Warhammer Age of Reckoning is due on the shelves in the second Quarter of 2008, that is, if it's not delayed again. Over 600,00 applicants have signed up for the Beta phase of the game; and it has won several "Most Anticipated" awards among others. There is no single word that can describe WAR, but I sailed on a quest to gather more information about it since I've seen quite a few threads here and there about how it compares to WoW. I don't intend to go into every single detail here, just a quickie for discussion purposes.
Once Upon a War
Warhammer made its debut on 1983, it was written by Bryan Ansell, Richard Haliwell and Rick Prestley. It was a tabletop war game, created by Games Workshop called Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It included races such as:
- Elves
- Dwarfs
- Undead
- Orcs
- Goblins
- Vampires
Since it's release it has been periodically re-released and updated. The latest version dates from September 9th 2006.
Okay, so when did Warhammer first jump into our PCs? It happened in 1995, the title of the game was Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat.
Shadow of the Horned Rat didn't got much attention, because it was very buggy and difficult at the time of it's release. Nevertheless, they published two sequels after that: Warhammer:Dark Omen and Warhammer: Mark of Chaos
Development for Warhammer Online started on 2004, but it was cancelled by Games Workshop because of negative financial projections, however, the company developing it, Climax Online decided to continue development using their own funds. Unfortunately Climax Online stopped development later because they ran out of funds. That is when EA Mythic stepped in and by May 2005 they had secured a deal to bring Warhammer Online to the public.
Based on Games Workshop鈥檚 epic and longstanding tabletop fantasy war game, Warhammer Online features revolutionary Realm vs. Realm鈩 (RvR) game play that immerses players in a world of perpetual conflict. -
warhammeronline.comThe Features
This are the features that I haven't seen in another game before and that caught my eye.
- Public quests that benefit from the participation of the entire army
- Conflict quests that pit players against an enemy with opposing goals
- Embark on an epic quest to complete the Tome of Knowledge and unlock Warhammer lore, detailed
monster information, and major story plotlines.
- Player models that change to reflect the relative power of a character (i.e., Orcs grow in size and
Dwarfs' beards get longer). Customizable armor and a visual guild system allow a player to make their
character truly unique.
- A robust combat system introduces Player Tactics (earned powers you equip prior to battle) and
Morale Skills (combat options that increase in power when the momentum of battle is in your favor).
- Deciding battles take place on objective-based battlefields and in instanced scenarios - point-balanced battles that make use of NPC mercenaries known as Dogs of War.
Have we met before?
It doesn't take a genius to notice the huge resemblance of World of Warcraft to Warhammer Online. According to the research I did, Blizzard was initially working with some IP (Intellectual Property) of Garage Games describing the Warhammer universe, then Garage Games withdrew the project from Blizzard. Since Blizzard was half way through the project, they altered the game so they wouldn't collide with Garage Games legally and hence released the Warcraft series. There are rumors about a lawsuit from Garage Games against Blizzard, but there is no tangible evidence to back it up.
Races
Here is a very rough relation of races.
| Warhammer |
WoW |
| Humans |
Humans |
| Dwarfs |
Dwarves |
| High Elves |
Blood Elfs |
| Dark Elves |
Night Elves |
| Orcs & Goblins |
Orcs |
| Chaos Humans |
Dark Knight? |
Enough yadayada show me the PICTURES!!
I found a great picture by picture comparison made by haidenver
[Click the Image to visit the comparison gallery]
I found another gallery that I enjoyed a lot and had screenshots I didn't see in any other site: Extra Gallery from About
More PVP in Warhammer
The word on the forums is that WAR is far more proficient than WoW when it comes to PVP. They argue that WoW was initially built for PVE and then was force to introduce more PVP features because of player demand. Moreover, they think that if WAR can successfully provide balanced PVP and PVE it would have more chances to take over a bigger portion of the WoW dominated market.
Prediction
According to the fortune tellers from the forums, this are the possible scenarios:
a) WoW dries out and everyone moves to Warhammer
b) Warhammer and WoW coexist retaining about the same amount of players
c) Everyone moves to Age of Conan and both WoW and Warhammer become ghost towns.
Visit the Warhammer Age of Reckoning Vault from MMOSite
Jargon
PVE: Player versus environment
PVP: Player versus player
NPC: Non-Player character
