WOW V's WAR - Let Battle Commence (Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC))

Member Name: Lehen

Product:	Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)
Date:	14/06/09 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great PvP system in all aspects - if you enjoy online player vs player combat this game is for you

Disadvantages: A current lack of of dungeons and lairs

As a long time player of World of Warcraft and as a childhood Games Workshop fan, I decided to check out Warhammer: Age of Reckoning upon its release date to find out the competition.

A lot of people will compare WAR (Warhammer: Age of Reckoning) to WOW (World of Warcraft) and put two and two together and come up with twenty-two. To begin with, I will cover what Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has to offer, then include comparisons to its competition - World of Warcraft, so you will understand what Warhammer has to offer and the main factors between the two releases.

Granted, both games offer PvE and PvP elements, all of which have a mixture of characters, races, factions of good v evil, talent specialisations, group and solo tactics and advancement opportunities.

Upon release, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning had a lot of bugs and problems. It also had a great number of players who left WOW to try out WAR. These bugs were enough to put off a number of players and when the WOW expansion Wrath of the Lith King hit the shelves, many went back there. When this happened, it gave Warhammer Online the chance to really adapt and to progress. The release of patches that brought forth a number of new classes; the Empire's Knight of the Blazing Sun and the Dark Elf's Black Guard, tank (defensive) classes, shortly followed by the Dwarf Slayers and Greenskin Orc Choppa's, melee DPS (damage dealer) classes, added an entirely new aspect to the game and offered a new level in creativity in player-v-player combat and castle seige tactics.

The major selling point Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has to offer that is clearly head and shoulders above all, even the mighty World of Warcraft is the castle siege aspects of the game. This allows players to group up with members of the same faction to take on the enemy, claim battlefield PvP objectives and capture huge castles and even the enemies major cities. The benefits of doing so supply players with the ability to buy player v player items and to get rare items from the Castle Keep Lords, who are NPC (non-player characters) that defend the castles alongside defending players from attacking invaders. Castle siegs progress through various maps and there si a constant struggle of power between the two factions who aim to push the other side back towards their major city in order for the attackers to control it and raid it.

Other than castle seiges, there are options to join battlefields (open realm vs realm combat) and scenarios (instance based battle maps) which a player can gain experience from when inside. This allows a player, if they so wish to, can gain rank (level) from attending and competing in the player v player scenarios and battlefields. This means, if a player starts a character, they are able to join a scenario at rank 1 and can gain rank without having to complete a single quest, or kill a single monster, if they choose not to. This is a key selling point for those who hate the grind (repetitive killing of monsters, or completing quests) in order to gain rank and level your character.

In respect to player vs environment and killing of monsters, there are a large number of quests to be found, along with Public Quests. These quests are on open uninstance maps for all who are within the same area to join in. You do not require to be grouped with others while contributing towards a Public Quest, as all contributions made by each player is taken into consideration and all are rewarded equally and fairly regarding their input made during the quest process. Public Quests are often in stages, when one stage has been completed (i.e. kill 50 of a certain monster) stage two will begin, until the end stage, where usually a boss monster will spawn, which will drop a rare item to the player in the area, who has contributed more towards completing the Public Quest.


So, the question most of you will be asking is...what is better? Warhammer or World of Warcraft?

In all fairness, both games offer different aspects of gaming. To avoid getting into a technical debate about game mechanics for both of these titles, the bottom line is a simple one and a large number of people who have played both agree with me on. These are points put simply to prevent a mass-scale WAR of words from taking place:

* If you want to play an online role-playing game to play alongside your friends to combat monsters, take part in group instances and raid dungeons then World of Warcraft is by far the superior of the two.

* If you want to play an online role-playing game to play alongside your friends to kill other players in small, medium and large scale wars and castle conquests Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is the game for you.

The main deciding factor all depends on your style of play. The rule of thumb, by most players of both games are simply - if you like to PvP more play WAR, if you like to instance and raid play WOW.

It was just a matter of time before a game rised up to form a decent attempt to challenge Blizzard's World of Warcraft, who have totally dominated the Western MMORPG market in recent years. That challengers name is Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning!

If you are interested in seeing for yourself to find out what all the fuss is about - visit the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning website for a free trial. If you like what you see, visit your local HMV, where the game can be found for £5 (strictly limited stocks in certain retail stores). If you are unable to find it in your local HMV, websites such as Play.com and Amazon.co.uk will offer the game at a reasonable price.

Stay tuned for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning expansion!

Summary: The best Player V Player RPG online game on the market today