I bought the game the day it was released, but was not able to play on-line until yesterday. Here's the tale and the results so far:
Installation: The game installation sucks... especially since the release of playnet's new interface (1.3?). It goes something like this:
- Put the CD in and install as is so routine
- Install playnet software
- Reboot computer as prompted
- Click "play WW2 Online" icon
- Download new playnet software
- Reboot again as promted
- select "Play WW2 Online" icon again
- Press "play on-line" button on WW2OL web site
- download 75 meg patch
- install patch
- launch game again
- find you are unable to connect on-line
- go to CRS web support and discover you cannot put game in "Program Files" directory because it contains a space
- Uninstall playnet software and WWII Online and start installation process over again
- Have foresight to copy downloaded patch to different directory before deleting old one
- find out that game still tries to download patch again because it doesn't detect the one you already installed.
- 2 hours later... play game.
Granted, this is my experience with it and others may not have had the same problem. This isn't the first time I've seen the installation problem resulting from installation directory naming (remember no decimal in Falcon 4.0's directory name
) so I can't say I was suprised. Even the patch and the reboots don't really bother individually. I guess its just the cumulation that proved a bit frustrating.
Launching the game: Wow... have a magazine or a good book. CRS even states on their web site that the game takes 3-10 minutes to load. For that person that says theirs loads in 2 seconds... I really wonder what time standard you are on.
The interface: Its about as intuitive as AH. That means its not very good for those that don't get it. I found it difficult to get a feel for what was going on by scrolling down the mission menus. The mapping is abysmal.
Gameplay: Make sure you download the maps from the web site before you play. You'll get lost if you don't. I wouldn't mind this too much if some mention of it were made in the getting started guide. The people on-line were kind enough to point me in the proper direction.
No matter if you select infantry, vehicles or aircraft... there are a few constants. Things will be disorganized unless you are with people you know and are communicating with. Most "missions" are just jumbled masses of vehicles respawing and marching like a row of ants to the conflict area. Very few people seem to realize that if you find a high spot out of the main battle path, you can kill people until your ammo runs out.. or until someone from the other side finally realises the same thing.
The aircraft identification system is inadequate for this arena. Once again, it comes down to communitication and teamwork. Things wouldn't be quite as bad if flights were actually organized as such.
Framerates were actually not to bad for me no matter what I was doing. I had a couple of 1 second cache hiccups, but overall it was smooth. I didn't see any documentation in the installation manual as to how viewing FPS was toggled... so this is just by feel. I engaged several aircraft and had no stuttering during the fight. There were, however, never more than 5 planes in the area.
Strategy: This is where I am somewhat amazed. Anyone proclaiming this as a great leap forward from AH really must be playing a different game than what I saw yesterday. Constant respawning in hopes of getting one vehicle before you are killed again... planes staying fixated on an enemy despite the fact that they are being shot at by the plane on their 6... spawn point camping... field generals that don't have a clue... furball mentality overiding strat... and so forth.
Summary:
I liked WW2 On-Line. I'm going to stick with it for a few months and see what it turns into. I'm hoping that the expiration of the 30 day free trial period will somewhat reduce the number of quakers present right now... but I'm afraid that will take quite a bit of time to even out.
The gameplay for ground troops is outstanding, though too much emphasis is placed on ground vehicles. I didn't see many troops running around while I was playing. There is, however, great potential here and I see this being the best part of the game and perhaps outclassing any other FPS in regards to immersion and scale.
The flight aspect of things is greatly lacking. The takeoffs are tough but the flying itself feels arcadish. I say feel because I'm just offering an oppinion with data based solely on other flight sims and not on real life experience. The turns, blackouts and feel for speed all seem to be annoying aspects for me. The low level feel for speed is, on the otherhand, perhaps the best I've seen in any sim to date.
Wait for the game to develop if you are skeptical. You won't be missing much for some time. Once people grasp the actual historical potential of the game.. things will improve. But right now it feels as if more people are looking for power-ups than historical accuracy. Then again... if you are into the realistic immersion of historical accuracy, you may want to come and help the others out. Just be forwarned that you will have to create your own realism and just hope that others follow suite.
Squads should really enjoy it since it offers the opportunity for some seriously coordinated squad events. Just be forwarned that if you get good at this, you are most likely going to out-class the opposition on a regular basis. I can't wait until a few of my squadies get things fired up.
So.. if you want to wait for stability do it. If you want to chance a quakish start and shakey code then go for it. I can't really see that either decision is a bad one. The only decision that I could possibly see as a negative would be to not try it at all. I've yet to meet the person that did not believe this game has tons of potential. Oh... and don't expect it to be the end all/be all of flight sims... because that is not the potential I was reffering to
Aces High account stays open... regardless of how far WW2OL progresses. The only real question is how long the WW2OL account stays open (basically... do they progress and do they see the same potential).
AKDejaVu
