TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

By Cody "Micajah" Bye, Managing Editor

As a long time reviewer of both online and offline games, there's usually a point in the process of the game review where the game reaches above the below average status and begins to earn its stripes as a high quality game. Sometimes a game never reaches that average status, either because of nagging bugs or just a thoroughly unimpressive presentation and gameplay experience. Other titles take a few days to really sink in, with the depth of the control mechanics or competitive playstyles helping push the game into the average or above average status.

WAR did not immediately appeal to my sense of MMO gaming.

But then there are games that instantly appeal to a player. These games - and they are few and far between - come out with all of their guns cocked and loaded, and the player merely has to pull the trigger to be totally enthralled and immersed in a flood of gaming enjoyment.

Some of you may be expecting me to tell you that Warhammer Online was just that sort of title. Other editors from various media sites have pushed hordes of flowered prose down the throats of their readers telling the various wonders and enjoyable encounters they'd been a part of during their short stints in WAR. Since I've been fairly positive with other titles in the past in my first impressions, it could be assumed that Warhammer Online deserved a heaping pile of praise right from the start.

Frankly, Warhammer Online didn't instantly win my heart. But - and that's an enormous "but" - Warhammer Online has gradually shown me what a studio focused on giving MMO gamers a cooperative *and* competitive experience can really accomplish when both elements of their game are full of novel elements and quality moments. Throughout the rest of my first impressions article, I will attempt to outline how Warhammer Online won me over. Along with that, I'll give some of my favorite elements, some areas that still need improvement, and the bits that still require a bit of exploration on my part before I dole out a full review.

The Beginning of an Epic Journey

Although I'd played Warhammer Online a few times during my trips to the various conventions and conferences, when I first stepped foot into WAR I was relatively inexperienced with the game, especially the PvE side of things. With the vast majority of gamers singing the praises of the classes in the Destruction side of things, I began my time in WAR as a High Elf Swordmaster to get a feel for things. Upon being dropped into the world of WAR, I was given a short fly-by intro that explained my purposes as a High Elf and what my entire race - and the general side of Order - was all fighting against. My sword was tucked at my elbow, my chin was held high, and I was ready to slice up some of the enemies of the light-skinned race of fey folk.

Eventually I found the RvR scenario experience, which completely changed the state of WAR.

Like so many of the modern games, a quick set of tutorial pop-ups seem to appear at every other juncture as you explore throughout the world, and, thinking myself to be the ultimate MMO veteran, I opted to turn these tutorials off. My first initial quests seemed to be of the standard fare, with "kill this" and "find that" to be the overall theme. Basically, I felt the all to familiar "quest grinding" theme coming on, and I settled myself in for the long haul.

However, before I could jump too far into the grind, a item popped up on my screen informing me that I had earned a bit of experience by killing my first Dark Elf, the evil cousins of my High Elf's kin. After clicking on the pop-up, I found my way into the Tome of Knowledge which  informed me that I could kill 25 of these creatures to gain a bit of experience. After exploring the Tome a bit more, I read up on the struggle between the High Elves and the Dark Elves and what it truly meant between these two races. Smiling, I set off to kill a few more of my elven cousins.

Eventually, I found my way down past my initial starting point and acquired a few more "kill this" and "travel to" quests. Along with these quests, I also discovered my first quest that was labeled RvR. Basically, it informed me that I should play through an RvR scenario named "Khaine's Embrace" and come back to the quest giver when I had completed the scenario. I queued myself for the scenario, and set off to complete my other quests in the meantime.

Believing in Competition

After about 45 minutes, I was allowed into my first scenario experience. As a fresh faced new player, I stumbled out into a barren landscape totally unlike the area that I had just come from and watched as other players appeared around me. Eventually, our pre-game timer hit the 00:00 mark and we were unleashed into the world to find and kill our enemies.

To make a long story short, I died early and often, but my experience in the scenario totally changed my view of Warhammer Online. Rather than find myself concerned with whether or not I was earning enough experience to make it to the next "rank" (Editor's Note: Levels in the WAR world), I instead was concerned with how many players I had killed and whether I could increase that number in my next encounter. I was still very much confused with exactly what I should be doing in the world, but the RvR experience was so unlike anything I had ever done in any MMOG before.

Ranks are attained very quickly in WAR.

Not only was I gaining experience as I killed my enemies, but I was also increasing my "renown" within the faction and pushing my name higher up the leader list on the "Realm War" leaderboards. To be honest, I felt an element of gaming that I hadn't experienced - at least truly experienced - in MMOG gaming.

Competition.

Although Ultima Online had plenty of competitive elements and Dark Age of Camelot was built on this sort of competitive gameplay, neither of those games had truly captured the sort of hectic, instant gratification type of competitive gaming that so many players enjoy in games like Halo and Madden NFL Football. Realm versus realm warfare was different, and it instantly took my dark, gloomy thoughts about Warhammer Online and turned them on their ear. The game was built for competition, and the players could feel it as soon as they jumped into their first scenario.