RATING:
Gameplay: 6
Graphics: 5
Sound: 2
Overall: 5
Pros: A few interesting features which separate the game from its competitors in the genre.
Cons: Still share lots of annoying features with other games in the genre. Really annoying repetitive music that continually repeats as menus refresh, some of the music sounds like a dated 80s VHS rip.
We’ve lately dedicated some of our time to have a look at Wartune, a browser-based fantasy MMORPG and party-building saga that is playable for free and revolves around enhancing your hero, acquiring new gear and other items, recruiting fellow heroes and mercenaries to join your cause and make your way across the thrilling, magic world. With the market brimming with various games of this kind, we were interested in finding out to which extend Wartune had to offer something original or if it was just another MMO with linear gameplay and automated systems for finding your way and combat where all you have to do is repeatedly clicking your mouse button, thus rather feeling like being told a story instead of taking actively part in it.
Having a very first glance into the game, we honestly were all but hopeful, as the visual style, the incredible amount of flashing items to claim free gold and other items as well as the incredibly fast levelling made us expect a similar experience as we had previously had. First of all, character selection allowed us to pick from 3 distinct classes/ characters that were available in a female as well as a male version. Besides the class names describing them as Archer, Mage and Knight, there was no further explanation on how they differed from each other.
We experienced an initial story arc which wasn’t that awful, the prominent developer’s philosophy of “sex sells”, however, made us roll our eyes, for almost every woman we came across had a larger chest than Power Girl, which is quite typical of this kind of games. Yet, the initial game play levels were kind of pointless, with creatures you are faced with not being worth to be around, since it actually took more time to load a battle than you were finally fighting because the enemies were killed with a single hit.
We didn’t have high hopes for a sudden change to the better, but little elements emerged one by one to surprise us. While other titles feature completely automated combat which doesn’t even require players to hit a button once initiated, Wartune actually provides players with abilities. In the case of our Mage character, this meant we were able to decide for either casting lightning bolts on single targets or firing a barrage of fireballs onto multiple enemies at once.
However, our character nevertheless performed an auto attack when we didn’t activated one of our abilities with the push of a button. We therefore presume that we could probably have left the computer and still would have won the battle. So we can only hope for a bit more of a challenge in the later course of the game. Some spells could only be cast when having built up a sufficient amount of rage, which indicates that the players is still involved in the fight to some extend.
Due to the possibility to earn rewards for logging in and spinning the wheel as well as being offered a chest full of rewards every 5 levels, etc., Wartune’s style still very much resembles lots of other MMOs of this kind. Character progression is undertaken via a talent tree, which for some reason is pretty linear during the initial levels, only allowing players to unlock specific skills. It wasn’t quite evident why this was presented in form of a tree, for customisation was pretty limited as far as we could tell. All this in combination with the Blacksmith feature that allowed for upgrading your personal gear determines the player’s overall Battle Rating, the numeric value that indicates their strength in comparison to other players as well as creatures as it is typical for MMOs of this kind.
The most surprising moment we experienced was when reaching level 10 and preparing to return to the capital of our kingdom, the story driven element that Wartune revolves around. Our town was made of multiple buildings we were able to upgrade, most importanty the barracks which provide access to troop upgrading in order to defend your city, which adds a totally different city-building aspect to the game, which was entirely unexpected. As ususal with these MMOs, many of the features are tiered and locked off until reaching certain levels, so we didn’t get the chance to explore it in much depth but it definitely looked to add something more to the game than other titles of this nature do.
In case you’re interested you may check out our first look gameplay commentary right here and now. And in order to find out more about Wartune, feel free to activate the INFO button below.
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