Warhammer Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Playing Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) for the first time is kind of like going on a date with Angelina Jolie. It promises to be sexy and exciting, but you have to wonder how much of it is just hype, and will you get to the goods on the first try?

Well, the game has been live for seven weeks now and it's safe to say that it's a pretty sexy beast. A focus on PvP combat (or Realm vs. Realm, to use WAR terms) has shown the industry that without a doubt, a MMOG designed from the ground up with focus on RvR combat will have gamers lining up to play, even if a high fantasy genre may be viewed by some as a tired motif (but hey, some would accuse our dear Angelina of the same thing). More than that though, the game has delivered on its promises, and, the majority of gamers are content (woot on rounding third base!). Anyone who enjoys a well-constructed PvP game will not be let down.

Warhammer Online offers a whopping 20 classes, with two more being added in a few weeks. That's more classes than the average American dropout will see in a lifetime. This can be a little overwhelming. Thankfully the character creation process simplifies the choice categorizing the classes into archetypes: Healer, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS, or Tank. The rest is all flavor. No single class greatly outshines others of the same archetype, so really it's just a matter of personal preference and style. Once your class is selected, character customization begins. It's not quite as detailed as some other games. Maybe we can talk Mythic into adding a cosmetic surgery clinic. Dwarf boobs ftw.

Character creation lacks a few choices

Once your character is created you'll start your new life in the Warhammer world. The game starts off with some fairly intuitive gameplay - combined with the standard fare for a AAA title. The interface is pretty self-explanatory and takes little to no adjustment for anyone who has played a modern MMOG. For those who are just beginning with MMOGs, however, the standard help tips seen in most games pop up from time to time to ensure an easy introduction to the game world and its interface.

The game feels a little bland to start. It's not British cuisine bland, but it could use a little less tea-and-scones and a bit more Hot Sauce and Red Bull. All the components that one would expect from a new game are present, and the polish on the game is quite real (yummy to the dynamic shadows and pixel shaders), but there's little innovation at the start to make the game stand out from the rest of the many, many high fantasy titles on the market. To whisk us back to our Angelina fantasy, the first few hours are akin to meeting up with Ms. Jolie to find her dressed in a track suit. You know there's a lot more under the surface of those gray flannels, but you were really hoping to see leather and lace. Leveling seems to move at a good pace, but initially there is little to nothing to do in groups, or anything that offers much incentive to keep playing. However, and this is a big "but" that would have even Sir Mix-A-Lot quivering, the game gets a lot better very quickly after the brief initiation period.

Eventually your piecemeal quest grinding will lead you into areas where you'll begin having a lot more interaction with other players. This is graduation where you move on from junior-high dances to full-throttle dorm parties. Even though you can start RvR scenarios as early as level one (more on those later), the game doesn't introduce you to its true strengths until you begin your first Public Quest or step into your first RvR fight. After either of those experiences, you're likely to be as hooked as the other 800,000 players playing the game.

A Public Quest (PQ, or maybe more aptly named "Pubic Quest" as that's really when the fun starts) is a unique quest mechanic that encourages community building. (Check here for my article on community building through PQs). The goals for these quests will display automatically on your screen when you enter a designated area, and the goals will update as players complete tasks - whether you're in a party with them or not. For instance, one Public Quest might require players to kill 100 orcs. Everyone in the area can contribute to the killing of the orcs, and the more you contribute, the higher your chances of winning loot at the end (again, not unlike a dorm party). This kind of mechanic is simply brilliant. It brings back an element that has been somewhat lacking in recent games: the element of player cooperation and community. Even if you don't know anyone in the area, you can simply click a button and you'll see a list of parties in the area that have room for more. Click the name you want to join, and "Presto!" you're in a group. Now if soirées in my old dorm would have been that convenient to hook up, I'd know a lot of fellow gamer geeks that would have had a lot more fun (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

PQs aside, the game's primary potency comes from its Realm vs. Realm game play. Other games often include player vs. player aspects to their games as well, but few games put as large a focus on the mechanic as WAR does. And even fewer do it as well as WAR does with its Scenarios, Open RvR and Keep Sieges. (Check here for an article on how WAR has converted a carebear to a PvPer).

Scenarios are instanced combat fields set up with specific victory goals that a realm must achieve within fifteen minutes. Some playfields include objectives like Capture the Flag, "Murder Ball" or Capture and Defend. Unlike other games, you can queue for these scenarios from anywhere in the world (as long as you're in an appropriate zone for your level). Once in, you'll be put in a group automatically and will work as a team with others of the same realm to defeat the other realm. You can also join these scenarios as a group, which is good. If Natural Born Killers has taught us anything, it's that killing is more fun in a group.