can too often take such audio pleasure for granted and completely lose notice, but here I must say, well done.
While the world and its environments are undeniable beautiful and intriguing, what has been many a dissatisfying and frustrating experience has come from the rules of gameplay itself.
Perhaps I have been spoiled by the massive slaughter that the Diablo games offered. But combat in this game is not much fun. Realistic perhaps, in the sense that you can seldom do things alone. Without equipping with the best weapons and armour (which you can seldom get on your own but rely on elder players to pass on), you can forget about walking up a gang of monsters and expect to beat their sorry butts. They will beat yours - you can hardly tackle two opponents simultaneously if they are of the same level or just a couple below yours.
Fighting one on one is often the case if you solo. That means having to "pull" enemy singularly away from the group cluster. That means as a rogue (my character) whose main advantage is stealth and a first (less than deadly) strike from the rear, I couldn't even do that since I had to use my throwing daggers or bow to draw attention from afar to increase my chances of survival. Even if I did have a chance of sneaking in, half the time the intended victim turned around before I could do it and I became the victim instead.
Speaking of survival, while this game does not punish severely for death itself (only 10% durability loss and time needed to travel back to body for reclamation), it punishes by ensuring death comes by quite easily - the instruments of survival cannot be performed repeatedly.
First off, food can only be consumed while sitted, while not in combat. Second, other health items and escape skills like the rogue's Sprint have a "cool down" period before you can use them again, ranging from 1 to 5 minutes. (actually nearly all skills have a cool down period.) So unless you are extremely patient about waiting (very long) to recover those capabilities before stepping in for another fight, second chances are hard to come by. That is, if you even survived your previous encounter.
The alternative? Group up. And it is evident this is what the game designers planned for. By grouping with other players to work together on common quests, things get a whole lot easier as the numbers allow you to tackle enemies of higher quality and capability. But that is no guarantee; things can especially chaotic and fatal when unexpectedly enemies respawn nearby and suddenly form a mob around you. The other incentive is great sense of comradeship and society you receive by interacting and sharing with other people, which really should be the primary point of playing in MMORPGs in my opinion. Otherwise, playing a single-player RPG in one's own PC is good enough. If this is how you force it, well, good job.
Of course, all I write about here has merely been a fraction of the experience this world has to offer. I have yet to try out the other races, classes, and especially, the Horde side of the story/world. That has to happen some time much later though - i have a real life to live and carry out first.