WARHAMMER REVIEW

Michael Gordon

Warhammer Online is an MMORPG developed by Mythic Studios and Electronic Arts using the Games Workshop table-top game as the setting. Players choose either the armies of Order (Empire Humans, High Elves and Dwarfs) or the armies of Destruction (Chaos Humans, Dark Elves, and Greenskins) and engage in Realm vs. Realm (RVR) combat. This combat encompasses all activity in game, giving Victory Points to the faction that has made the greatest gains in PVP (player vs. player) and PVE (player vs. environment). The army with the most points moves deeper into the other faction’s territory, eventually besieging the opposing faction’s capital city.
Warhammer has made innovative strides in the PVE game, most notably with the implementation of the Public Quest (PQ) system. PQs trigger automatically when a player enters a predetermined area and bypasses the tedium of searching for a group by automatically grouping the player with other players in the zone. In addition, small tweaks to the questing system make the leveling experience less of a grind. For instance, gathering quests have been simplified so that every enemy drops a quest item (a common annoyance in MMOs) and the map includes a quest helper that guides players to the proper quest completion locations.
The improvements continue in the PVP game by allowing characters to access Scenarios (instanced PVP areas) through their UI. Once inside, players are temporarily leveled up to the mean level of all the players in the instance, equalizing the playing field for lower level characters. Another addition that Warhammer brings to the MMO space is the unique PVP PVE endgame. When one side has conquered enough contested land and reached the predetermined amount of Victory Points, the opposing faction’s capital city opens as an instanced raid. The raid features its own unique quests, raid bosses, and end-game loot. The game noticeably improves on the typical MMO model, delivering a polished product to subscribers.
However, Warhammer falls prey to problems that all MMOs are familiar with, namely an enormous faction imbalance. The imbalance increases the queue times to enter Scenarios and leaves one faction at a disadvantage. EA and Mythic responded to the problem by offering experience rewards to players choosing the underrepresented side on imbalanced servers.
Another issue that plagues all MMOs is player retention. Getting new players to spend $40 on the boxed copy of your game is important but the main revenue generator is the monthly subscription fee. The secret of retaining an active player population is one that’s beguiled other franchises (Age of Conan and Tabula Rasa to name only two) and only time will tell if Warhammer has staying power.
Overall this game warrants a try from players who find themselves bored with their current MMO. However, with Wrath of the Lich King (the second WOW expansion) coming out in November as well as many anticipated console releases (Fallout 3 and Fable 2 are at the top of my list), EA is going to be pressed to hold onto its subscribers.