This review is written from the point of someone who has played numerous MMORPG's in the past. I played Asheron's Call for 2 years, Earth and Beyond 6 months, Star Wars Galaxies 6 months, World of Warcraft 4 years off and on, Beta for several other MMORPG's and for Warhammer Online I played in Closed Beta, Open Beta and now release for a total of about 5 months played.
Basic Concept - If you arent familiar with the term MMORPG short for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. In a nutshell, this is an online only game played with many other players. Your play affects them and their play affects you to varying degrees. This going from slight interactions with other players such as chat, working together on quests and fighting each other if you so choose on up to heavy interactions including questing and fighting other players at any time. Wikipedia has a pretty good write up on MMORPG at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG
MMORPG Shared Similarities
Almost every MMORPG has some similarities. All have at least two sides - one typically has a darker more sinister side, while the other is noble, good side. Character Types - Most MMORPG's allow you to play several different types of characters. Most can be classified as the following: Melee Characters: Those that like to get right up in the midst of the battle and fight Tanks - takes alot of damage, but typically do not inflict alot of damage. Melee DPS (Damage Per Second) think a swordsman or a rogue. Better damage output, but lesser ability to take damage. Ranged DPS (Damage per Second) - think archers and mages inflicting large amounts of damage from further away, but once a melee fighter gets in close they are in trouble. Healers (Support Character) Typically like a priest or shaman who can primarily heal others fighting but still do some damage, cant take melee fighting very well. Quest Types - Questing is also a standard of the MMORPG. Most involve either 'Kill X Amount' of something, 'Get me Something' or 'Find Something'. The things you Kill, Find or Fetch usually lead you to progress and find new locations in the game. MMORPG's often vary from one to another how they go about making their game unique - some focus on graphics, some on Player Vs Environment (PVE) gameplay and some on Player Vs Player (PVP) gameplay. Grouping - Most MMORPG's have some method of working with other players. Usually one can be invited into a group to share quests and exploration with others. Usually this gives you a special chat channel so that you can talk amongst yourselves.
Starting Out - You start out typically with a low level (1) character. You are given some basic weapon and a quest or two to familiarize yourself with the game. These quests lead you to other quests and deeper and deeper into the game. Usually you have different actions/spells which you can use when fighting monsters/players. You usually have a small map to let you know your basic surroundings and a larger map to help you orient yourself in the game world. Then you have a chat window to see other players conversations.
Character Classes - To start out with, there are two factions, those of Order and those of Destruction. On the order side you have Dwarfs, High Elves and Empire (Human). On Destruction side you have Greenskins, Dark Elves and Chaos (Human).
ORDER CLASSES
Dwarf - Engineer - Ranged DPS/Pet - Pets are Gun Turrets and Land Mines.
Dwarf - Iron Breaker - Tank - Strongest pure tank.
Dwarf - Rune Priest - Healer - Strongest Order Healer class - weak on the DPS side.
High Elf - White Lion - Melee DPS/Pet
High Elf - Sword Master - Tank. - Good tank, decent DPS.
High Elf - Archmage - Ranged DPS/Healer - Decent DPS, OK healer.
High Elf - Shadow Warrior - Melee/Ranged DPS - Adaptable to fighting situation.
Empire - Witch Hunter - Melee DPS - Very Van Helsingish.
Empire - Bright Wizard - Ranged DPS - Spell effects are great. High DPS, weak melee.
Empire - Warrior Priest - Melee DPS/Healer - Can live a long time in melee, weakest healer of Order.
DESTRUCTION CLASSES
Greenskin - Squig Herder - Ranged DPS/Pet - Squig is a two legged round head creature. Good solo character.
Greenskin - Shaman - Ranged DPS/Healer - Healing and fighting co-exist. The more healing, the better damage you do and vice versa.
Greenskin - Black Orc - Tank - Also one of the coolest looking characters in game.
Chaos - Marauder - Melee DPS - Mutates arm into different weapons
Chaos - Chosen - Tank/DPS - Very cool looking - good solo character
Chaos - Zealot - Healer - Think Rune Priest
Chaos - Magus - Ranged DPS/Pets - Flies around on a disk; never walks.
Dark Elf - Sorcerer - Ranged DPS - Destructions Bright Wizard like class
Dark Elf - Witch Elf - Melee DPS - As Kramer says 'Giggity Giggity'. All girl fighting force!
Dark Elf - Disciple of Khaine - Melee DPS/Healer - Similar to Warrior Priest
What makes Warhammer Different? - Warhammer is based primarily on Player vs Player play. This means you try to 'kill' the opposing player and they try to 'kill' you. You are also encouraged through gameplay to group with other players. This doesn't mean that there is only PVP play. There is also alot of PVE play. You can do quests, explore and yet never participate in PVP play unless you choose to do so. Amazingly (at least in my opinion) you really dont get too discouraged when another player kills you. The battle itself is so fun/challenging, you look more forward to getting back in there again.
Public Quests(PQ's) - One of the first things you will run across once you create your character are Public Quests. These are quests for a certain area that you and others can all participate in completing. The first part might be kill 50 of a certain creature. Then the quest progresses to killing 5 or 6 of a tougher level of creature. Once that is completed, typically the final stage will involve killing a Hero level of creature. Typically, only by working together with other players can the 2nd and 3rd stages of a Public Quest be completed. Awards - After the PQ is finished, each players contribution to the completion of the quest if calculated and a bonus is given to a random roll for several 'Loot Bags'. There are varying levels of bags, some having lower level crafting items on up to Purple bags having very good armor or weapons. Usually 4 bags minimum up to 8 bags are available. On an added note, if you don't win a bag and participate in the PQ again, you get an additional bonus to your award roll the next time. Influence - As you participate in the PQ's of an area, you also build up 'Influence' with the Rally Master of the closest town. This allows you to cash in that influence at three different times. The first time you usually earn a potion of some type. The next time you usually earn an minor armor piece such as gloves or boots. The final time you usually earn a weapon or a major piece of armor such as body armor or a shield.
Realm Vs Realm Play (RVR) - Another thing different in Warhammer than most other MMORPG's is the continual battle between the forces of Order and Destruction. There are multiple zones that are also separated into different tiers. Each zone has a PVE section and a PVP section of the zone. Staying in the PVE section can guarantee you won't be attacked by the other side. You may see them, wave at them and dance in front of them, but unless you so choose, you don't have to fight them. The PVP section of the zone is known as an RVR Lake (just a term, they arent all water-just an area on your map that will appear tinged in red. If you start to go into that area, you will see a warning and countdown timer telling you if you continue you will be marked as PVP - making you attackable by the other side. These RVR lakes are where the real fun begins. Each lake usually has several small camps and a keep I'll call objectives. Your side may 'own' the objective or the other side may 'own' it. If they have it, then you (and hopefully a group of like minded fellow players) can go and try to take it over. Sometimes you won't even see a player from the opposing side; then you just have to kill some NPC (Non Player Characters) that have spawned in the camp or keep. They usually arent hard for a couple of people working together to take down. When an objective is captured, a notice is sent to all players in that zone so they can help defend or recapture the area. A Keep is usually harder to capture. A tier 1 Keep is what I think of as your typical Castle. Run up to the door, bash it down and run inside. Tier 2 Keeps usually have an additional outer wall and are larger. Tier 3 Keeps are larger still while in Tier 4 you actually work up to capturing the opposing sides Capital City. The real fun comes in when opposing players try to stop you from capturing an objective. Sometimes, they just harass you while you are fighting NPC's. Other times you are fighting 20 plus people who are defending a Keep. Keep battles in Tier 2 have already been seen that have gone on for several hours on the server I play. The amount of strategy and coordination among some groups of players is simply amazing. I really can't keep explaining in detail, but I'll just say I find this part of play VERY fun.
Scenarios (SC's) - Scenarios are smaller PVP battles that you can join. They are smaller 'instances' of a specific area where a set number of players compete against each other (usually 20 vs 20 or something close to that). They are timed, with usually a 15 minute maximum playing time. While playing at Quests, Public Quests or open RVR, you can queue up for scenarios. Once enough players from both sides want to play the same scenario, you will get an onscreen message asking if you are ready to join. Of course, you can decline, but what would be the fun in that? Once in a scenario, you will be faced with an objective such as capture the flag or murderball or holding a particular area. Simply put, in capture the flag you are trying to get the opposing players flag while they get yours. Some play defense, some play offense while some do both. Each capture of the flag and return to your own area gives points, while killing of players awards a lesser amount of points. Murderball is a game where each side tries to capture a ball or similar item. Once a player has it, the other side has to kill that player to make the ball drop. Points are gained when players are killed, with the side holding the ball gaining an increase in points earned with each kill. Another Scenario has multiple capture points. You capture these points by standing near the flag - a meter will go up (quicker with more players) until it is full and you capture the area. Of course, the other side is trying to stop you and capture the area themselves. I'll say it is really amazing to see the number of different strategies that are employed and how these things play out. I've been in scenarios where one side wins 500 points to 50 points and others where is was 500 to 495 ( the most fun ones to be in).
Living Guilds - These games are in a large part social games. I feel that at least 50% of the enjoyment of an MMORPG is when you can get in with other like minded individuals. Often, you can form a guild or clan or some other such grouping of individuals. Warhammer has taken the Guild idea one step further. Your Guild is something of a player itself, not just a group of people (which it is on it's most basic level). The Guild gains experience from the actions of it's members. It levels up. It gains abilities and assets. One of the first abilities a guild can gain is the ability to have War Banners. The War Banner is a large flag that one member of the guild can carry into battle. The banner can be imbued with different abilities such as increased experience, increased money, or additional armor. The number of things that can be put on the banner is too much to list here. An Asset the Guild can gain is access to a Guild Hall. This area will only allow in Guilds of a certain level. Inside one can find vendors who sell items that are hard to find elsewhere. Another fun thing Guilds can work to get are Guild Cloaks. The Guild Master can design a cloak with a distinct emblem and color scheme (which is also on the War Banner btw). Imagine when the opposing side learns to fear the sight of those red cloaked invaders coming over the hill! Finally, the last guild reward I want to talk about is Keep Capturing. Back in the RVR play I talked about capturing Keeps. Well if your Guild has earned the ability, you can place your banner to fly over the keep for all to see! How much harder will all your fellow guild members fight to continue flying their banner on a captured Keep?
Tome of Knowledge
Everything you do and all the quests and areas you visit make entries into the Tome of Knowledge. Reading the ToK will reveal other interesting items. Say you kill a Giant Scorpion. An entry appears in the ToK. Looking further, you see that if you kill more Giant Scorpions, you will get a Tome Unlock. What will it be? Only one way to find out...go kill scorpions. This unlock may grant you a unique title, a buff towards killing a certain type of creature or something no one has even discovered yet. Best way to say it is the ToK is something added that you can take the time to explore and discover or not. You can totally ignore it and just quest and pvp - but if you want a little something different; check out the Tome of Knowledge. I'm still discovering new stuff in the ToK - I've probably only touched 5% of it and I've been playing for a month on Live release now.
Game Play
Like most MMORPG's, Warhammer was released probably about 90% complete. They are still working on some of the upper level content. I'd guess that it will be complete (this is one of my deal breakers if it isn't) by the time most players get to that point. Some power levelers will get there before it is done and suffer from this. Overall I think the PVP gameplay makes this a unique online experience. It is fun and challenging. It is different and fluid - just because you did something once, the next time could be entirely different. Mainly because you are playing other people - not a character with predetermined actions and reactions.
System and Graphic Requirements
PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
For Windows XP
2.5 GHz P4 (single core) processor or equivalent 1 Gigabyte RAM A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 At least 15 GB of hard drive spaceFor Windows VISTA 2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent 2 Gigabyte RAM A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 At least 15 GB of hard drive spaceSupported Video Cards
ATI Radeon series 9500, 9600, 9800 X300, X600, X700, X800, X850 X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950 2400, 2600, 2900, 3650, 3850, 3870 4850, 4870
NVIDIA GeForce series FX 5900, FX 5950
6600, 6800,
7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
9400, 9500, 9600, 9800
GTX 260, GTX 280Intel Extreme Graphics
GMA X4500
The official patch notes also warn: that Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slowly. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants will have low settings selected, but should run satisfactorily.
Also take note that: attempting to play the game using video hardware that isn't listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not run at all. The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is also unsupported under Vista.
Final Thoughts
No MMORPG I have seen is perfect. Some are visually beautiful. Some have a great storyline. Some have amazing PVE play. Some have really good PVP play. What I want is one with a good balance of all. Sure, who doesn't want a game that has it all? Is Warhammer a game that has it all? No it isn't. What does it have?
While the graphics arent stunning, they are good. Not quiete as cartoonish as WoW. They are more realistic looking. The Cities are huge and amazing and the Keeps are Epic feeling and grand. The graphics vary from region to region with snowy mountains, harsh deserts and volcanic zones.
The storyline is fantastic - Warhammer has been around for a long time. PVE play is good, but not great. PVP play is also good, bordering on great. Overall, Warhammer is a fun, immersive game. Playing against other players instead of a predictable NPC means the game is never the same. Your opponents are thinking, reacting and planning just as much as you.
I'd hate for you to think this is a grand sum of all that is in the game. I just get fearful of continuing to write more. I'd be amazed if you are reading this part; but very thankful if you persevered. I didn't even touch on the character types and storylines. All good I believe.
Recommended:
Yes
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