Warhammer Online : Age Of Reckoning
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has finally been released and at a great time for many MMORPG players. If they finally tired of the fast click action of Age of Conan or their hundredth raid in World of Warcraft they now have a new rich and exciting game to play, but there are two main points I have to stress before I go down with the actual review. First off, the game starts out slower then any MMO I can remember, even EVE Online and from my own experience and dealing with other players in game that was a bit of a turn off, but rest assured that slow experience is a good thing while you learn the ropes and when you are a couple of hours in to the game the actual game picks up dramatically in its overall pace and fun. The other point is the game maxes out at level 40 and while during the beta many people seemed to complain about that pointing out other MMORPG’s have level caps at 60, 80 or even 100 levels, you can not compare Warhammer’s level system to theirs because I found that by the time I hit level 15 in Warhammer I actually had a longer and deeper playing experience then I ever had in World of Warcraft. When I topped out in World of Warcraft (all too quickly) and then I maxed out in Age of Conan (again so very fast) it was fun at first to do so but not rewarding or worthwhile, so what I am saying is do not let the level cap lead you to believe the game is short and sweet, when in fact it is long with plenty of replay value.
The overall premise of Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning or WAR is a great war has broken out everywhere across the land and it is time for you to declare your allegiance and join hundreds of thousands (maybe millions eventually) of other players on the many Realm versus Realm (RvR) and Player versus Player (PvP) battlefields in Age of Reckoning and turn the tide of war for your side. Warhammer is a universe of two distinct sides with the Armies of Order (Dwarfs, High Elves and the Empire) and the Armies of Destruction (Greenskins, Dark Elves and Chaos). These two sides will invade each others land, lay siege to impressive fortresses and sack each others cities. Wielding destructive magic and powerful weapons you can fight solo or with your fiends as you explore the world, discover the secrets to the Tome of Knowledge and help lead your side to victory.
So far during beta and the first few weeks of release, it appears the side of Destruction is getting the preferential treatment in terms of numbers on many servers. Both sides are excellent and fun to play but I guess being bad is the fan favorite. Finding which server to join is important and depending on your play style, this will determine how successful you are in Realm versus Realm. But just do not pick Destruction because they look cool, the Armies of Order have their own charm.
Gameplay
Your career in Warhammer Online is just as important as any other MMORPG, especially when you look at your play style, what your potential guild may need and who is most needed in everyday groups. There are many careers to choose from and they are based on Race and sometimes the sex of the character, for instance a Witch Elf can only be female. The careers in the game so far include…
Chaos Career
Chosen – Chaotic Master Tank
Marauder – Melee Damage Masters
Zealot – Healer Caster
Magus – Ranged Damage Dealer
Empire
Warrior Priest – Melee Healer
Witch Hunter – Melee Damage Dealer
Bright Wizard – Ranged Damage Dealer
Dark Elves Careers
Witch Elves – Melee Damage Dealers
Disciple of Khaine – Healer Caster
Sorceress – Ranged Damage Dealer
High Elves Careers
Shadow Warrior – Ranged Damage Dealer
Swordmaster – Graceful Tank
Archmage – Healer and Loremaster
White Lion – Melee and Pet class
Greenskin Career
Black Orc – Heavy Tank
Shaman – Healer and Caster
Squiq Herder – Ranged attack and Pet class
Dwarf Careers
Iron Breaker – Defensive based Tank
Engineer – Shooter/Hybrid
Rune Priest – Healer and Buffer
Every class on each side between Destruction and Order has their direct opposite in some way. This is because the main part of the game is Player versus Player in a Realm versus Realm environment. Now if you are new to the RvR concept, do not worry since it is fairly straight forward and a concept which was pioneered by Mythic in their earlier MMORPG, Dark Age of Camelot. The easiest way to describe the game is us versus them or in very simple terms good versus evil, but if you do not like to bash other players heads open you can solo or even just do the Player versus Environment (PvE) side of things with other groups, the game does not force you in one direction or the other. But you will miss out on some rather fun gaming by not competing in the RvR side of things and I am not a big fan of PvP in many MMORPG’s period so that is saying something.
To play the RvR side of things is fairly straight forward, so you just enter your self into the queue and very quickly you will enter the fray, transported from where ever you are. Placed into a group if you are solo or entering the actual battle with your group you engage the other side for control of specific areas. Fighting until the actual goal is reached when you win or lose the encounter. You will gain renown points which add to the overall gaming experience and can be used to unlock titles and more.
Warhammer Online is more of a traditional MMORPG then the recently released action based MMO Age of Conan, but with that “traditional” label Warhammer is also one of the most polished MMORPG’s gameplay wise at launch, just like the Lord of the Rings Online was for polish and stability. The basic gameplay is there with the auto-attack feature we know from many games and then clicking off abilities or spells as we need to cast them. Down time has been almost eliminated with your character regaining their health and action points (action points are used in combat for abilities and spells) very quickly so you can always be on the offensive if you need to be and not sitting back waiting for your health to regenerate or your action points aka mana to be restored.
WAR uses a book called the Tome of Knowledge which is basically the book which knows everything about you from your kills, what you have unlocked, how long you have played and much more. This book is handy and very easy to find your way through via the tab system on the left side of the Tome. What I enjoyed most was seeing how many kills I had for specific monsters (I like to know that for some reason) and what of the History and Lore I had unlocked and seen. As a heavy duty Role Player this was a very welcome addition.
Quests are plentiful and easy to do for many reasons, the first being they are easy to find as in most current MMORPG’s with a green book above the head of the person and where you are to do the actual quest is shown on your map, handy and while this is basically hand holding, it allows the player to level and find their way around easily and jump on to more important things such as RvR battles and crafting.
Public quests are by far the most fun I have had in the actual game, since you will join forces with other adventurers to reach certain goals for each actual public quest. Usually killing X number of baddies and doing something else very specific. One of the best quests I have seen so far was when a giant spawn and ran towards the public quest, knocking down trees and making a general nuisance of himself. Of course after he is killed, or the quest is finished, everyone who competed in the fight rolls for a chance to win some loot. Not everyone will win and bonuses on the roll are given by your overall contribution in the battle, but you can redo the fights more then once which is handy because the loot is nice.
As you compete in the public quests you win points which are put towards items key NPC’s will offer you, from potions, equipment, gear and more. This is one of the better ways to get your self some excellent gear for your level. It is too bad though you can only get one item out of each of the three prize tiers.
Crafting is extremely important to any MMO player worth their salt, but if the crafting system is bad, what is the use of it. Well I have great news for those of us who love to craft and can sink dozens of hours at a time hunting for regents and experimenting, we have a solid crafting system which is easy to use, actually looks good and crafting per se is not some mindless endeavor where you sit back and watch a progress bar before clicking ’remake’. Of course I never had a chance to try them all, but I plan on at least giving each one a decent go.
Warhammer Online is a strong, deep MMORPG with a ton of features that would take too long to get into, but is well worth experiencing the gameplay on many levels.
Graphics
Graphically Warhammer Online is very good and it does not push your graphics card or your average computer to its limits by any means. This is a good thing for those gamers with older systems, those with high end video cards who may be expecting something closer to Age of Conan’s or some other higher end graphic game, will find the graphics less then pleasing. At first I will honestly admit I was disappointed in the overall graphics, but after seeing my third or fourth major public quest with three or four full groups running around and fighting the various enemies who were around, I began to prefer seeing the very high frame rate, with the graphics quality maxed out and fifty plus player characters engaged in battles with at least that many mobs. Not once in this game has the game had any sort of video lag, or lag of any kind and that is impressive on many levels.
One issue with the overall graphics that I have is until you reach the mid-range levels you will see copies of yourself over and over again, in my very first group during the beta, there were two other characters who had the exact same look as I did and even after several quests, we still looked the same after adding a few items to our armor. Do not let this worry you though as you do get higher, your personal touches to the character begin to show and the game is more about Realm versus Realm combat then dressing up your character, the fashion show can happen later on with updates and hopefully many expansions.
Level design wise the world is very well done and for once it appears a MMORPG developer did not hit the “Create Random World” button, do some slight tweaking and run with it. Each area has this personal touch to it, almost to the point it would seem a separate team was in charge of each area and they did not sit back and borrow from each other. There are some creatively designed areas with impressive forests, temples and dungeons and with each starting area this is a sign of what is to come later on from the Elven forests to the dying lands of Chaos.
Monsters, demons, fairies, dragons and other creatures you will fight and hopefully slay with others are very well designed, animated and textured. Every area in the game, especially the earlier levels has plenty of variety of monsters for you to see and fight. I was most surprised by seeing a dragon early on while playing my Witch Elf who are amazing fast damage dealers and entering a Warband and destroying the beast in one of the early public quests, but that is just a piece of what is to come.
The special effects are beyond excellent, especially if you are a caster such as a Bright Wizard and light the world around you on fire. Every class has some interesting and ’cool’ effects to their special attacks and abilities and it never gets old building up your characters special ability and releasing it in some epic attack and devastating the enemy ranks.
Finally we have a game out of the box (at least one that I can remember) that has almost a complete, easy to use user interface editor, with this you can easily move everything around, change sizes and more from inside the main game with out any hassles, shutting down or issues of any type.
Audio
Dramatic music and deep environmental audio is the core of Warhammer Online’s audio library. Every location, dungeon, battlefield and town has a strong feel to it, which is driven by what you see and hear and if the audio was not as strong as it is, the overall game would not be the game of grand adventures which Warhammer is known for. Even listening to the music at the server select or character selection screen has this range of hope and balance to dark and chaotic battle chords. Audio wise Mythic has done a fantastic job on Warhammer.
Non-Playable characters are a chatty bunch in the game, but unfortunately they do not have a voice track for many of them, but what voice work we do hear in the game from the battle cries, to giants getting angry are excellent and what is most surprising these voices have the correct level of emotion needed for what they are saying and based on their characters race. A Greenskin Shaman sounds like you would expect as does the high and mighty elves. This should not shock me but so many MMORPG’s often fail to go that extra step with voice over work and have everyone sound the same from Orc to Troll to bar wench.
Value
I would expect most players will stick with one side or the other in terms of overall faction loyalty in the game because that is what they prefer, basically Order (good guys) and Destruction (bad guys) and in many cases this would limit them to just a couple of classes, but in WAR they have many classes (careers) with 10 on each side and we can assume more will come with future updates and expansions. So basically the amount of value is there, especially with how long it takes the average player to see the end game and just because you have seen the end game, it does not mean you have done everything you need to do.
Bottom Line
If you are a Warhammer fan in any form (and who isn’t?), this is your first chance to play in the epic and fantastic world we have only seen in table top and the odd RTS before, so it is a must buy. For MMORPG fans and RPG fans this is also a must buy, for the simple reason it has many of the strengths of games like World of Warcraft and Everquest 2, but has also taken from its spiritual predecessor Dark Age of Camelot (best PvP Fantasy MMO of all time) to create a wonderful gaming experience for the PvP/RvR and the PvE player.
— Tested on –
Windows Vista Ultimate 6.0 Service Pack 1
AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUS) 2.2 Ghz
4 Gig Ram
1 Gig NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2
1680 x 1050 (32 bit) 60Hz
Merc Stealth Keyboard
Microsoft Trackball
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- Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Review
- Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Review
- Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Review
- Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Review
- Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Review