With time spent in both Closed Beta and the ensuing Preview Weekend events, along with with the current Open Beta commencing we felt there is no better time than the present to take a quick preview of the Warhammer world. As one of the few MMORPG games to provide Oceanic servers, we are more then optimistic that WAR may be able to stand tall among the packed MMO market; even against the juggernaut World of Warcraft, which WAR has excessively been compared with. While they share elements, WAR has its own tricks and style, such as introducing its uniqueness and setting early, letting it stand out from the get-go. It’s neither considered a player verse environment (PVE) game, nor a player verse player (PVP) game. Rather, it’s a war game of realm versus realm combat (RVR), which in many ways combines the elements of the other two together.
The RVR concept focuses on the two sides Order and Destruction, and the three races aligned with each one. The Empire, Dwarves and High Elves are the good guys, juxtaposing against the bad, Chaos, Orc and Dark Elves. There are 20 classes spread across the six factions with common archetypes such as tanks and spellcasters. After creating a character you are sent into a fantasy world undertake do all of the now too familiar MMORPG things, such as gain quests, kill mobs, and loot corpses.
With any luck after 6 months your character will look half as good.
There are aspects that do make it stand out despite familiar MMORPG stylings, and ironically one of these dramatically opens a new co-operative concept to PVE, despite WAR being touted for the PVP only crowd. This game changing feature is public quests; multi-staged open invitational mega quests, that anyone nearby can participate in. These quests are triggered as soon as you enter the vicinity of their objective, which during the first phase is generally a simple task that lets many players gather together. As the objectives are completed the phases become harder, forcing random players to work together for survival.
So what’s the point of completing a public quest? Loot, of course – and after each completion, a scoreboard of quest contribution is presented with those dealing damage, completing objectives or even just healing gaining higher points. These points are then added to a random dice roll, with a new table of reward recipients, for first, second and third places who get to choose a random item to keep. There's no need to sigh if you don’t win anything however, because simply participating in a public quest will build influence in the current story chapter you are completing. Rally Masters at these chapter locations will then give out items based on current influence, meaning there are several public quests per story chapter, always getting progressively harder.
This feature seems to have worked great so far, but we only observed earlier public quests from our short time in the beta. Public quests away in later chapters were not very populated meaning it was hard to complete any tasks or objectives. Hopefully when the game launches there will be greater population numbers in all tiers of public quests and not just the start. Adittionally, while the starting public quests felt varied and interesting, it remains to be fully seen if later ones still hold the same level of freshness, similar unique objectives and storyline.
Another great feature is the open party system. Any time you create a standard party it defaults to being opened, meaning it’s displayed in a party menu allowing anyone to instantly join. This menu not only displays members, class and rank, but also current location and how far away they are from your position. It beats the old LFG method, and lets parties form more effortlessly, which is especially useful when entering a public quest. Parties are capped at six people, however at any time when bigger groups are needed, four parties can combine to create a warband with the potential of 24 members.
The next is an implemented idea spawned from the Xbox 360 achievement system and a Lord of the Rings Online feature. It’s the Tome of Knowledge, a complete stat tracker, achievement giver and encyclopaedia rolled into one. Seamlessly integrated into the game, it pops up, awarding you complementary experience for unlocking new tomes within. If you’re the kind of person who wants to know how many giant bats he’s killed, you are going to love this feature.
John Goodman finally finds some work at the docks.
Where the game shines is the integrated RVR battles which are flagged off in certain areas across the world. When playing on a standard core rule set server, entering these zones will flag you as ready to fight against opposing players who may or may not be wandering around the next corner. It’s great fun because many PVE quests are positioned in these areas forcing the player to perhaps dabble a little in slaying their fellow opposition. The best thing is you have no idea what to expect inside these sanctioned warring zones. You may run into a epic battles with either realm, or simply a lone soldier; it seems to stay fresher this way.
Of course there are the queued scenarios for those wanting more ‘structured’ forms of PVP, offering instant missions with objectives, within the two realms. WAR splits scenarios in four different tiers, providing grander scenarios as players become stronger. These scenarios are a great way to build your renown rank, something only awarded in PVP situations, and grants the player the ability to buy better gear then usual. It’s a nice incentive knowing those players who’d rather just play PVP can now gain better gear without having to play PVE content that they couldn't be bothered with.
Visually WAR looks better than World of Warcraft, but lacks the graphical power of Age of Conan. However the previews so far have not allowed full graphical customisation so hopefully launch will bring stronger visuals. As it is, by forcing antialiasing and anisotropic filtering through our graphics control panel, it does wonders to sharpen up the well crafted fantasy world Mythic should be commended for. The animation has improved a lot, and combat in general feels more responsive then ever. Stability is increasing, with the engine hopefully fully ready for launch day.
This is just a sample of the total WAR package. It looks to be a travelling in the right direction within the MMORPG market by offering something new; regardless if has or hasn’t borrowed a few ideas from other MMOs.
The Open Beta will run until September 14 with early access for pre-order players happening the following day, and actually launch on September 18.
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