Reviewed by Brandy Shaul
From the creators of Dark Age of Camelot, and based on the fantasy war game Warhammer, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (or WAR for short) is EA Mythic’s MMORPG that’s set to take the world by storm when it is released in full this fall. As of now, the game is in the closed beta stages, but in a conference call with the developers of the game, I was able to discover just what makes this MMORPG different from all the rest.
Like in most MMORPGs, gameplay starts after players choose their race and allegiance between the sides of good and evil.
On the side of good, players can choose between dwarfs, noble humans and high elves, while those inclined to join with the side of evil can become orcs, goblins, dark elves and a more criminal variety of human.
Both sides are developed into realms, with the light side being the Realm of Order and the dark side being the Realm of Chaos. Epic battles are set to take place between each realm, with some battles of the RvR (realm vs. realm) combat being reserved for long-time enemies High Elves vs. Dark Elves, pure humans vs. corrupted humans, and orcs/goblins vs. dwarfs.
Fighting in WAR is based around the ultimate goal of gaining land and eventually power over your enemy’s cities. PvE content holds more of a draw here than other types of gameplay in that it allows all players under the same allegiance to participate in what are known as Public Quests, which actually advance the story by placing all allied players within a multi-battle scenario to fight for the greater good of their whole realm. As the developers have said, battling here is both cooperative and competitive, with a main theme being that of playing well with others in order to get what you may want individually.
In keeping with this cooperative theme, players can also join guilds comprised of like-minded individuals. Coincidentally enough, the maximum size for any one group (in a Public Quest, for instance) is the minimum size for an in-game guild, allowing the transition from group to guild to become that much simpler. Another level of player grouping comes when multiple guilds come together to form an alliance between them. And by having so many ways to get together with other people, large scale battles become that much easier, when multiple guilds can come together where everyone already knows the goal at hand.
In terms of specific battles, weapons like catapults can be used to attack enemies. In an effort to add in more realism to the battles, wind variance must be taken into account, making the catapult launching very reminiscent of golf games where you have to set up the perfect swing. You can also use the environment to your advantage by pouring boiling oil, for instance, onto enemies from above.
With all of this combat between sides, it may be feared by some that one side might get progressively stronger than the other, based on their winning so many battles. In order to counteract this, the longer that one zone is under control of the winning side, the more the game will try to even the score, but eliminating the number of guards and thereby weakening the winning side. Other incentives will be put into place to retain population and class balance, so that one side doesn’t have a more substantial amount of players than the other.
As a whole, the realms are also set to encourage new players to the MMORPG genre to join in as well, since no one person will ever be truly alone. Even if someone doesn’t have a set number of friends who play the game, by simply choosing their realm they automatically have thousands of allies willing to help them succeed.
Aside from grand scale battles, players will be able to obtain new skills and abilities, complete puzzles that unlock classic Warhammer lore, and interact with various personalities in true, constantly changing, living cities (with the change coming not only from its inhabitants, but also from the city’s status in the game’s never-ending war).
Like most other MMORPGs, WAR will require a subscription to access content, but no price has been set as of yet. Further information should become available before the game’s release in the fall of 2008.