While in some ways, the MMO genre is all about "repetition," it could potentially become especially problematic in WAR. The build-up to ransacking an enemy city is intended to take multiple weeks at least, though the victors will only hold it for a short period of time before the entire thing resets. Mythic's challenge with WAR is to make it so that the process itself is worth doing, rather than just the ultimate reward - so once the battlefield resets, the reaction from players is more "Great! Let's do it again!" and less "Oh man, I can't believe we have to do that all over again."
One particular thing that should keep players interested for a good while is the Tome of Knowledge. While a prominent aspect of the Tome is an Achievements system a la Xbox Live or Steam (kill 100 players in RvR, complete 250 quests, and so on), that's certainly not all it does. The Tome records dozens of player statistics, keeps track of all the quests you've done and the things you've accomplished, and - for more lore-minded players - will contain little blurbs about the world of WAR as you discover content. The Tome is a brilliant idea that I wholeheartedly love and hope to see more MMOGs implementing in the future. Furthermore, unlocking some achievements awards your character with various titles you can choose to display. Some of these are serious, some are silly (clicking on your own character 100 times earns the title "Ow My Eye"), but it's very fun to see someone with a title you've never encountered before and wonder "ooh, how'd they get that one?"
There's a fair amount of in-game character customization through the Tome's titles as well as the ability to dye one's armor. Perhaps it might have been nicer to have even more colors to choose from (though the 12-15 or so offer a fairly decent variety), but then one risks allowing Black Orcs to run around in pink armor and that's just brain-breaking. It's a good thing that the option to dye armor and clothing is in the game, because the character customization options at creation are sadly limited. There's the typical choice of face/skin color/hair/hair color/accessory/accessory color with a good number of options in each, which would have been perfectly fine if WAR had come out a few years ago. These days, however, it's behind the curve.
Visually, the game isn't anything noteworthy - the character models themselves look fine, but many gamers including myself were expecting WAR to look better than it does. The technical graphics are fine (though could benefit from allowing gamers with high-end machines to turn the settings up a little more, particularly on anti-aliasing and draw distance) but there are places where the art falls flat. While Mythic is attempting - and has succeeded - at really giving the feeling of a war-torn world, one can't help but feel that they've fallen into the trap of so many modern games of equating mature and wartorn with drab grays and browns. Sure, happy vibrant rainbows wouldn't exactly fit with the feel of the game, but having some vibrant color would have been a welcome change (and made the war-torn areas feel that much bleaker) instead of everything being washed-out.
In the end, WAR will strongly appeal to the PvP crowd, which should come as little surprise to anybody. If you like PvP, you will absolutely adore WAR, with a tremendous focus on strategic, team-based RvR at its very core, woven through the entire game. If you're more of a PvE person, it might still be worth giving the game a try, though the first few levels can be hard to push through. Warhammer makes an effort to cover all the bases for gamers with a wide variety of playstyles, and falls short some of the time. Where it succeeds, though, it succeeds with flying colors.
All in all, as with any MMORPG, the true judgment can only come with time. While no game is perfect, and WAR certainly has flaws that need correcting, Mythic has put a lot of labor and love into the game, and it shows. The next few months are going to be absolutely crucial for Mark Jacobs & Company, polishing what works and correcting what doesn't - making sure that what they have is in tip-top shape. This holds true with any MMO, but Mythic is under particularly urgent timing here: the clock is ticking until November when Blizzard returns fire with Wrath of the Lich King. If Mythic can solidify what it already has, WAR stands a very good shot at weathering the Lich King storm and coming out with a firm second-place position.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some High Elves to kill.
