How do other MMOs compare to WoW?
Ok, an intro... been playing WoW for well over a year, first MMO I've been brave enough to try. It's great, so I decide to maybe give some others a chance...
I recently did a free trial for City of Villains and Auto Assault (offered at MMORPG.com), and would appreciate some feedback from other WoW gamers who have tried them. I think I want to cancel Villains and purchase Auto, but am not sure. Basically, Villains seems like a watered down WoW, while Auto is different and a nice change of pace. Here's the breakdown...
Reply With Quote
wavsite
View Public Profile
Visit wavsite's homepage!
Find More Posts by wavsite
Old 09-06-2006, 07:41 PM #2
wavsite wavsite is offline
WorldofWar.Net Member
wavsite's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Virginia, USA
Posts: 26
Character:
Server: Dalaran
City of Villains:
I played through the trial period, ended up with 4 low-level characters (highest was lvl 10). LOVE the character creation part, and had enough fun that I bought the game (only $30, what the heck, right?). Now I'm in the "first month free", and am thinking about cancelling before time is up.
Here's my problem - there just doesn't seem to be much to do. The best way to get XP is to do quests, and the only way to do quests is in instances. I've been on the same cave/warehouse/office map so many times already, and my highest level is only 12! There isn't much player interaction, because you are alone/grouped in your instance. The quests all seem the same - you go into the instance and kill everything, and at the end you get the item/kill the person/resuce the kidnapped person, and exit. At least WoW makes me collect things every now and then, or deliver stuff. :) (I miss my bear asses! Let me Fedex something, PLEASE???)
There's no loot, just enhancements (enchants), inspirations (potions), and infamy (money), which is good and bad - no inventory to manage, no full bags or encumbered character. But no crafting of items, no upgrading your armor or weapons - your spells are all you have. No auction house, no mailing things to your other characters. So it's getting kinda boring, it's like a VERY simplified WoW to me, with nothing really different to draw me away from WoW.
Question: Does it get better at higher levels? Have I missed something? I don't think it's worth the fee just to create characters, which is lots of fun, I admit, but not worth $180/year.
Reply With Quote
wavsite
View Public Profile
Visit wavsite's homepage!
Find More Posts by wavsite
Old 09-06-2006, 07:42 PM #3
wavsite wavsite is offline
WorldofWar.Net Member
wavsite's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Virginia, USA
Posts: 26
Character:
Server: Dalaran
Auto Assault:
Did the 2 week trial, after Villains, and got up to level 10. I liked it quite a bit - it seems sufficiently different from WoW that I can see myself paying for both, and switching between them for variety.
Not much in the way of player population - only 4 servers, but that's ok by me. Only 4 classes, total, and I think the only variety you get is picking among the three races, just to get a new look/starting area. (imagine just having taurens, humans, and goblins, and they can only pick from warrior, rogue, hunter, and mage)
It's not fantasy based, it's sci-fi. You're in a car almost all the time, and can destroy anything you see, and it's encouraged in order to get crafting supplies. There seems to be a very detailed crafting system, although I didn't get far in 14 days. All of the items have different stats, even at the same level/type, so there's more variety - if you loot 6 level 4 "unstable power supplies", each one is slightly different.
There are tons of quests, so leveling is never a chore, and you can often complete 2 or 3 at the same time. Lots of open space to roam, easy transportation options, and minimal death penalty - gotta get back to where you were, basically, like WoW. I have not grouped or traded with anyone, and haven't seen any auction/mail features yet, though.
Question: Has anyone played this past level 10? I've read online reviews bashing it a little due to early instability, but they've been patching, so it should have improved. I like what I've seen so far, but maybe it gets worse, or boring, at later levels?
Reply With Quote
wavsite
View Public Profile
Visit wavsite's homepage!
Find More Posts by wavsite
Old 09-06-2006, 08:00 PM #4
swaldman swaldman is offline
WoW: IncGamers Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 1,860
Character:
Server: Shadowsong
I did a trial of Eve Online.
It has a lot of good ideas in it (the way "death" is handled, the way that PvP works in terms of secure and non-secure areas, the idea of bounties, etc.)
I like the concept of most of the content being player-generated (player corporations (think guilds) set missions (quests) for people to do. Even if most of these are scams...).
However, it is "hardcore" in that it is far more complex than WoW or similar. If a game is as complex as real life, it requires as much time as real life... and I just didn't have that time to give it.
Reply With Quote
swaldman
View Public Profile
Find More Posts by swaldman
Old 09-06-2006, 08:27 PM #5
rgirty rgirty is offline
WoW: IncGamers Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: USA
Posts: 6,932
Character:
Server:
Visit rgirty's Blog
Everquest, I played it for a long long time. I know there have been some expansions since I quit playing it however it was way way way more difficult than WoW. I played EQ on a PVE server and it was still much more difficult. The vast array of spells you get alone was mindboggling. There was a LOT more area and if you didn't have a wizard to port you around you did a LOT of walking or riding if you were lucky enough to have the insane amount of money required to buy a faster mount. Also, you had to sell things through the bazaar.. basically you parked your char in the bazaar and sold stuff off him.. there was no AH.
Also, there weren't instances when i played, several guilds would camp epic mobs often waiting long periods of time for them to repop. Even then the drop you need you may not get. My guild spent 800 hours played working on one epic drop.
If you died, you did not get a whispy wonderful ghost to go and recover your body with. You popped up at your bind spot completely naked and would often die several times just trying to get your corpse back. You could get a necro to summon your corpse to the beginning of the zone but that was very expensive.
Each time you went to a new "zone" you would get a loading screen...this was very tedious.
Instead of Talent Points you received AA's or advanced abilities there were literally hundreds of points you could get here. You didn't magically get a point when you levelled either you had to grind them out just like xp.
Mobs would aggro you if other people brought them near, this is where the term "trained" comes from. If someone wanted to wipe your raid they could aggro a few mobs and then bring the house down on you. There really was no thing such as solo after about level 50 either.. you needed a group most of the time to kill anything.
WoW is like everquest on easy mode. Instances where no one can bother you, soloing is a breeze the auction house is a cash cow and dying is really no problem at all just takes a minute or two to get your corpse back most times.
Reply With Quote