Game Review - Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes

Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes

Genre: MOBA/3rd person action

Price: Free to play (Earn gold or buy xp/gold boosts and heroes/skins)

Gameplay

Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes (from this point on I shall just refer to it as WoH) is a 3rd person MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) style game with a twist. First of all, the game plays in a very similar style to an MMO Player vs. Player match. Teamwork is essential for any form of success in this game, and more so than any other MOBA I have played because of the twist. What is it? WoH is a 6v6v6 online arena game, with a variety of gametypes. There's one simple rule which becomes apparent within minutes of playing this game. If you aren't working as a team, you could be attacked by 12 other heroes and simply melt in their wake. Not only is it a struggle to survive without teamwork, but every single gametype is also impossible to win without it. The gametypes are pretty easy to understand themselves; capture the flag, collect and steal artifacts and arena/deathmatch. Heroes (the character you play as) range from support/healers, magic/area damage and armour/physical damage. Each hero has a differemt style because of this, and positioning yourself poorly can lead to a quick death for you and your teammates. Because of this, WoH has quite a steep learning curve. Combat is hectic, easily disorganised and confusing at times. However, there is a large reward for marching as a team of 6 when the other two teams are mid-battle and coming out the victor. 

Gameplay Score: 7/10 The gameplay is fun and unique but has its drawbacks because of this.

Graphics

I will keep it as short and sweet for this section as I can. My laptop is pretty low spec and so I ran this game on the smoothest possible settings. That being said, the graphics are great for a free to play game, and manages to stay smooth during 18 player combat. To make a comparison that most can understand, the game is just above that of World of Warcraft with it's graphics quality. The graphics do not hinder the battles in anyway, while still being nice to the eyes.

Graphics Score: 8/10 Amazing graphics isn't needed for this type of game, and it fits its target audience well and still looks nice.

Business Model

Now this may seem like a weird section for a game review, but if you have any experience in Free to Play games (commonly referred to as F2P), you'll know that there is a way the games make money. In WoH, the model is similar to many other MOBA games in that you start off with a certain hero and there is also a free rotation of heroes. There is even a starter bundle of heroes to save you some cash if your inclined to spend some. However, those who are interested in a completely free experience are looking at a frustrating road. Playing matches earns you experience which levels you up, in turn unlocking mastery points. These points unlock advantages via a skill tree. But, and its a big but, you can only spend mastery points on a hero you have unlocked. You unlock one hero, who is pretty standard, and have 3 heroes on the free rotation. Not only will it take a lot of games to unlock a hero so that you can improve it with masteries, you will also be at a big disadvantage whilst using that hero against a player who has bought theirs (with in game cash or real). This just steepens the learning curve more, and makes the game feel like a grind somehow. Business models keep free to play games going, and if they are not enticing enough to encourage players to spend cash, then it cuts off its potential customers.

Business Model Score: 4/10 Arguably one of the most important factors of a free to play game, and I understand that this game is only in its infancy, but they have already set off on the wrong foot.

Final Judgement!

So, how do I feel overall about this game? The game itself is fun, relatively simple to grasp and potentially a lot of fun with friends. But I feel it was let down by what I can only describe as an obvious attempt to make the most money from the game. However, this heavy weighting on the shop system only makes me want to avoid the game. Why should I feel like I'm working for something which is supposed to be recreational? This spoiled the experience for me, and ultimately I didnt find myself getting addicted to this game (which a F2P game which depends on people being drawn into purchasing something should achieve). Hopefully as the playerbase expands and more people pick up the game the system will improve. With many other fantastic and hugely popular MOBA's out there, WoH has not set itself up for the easiest ride.

Overall Score: 5/10 The game was fun at first but quickly left a bad taste of corporate greed in my mouth!

If you're interested in trying the game for yourself, it can be found here!

Let me know what you think of my writing style in the comments below, it really helps me out since I'm not to confident in my writing! 

Anime review: Mirai Nikki (Future Diaries)

Mirai Nikki Review

Welcome to my first official review. I'm starting with what's been a recent obsession, which I'm sure any Tv/Anime enthusiast can empathise with. I found a series that I had not heard off before and was hooked from the first episode. I accidentally stumbled across the series from this video:

I was bored, it was late at night and I decided, what the hell, sometimes a 'slice of life' or high school drama series can be entertaining. That annoying yet catchy 10 hour video was completely misleading to what the series was about, and how good it was.


Genre: Action/Drama
Warning! There are some mild nude scenes in this anime (you can see that there is cleavage, not full nudity or anything at any point) and there is a decent amount of gore/violence (nothing compared to Elfen Lied, but I will save that review for another day!)


Plot (no spoilers don't worry!):
We start the series by being introduced to Yukkiteru Amano, a 14 year old middle schooler who spends his life on the sidelines while making a diary of everything he sees. When he isn't observing and making his diary, he spends his time in his imagination speaking to Deus (the god of the space time continuum). By this point (probably about 5 minutes into the first episode) I got the feeling I was correct about my initial impression, with a twist coming from the interaction with Deus. Deus gives the power of foresight to Yukki's diary and he begins using this as any normal person would. He knows the answers to his tests, any dangers approaching him in the futures and any events that happen around him. I won't go much further than this, other than Yukki is not the only person to have a Future diary.

I loved this series plot, from the first episode it was very gripping, and quite often left me guessing as to where it would go next. Even to the last episode I wasn't sure how the series was going to end. The pace of the series is just right so that each episode feels like something substantial is happening, with 26 episodes in total. The anime is of course based on a manga series and I strongly suggest you read that if you don't enjoy anime.
Plot score: 9/10 I loved this series, mainly for it's interesting and intelligent plot which kept me hooked.
The acting in this series, as I feel for the majority of Japanese voice acting, was superb. What I love so much about the original voice acting is how much each voice is intended to tell you about a character. Voice plays a big role in Japanese culture and talks about the character of a person. This translates into anime, and so the important parts of voice such as tone and tempo represent that characters personality. I feel each voice actor was spot on for the characters, and I would struggle to fault it.
Voice acting score: 8/10 The voice acting was fantastic, however due to the main characters their voice can be quite childish at times (the characters are 14, so it's still right, it just doesn't sound nice sometimes). Be prepared to hear the names of the two main characters a lot though!

Art style:
The studio that made the anime, Asread, did a great job on the series. From what I have seen of the manga, the anime captures the original artistic style and brings it to life. There isn't much to say about this other than I never felt like something was animated poorly, and I enjoyed watching the series in about 2 or 3 days flat.
Art style score: 10/10 The anime was everything you could expect artistically, and didn't disappoint at any moment.

Overall score: 9/10 I loved this series and my only complaint is that the ending is slightly different in the manga, and I preferred that ending to the anime's (if you watch the series and then read the ending online, I think most would agree with me). If you've read this review, please go ahead and watch the series. You can find it online, order it at any store that specializes in manga/anime DVD's.

An Introductory blog

First of all welcome to reading past my first three words on my blog. Do not worry I will not keep you here for long. And yes, my magical internet powers can keep you reading, so mush and read! Oh and thanks for reading the blog, magical powers or not. Unfortunately this post won't have any particular direction, put it will be informative and relatively short. The blog page's title is 'Fluxzys blog' as it is to accompany my youtube page (which is currently inactive due to hardware issues). Since I couldn't get a job this summer, I've found myself with a lot of time which I want to spend creating video's.

Since I can't currently do that, I'm using the blog format. Not only will I be covering gaming in this blog, but some of my other interests such as manga/anime, poker and other things. My main intention will be reviews, regardless of the topic. I intend to make them seem as professional as possible, but within that I will give my honest opinion (which may be quite harsh/sarcastic/poor attempt at comedic). A lot of these reviews will be of free games, or very cheap/indie games. Please feel free to send me a link to a game and I have no restriction to the genre that I will play. How do I get in touch with you? Send me a message on youtube, like my page on facebook and leave a wonderful wall post, email me at fluxzytime@gmail.com or leave a comment below this blog with your thoughts!

And to end this blog, I thought I would leave you an image of how I feel about my job finding attempts this summer!