By John Walker on May 21st, 2008 at 1:49 am.
A preview of Warhammer Online has appeared on Edge’s website, Next-Gen.biz. But being Edge, it’s literally impossible to know who wrote it. It will forever remain a mystery, not even to be solved by futuristic robot races with special Knowledge Tablets.
It begins,
Clearly, this is tentative ground. Warhammer is an enormous license, and proves itself regularly in the strategy market. But it also has a lot in common with Blizzard’s behemoth. Orcs, dwarves, dragons and wizards – we know it very well. But will familiarity breed contempt, or an enormous pre-cooked audience? Clearly, the desire is to be just similar enough so everyone’s comfortable, before it begins to subvert you with what Mythic calls Realm Vs Realm.
21/05/2008 at 02:39 cyrenic says:
If Warhammer Online can incorporate world PvP into the leveling process like they’ve said they are I’m very interested in the game. Running around PvPing in Stranglethorn always felt like “wasted” time as much as I tried to not think that way. Public quests sound great, as well.
21/05/2008 at 03:29 The_B says:
Out of all the RPS staff whom contributed to this month’s Edge, There can be only one. (Because there…was only one…)
21/05/2008 at 03:36 Chemix says:
warhammer came before warcraft, and tolkien’s world came before both of them and before that there were various folk tales and stories and books of fantastical feats.
21/05/2008 at 04:18 MindBrain says:
HEY The comments for the Doom story below doesn’t work. Fix PLZ
21/05/2008 at 06:12 Ben Abraham says:
WOW (no pun intended) This story has my interest piqued! I’m seriously considering hitching onto this MMO’s bandwagon when it finally rolls into town.
21/05/2008 at 06:17 luckystriker says:
So. A Fall release. Does that means it’s coming out around the same time as Wrath of the Lich King? That will not be good for WAR sales.
WAR sounds great, and it seems to have everything that I want in a MMO that WoW lacked. But the thing is, even for someone burnt out on WoW as I currently am, I’ll definitely be buying the WotLK expansion, whereas WAR is a ‘probable, pending reviews’.
I only play one MMO at a time (as most people, I would assume), and if WotLK comes out first it will be a few months at least before I get into (or purchase) WAR.
21/05/2008 at 07:31 dantae says:
The article sounds a lot more intriguing than what I’d previously read. I’m personally pretty tired of wow and would love a change, but AOC doesn’t really interest me. It sounds like warhammer will have a huge uphill battle in that it’s the exact same setting (warcraft originally being a warhammer game and all) AND being released around the same time as the new expansion.
21/05/2008 at 07:43 Alex says:
I don´t know… being an old vet of WH Fantasy Roleplay, I daubt that WAR will be a proper port of the Old World as we know and love to the computer… no intrigues, no dacay below the shiny surface.. no compelling storyline… just bashing PvP and PvE for the sake of grinding… I mean… hey… there is a Great Unclean One in that screenshot. That deamon is so uber and mind-cracking in WHFRP, that the mere existence in that game just too much for me to comprehend. So… ok lets bash it in a group effort and move on to the next Greater Deamon… a Bloodthirster, yeah… next one. I mean… c´mon.
21/05/2008 at 10:45 Rook says:
Is the reason you don’t actually talk about any of the gameplay but just the ideas behind the game because it’s actually rubbish?
21/05/2008 at 11:15 Alex says:
Yep. I think it´s almost impossible to create an immersive world like WH for the PC screen, without having to cut down most of the essence that the world is made of. WH is not all about war and bashing and killing… although the devs of WAR seem to repeat this litarny over and over again to promote their game. The RPG is about intrigue, backstabbing, scratching away the shiny cover and discovering the horrors of chaos bit by bit. But all of this might be almost impossible to bring into an mmporg. Maybe CCPs Darkness will walk that line… we´ll see…
21/05/2008 at 11:37 Adam Bloom says:
Rook: the reason they don’t talk about any of the gameplay is because it’s in closed beta with an NDA. The only chance they would’ve had to play would be an instanced-PvP zone at some event, which I don’t think WAR’s been at recently.
Basically, what they’ve put together here is info you’d find in a half-hour of browsing a fan forum. :)
21/05/2008 at 11:44 Kieron Gillen says:
WAR had a Paris Event about a month ago which Edge’s correspondant was at. I believe it was both PVP and PVE.
KG
21/05/2008 at 11:50 someone says:
You really got my attention with those
futuristic robot races and their special Knowledge Tablets.
I was hoping to see more on this subject.
21/05/2008 at 12:08 John Walker says:
Rook – you’re a right grumpy old sod, aren’t you? Do cheer up.
Amazingly Edge had never written anything about WAR since it stopped being a game made in the UK about 300 years ago. So this was an introductory preview, rather than a hands on. However, the correspondent has played a PQ, and some PVP, and tells me he found it to be very enjoyable indeed.
21/05/2008 at 12:09 Rook says:
Someone’s gotta drag people down :)
21/05/2008 at 12:28 Xagarath says:
I still wish they’d approached this in a fashion closer to the tactical game, by making the player “characters” entire military units rather than single heroes.
It does sound like there’s some potential in what they’re attempting, though.
21/05/2008 at 12:50 Butler` says:
I’ve heard nothing but bad comments from various people from a variety of gaming backgrounds who are in the beta. I’m not hopeful.
21/05/2008 at 13:07 dan says:
Coincidentally, I’d just read your WAR preview in this month’s PC Format, along with Alec’s feature on classic gaming, Kieron’s review of Turning Point, and Jim’s review of C&C 3: Kane’s Wrath. Phew.
21/05/2008 at 13:21 Morph says:
On one hand I am, like others have said, dissapointed that they haven’t gone for the grim world of perilous adventure of original WFRP.
But then I see a Great Unclean One (that’s the fat fellow in the picture) and start giggling with glee, like it was 15 years ago and I was just finding out about Warhammer.
(Though also dissapointed that no-one could just make a single player Warhammer RPG and I have to do this MMPORG crap instead)
21/05/2008 at 13:23 Alex says:
@Morph:
Word, mate.
21/05/2008 at 13:59 Kieron Gillen says:
Dan: RPS representzzzzz.
KG
21/05/2008 at 15:18 The_B says:
Soon, assimilation will be complete, and the world’s gaming press will all fall under the banner of the might of RPS once they bring them down from within. Resistance is Futile.
21/05/2008 at 15:31 ElGuapo says:
What exactly is that coming out of the beast’s stomach on the right? Maggots? His intestines?
Gross.
21/05/2008 at 15:49 mystic sika says:
DWARF TROLLSLAYERS FOR THE WIN!~
errm sorry, I hope theres atleast some parity of quality with wow and even eq2 and I’d be content to throw some money there way for a bash just to get back to the warhammer setting.
I loved the roleplaying game, I think i read the book like 100 times over as if it was a novel. I adored the baraque If i can describe it that way setting with politics, intrigue(as mentioned above) and gunpowder and all.
even tho i grew to dislike gw, i still have fond memoroes of whrp.
love n hugs!~