Review: Wartune

Hey guys, LMS here. First of all, I'm sooooooooo sorry for not posting in... what, friggin' four months? Good god. It's been sucky at home, my internet has been crapping out on me so much that I haven't been able to play much of MMOs except for when I visit my boyfriend, which is once every two weeks, for the weekend. Basically, I haven't been able to play MMOs much. I know, I know, it's not much of an excuse.

Also, I know I had said I was going to review Lineage 2 but, honestly.... It makes me cry. For some reason the NCSoft download client just kinda wants to repeatedly kick me in the face because downloading and installing the game hardly ever works for me. And, of course, when I was going to originally sit back and write the review for it, the friggin' game decided it wanted to throw out a download patch. I swear I nearly tore out my hair. Forget the game itself. That's bad in its own right. But trying to be able to PLAY the game was just as bad, if not worse. So, I kinda gave up on reviewing it because it literally gave me headaches when I thought about it.

BUT! There IS an MMO that I had been able to play, because it was browser-based and therefore lighter on my internet. I played it for several weeks, actually. I liked it at first, mostly because it was something new and shiny for browser games, at least in my experience. I then fell out of it because, frankly, I was getting bored. But I recently received an email from them, which was basically "come baaaaaaaaaaaack please! I have shiny things that you'll love! -dangles keys-" so I decided to give it a shot as I have been itching for something new to play that I could, in fact, play in my spare time.

That game? Wartune. Haven't heard of it? If you poke around on Facebook's games, I'm sure you've at least seen advertisements for it. It has gone under several different names but the "official" (I think?) name is Wartune. It's supposedly the, like, "up and coming" browser MMO. My quick summary: It's shiny and new on the outside, but it sucks on the inside. It has great potential, sure, but it falls flat on its face. Hard. Really hard. And here's why.

logo found on Google, with a URL that makes my eyes bleed when I look at it.

Game Basics:

Title: Wartune
Publisher: R2Games 
Genre: Action MMO, PvP focus
Website: http://wartune.r2games.com/ 
Cost: Free to Play, pay for items in shop and extra features (cosmetic features like clothing and hair options, dual talents, alchemy system, and more)

Ratings:
Graphics: 3/5
Character Customization: 1/5
Class Skills, Character Development, etc.: 2/5
Beginning/Tutorial: 2/3
Story, Quests, Content: 2/5

Graphics & Character Customization, etc.

The graphics for this game are actually pretty well done, as far as browser-based MMOs go. The graphics aren't necessarily drop-jaw gorgeous or HD for that matter, but they're better than, say, Runescape. The character models are very detailed and very nice. Their clothing--especially for females--is, erm... Pretty. Sure. Let's go with pretty. Those who are interested in oggling at lady-bits all day are certainly going to be pleased, as evidenced by their "character creation" screen (which, visually, only determines what your character's headshot looks like in cinematic-dialog boxes).

Yep, that's right. Female mages have battle-bikinis and garters, while female warriors and archers display waaaaaaaaaaay too much skin to really be combat efficient or effective. I assure you, the gear you get does affect your in-game model, but the overall designs of each outfit look very similar to the character art. My guess is that The Boob Fairy from Call of Roma not only came from this game, but has sisters in this game: the Ass Fairy and the Vagina Fairy. I feel like the game's artists were just like "you know what this game needs? T&A. Lots of it. Everywhere." Maybe they got inspiration from Evony, Call of Roma, and all those other steamy MMOs. Who knows. All I know is that I still like my gals with more modest clothing.

Honestly, when I first played this game, one of the things that irked me was the character customization that the game had. Because there isn't any. Well, no, okay, I lied. You can pay real-life money for items (at a rate of approximately $5 for one piece of cosmetic "gear"), which will give you access to different looks for your character. This is a new feature for Wartune that they recently launched, so don't expect TONS of options to choose from just yet. They have weapon skins, hair options, different clothing, and wings (for whatever the fuck reason.... I guess if you ABSOLUTELY DEMANDED to have butterfly wings or bat wings, congrats, you can now have them?). But, of course, you want your mage to look sluttier than she already had (I didn't know she could, honestly), so super-tiny bikinis and demon wings it is!

So far, in my poking around in-game since this option was released, I haven't seen anyone with any cash shop cosmetics, which I think is a testament to their value and desire. Personally, I'd rather be able to choose my character's hair and skin color than pay to give her a harlot's outfit because she already always wears one. But R2Games thought otherwise. And to each his own.

Class-Related Things

The game essentially breaks into the triad of classes (warrior, archer, mage) and offers different "types" of combat after you hit level 10 (I think), when you can put talent points into your character for newer and better spells. As a mage, you can be either a DPS boom-stick or a healer, so, naturally, I went with that. I have no idea if the warrior can do this as well. From what I've seen, there's the defensive-tank and the offensive-barbarian in terms of playing style.

For the record, let me clarify: the mage class doesn't offer -much- in the way of healers. Not in the traditional MMO sense, at any rate. You get three healing skills: one which gives you a direct healing spell that targets a single person in your party (the game AI picks the person with the lowest health at the time of the cast), a HPS buff that targets your whole party, and a party-wide direct heal. Also, you get a passive buff that gives you extra "oomph" to your healing abilities and magic defense and a spell that allows you to remove a debuff on your party. Now, I know what you could be thinking. "Hey, that sounds like a pretty staple set of skills for a healer, LMS!" And you'd be right. Except for the fact that the single-target healing spell has a cooldown of 15 seconds, the HPS spell a cooldown of 45 seconds, and the party-wide healing spell a CD Of 60 seconds. 

Now, that might not sound like much, but it severely limits your healing abilities in combat, especially if your enemy hits hard or hits multiple people. Even as a seasoned healer, I've had people die in a party on me because of these absurd cooldowns. Because if your enemy hits hard, they're going to hit before and after you heal someone, and multiple times nonetheless when your single-target heal is on CD. Sure, it takes coordination with your entire team to survive. After all, you might not get a healer in your party for a dungeon, and if you die, it'll be your fault and no one else's. Why rely on the chance that a) you have a mage in your party and b) they have healing spells in their skill slot and c) know how to use them well, for that matter (because I have seen someone use it when the person who was receiving damage had, like, a paper cut before the other mage in my party was like "IMMA HEAL YOU!"... sad but true.) 

However, I find that coordination isn't always possible. The vast majority of players I've encountered in the game don't speak English and if they do, they don't speak it very well. And most people on the server speak some language that I can't identify, let alone even attempt to speak to them. Or others just don't talk to you at all. I've had people just not respond to me even when I spoke to them using their name. And thus, it gets rather frustrating when those sort of situations occur. Not to mention some people are just complete failures or just expect that if they take too much damage, someone else will heal them. So, my advise if you're going to  healer in this game: play smart and try to communicate with your team. It'll be trial and error, sure, to figure out what situations call for which spell, but it's not impossible.

Beginner's Tutorial

The beginner's tutorial is very thorough and detailed, albeit boring, dry, and feels like it's forced upon you. If you level up and get a new feature, you can't explore it at your leisure; the game refuses to let you click anything EXCEPT for the new feature. Sure, it's nice that they point new things out and take time to explain it to you, but I'd rather have a "skip" option on it because most things in the game are self-explanatory. 'Nuff said.

Miscellaneous   

There are a few things I don't particularly care for in this game. The first is their cash shop system. The things you can buy in this game for real-life money make it a glaringly obvious "pay-to-win" environment. Throw a few dollars at the game and it gives you the VIP treatment (literally. You get to become a VIP in this game) which basically allows you to get ridiculous advantages over free-to-play players. Don't believe me? Here's a list of the VIP perks if you give the game money, directly from the game's site: 

• Free Cooldowns – Never pay for a building, levy, technology or duel cooldown again!
• Exclusive Castle Appearance – Stand out from the crowd with a new castle appearance, only available for VIP players!
• VIP Daily Quests – Receive a variety of daily quests just for VIP players, each offering unique and special rewards.
• VIP Weekly Gift Packs – Looking for more gifts and prizes? Receive exclusive weekly gift packs, filled with surprises!
• VIP Tokens – With these tokens, you’ll be able to test your luck with the VIP Wheel, where all sorts of items are up for grabs.
• Bonus EXP – Receive bonus experience battling monsters and by complete campaigns!
• Automatic Check-in – Tired of having to manually check-in everyday? With automatic check-in, you don’t have to worry about that.
• Increased Friend Limit – Is your friend’s list full? Upgrade to VIP 3 or higher and you’ll receive a higher friend’s list capacity.
• Devotion Bonus – Need that extra devotion boost to help you with the Daily Tasks? Earn devotion bonuses each and every day!
• Bonus Kyanite from Plunder – Looking for more motivation to plunder your enemy’s cities? Receive additional Kyanite with every plunder!
• 1-Click Astral Capture – Tired of having to capture all those Astrals? Reach VIP 5 or higher and you’ll be able to capture them all with just one click!
• More Alchemy Attempts – Running low on Gold? Take advantage of these additional Alchemy attempts and exchange your Balens for Gold.
• More Mystery Shop Attempts – Looking for more great deals? Make use of the Mystery Shop with additional attempts!
• Less Honor Loss In-Battle – Lady luck not on your side in-battle? With this benefit, you’ll only lose a fraction of Honor when losing in-battle.

I feel like the game basically says "fuck you" to all F2P players, in a nutshell.

So, let's boil this down, for those that don't really want to read through everything: you get instant cooldowns on all your constructions, levies (ways to generate money from your city), technologies (which give you passive boosts from additional HP to increased money production), and duel attempts in the arena against other players. You get bonus items weekly and daily quests which give you bonus rewards, extra Kyanite (used for technology), extra devotion (which is tallied up based on daily activities in the game), and bonus experience. You also have a reduction in honor lost when you die in battle, which is essential to getting PvP gear in-game. And PvP gear out-owns everything else, from my experience. The cash shop items include things like enchanting and socketing items, exclusive mounts, and various other boosts that allow you to dominate on the fields.  So, basically, if you give the game money, you can virtually guarantee that you'll out-perform others in the game. And that is a major turn-off for just about every player I've come across (except for those whose pockets are already lined and don't mind shelling out extra money. Though why they'd blow their money on this garbage is beyond me...).

Another thing I dislike is the user interface. It's very cluttered and there's far too many things around the outside of the game that are very distracting, since they're big and colorful and often flashing or blinking. It feels way too claustrophobic on a smaller monitor, to be honest, and makes me feel like the game is very, very cheap. It's a small, simple complaint, really, but one that I wish the developers would have considered when they made the game in the first place. It's fine to have one or two things aside from the game, especially if you're going to push for your VIP/payment membership BS. That's fine. But don't throw it in my face like it's your cock. Because believe me, the last thing I want is for your dick to go in my eye. That's how diseases and rage-fueled actions are made.

The game also offers a LOT of things to do but you can only do so much in the game. Literally. It only allows you to do a group dungeon 3 times in one day and fight another person in the arena 20 times, among other things. I kid you not. You can only run so many solo dungeons, too (a feature which I do appreciate). I believe you CAN pay for more tries at them, but of course, to do so, you have to pay real-life money for it. I mean, come on! You make the players pay for virtually every single thing you offer and now you're going to cut the amount of time that people can efffectively play your game? It just is poor development on R2Games' part, in my opinion. I've literally had nights where I had to leave the game because I had nothing else to do and couldn't do anything until, like, 4 AM my time.

That's really all I have to say about the game. It's rather mediocre, as far as MMOs go, and you have to basically pay real-life money if you want to get anywhere in the game (or not be insta-owned by those who DO pay for it). Some of the features are nice; the game offers a wide variety of things you can do. However, most of the game is a pay-to-access system and it leaves a severe gap between the pay-to-win players and the free-to-play ones. It takes the fun out of the game, really.

Is it worth your time? Sure, I'd give it a shot. It's a nice time waster. However, I wouldn't invest real-life money into it as it just felt like a waste of my time, honestly. The pay-to-win difference just makes for frustrating times if you try to get anywhere out of the newbie territory and try to get toward "end game" content or engage in PvP. I'd much rather invest my time in a different, better game. Like Guild Wars 2 or TERA or RIFT: Planes of Telara. But then again, there are players who also seem to really enjoy this game. I personally feel it's not much good other than if I needed to kill brain cells or time and I wouldn't try to play it with as much dedication as I have other games. I honestly just beat my head against my desk after a while because others would wipe the floor with my face. Or I'd end up in a fail party. Or I'd just be frustrated in general by the whole "you must pay to truly access this game" scene.

Hopefully I'll be able to play MMOs more often (keyword: "hopefully") but for now, I hope this entertained you. Have any questions, comments, etc.? Feel free to post 'em below or send me an email. Facebook and Twitter links are on the left. I'm always open to feedback, constructive criticism, and suggestions. This is Little Miss Squish, signin' out!

On a side note, I found it funny that when I was looking at meme faces to find appropriate pictures to express my brain, there were Wartune advertisements EVERYWHERE. It's like they knooooooooow. I'm slightly sketched out by that idea. Meme faces were also brought to you by www.memes.at. In case you were wondering where I find them all.