Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (War) Preview

The world of Warhammer just got a little more involved, and a tad more … well … war-like.

During a recent press event in the offices of EA/Mythic Fairfax office, the team working on the Warhammer: Age of Reckoning massively multiplayer online title unveiled the next two races (of the six total that will be available at launch). Joining the dwarves and greenskins are the Empire (human) and Chaos.

Both have vastly different visual presentations, entertaining classes, and both add considerable power to their factional sides.

For those that don’t know, Warhammer Online is born from the long-standing miniatures tabletop game created by Games Workshop. The crew at GW is closely monitoring this title to ensure that is falls under the legacy that is Warhammer.

A fantasy MMO, Warhammer draws from Mythic’s Dark Age of Camelot legacy, featuring realm-versus-realm conflict. There are three racial pairings that will be available at launch – dwarves and greenskins, Empire and Chaos, and dark elves and high elves.

For the Empire, the humans are steeled against corruption, which is essentially what Chaos stands for. There are four general classes – the Knight of the Blazing Sun, the Witch Hunter, the warrior priest and the Bright Wizard. While same professions are mirrored in the Chaos side, there are differences in skill sets. The human Empire is defined by Renaissance buildings and a structured medieval society while Chaos is earmarked by the bizarre and obscure – like eyeballs in the ground, vortexes in the clouds, neon mists, trees with faces and any thing that would track the cause of outrageously chaotic.

While the humans stand against corruption, the Armies of Destruction (Chaos) is dedicated to remake the world in its own “chaotic” image.

In addition to some hands-on time with the mage classes, with the opportunity to ease into the morale and tactics abilities that result when a character levels up, EA/Mythic also showed off some of the player-versus-player realm-versus-realm action. The action is fast paced and the design team has integrated a book that charts actions during the encounters, giving players the ability to boast about their achievements on the field of battle.

There was also the opportunity to “test drive” the player community quests, a zone in which all participating players are involved in an evolving quest series that culminates with a boss battle. Experience is based on participation, so camping the area (and triggering the quest with no help would be a bad idea) will do little unless the player is fighting and within the experience range of the mobs.

The developers are still paying close attention to the graphical look of the world and while there are still some areas that will need work, WAR (Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning) is a stable client that sports a wonderful visual look, plays well and is just plain old entertaining.

While the release is still a ways off, this game is shaping up very nicely.