Warhammer Online Preview

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is EA Mythic's persistent state world interpretation of Games Workshop's venerable wargame property, now 25 years old. Players will be able to choose among six factions aligned into two groups and three pairings. The Human Empire, Dwarves and Elves represent order, while the Greenskins, including Orcs and Goblins, plus the Chaos mutants and Dark Elves stand against them respectively.


Commendations
The Warhammer franchise provides a rich backdrop with extensive lore, several other armies that can be added, and a distinctive personality including liberal doses of humor. For PvP fans, there will be a strong inter-realm element in which the ultimate goal is to capture the capital city of your factional enemy, while others can focus on various types of quests. Based on limited hands-on time, the learning curve feels moderate, and the combat system, which offers both tactical and morale-based special attacks, seems to have a pace that's accessible but not too slow. The graphics are certainly competitive, with lots of opportunity for character customization.

Reservations
While it's understandable given the target launch date is 2007, there's still a good deal we don't know. For example, what we've seen to date has basically been limited to the Dwarves and Greenskins, meaning little or nothing about the other four playable options. The competitive environment is tougher than ever, and rates to be even more so by the time the title goes live.

Considerations
In terms of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning looking likely to be a solid release, the encouraging indicators clearly outnumber the major question marks, although there are enough of the latter that we can't predict a surefire hit. That said, it appears to have a substantial upside if the team can realize its considerable potential.