Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to be a part of the preview weekend for the soon to be released PC game, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Below is my write up of the experience, with a brief background on games of this sort.
About the genre:
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (we'll shorten that to "WAR") is a fantasy MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game). The basic concept for all these games is as follows. You create a character. You choose a class/career for that character. You complete tasks in the game world to advance your character through several levels, ultimately ending at some maximum level where you repeatedly do "end-game" content. This "end-game" content varies from game to game, but it can range from crawling through dungeons with a group of friends to kill "boss" monsters, fighting other players in the field of combat, or some combination of both.
About the game:
The Warhammer lore and franchise is more than 2 decades old. Its roots are from a tabletop game. It shares a lot of the standard fantasy races (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, etc.) that franchises like Everquest, World of Warcraft, and Lord of the Rings have previously made famous. What sets WAR apart from similar games, is the focus of the game's content.
Their slogan "WAR is everywhere" is certainly true. From the beginning of your characters life, you are involved directly in the struggles between your race and the oppsoing race. Races are organized into two large factions as follows:
- Order - Made up of Dwarves, Empire ("Good" humans), and High Elves
- Destruction - Made up of Orcs, Chaos ("Bad" humans), and Dark Elves
How do you accomplish this end goal you might ask? Well that is done through a slightly complicated system of territory control. Basically, there are 4 "tiers" of zones. The controlling the lower tiers, helps gain control of the subsoquent tiers. After you control enough of the objectives, you gain access to the oppositions capital city and can attempt to take control of it as well. If you are succesful, then there are great rewards. If you fail, then control is reset after a period of time, and you can attempt the fun over again.
Capturing objectives and controlling territories occurs through 2 mechanics.
- "Open RVR" takes place in contested areas between two opposing sides. You battle other players to gain control of towers, keeps, and other things. If you're not trying to capture those items, then you're defending them from the oppostion.
- "Scenarios" are instanced RVR games that occur in a controlled environment. An even number of players engage in battle to control flags, slaughter a certain number of opponents, or various other objectives. These are both time limited and resource controlled to ensure a definite end within a reasonable amount of time. Typically games seemed to last 10-15 minutes each.
Now that we've covered the basic concepts of the game, let's talk about my experience in the preview weekend...
In general, I was very pleased with the game. It ran smoothly, was easy to grasp, and generally very enjoyable. The graphics took a little getting used to, but after a couple of days, I really started to enjoy them. The red "clouds" that quests place on your map, really helped me find my way around and limited my frustration levels in completing each quest.
One of the big features I wanted to comment on specifically, was Public Quests. This is a new concept to me and one that I greatly enjoyed. The idea is, that there are continuous, scripted quests that are occuring in various parts of the zone you are in. You can join them at any time and they reset after completion so you can participate repeatedly. The more you participate, the more "influence" you gain in that region, allowing you access to items and potions for free. Public quests are broken up into 3 stages of progressive difficulty. They begin with little need for a group in stage 1. In stage 2, small groups are able to complete the tasks. In stage 3, a more standard grouping of tank(s), healer(s), and dps careers is typically necessary. A lot of the quests I particpated in were similar in general concept, but their implementation and purpose was different and enjoyable.
I was able to test out the following careers in various amounts of detail over the ~3 day preview.
- Engineer
- Bright Wizard
- Witch Hunter
- Warrior Priest
- White Lion
- Shadow Warrior
- Engineer - This Dwarf career was enjoyable, particularly in the PVE questing tasks. Having to setup turrets got old pretty quickly, however. I did enjoy them in RvR as well, but ranged DPS typically is harder to play, particularly when you are in melee range of other characters.
- Bright Wizard - This Empire career was also very enjoyable. The damage output was VERY significant with the trade off being survivability. In quests, this wasn't a problem, however in RvR it's a little more challenging to stay alive. Having a good healer nearby is a must to be productive in this career. From some videos I've seen, they have some awesome abilities later in the game, which make them intriguiging.
- Witch Hunter - I only spent time playing this to rank 5. I didn't get into any RvR situations with him either. The mechanics of this class are very similar to the Rogue class in World of Warcraft. You build up "accusations" and then finish oppoents off via "executions". Single target damage is this career's specialty and it really can pump that out. Survivability is a major issue, due to the necessity of being in the "danger zone" to deal your damage.
- Warrior Priest - I played this career the most, and it was very enjoyable. They are a hybrid healer/melee DPS class for the Empire. My healing was not as substantial as an Archmage or a Rune Priest, however, my survivability was high (through HoTs mostly) and the mechanics of this class were very fun and unique. In order to keep your healing points refreshed, you needed to do damage through melee. This kept you VERY busy, especially when trying to keep others and yourself alive. A great class for self survivability especially in 1 versus 1 or 1 versus 2 situations. However as a main healer, you're better off with a Rune Priest or Archmage.
- White Lion - I was most disappointed by this High Elf career. The idea of a melee class with a pet was neat, however it's still really buggy. So much so, that I ended by testing of this class after only a couple of ranks.
- Shadow Warrior - This ranged DPS class for the High Elves was fun to play. It suffers from the same short comings as other ranged DPS classes. Your damage is solid. What I liked least about this class, was the animation of your main attack. It appeared as though you were arching the arrows you were shooting almost straight into the sky, regardless of where your target was. Kind of lame.
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