Patching it up

The Direction of Warhammer Online

Having been watching the game for almost a year now, it’s kind of interesting that this week for our Common Content articles “the powers that be” want me to discuss the direction that Warhammer Online seems to be taking. Since there have been no patches, no Beta or Alpha releases, or any other sort of physical items given to us aside from screenshots and basic class descriptions, I can’t go into the immense detail that I’m sure the other sites on our network can go into, but that won’t stop me from trying!

As with almost any MMO the first thing a player needs to do is pick themselves a faction to play as. WAR offers the choice of two separate factions (Order & Destruction) along with three different playable races. Some may consider the six races of WAR small in comparison to other MMOs (*cough cough*, WoW, *cough*) but when you consider that every class is associated with a specific race you realize that in truth there are more options for a player to explore. Players can evolve along a specific path of either Fighter or Adept and ontop of standard class progression players can even customize their own avatar with facial & body features as the character evolves. In these respects WAR has already diverged from the standard MMO basis of character leveling with no changes after creation.

The combat system of WAR has a more thought driven direction then most MMOs currently on the market involving the additional factors of tactics and morale. Tactics allow players to change specific combat situations to their advantage, as an example there exist tactics that increase damage versus specific armies, or increase defense for when fighting high offensive enemies. The Morale system of Warhammer Online is equivalent to Limit Breaks from the Final Fantasy series of games; certain things will increase your Morale gauge (such as winning combat, healing other players, etc, etc), and once filled to a certain point you can use different Morale abilities for great effect. On top of the standard spellcasting and health stats Morale and Tactics add another layer to combat for the “thinking gamer”.

I can’t really talk about the direction of Warhammer Online without talking about the War aspect of the game; the Realm Vs. Realm portion. Unlike standard PvP in most MMOs, Warhammer Online takes it to a new level and introduces varying different levels of PvP and even the option for one side to ransack their opponent’s capital city. Beginning at the skirmish level, RvR introduces small PvP enabled sections of zones that players can traverse. The second level of RvR battles are battlefields which are larger PvP enabled zones such as villages that are under constant attack. Finally scenarios are instanced RvR combat much like the battlegrounds of WoW or your standard FPS matches. If you’re not a player who enjoys PvP you will likely love the lower levels of WAR (expected to be about 80% PvE) but get bored at the higher points (expected to be 20% PvE), thus Warhammer Online is a game for those who enjoy both PvE and PvP.

To give an even better showing of the PvP-centric direction that Warhammer Online seems to be taking, let’s look at the questing system as described thus far. Questing in WAR allows for players to join together for large scale quests that will require groups of players to complete, or go off the “beaten path” to find some secret quest giver who has that awesome sword you’ve always wanted, and finally there are quests that will require you to go into PvP zones and possibly *gasp* fight other players. While solo play will be possible in WAR like most MMOs the game will only shine when group play is brought in. Personally there’s something about Massively Multiplayer that just makes me think grouping would be a good idea, silly me.

If you hadn’t guessed by now, the direction of Warhammer Online seems to be directed at PvP combat teamed with your standard variety of ‘killingsmanship’. With a combat system that is more evolved then most MMOs on the market, a character creation and evolution system that is geared towards giving your character a unique feeling, and even a questing system that is linked with the RvR system, Warhammer Online most defiantly has a WAR-like feel to it. Of course the one main thing that needs to be discussed about this direction is if it will succeed or not in the existing gamer market.

Currently there are a lot of players who are becoming upset with existing PvP setup in MMO’s. Thus far in World of Warcraft there have been no less then two updates specifically geared towards making PvP more comparable to the PvE content of the high-end game. In essence players want to be better rewarded for PvP aspects of their respective game, but no one seems to be fulfilling at the moment. It should be a breath of fresh air for PvP players when Warhammer Online hits the market. With an already established license and a good standing in the gaming community, Warhammer Online will likely pull a large number of hardcore geeks along with those who are looking for livelier PvP.

In the long run it will be interesting to see how Warhammer Online develops in terms of gaming style. If the PvP/RvR style of play can exist and do well in the current market remains to be seen, but if any company and any license can pull it off it will be Mythic and Warhammer. So if you’re awaiting some hardcore PvP action that offers rewards along with actual thinking, wait for Warhammer Online.