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PREVIEW: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning [Archive] - ZGeek

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gimpieman
07-05-2006, 02:23 PM
The Warhammer Universe

The Warhammer universe began, as you all know, with the release of the tabletop war game ‘Warhammer Fantasy’ by Games Workshop. It spawned a series of role-playing games, collectible card games, board games, books and computer games.

The Warhammer cosmos is a dark, fucked up, constantly war ravaged and chaos filled world. It is made up of high fantasy creatures and settings that are inspired from Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Dungeons & Dragons and Michael Moorcock novels. The art style is unique and distinct featuring bizarre characters, huge weapons and gothic architecture.

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The world has been constantly evolving with so many titles in its stable over 24 years now. Many games have borrowed elements from this world. Even the Warcraft series have borrowed heavily from the Warhammer universe, inspiring many of its storylines and art styles. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will be the latest title to take this world to the next level, which is massively multiplayer no doubt.

British based Games Workshop have licensed the game out to Mythic Entertainment, the game developers with over 10 years of experience creating online games. They are most notably known for Dark Age of Camelot an MMORPG that was extremely popular when it came out and to this date has a million users to its name.


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Hammer time.

With Dark Age of Camelot, Mythic brought about RvR (Realm vs. Realm), which is there way of saying all out war. This is also being brought to the table and fits perfectly into the war centric Warhammer universe. There are two main factions in the game– Order and Chaos. The six races in the game fall under either of these factions. On the Order side we have the Empire, High Elves and Dwarves and the Chaos side includes the legions of Chaos, Greenskins and Dark Elves.

The Empire are a race of technologically advanced humans. High Elves are elves with magic as their primary feature. Dwarves are the usual gadget and axe wielding glorified midgets. The Legions of Chaos are fanatic wild demon worshipping humans. Greenskins consist of both Orcs and Goblins. The Dark Elves are similar to their Order counterparts in magical proficiency, but are not so well planned.

The entire universe and each of the races have a deep and well-developed back-story. The game will be very detailed and will remain as true to the universe as it has been so far.


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Lets start a war.

Each of the above six races have their own zones which run parallel to the enemy zones. The Empire are pitted against the legions of Chaos, the High Elves against Dark Elves and the Dwarves against Greenskins. The game allows you to attack and take over cities as you progress. The world is divided into zones in which PvP can take place. Entering these zones allow you to jump straight into battle. An interesting new concept Mythic in bringing is that of Battle Zones, which are matches between groups of players based on a point value system. This keeps a balance as a larger group of less experienced players can take on a small group of higher level players. AI units called the Dogs of War are used if there is any imbalance of players in the group.

The game is not entirely PvP there are also large elements of PvE (Player vs. Environment) that will be implemented in the game. Quests will also play a huge role in the game and with it; it brings a few new elements to your standard MMORPG game play. Players helping in a quest are each fully rewarded for their efforts. No more bitching about who gets what.


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Will said skills pay the bills?

Each race has their own classes, which is usual MMORPG fare. The game does not rely on a traditional level-up system though. Each class will have a set number of skills and with that have a large selection of skills to choose from. You’re allowed to pursue three skills at a given time and experience for the skill is gained through quests and combat.

The more you fight, the more your morale increases. This is a new system which is like a meter that increases as you fight, and when it is full it gives you a massive amount of power letting you do some freaky arse attacks. Similar to fighting games and Tony Hawks in a way.

The release is set for summer of next year and I personally can’t wait to see a new take on the MMORPG genre. This gme being based on the original Warhammer will no doubt be immensely popular due to the already admired Dawn of War RTS series. The graphics and playability look sweet and makes the game look like an overall recipe for success.

s3raph
16-04-2007, 10:06 PM
Man, before you start writing reviews, wait for the actual game to come out. Also, please, learn how to spell and actually lay out an article, I haven't read anything so rambling and poorly edited since the last time I made the mistake of going into 'The War' forum.

Javaira
10-06-2007, 11:06 PM
I am trying so hard not to get over excited about this game.

I want to just go in a take the game as it is, with out any prior expectations.

Good overview.

Hippy Vindalou
11-06-2007, 12:21 AM
It spawned a series of role-playing games, collectible card games, board games, books and computer games.

Not to mention being inspiration for a multitude of horribly average heavy metal albums back in the eighties. Bolt Throwers brilliant 40k inspired first two albums withstanding of course.

Warhammer Fantasy is still one of my favourite role playing games of all time and I would dearly love to have a chop at this game but the only way I am ever going to have the time to make it worthwhile is either quit work and go on the dole or have a nasty workplace accident and get a few months off.

Good to see they are keeping a large skills system like the roleplaying game rather than focusing on trying to get your attribute numbers up.
Nice preview dude.

<---(ignore this rating thingo i dunno whats going on there)

Aardvark
02-04-2008, 02:09 PM
I don't see why they had to do a Warhammer MMORPG. WoW has already conquored the fantasy MMO market. They should've done a 40K MMORPG. Hell, why not a Necromunda one. The detail they went to in that lends itself to an MMO. Sure, it'd be a bit of a stretch to get the Necrons and Tau in there, but they're smart lads, they could think of something.

EvilMuppet
03-04-2008, 06:49 AM
I don't see why they had to do a Warhammer MMORPG. WoW has already conquored the fantasy MMO market. They should've done a 40K MMORPG. Hell, why not a Necromunda one. The detail they went to in that lends itself to an MMO. Sure, it'd be a bit of a stretch to get the Necrons and Tau in there, but they're smart lads, they could think of something.
They ARE making a 40k MMO.