Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

There are a few ways to get my attention and I suppose one is to use a phrases like ‘Penises shaped like asparagus.' Josh Drescher, Mythic's associate producer on the recently delayed Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning, certainly knows how to start a conversation. He's actually describing some background details of Chaos' capital, The Inevitable City. It has a name,' he goes on. ‘But if we said it your eyes would fall out and your, head would explode.'

In explaining WAR, it's far better to concentrate on what makes it different from 'some other games' (as the developers like to refer to the obvious competition). Because at first glance, WAR looks a lot like World of Warcraft. Familiarity could be its main hook or its ultimate failing. And it would be a shame either way, as WAR brings a remarkable amount of fresh, original ideas to a genre that's already calcifying.

Let's begin with those capital cities. If you played Mythic's previous MMO, Dark Age of Camelot, you'll recognize the concept: the 'end game' for those who have reached the initial maximum level, 40, will be an enormous push to invade and destroy the enemy's capital.

Race Hate

Let's roll back quickly. There are six races: Humans and Chaos, Dark Elves and High Elves, and Greenskins and Dwarves. Each is paired into their starting areas and their race to destroy the opponent's homelands. There's no simple way to explain this with words. As you see, you begin away from your city on your own vertical path that interweaves with the progression of your opposing race, until you reach the final stage, the horizontal drive to reach the enemy's city. This is the most significant part of what Mythic calls 'Realm vs Realm'.

A typical push to reach the enemy capital will take an entire server of players approximately a week. If they make it, and successfully break through the walls (thus surviving the siege warfare about which we know little at this point, beyond the ability to procure catapults, battering rams, and pots of boiling oil for such encounters), then hundreds of players will besiege the place, destroying landmarks, burning down buildings, and looting the ruins. And this is a real attack. Executive producer Jeff Hickman explains, ‘As you progress through the game, the city grows and changes with you. It's the foundation for Realm pride'. So capitals will be able to level up as a race performs well. Players will gain Victory Points, which contribute to improving their city. This will not only make things more aesthetically pleasing but open up new areas for questing, new locations to visit, and new scenarios to take part in.

Thus, when the enemy come in and destroy the place, you'll be starting from scratch again with a dingy, desolate city limited in its scope. It's not something anyone will want to happen, hence creating an end-game based on realm-wide warfare. These Victory Points trickle down throughout the entire game, meaning a level 1 newb will be aiding the main push from their first actions. The Capital will mean something to you. Hickman points out, ‘The very first quest you get in the Dwarven starting area is, We need to march on the Orc Capital City'. It's being referred to from the very beginning. You're thinking, ‘I am in an army, attacking the enemy on a push toward their Capital City'.

Fresh MMO features

If anything WAR is RvR propaganda. While it goes to enormous lengths to appeal to those for whom Player vs Player (PvP) play is entirely off-putting, the Player vs Everything (PvE) elements are designed to twist your arm enough that by the time you reach the end-game, you'll have already accidentally taken part in so much Realm vs Realm (RvR) that it will feel natural. That's not to say you can't solo much of the game - it's just, well, you'll find yourself soloing in a team with surprising frequency.

The aspect of WAR that shows this off the best, and will be the idea that every other MMO will steal from now onward, is the Public Quest. While wandering around locations, killing ten of these, or collecting five of those, you'll be alerted that you're in a PQ area. You'll look around you and see a bunch of players attacking a large number of, let's say evil bunnies. To join in, you need only start hitting the beasties yourself. There's no 'join' button, no team - you simply take part.

Bunnies killed, this may make way for a group of enemy soldiers and their prisoners to charge from a local cave. Free the prisoners, and the PQ's final stage would occur. A giant, twenty-foot bunny (seriously, this won't be in the game) may come stomping from the cave, needing many players attacking it once to be destroyed. Once dead, the PQ is over, and will reset itself shortly. Meanwhile, you'll be rewarded for your input by a loot award according to how much you helped, combined with a dice roll for who gets the best bits. And it just feels so natural.

Then there's Scenarios, instanced traditional multiplayer games, like Capture the Flag, that are themed around the areas. There's Skirmishes, which are more traditional PvP areas. And there's Keeps, an idea from Dark Age, where guilds can fight for castles, hang their guild banners, and then defend them from jealous oncomers.

This is your Life

All this and we've failed to mention the Tome of Knowledge. This is an idea that's designed to add an extra dimension to PvE play, as well as creating a logical method of telling the story, and providing stats and quest logs. It's a book that records everything you do, every kill, every encounter, every, er, emote? The Tome contains 12,000 achievements that announce themselves upon their unwitting conclusion, which may be having died 1,000 times or just talking to an NPC who only appears for an hour a day.

But there's more to it - these unlocks will often open up Tome-unique quests, some even allowing you access to otherwise hidden areas of the game. It's an OCD dream. Or as Tome designer Carrie Gouskos describes it, ‘The love, happy, fun, cuddly thing above the game'.

With EA money and extended development time, Mythic claims the game is already in good condition to be released. But they want to add more polish, do more testing, and with no pressure from above, they're taking their sweet time.