Warhammer Online E3 Review - Mythic Entertainment

This year Mythic Entertainment gave us a first hand look at Warhammer Online. If you had a chance to check out our E3 Awards, you would know that Warhammer Online got this year’s Best of Show award from GameAmp. This title is truly impressive from every aspect of what we believe makes a fun and highly addictive game. We’ve broken our review into a few different pieces to make things a bit easier to digest, just as you’ll see in all of our First Looks Reviews….

Graphics

Warhammer Online’s graphics are top notch; the attention to detail in the modeling and texturing shine above many other available and upcoming titles. The modeling very closely resembles the pewter miniatures found in the board game and the texturing would make any miniature painter wish they could put that much detail into their models. Aside from just the character and monster models, you could spend hours staring at the terrain. You will even find many of the pieces available for purchase from Games Workshop have been incorporated into the game and look very true to form. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, you’ll definitely want to check out the CG, some of the best you’ve seen anywhere and the trailer contains that bizarre comical characteristic found in the board game. With brilliant fight scenes and gorgeous rendering, it’s not something you’ll want to miss.

Questing

The questing system in Warhammer Online feels very intuitive and familiar while at the same time adding a few never before seen aspects. During the demo I was able to get a first hand look and explanation on what Mythic has in store for everyone. Quests are broken into four main categories. The first of which is Public Quests. When you walk into a specific zone or area, you may receive an alert telling you there is a Public Quest in the area.

In Public Quests, anyone can participate and your progress is scored on the whole. That is to say, if you need to collect 50 pieces of lumber, anyone in the area can help collect the 50 pieces, it’s not entirely up to you.

The second type of quest is a Conflict Quest. This quest type will pit you against an enemy with opposing goals. The example given was called Beer and Beards. In this scenario you may discover a group of injured dwarves who need a bit of rescuing. If you are part of the Orc force you can further injure the dwarves by removing their beards, if you are playing a dwarf (or a call aligned with the same realm) you must bring the dwarves beer. As we all know, beer is what lends strength to dwarves.

Third we have Branching Quests. These quests will allow you to choose the outcome of the quest which will also affect the reward you are given in the end. Similar things have been tried in other titles but there have only been one or two at most. From what I was seeing (and hearing) from Mythic, they plan to do a lot more with this type of quest than previous attempts by other developers.

Last, but certainly not least, we have Xmas quests (name subject to change). These quests will reward players for exploring areas they normally wouldn’t be up to exploring. Waaay up in the mountains you might find an old hermit who has a complex quest for you to complete. I was told that when completing these types of quests you should expect high loot value rewards. You can bet your ass I’ll be searching for every one of these ?

In addition to just the major quest types there will also be your standard quests as well as four separate levels of PvP combat which will affect each Realm’s overall status. These are broken into; Skirmishes (Incidental PvP combat), Battlefields (Objective-based battles), Scenarios (Instanced point-based battles [think CTF]), and Campaigns (full on invasions of warring Realms’ cities). Eventually, through controlling each one of these areas, your Realm will be able to launch an assault on the opposing realm’s capital city. Once controlled new weapons, armor, gear, and even quests will become available. In other words, unless your realm has taken control of the other realm’s capital city, you haven’t seen all the content and gear in the game. When asked about balance between the realms if server population was not evenly distributed; Mythic replied with an assurance that they had a plan to increase the loosing realm’s stats, combat abilities, and or amount of attacking troops over time.

Gameplay

Warhammer Online feels great to play. From the moment you sit down at the keyboard, you feel right at home behind the controls. Locating quest NPCs and completing quest is extremely user friendly just as the skill system is. Traveling and movement is not a hindrance and they were kind enough to include a “jump” in the game. RvR combat is a lot of fun and very easy to engage in. While WO is early in development each class still felt like a separate class with a big distinction on skills and gear.

Even from the start of the game, the quests are varied and flow together very efficiently. It’s impossible to judge exactly how well this will carry throughout the entire game but from all appearances Mythic has the development locked onto a course that is destined for success. When we get our grubby little mitts on some beta accounts we’ll try and get permission to give all the GameAmp members out there an even more in-depth review.

Character Progression

Another kick ass job by Mythic! This is one of my favorite features in the game. As your character levels your model will change appearances; not just from your gear but because you are growing in strength and stature. For example, if you play an orc, your orc will actually gain muscle mass as you level. By the time you hit the level cap you’ll be a monstrous brute causing noobs to flee on sight. This is a brilliant idea and definitely shows how Mythic is working towards allowing each individual player the ability to separate themselves from the pack. The other example given was for dwarves. As you level you beard will level too; gaining length, thickness, and eventually braids and beads. Each race will have their own features which change as you gain in levels and they may even go further to have each class have separate changes for each race. A very cool concept that we can’t wait to see more of!

Gear

If you read my Character Progression section you’ll know just how much work Mythic is putting into being able to show your dedication and personalization through your character(s). So why should gear be any different?

To start, Mythic aims to make characters in all level ranges appear completely different from each other. That means you should expect to see tons of different models and textures for armor and weapons and with the talent they’ve got sitting over there right now, you can bet your ass it’s going to be TIGHT! With the game being so early in development I wasn’t able to see too much variety for any given class but Mythic assured me, and I believe them, there will be a wide array of gear available upon release.

It’s also important to note that gear will definitely impact the performance of your character. A few new titles are trying to remove this aspect from the game but I applaud Warhammer for keeping it in.

Overall

Overall I hold Warhammer Online in the highest of regards for any prerelease game. Mythic has been developing this title for less than half the time many other development teams have been developing their own and already their game looks more refined There is an absolute sense of direction on this project with a team who obviously works extremely well with each other. This title should be on every MMO gamer’s waiting list without fail. From graphics to audio to leveling and gear this is a title to pay very close attention to.

To top this all off, they have one of the most active, friendly, and all around coolest community managers out there, Sanya. What does that do for you? That means GameAmp will have the opportunity to get exclusive interviews, screenshots, and anything else we can think of to give GameAmp Members a first look at. In addition, we’ll also get hooked up with cool swag and even beta accounts to giveaway when the time is right. So definitely stay tuned to GameAmp’s Warhammer Online Site for the latest breaking news on this top title.