Warhammer Online: Overview
EA Mythic set the tone for the upcoming Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in the game's CG trailer. At first, it seems like a regular fantasy game trailer. There is war, fire, arrows and a screaming Orc. Then, the Orc jumps up on a catapult and is hurled through the fire and arrows towards the castle. It's weird, but not altogether unexpected in a fantasy game. Surely, he'll sail over and into the fray, right? Not so. He smashes face first into the walls and slides down into a pile of his comrades who've clearly tried this before. That is Warhammer.
The game itself is all about Realm vs. Realm combat, the mechanic Mythic pioneered with 2001's Dark Age of Camelot. In WAR, there are six races aligned into two factions. The faction of Destruction (read: bad guys) is comprised of the Greenskins (male Orcs and Goblins), the Dark Elves, and Chaos (an ominous super-evil race from Warhammer lore). They're opposed by the forces of Order (aka good guys), which include Dwarfs, High Elves and Empire (humans).
Each race has four classes that fit with those Games Workshop has been building for many years. From Goblin Squig Herders, who turn evil little Pac-Mac-like creatures against their enemies, to the Dwarven Engineers who can run into battle with a shotgun, the long-standing setting permeates all parts of the Warhammer Online experience.
Rather than organizing the races into their own realms as Mythic did in DAoC, players will now find they're actually paired against one of their enemies. Greenskins face off against Dwarfs, Chaos against Empire and Dark Elves vs. High Elves. This subtle change creates three fronts, between which players of each side can travel, and means that from the earliest levels all the way to the end-game, players can fight the war.
One of the shortcomings of DAoC was that leveling up and RvR seemed disconnected. This won't be the case in WAR. Players can advance through RvR exclusively, if they so choose. And the RvR experience is a progressive one with a variety of battle types that range from capture the flag to simultaneous, real-time opposing goals where the two factions fight against each other to achieve or thwart their enemy's goals.
As can the RvR combat, Warhammer's world can be vicious, too. As an imposing Orc, players can earn trophies - like Dwarf heads - to stick to their armor and show their strength. As an Orc levels, he grows stronger, both as a character and an avatar, literally: Orcs get bigger and Dwarven beards get longer. EA Mythic hopes to change the way players identify the strength of their enemies.
Warhammer Online is currently slated to launch in the fall of 2008. At this time, only a PC version of the game has been announced, although an Xbox 360 version has long been rumored.
