It was one week ago today that Mythic Entertainment's fantasy MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) officially launched, and after splashing around in WAR for some 30 hours over the past 11 days, it's time to talk about what we like and don't like so far. This may be wasted breath, but I need to say this so I can reference it later: this is not our review. As per our ever-evolving review policies for MMOs, we offer a first-impressions article one week after the launch and then start a full review three months later. That gives the developers ample time to iron out any problems that can, and will, occur when launching a game of this magnitude. Once again, this is not our review. This is a look at some (not all) of the early game content and the things that stand out to me so far, both good and bad.

First, let's talk about WAR's graphics because, as first impressions of a game go, what you see on the screen ranks way up there. Quite simply put: they aren't great. I've been describing them to people in conversation as "okay" and "adequate." I wouldn't go as far as to call them bad, but coming off of my recent review of Age of Conan, the transition was jarring. Unfortunately in gaming, if something isn't "awesome" then some people interpret that to mean "it sucks," and that definitely is not the case.

In order to appeal to a wider audience -- meaning a wide selection of hardware -- Mythic used some old shortcuts to keep the requirements down, such as lower-polygon models, indistinct shadows under enemies, environment shadows painted into textures, simple skeletal animation, branches and foliage constructed using intersecting 2D art assets and a relatively low number of special effects. You won't find bump mapping, hi-res textures or elaborate fabric physics.

The fire effects aren't very good and water is simply treated as a collision-free texture plane into which you can sink. Now here's the important part: none of this ruins or even detracts from the game. Cutting edge graphics are not a selling point for WAR. That's okay. The upside is that the client will run well even on older hardware. The visuals may be an early obstacle to some gamers getting hooked on WAR's finer elements but they become a non-issue the longer you play. While WAR's graphics don't impress, the gameplay transcends this superficial barrier.

A High Elf and a Dark Elf square off in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

When it comes to player-vs.-player (PvP) combat in WAR, there are two ways to go about it in the early-game: players can queue for a Scenario (a Battleground or Mini-Game to use the World of Warcraft and Age of Conan nomenclature) or find their way to a realm-vs.-realm (RvR) area to battle over contested sections of the world map. It's clear early-on that PvP and RvR combat are very important aspects of the WAR experience. For instance, the second quest I picked up was to play in a PvP Scenario. Mythic wants players to get comfortable with PvP as early as possible so when they are more-or-less forcibly thrust into it later the change from a player vs. environment (PvE) style to the PvP style is less traumatic. I imagine that it's possible to avoid PvP all together but by rank (level) eight or nine it will become increasingly difficult considering that the quests drive players directly into RvR areas.

Now, I am not a PvP regular. Normally I don't find the PvP experience of an MMO to be very satisfying. If you find the need to apply labels to the play styles of others this is your opportunity to brand me a "care bear." With that said, the Warhammer PvP is great fun so far. I've PvP'ed with three different careers (classes) of varying roles and each one is enjoyable in its own way. The Scenarios are different for each racial pairing - Empire vs. Chaos, Dwarves vs. Greenskins and High Elves vs. Dark Elves -- with different maps and objectives giving variety to Scenario PvP. The RvR areas of the map consist of a few battlefield objective points that can be taken and controlled, which contribute Victory Points for your faction -- Order or Destruction, depending on your race -- that count towards their control of a zone. As a matter of fact, almost everything you do in WAR builds Victory Points for your faction, from soloing PvE quests to winning PvP Scenarios.

NEXT PAGE: Rewards, Public Quests and Casters

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