Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Comments by Oli Welsh

Some nice speedy changing on review to preview there ;o)

Thought it was a bit premature!

Should have been based on WH40k... :(

jesus, this site is so wow centric its unreal

if WAR cured cancer, they'd still find a way to mention WoW.

Anyway, i'm still excited about this game, as a massive WFB fan, the world holds immense interest for me.

But being blunt, if this site still rates WoW as a 10/10 of game, then its no wonder they dont get WAR.

Just readng over it again, the man contridicts himself totally. The game proposes massive changes to PVP, guilds, Raiding and single player interaction through the tome of knowledge, THEN complains that the changes stop suddenly.

If i invented a hover car, that ran on garbage, it'd be like someone saying, 'well, you still have to SIT in it..... you know'

As for combat feeling non tactile, the combat in most mmorpgs is terrible. PVE for 99% of WoW can be done while reading a book, or playing another game. Maybe, MAYBE in raids, you need to focus for a little while. I expect only Conan to make a difference to this trend

As he said himself, in the beginning, its not trying to revolutionize the entire genre, its just looking to make a great game in the WFB setting

That tagline had me laughing out loud for a few moments, thanks.

/get's old ...

im assuming theres some mechanism in here to solve it, but in pretty much all fantasy mmos theres a substantial inbalance in player numbers on the "horde" (to use a wowish idiom) sides v the "alliance".

seems like people will flock to factions on good realms and plenty will be left floundering... with the acompanying endless forum whinging.

"Even more worrying is the feeling that, unless you're a Warhammer fan steeped in the lore, WAR's world isn't really somewhere you'll want to be."

That isn't quite true, and that is part of WAR's problem. They've managed to alienate non-fans AND hardcore fans, by ignoring everything that makes Warhammer a deep and unique setting and making it look instead like an inferior WoW knockoff. Makes it look rubbish if you don't know Warhammer, and also rubbish if you do, because it's only superficially anything to do with it. Their entire demographic seems to be casual Warhammer players who like the models and art but don't care about the setting. That's not even going to show up on WoW's radar...

[disengage miserable bastard mode]

The realm-vs-realm sounds good, especially the big battles, IF they can do it with minor levels of lag. One of WoW`s main annoyances for me. And as has been said above, if they can balance player/race populations, but I admit, that could be said of any MMORPG.

This game needs 11 times more blood, mud, dirt, filth, rats, darkness, rain, pitch black shadows, grime, pain, unfairness, black humour and horror than it currently has. Warhammer is gothic fantasy horror with a streak of dark black humour thrown in to stop the player getting clinically depressed.

WAR seems to focus on the dark humour without any of the horror in the Warhammer Universe. Where's the blood, mud, dirt, filth, rats, darkness, rain, pitch black shadows, grime, pain, unfairness?

Orc's can be funny cause their big dumb and green with giant expressive faces but their also malicious and cruel and they'll kill every human they see, women, kids and old people are just easier to chop, the dev's need to keep that in mind or WAR gets too close to WoW for it's own good.

What happened to the excellent looking (well, in screenshots I mean) Warhammer MMORPG that predated this iteration? I remember it having especially mean looking orcs.

Anyone that played Dark Age of Camelot referred to it as "DAoC", not "Dark Age". Safe to assume that the previewer didn't?

I'm well aware of that, jglover, I just don't really like acronyms of more than 3 letters that you can't say out loud. How did you pronounce it, anyway? Dowk? Dayoc?

Although, it's true that I didn't play the game, you have me there.

"What happened to the excellent looking (well, in screenshots I mean) Warhammer MMORPG that predated this iteration? I remember it having especially mean looking orcs. "

It didn't really exist, they did enough work to prise more money from their gullible backers (cf Vanguard) until said backers finally cottened on that there wasn't actually any game being developed just a bunch of artwork and models and pulled the plug (cf Vanguard).

ouch, the truth hurts, doesnt it magnus?

There is a reason to mention wow in previews like this. Only a fool would not understand that. ARE YOU A FOOL, MAGNUS?

Where's the blood, mud, dirt, filth, rats, darkness, rain, pitch black shadows, grime, pain, unfairness?

I was feeling there was something missing, and that pretty much nailed it. The blood, mud, dirt, rats, darkness, rain, pitch black shadows, grime, pain and unfairness was pretty much why I always preferred Warhammer to D&D. Lose that, and you run the risk of turning into another also-ran.

Ever since it's inception, I've never once felt as though Mythic 'get' Warhammer, and unfortunately this preview seems to confirm it.

I so want this to be great, good even, but it's looking more and more like it'll be a disappointment. I'd be happy with more delays if it meant they got the universe feeling more like it should.

It does seem far too close to WoW, although at least the end game is pvp rather than mind sucking raids, so in that respect it's an improvement.

grab a couple friends, a table, some dice and a copy of warhammer roleplay = more fun than this will be.

/will still try this though

This will either be a huge success or big success depending on their timing. If AoC and WotLK both come out before it, it'll only be a big success. The main faults of WoW seem corrected in WAR and I think that will make it grab the attention of a lot of WoW players. The outdoor PvP zone of WotLK will be too little, too late. Their huge neglect of the massive PvP community will bite them in the ass when companies who have understood the thirst for PvP start releasing their games.

Just too bad for all the games (LotRO, D&DO, TR, etc) released since WoW that put all their money on the PvE crowd instead of filling the gap sooner.

*shakes head in disbelief* An honest assessment of WAR in the mainstream media?

Thank you for confirming all of our fears, that simply WAR will not be much fun to play, and that Bioware's Knights or THQ's Warhammer 40k become the next two in line, probably the end of '09 and '10 respectively. And so we are left with WoW. (Although, if WoW has you toasted, I Highly recommend methadone; I mean, LotRO)

It's hard falling in love with a medium at it's origin, before it has taken over the world. But at least we'll be able to say we were there, at the beginning, when we'd sometimes still go outside.

Thanks again Oli for making this the 1st site I read, everyday.

Try and review a MMO without mentioning wow you dumb cunt. Sick of hearing of that piece of shit.

How would you go about reviewing a fantasy based MMO without mentioning WOW? To think about not drawing comparisons to it seems retarded.

I can't help but feel they should have done the 40k setting. High fantasy...we got enough of those. Gimme guns! pew pew pew!

That's also coming, only not from EA and Mythic but from THQ and their own MMO studio.

The other reason that the old Warhammer MMO was cancelled was that GW suddenly realised that the game was looking a lot like the old, dark, spiky Warhammer that they try and make everyone forget and not the new, colourful, shiny, child friendly Warhammer that they've been peddling for the last decade. Look at the new game, it speaks for itself.

The almost complete absence of a death penalty is refreshing, though.

(...) and Mythic will end up ruing the day it decided to exclude dancing from the range of emotes.

Oh, for f-- sake. Back to WoW with you - with a lower case 'o'.

I'm all for more liveliness and feel, as long as that doesn't equal silliness. I like the idea of more of a mature setting for a change, and maybe just a bit of hardcore.

This looks far too generic and colorful to be the Warhammer title I was expecting. You need disease, rust, darkness, not World of Warcraft with different models. Bear in mind that WOW is a Warhammer rip-off, they really shouldn't try ripping it "back" - you'll just dilute the experience.

Oli...most people pronounced it Day-Oc, and it's very easy to say ;)

Also - I understand that to preview/review things writers tend to make allusions to other fore-runners...however to read about WoW in every article that mentions Warhammer is starting to test me a little.

It's like every music reviewer mentioning the Beatles, because apparently they were a bit good (that's my opinion, I'm not saying they're crap before anybody starts to bash me), every time a popular music band is reviewed.

"But being blunt, if this site still rates WoW as a 10/10 of game, then its no wonder they dont get WAR.

Just readng over it again, the man contridicts himself totally. The game proposes massive changes to PVP, guilds, Raiding and single player interaction through the tome of knowledge, THEN complains that the changes stop suddenly."

Yes, it proposes big changes but it's not even out yet. You have no idea if these mechanics will work on a large scale like WoW, yet you are so quick to praise WAR unequivocally.

Is it cool to hate WoW or something?

Its quite bad chat the way the review says the game feels clunky and poor, but I would be a lot more worried if I thought Oli had any real knowledge of mmo's.

I don't know whats with that hate - I am waiting for WAR myself and I think this preview is quite balanced. It points good ideas (and WAR have shitload of those) but also some worries (which will be fixed in 6 months anyway).

As someone said here already: this will be the game mostly for people that like WoW but hate its crap, now arenalol based, PvP. WAR will bring proper PvP end-game plus million of great little things (no mana, quest rewards for your class only, no corpse runs, no need for eating/drinking etc.).

This will be basically fixed WoW. If you looking for something completely different, fresh, whoknowswhatelse then keep waiting... for World of Starcraft?

It's like every music reviewer mentioning the Beatles... every time a popular music band is reviewed.

No it's not. It's like a music reviewer mentioning the Beatles every time a *Merseybeat* band is reviewed. It seems like an annoying cliche for the 1% who are really into the scene, but it provides everyone else with a useful frame of reference.

I've played WoW enough to be interested in new competitors, and I want to know how it compares, because I haven't played many others.

I always pronounced DAoC as "D, A, O, C". But would have called it Camelot over Dark Age ;)

Very honest and informative preview; filled in lots of the areas I had been wondering about. I would have preferred Mythic to develop its own setting for a second MMOG rather than fitting their ideas into a Warhammer world.

Let's hope they can add the personality in these intervening months, because the flexible RvR system sounds immense.

@ bobshirunkel

Point taken, the merseybeat allusion is more to the point...but you get my drift right?

I wasn't saying it does annoy me, it's just starting to grate because every article mentions it. It is the obvious comparison, and as you say for those who haven't played many/any MMO's then it's a relevant one too...but there's so much to the lore of Warhammer that transcends just comparing it to the biggest MMO to date. It's relevant to do it, but it's getting boring to read all the time, that's all.

One article comparing the two is excellent, of course that should exist because WoW has set the bar, but every article...no.

Just face it, nothing will be as good as WoW. It was a complete fluke. :)

It is obvious from the article that the reviewer was biased and basicly unknowledgable where MMO's are concerned. I hope he is a volunteer.

He mentioned the good aspects and the bad aspects, i'm just hoping they make the bad aspects better, i mean i know im using the end old excuse "It's still in beta" but on top of that i read something somewhere that was an interview with the EA Mythic people and they said that the game everyone is playing is actually what they had done 3 months ago. All the reviews i have read vary alot on their final view of the game, i've got a feeling that WAR probably would have been alot more dark and dingy..... before EA..... im assuming that EA would have made them make a game that got the "T" rating. I'm really excited about this game mainly because WoW bores me know, im not saying its a bad game its actually phenominal, but raids get boring and the pvp you get to pass the time keeps you interested for about a week.... maybe 2 if you're lucky. Just gotta wait until we can actually all try it out