First 5 levels is completely offline. Once you get to the City however there's the option of pursuing the SP stuff at night, or (highly unadvisable unless you're with others) trying the MP stuff in the daytime. I didn't fancy my chances with all the lvl 10 mobs in the town, so I've been pursuing the somewhat intriguing SP storyline. It's been really good so far, adding a level of NWN style plot-driven motivation to the proceedings.

I decided to roll a Dark Templar as my first choice. Kind of like an Blackguard (Heavy Armor and Shield, Swords and Axes, Leech Life Spells, Party Damage Buffs... so far...). There are 3 flavours of Soldier, Rogue, Wizard or Priest to choose from... as detailed here: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=141837

VW has also started playing, though even his new (blagged from work) PC is struggling to cope with the game at native 1920x1200 resolutions, so I very much doubt he'll continue with it unless he forks out for a new GFX card. Did I mention the 25gb installation?

On my PC however, it runs as smooth as WoW, with everything maxed out and 2xAA on. In fact, I could probably rag it harder, but it already looks better than any of the videos I'd seen before, so am happy as is.

I'm finding that the 'real-time' combat isn't quite as 'revolutionary' as I was led to believe, but it's still more involved than WoW on a basic level, since you can't just sit back and watch your avatar hacking away on auto-pilot. Even engaging special 'combos' involves first selecting the ability you want and then triggering the requisite attack with which to execute it. Personally, I'd prefer more audio queues to make this feel more 'right'?, but in general it's quite manageable, and the finishing moves sometimes triggered together with the splats onscreen that accompany them are quite satisfying indeed.

So far, I'm finding it easily as engaging as WoW (if not more so) for the following reasons:

1. Graphically, it's a lot more my cup of tea. Think SWG in a fantasy setting and all that this entails i.e. better looking gear, more character customisation. Right from the get go, my avatar is looking fucking cool, rather than looking like a cartoon.

2. The conversational stuff is really rather well done, with proper dialogue trees and alternate responses to play out your light/dark side although there's the odd slip up here and there in the voice-acting dept. And the SP stuff does a good job of weaving the illusion that you're somehow important in the world, while there's always that MP backdoor you can dump your character into, levelling no matter what itch you feel the need to scratch.

3. All the stuff I haven't looked at yet - like the other 11 classes, proper mounted combat, sidekicking elimating the need to play catch-up all the time, the continuing SP stuff, the siege PVP battles, contributing to player run towns/cities etc. It seems like there's gonna be a lot to see and do later on, some of it borrowed, some of it new. If it's all as well executed as everything I've seen so far then all bodes well...

Ended the weekend's play with an invite to the Respawned Guild, which it would seem is utterly teeming with players and a good spread of levels (if perhaps not classes - everyone is going Melee at the mo it seems).

So very much looking forward to some more of this over the coming weeks. From my time spent with it, I'd say that if you fancy a change from the cartoonery of WoW and don't fancy the tolkenesque twee-ness of LOTRO then give this a go. It's proper brutal so it is...

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