Appletell reviews Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Category: Fantasy MMO
Developer: Mythic Entertainment
Publisher: Mythic Entertainment
System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.5.7, Intel Core Duo Processor, 2GB RAM, ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128MB of Video RAM, at least 15GB of hard drive space for installation. This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac).
Review Computer: 2.2GHz 13” Macbook Pro, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM
Network Feature: Required (LAN or Internet)
Processor Compatibility: Intel only
Price: $14.99 monthly subscription, free trial available
Availability: Out now
The Warhammer games take place in an interesting universe; rather than being set in a Tolkien-insipired, idyllic and mythical England, the ruling empire is stern and Germanic. The enemy is Chaos itself, manifesting in the form of hideous beast men and Lovecraftian monsters who’s aim is simply to spread entropy. The name “Warhammer” itself gives away the tone; rather than the sword of an Arthurian knight, it’s a skull-crushing blunt instrument.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) gets the tone of this right; player characters are not cast as rugged individualists lead by psuedo-story-driven quests that make them feel important. No, right from the start it is made clear that you are one soldier in a war more vast than you can properly grasp.
Oh, all the familiar steps are there. You choose a race and a class, you start off on simple quests that lead you to higher levels and better equipment, which lead you on to more difficult quests. But WAR is about large-scale group combat, which is built into the guts of the game. By the time the player has reached the second map of the training level, he’ll be part of mass combat that has an effect on the entire server.
It works like this; each side (Empire vs. Chaos) on a server controls several territories. As the groups battle, they take over control points which give their side dominion over that territory. The two armies push and pull over these until eventually one of them makes it all the way to the main city of their enemy. If they take over that territory, they get to loot and pillage the city until the server resets and both sides start all over again.
The interesting thing is that while group combat is the forte of WAR, you can still participate in it without a group or guild. For example, certain quests take place in an area, and everyone in that area is assumed to be taking part in it. An early one for the forces of Chaos involves helping sorcerers summon a monster. Everyone at the summoning pit gets a notification of the quest, and the goals (kill the Empire soldiers trying to stop the summoning, then harvest their souls, then kill the demons when it gets out of control). You don’t have to group or share experience points if you don’t want to, you just take care of your end. When the quest is over, WAR tallies your contribution to the quest (by number of kills or other goals met), ranks you on a chart, then rolls for rewards, with a “rolling bonus” for higher-ranked players. Leaving the quest area (or dying) doesn’t remove you from the reward, but you do have to make it back within a set period of time to get your treasure. It’s a great compromise between forcing players to work together and letting them solo in a multiplayer game.

The trade off is that by focusing on the multiplayer game, the storyline felt shallower. That may be part of the system itself, with the stoic but ultimately doomed Empire facing off vs. an inhuman enemy, but it was hard to care about the quests I was being sent on.
The Uber-gothic designs of the Warhammer game are there…in the higher level characters you run into while you spend your beginning levels running around in a tunic and/or leather bikini. The designs are fine and render well, but, being tied to a semi-realistic world they just don’t “pop” as in, say, World of Warcraft.
If your favorite part of the fantasy genre involves gigantic battles against incredible odds, then WAR has been designed for you. The entire game is built around this conceptmore Battle of Helm’s Deep than Riddles in the Dark as you fight and die to stop an enemy onslaught. But if soloing on quests to feel like you’re the Chosen One is your thing, you’re missing half the game.
Appletell Rating:

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When you talked about the Public Quest (PQ) reward at the end, you mention that you have to be there to collect the reward. Actually if you are eligible for reward and don’t take it in the time before the PQ resets, you will be mailed the reward 24 hours later. It was a welcome surprise to me when I logged in a day after a massive Keep attack to find a Gold Loot bag in my mail box.
on January 12, 2010 at 12:22 PM - LINKWAR is atm the best MMO out there if you like PvP, from tier 1-3 the game is amazing! What ruins tier 4 right now are all the bombsquads running around. Brightwizards and Sorceress/Sorcerers AoE needs a nerf, as long as there still is bombsquads running around and melting players in 5 seconds the game will continue to lose players.
on January 13, 2010 at 01:03 PM - LINKI agree with Paul.
on January 14, 2010 at 02:32 AM - LINKWarhammer has the best PvP of all of them I’ve played. It has a richness far beyond what WoW offers, and it’s much more balanced.
I’m not sure I agree with Daniel, though. The bright wizards are powerful but very fragile. They’re true glass cannons. I’ve become a big fan of the shadow warrior. Has the potential for good DPS but can switch stances for increased toughness. It’s nice not to die just because I’m hit by a strong breeze. They have nerfed the AoE damage from what it once was, so I wonder if you’re a non-current player? Why an MMO loses players is difficult, and it’s not necessarily due to imbalance. There’s an incredible gravitational pull to the cartoonish (and in my mind, boring) WoW, because of a sense of “That’s where everyone is.” It’s sort of like the physics demonstration where your take two balloons and blow them partway up; then you connect them. They don’t equilibrate so that both are equally inflated. One collapses and the other fills. At any rate WAR is my favorite MMO (for PVE, I love the so-beautiful Champions online. I’ve never had so much fun making a character. But it’s the PvP of WAR that calls to me).
I understand what you’re trying to say Ron, I have been a subscriber since launch I was even one of the american beta testers but I now play on the EU server Karak-Azgal.
Sure Bright wizards are glass cannons thanks to their mechanic but the backlash won’t matter when it’s supported by 2 healers and a guarding tank. Basically the glasscannon ends up being a tank and can just spam one of its aoe abilities (scorched earth) and hit EVERYONE for 800-1000. It’s not like it is for the choppa where his aoe that he can spam just hits 3 players and his attacks don’t melt tanks down as well.
I’m still a subscriber thanks to tier 1-3 but on my server as soon as you get to tier 4 you will need a bombsquad team to even get a chance to compete but that won’t be enough when the enemy get their bombsquad Warbands that you just can’t take down.
Of course this is happening on both sides Sorc are just as overpowered as Brightwizards.
Ron if you trying convince someone that Brightwizards and Sorcerer/sorceress are not overpowered I will have to say that you don’t even play the game. Check warhammeralliance, theres a reason why fans are trying to figure out a new mechanic for BWs and Sorcs and its not because its balanced.
on January 14, 2010 at 10:12 AM - LINKA bright wizard backed up by 2 healers. Good Lord, I wonder how I can get me that kind of backup. Jokes aside, no doubt that would be the cause of much swearing on Destro’s part. In WoW, there was a guy who played a warrior and always had 2 priests who followed him around. All they did was heals on that guy. He was unstoppable. But I suspect a lot of classes become gods in that setting, surely? A slayer with devoted heals? Imagine him in the back lines amongst the squishies.
It’s the universal problem with PvP, though. If something stands out, nerf it. If someone can find a special case he can abuse, then he will, and everyone will be upset (me included) and then the nerf bat comes out. The DoK seems pretty overpowered to Alliance.
I think there’ll always be situations like that. But the bottom line is that whatever its frustrations, they’re less than WoW. Open RvR is remarkably balanced in Warhammer, as opposed to WoW where they specifically designed the Horde’s racials to be PvP and the Alliance’s to be PvE.
Meet you in the field :)
on January 14, 2010 at 12:09 PM - LINKAnd by the way, please don’t be silly with the “If you disagree with me, you don’t play.” That’s so childish and hackneyed. I’ve been playing since open beta. I’ve played all the tiers. I haven’t played a BW past T3. I have a warrior priest in T4, though, doing mainly PvP. I haven’t been to T4 for awhile, since I’ve been having fun with leveling some other classes up, and frankly since I’m a grownup with a life outside the game. But we never had these bomb squads on my server, when I was in T4. Maybe we should have. The warrior priest isn’t the heal bot is used to be. You can’t stand back and spam heal on a BW. You’ve gotta step in and get your hands dirty.
on January 14, 2010 at 12:35 PM - LINKRon, obviously you never read my comment about why Sorc and BWs AoE are OP and why Choppa and slayer isn’t.
I don’t wanna start something here but if you haven’t really have been in tier 4 which I can obviously see by your comment, would you mind atleast leave that part to the ones that has for like 1 year now?
You can be a backline healer as a warrior priest, you don’t have to hit a single time to be able to heal.
“And by the way, please don’t be silly with the “If you disagree with me, you don’t play.” “
Well I’m sorry but when people who just come to tier 4 who have no idea what they talking about and make comments like you do gets me quite pissed.
on January 14, 2010 at 01:19 PM - LINKDaniel, you kinda started out pissed. Please don’t blame me for that. And while you’re complaining that I’m mischaracterizing your comments, it doesn’t help for you to mischaracterize mine. It’s not that I haven’t really played in T4. I’ve played tons in T4. I haven’t been there for about 3 months. Considering how long the game has been in action, it’s childish to say that means I haven’t been in T4. I have. It’s also a fallacy to think that every experience you’ve had on a given server is shared by everyone else. As I say, these bomb squads weren’t in action on my server. Due to consolidation, I’m on a different server now. And I should say that it’s clear from your comments that you don’t play WP much. They can be used as a backline healer, and they’re very weak and useless. Like so many classes, they were hit by the nerf bat. The intention was to get them out of the back line, to make them weak on the back line. That nerf was effective. People still on the backline are not using their WP to advantage.
on January 14, 2010 at 01:49 PM - LINKWell Ron, I have a rank 40 DoK thats the wp mirror. Sure it’s one of my alt’s but I’m pretty sure I know what I’m saying and they are still strong in the backline. But I’m talking about BW’s and Sorc’s.
When you have experienced bomb squads you will become just like me.
Can I ask which server you play on?
on January 14, 2010 at 02:03 PM - LINKFrankly, I hate to derail the comment pages on someone else’s review. Quibbling on someone’s review is such poor form.
To Bill Stiteler, thanks for the review, I enjoyed it.
To David: you inspire me, sir. I think I’ll switch back to my BW and get him into T4 :) Actually I won’t. Despite the power, I enjoy playing my Shadow Warrior more. That’s what the game is about. And frankly, I think they’ve done a very creditable job. Imperfect? Yes. But if you have balanced armies, it’s remarkable enjoyable. The healbot teams go to pieces when a WE (or WH) or 2 appear. Unbalanced play can be frustrating. But it’s interesting, in that the groups seem to be much more balanced than they used to be. My own belief is that a lot of problems could be alleviated it they’d do away with the “assist” function in PvP. In PvE, it’s got its place. In PvP, getting focus fired by a bunch of guys is very frustrating, and it requires no skill. If a team is coordinated enough they can do that without an assist function, then they deserve to kill me. Ranged DPS is frustrating for the melee guys, especially ranged AOE. But no side dominates the other, really, and that’s a good sign.
on January 14, 2010 at 02:34 PM - LINKTo everyone else: play Warhammer online. You’ll enjoy it. It’s got good PvE, but it really shines in PvP. Please remember that there’s always someone disgruntled. And sometimes their complaints are legitimate. But using the nerf bat like a drum solo isn’t always the answer. I think they’ve done well for WAR. As I say, the PvP on Warhammer is more enjoyable than on Warcraft, AION, Conan, and Champions Online.
Ron
Im going to agree with Daniel. I play a BW on Iron Rock and have no problem with killing 10-12 people at once, especially when we are taking Inevitable City (which we do everyday). I do sometimes feel we are very over powered, to the point where I feel like there is 0 opposition unless I get knocked down or slowed. I ran in bomb squads and I have had Bomb-squads ran on me. You havent entered Tier 4 on your BW so you have absolutely no idea how a Bomb-squads works.
I find it kind of rude and obnoxious that you take a jad at Daniel with your last comment “Please remember there’s always someone disgruntle”. No one wants to hear other people saying they should nerf their class, but the reality is that BW and Sorcs (damn you Word of Pain) are overpowered, moreso than other classes. It does need to be toned down probably by 20% atleast. I am sure I will piss off other Bright Wizards but to be honest, you’d have to be blind or stupid to not see the extreme burst of damage we do at a very safe range.
Also Warrior Priest are great Backline healers. I havent seen my friend run up and hit someone in months (unless its auto attack when someone is on them), you just need to know how to manage Righteous Fury.
But this game IS great and Daniel wasnt saying it wasnt. I will never go back to another MMO.
on January 15, 2010 at 06:45 AM - LINKThanks for the correction, Paul. All I saw was the timer. Nice to know they’ve worked around making you race back to the location following a death.
on January 18, 2010 at 12:41 PM - LINKUmm… as a melee DPS… BWs and Sorcs are nothing. They die even with devoted healers in no time flat from just 1 or 2 DPS classes. Their AOE is nothing like it used to be and focus firing a healer or sorc/bw equates to a dead sorc/bw or healer. The game is not dominated by bomb squads, sorry. If you think it is then you’re server just can’t play. =)
on January 28, 2010 at 06:28 PM - LINKAs a chosen RR 65, I have to say bomb groups are ruining the game. Even with my six man running around, a pocket healer by my side, and running my resist and anti-magic auras, I still die like a melee dps. BW are way too OP. If you ever play on badlands, then you know Silverflame and his 12 man running around. They wipe out entire wb’s within seconds and ruin flips, sc’s, and just gameplay in general. There should be no reason what so ever that a renown rank 63 should be able to hit rr 75 in 2 weeks. He did this and pretty much has ruined his reputation. So much to the point, he hardly even logs on now, but he did his damage. Now there are tons of bomb groups running around everywhere completing what he started. Im glad he has stopped for the most part, but look at the chain reaction.
This game is great, until you hit 40 lol. I will continue to play my chosen and get his rr up, but it’s so much fun lvling up the lower toons. PvE is fun, except for the horrible drop rates. My pocket healer has been to lost vale about 65 times, and has still only recieved 2 of his darkpromise pieces. Where as, I have only gone about 15 times and have recieved everything but my chest. (darn that N’Kari) lol. We kill her, but always a different classes gear.
Tomb of the Vulture Lord is fun, but make sure you have all day!! The mobs take forever to wipe, and the bosses are still buggy. Plus you have to wait for Land of the Dead to flip to your realm, which, with zone flips and people surrounding the expedition guy, it sometimes stays to one realm’s side all day and night.
Again, bomb groups need to not exist. If you are a “squishy” it is your job to stay in the back field and cast, not run up with the tanks, (and most of the time in front of them) and blow everyone away. At least put a cooldown or a stronger backlash on it so they can’t spam. BW and Sorcs alike. I hate it when my sorcs want to run up with me. That is not your class mechanic. Go make a tank if you want to do that. Learn your class or play a different one. Stop exposing the game’s flaws, all you are doing is ruining it.
on February 8, 2010 at 03:04 PM - LINKI wonder if Mythic couldn’t put in a patch where too many Bright Wizards in close proximity started increasing the risk of blowing each other up, in a nonlinearly increasing fashion? It would be an interesting solution to these bomb squads, at least. I wonder if it would work.
on February 8, 2010 at 10:59 PM - LINK*Note* that these are just a few things that popped into my head. There’s easily 7 other things that I could drone on about. Then again maybe I’m just to cynical.
Why is that when someone writes a review for a big name game, they never seem to have the balls to highlight the bad things about it. Things such as…
The aforementioned bomb groups from previous comments. End game pvp for order consists of 2 Knights, 2 Bright Wizards, and 2 Warrior Priests (Personal Preference). The set up its self isn’t so much the issue it’s the imbalance of the Brightwizard/Sorceress tactics, the close quarters tactic to be precise. The problem of imbalance doesn’t just nest with Bright Wizards though, but the entire game is littered with imbalance. Although most of the blame can be pin pointed to the unique class mechanics, such as rage and combustion, but it’s not like they can completely revamp the entire game. *Cough* Starwars Galaxies…
Another issue is more of my pet peeve and those like myself, I like to explore. To be more specific, if I see a tree I’ll want to climb it. When I see those fence posts along the road I’ll want to run along them. The same goes for a mountain top. Essentially I’m like the kid who likes to walk on the curb of the sidewalk when walking to school in the morning. The problem with this is that is the game punishes you in a dirty sort of way. Not on purpose though, there’s just poor collision detection with everything in the game. Often times if you try to jump on something there’s a good chance you can get stuck in it, or die from glitchy fall damage. Nothing like some good ol’ random death to annoy the hell out of someone.
This next issue pertains to the lack of immersive explorable content. In WoW I always loved exploring undeveloped areas or “secret” areas. In WAR you can climb on top of mountain terrain and follow it to the next zone, but the problem is that each zone or area is actually instanced off. So even if you do follow the mountains into the next zone, it will teleport you back to your “home” (Home being where you end up after using your book of binding). Personally this was a big turn off for me.
A much more impacting issue is the lack of participation in pvp in the 12-31(?) level brackets, or tier 2 and tier 3. I remember hitting level 12 and at that point I started to really hate playing the game. It literally went from 50 vs 50 open RvR to wastelands with one level. Mainly one thing is to blame, the endless trial accounts which allow you to stay level 11 forever. This was the straw that broke the camels back for me.
At this point I had to tell my friends that this game wasn’t worth the time nor the money.
Two and a half “Apple things” in my opinion, but Bill probably only played 4hrs worth of the game.
on February 10, 2010 at 01:28 PM - LINKLate reply to be sure, but… The game is far from terrible. Yes it has it’s problems and bugs, as all MMOs do, but most of them aren’t game-breaking. I do agree that bomb groups are still a bit too powerful. I’ve personally died in less than 5sec from bomb groups on many occasions. Not even enough time to get away from the aoe spam. This is probably why I prefer keeps. :)
And Andrew, I apologize you didn’t find much to like in the game. But being as you so heavily favor exploration, Warhammer wasn’t the best choice to begin with. The game was built for pvp, and not much else. Yes the terrain stickiness can be a problem, but for most players in pvp it’s a non-issue. Also I don’t know which server that was on… But Gorfang is fairly busy in all tiers, regularly, great server.
on May 1, 2010 at 02:53 PM - LINK