Overview: Warhammer Online (Russian version). Warhammer Online (Russian version)

At the development stage, many called the "killer World of Warcraft". And although in the end the game received a lot of prizes from the press, and some even called it the best MMORPG-2008, WoW she didn't kill. Moreover, if in the first weeks after the release the number of subscribers Warhammer Online reached 800 thousand users, then on this moment that number has dropped to 300,000. Against the backdrop of achievements World of Warcraft it's not just a drop in the ocean - it's a tear in the ocean. However, all is not yet lost. The long-awaited release of the Russian version Warhammer Online: Age of Recon, held in early February, confirmed two things: firstly, this game really has great potential, and secondly, this potential attracts many.
Everyone went to the front
main feature Warhammer Online- this is a reliable imitation of a real full-scale war that goes on all fronts. The armies of Order and Chaos clashed for life and death, and each race contributes to the common cause. On a vast territory, three centers of confrontation unfolded simultaneously: the high elves are fighting with their dark brothers, the gnomes - with the united army of orcs and goblins, the Empire - with the troops of Chaos. As soon as you are here in the role of a representative of one of the races, you immediately plunge into the atmosphere of vigorous military field activity. The plot does not shelve the matter and does not offer to start by “shooting 20 saber-toothed rat-wolves”: you are immediately sent to the front line, in the thick of things. The Imperial, for example, will be asked to help repulse the attack on the nearest villages, rescue the villagers locked in their burning houses, and then personally stand up to the guns in order to fire on the advancing chaosites, as in some tank simulator. Goblins and orcs will have to immediately repel the attack of the short bearded men, and this must be done in the most non-trivial way: throwing mud at the sculptures of huge gnomes and breaking the barrels in which the "cunning" short men landed on the shore.

The plot is dynamic: you have completed several important assignments - that's it, you are already being sent forward, even closer to the front, in order to report to some warrior there and enter into his disposal. And upon arrival, you may find that this person has already been killed, chaosites are attacking city blocks, the guards are barely holding back the onslaught of adversaries, and now you have to go to the burning streets to restore at least some order there. In short, this game is full of dynamics and a strong, rich atmosphere.

wall to wall
But more importantly, total war turns into constant wall-to-wall clashes between the players. On each map, where the action of certain story chapters unfolds, there are several key points: they can and should be held and fought off. At the same time, representatives of the “profile” parties to the conflict converge in battle, that is, for example, high and dark elves, imperials and chaosites. Around these key points and important objects, Realms vs Realms zones (this is the local analogue of PvP) are open, where an enemy player can freely attack you. Accordingly, everyone who finds himself at this time and in this place becomes a member of one big team: his actions benefit everyone, and he himself receives experience and other bonuses, even if he did not personally kill a particular orc or elf.

In addition, at any time from anywhere in the location, you can move to one of several special scenarios where a kind of multiplayer match is going on: capturing and holding checkpoints or delivering a flag to your base, your race must be the first to score 500 points in the allotted time. A player of any level can take part in the scenario, regardless of whether he acts alone or as part of a group/squad. All this is not just abstract fun, but part of the general war. All results of fights in the Realms vs Realms mode - both on the general map and in individual scenarios - affect the overall course of the confrontation between the two races. The more often and more successfully you act, the closer your side is to changing the balance in the available territories in your favor, and ultimately capturing the main enemy capital. At the same time, you contribute to the general treasury of success, even if you complete ordinary quests. After all, most of them are tied just to the confrontation with a hostile race. Thus Warhammer Online elevates to a cult a sense of comradeship, a sense of belonging to a common cause - to feel this, you do not need to go to special arenas, this feeling accompanies you everywhere.

The authors strongly encourage participation in battles between live players. For successful actions in the Realms vs Realms mode, you get a lot of bonuses, including fame and influence points, which in turn play a key role in character development. For fame and influence, you are given more powerful, “status” equipment, for which you also get “tactics” and “morality” unique for each of the 20 classes, which either passively increase the characteristics of the character, or are special moves activated in battle. Finally, fame opens access to various types so-called "skill".

Another exceptional feature Warhammer Online can be called "public quests" - these are special scenarios that develop in different parts of the map, regardless of you. Once there, you can complete scenario tasks along with the rest of the players in order to receive a share of the total loot at the end. These scenarios are quite interesting in themselves, and besides, they again teach us to act together, shoulder to shoulder.

For knowledge gained, locations discovered and meetings with unique characters experience is awarded.

Chaos of war
All this, of course, is good, but the launch of the Russian version only confirmed the conventional wisdom that in Warhammer Online there are balance problems. Experience for unlimited participation in Realms vs Realms is much more generous than for killing monsters and completing regular quests. On the one hand, this is good: here you can completely forget about the boring assignments from the series “bring me 20 skins or kill 15 robbers”. You can only fight players. But, on the other hand, this impoverishes the game: there is no particular incentive to explore the world, there is no full-fledged PvE mode. “Where are the raid bosses?” - many players ask disappointedly and return to WoW- it's not so easy to get to the main villains there, you need to pick up a key-tactic to them, and the entire raid of 25 people should work like clockwork, or, if you like, like a symphony orchestra. In addition, the ability to participate in Realms vs Realms battles of any group and any player of any level leads to the fact that matches often reign in chaos and confusion. It turns out such a “PvP for the people, where everyone can come and unknowingly break all carefully built tactics. AT WoW, at least you can assemble premade - a group of hardened fighters, which will form the backbone of the squad for next fight. And you can also make a team of two, three or five players who will go to the arena to fight against the same daredevils from the opposite side, and there is no place for random people here. There is a feeling of exclusivity, being chosen, here - universal democracy, which quickly becomes a bone in the throat of some. And the scenarios themselves, in which you can converge "wall to wall", are quite primitive.

Warhammer Online has a very developed system of various ranks and titles that are given for various achievements.
Russian Warhammer
And a few words about the Russian version itself. From a technical point of view, everything went off without a hitch. Servers work and more or less cope with a huge number of people who want to plunge into the world Warhammer Online. And there are really a lot of people who want to: already in the first locations you can become a free or unwitting participant in large-scale brawls for several dozen participants on each side. True, at the time of this writing, only 2 out of 4 servers are working, but we hope this is a temporary phenomenon. Pleased with the translation. The game has a huge array of all kinds of text, and most of the quests are spelled out at the same level. World of Warcraft. And all this is translated quite adequately, competently and with the preservation of the specifics of the Warhammer universe. Elves speak with majestic pathos, people are pious, but brave, dwarves constantly commemorate ale. But the orcs and goblins were especially successful.

“A bunch of stupid wise men with their wise walkers come running at us. Your walk and knock them many, many, ”the huge green orc brings up to date, and our mood immediately improves. But it is especially pleasing that in the Russian version, most monsters and objects are given an adequate translation: this localization Warhammer Online compares favorably with Russian versions of many, especially Asian MMORPGs.

In a word, Warhammer Online: Age of Reconing is, of course, a new word in the genre. The game offers a lot of its own finds, which, however, at the moment will appeal only to those who love unlimited battles with live players. The rest can be scared away by the chaos that reigns on the fields of endless battles. If the authors want to extend the life of Warhammer Online, they need to think about the balance and introduce interesting PvE content into the game.

A world where war never ends, where all lands are divided into two camps and only one of them can unite provinces, where Destruction is opposed to Order, where castles are besieged weekly and territories are united - this is Warhammer. It is easy to choose one of the parties and get involved in a global conflict, if there is time, desire and opportunities. Fortunately, all this will pay off later with a huge amount of enjoyment from the game.

As mentioned above, each player will have a difficult choice of camp in which he will wage war against the other half of the real players and various monsters. The sides of Destruction are supported by greenskins (various orcs, goblins and other representatives of this species), dark elves and servants of Chaos, and the high elves, dwarves and inhabitants of the Empire stand for the Order. After the start of the game, you find yourself on one of the three existing fronts, however, you can move between allied camps and help any of them.

Warhammer - continuous war, and their main feature is the inability to fight enemies alone. That is, you can, of course, conduct duels with the enemy, but they are so insignificant and lost compared to the global battles that take place daily that almost no one talks about this type of battle. Salt of the game in numerous group fights, where the absence of one or another component, that is, the player, can radically affect the course of the battle. And the constant sieges of castles? Here you really can not do without one or another detachment. You can create catapults, you can go with a huge army, but without healers, everyone will be killed too quickly, without archers, warriors will not be able to take a hit from all opponents at once, with the absence of warriors, healers will be left without cover and die ... And so on in a circle. Castle sieges, by the way, are an important aspect that receives a lot of attention in the game. Even many quests are aimed at improving the army, strengthening defense structures, and helping the defenders. And yes, the very end of the game is possible and, again, is associated with sieges. One of the camps commemorates their victory when their flag is hung over the hostile camp's capital. Once someone muster enough strength to capture a hostile fortification, victory will be proclaimed.

The idea of careers is interestingly composed (in other projects it is called "classes"). It is not uniform and includes many subspecies. For example, if you are a doctor, this does not mean that you will not be able to try on a military skin. For the successful treatment of allies, the healer-warrior needs to work hard with melee weapons. This is also a kind of Warhammer feature.

Several times the development of Warhammer was closed and reopened, there were many technical problems, as many as 63 servers of this game were closed once. However, this did not stop the game from receiving awards and praise from both well-known publishers and many players. This game based on the vast universe of Warhammer Fantasy, which many times pleased the players with interesting projects.

Warhammer Online introduces the next generation of gameplay - Realm & Realm™, which is an endless conflict. In this game, countless people are fighting and you can easily join them.

The game is a fantasy world where the armies of Order (Empire, High Elves and Dwarves) and Destruction (Dark Elves, Chaos and Greenskins) clashed for the right to rule the entire nation.

Cross the borders of enemy possessions and besiege fortresses for the glory of your army. Use destructive magic and deadly weapons. Strange fighting monstrous creatures and brothers in arms will help you win.

Main characteristics

In this game, you will rarely have to fight alone, most often you will fight as part of a detachment or army that guards the well-being of your homeland. You can benefit your faction not only by fighting against various opponents, but also by simply completing quests. In this game, everything affects the victory!

If you have no experience in fighting side by side with allied players, or you are experiencing insurmountable difficulties in doing so, you can benefit from other actions. There are many PvE quests that will allow single players to win fame and honor.

Adventures

Embark on an endless quest to complete the Book of Knowledge and unlock the possibility of obtaining new knowledge, a new interesting information about various monsters, get new abilities and precious rewards, as well as main stories storylines. You can write your legendary story of being in the game. Reach heights and compare them with the achievements of other heroes.

Colorful cities are waiting for their explorers. Cities can flourish or languish, depending on overall performance in the ongoing war. Walk through the labyrinth of unknown streets, visit local beer establishments, explore the dark catacombs, and interact with the colorful characters that inhabit this city.

Guilds

Guild management functionality gives its leader a wide range of control and distribution of positions. Whereas the guild itself has been part of the war since its inception. The guild can advance its victory by capturing territories and controlling more such territories.

Warhammer Online overview coming to an end, but before you go to play, you should take a look at the minimum and recommended system requirements Warhammer Online.

For several years now, gamers of all countries have been waiting for a game that can become the killer of World of Warcraft itself. Therefore, with the advent of each new game the question immediately arises as to whether she can hasten the end of the legend. As for the Warhammer Online project presented today, she is not yet drawn to the role of a killer. The maximum that this game can achieve is to become a worthy alternative to World of Warcraft. Although, not many people deserve this title either, so the developers have something to be proud of.

Balance

The choice of faction is classic version for the Warhammer universe. People fight on one side High Elves and Dwarves, and on the other minions of Chaos, Greenskins and Dark Elves. At the same time, the game offers as many as 24 classes, which is not much less than Lineage II. To solve the problem of balance with such a variety, the developers decided to come up with paired classes in each side. For example, the Fire Mage and the Wizard are typical long-range damage dealers, very similar in all characteristics. interesting couple classes are also considered the Avenger and Rubak, which were introduced not so long ago by the authors. Both of these classes are classic berserkers who can build up rage and, with enough of it, fall into a real frenzy. As a result, in this state, these fighters fight quite effectively.

First impression

However, before you feel the balance, the newcomer will have to face the entire diverse world of Warhammer Online, which will certainly make an indelible impression on him. First of all, the sound and visual images are striking here, forcing the novice player to wallow in a real ocean of emotions. Indeed, the picture and sound effects here are at a fairly high level.

Development system

The mechanism of character development in the game looks quite typical. After completing tasks and destroying monsters, you gain experience points, which lead to a level increase over time. After getting the next level, you come to your mentor, who will reward you with a new ability, and so on. In addition to new abilities, as the character develops, he will receive morale and a variety of tactics. Morale in Warhammer Online is a unique amount of energy that you accumulate in combat and use by spending on special moves. Tactics are permanent buffs that increase the level of strength, health and so on.

Equipment

Equipment also plays an important role in leveling a hero. If you want to get a wardrobe only through quests and hunting monsters, then you are waiting for nothing but castoffs. Here, the main incentive for development is the war between the opposing factions, so it is the war that allows you to acquire new high-quality things. In particular, the best items in terms of characteristics can be bought from military merchants. True, for this you need a certain fame. Therefore, here it is better not to evade conscription, but to fight for at least a few years. All this will be enough to get 80 level of fame, which will allow you to freely purchase things.

PvE Mode

In Warhammer Online, the PvE mode is a rather dull sight and exists mainly for show. Therefore, if you like games like Aion, then going to the dungeons will be of little interest to you. Therefore, it is worth staying here for no more than a few days. Production looks even less interesting here. There are two types of specialties in the game - raw and craft. Raw professions include farming, dismantling objects, searching for valuables in garbage dumps, and gutting corpses. Craft professions are represented here by alchemy and talisman science.

RVR Mode

Since there is no cool PvE in the game, the RvR mode plays the main role here in Warhammer Online. To play in this mode, main servers you need to go to special military zones, where all the characters agree with free RvR. Therefore, here you can easily attack the first comer. Key points are located in such locations. Upon reaching more high levels, of which there are four in the game, these points become real castles and possessions. All this can be captured, which will allow you to gain a certain reputation, experience and fame. After the faction clears all locations, it can get the right to attack the capital of the enemy. Immediately you begin to storm the fort, and after that it's time for street battles. At the final stage, there is a decisive battle with the Big Boss. By defeating him, the faction wins the war as a whole. The winners receive a lot of useful loot and experience, after which they are free to celebrate. After winning such a war, the situation at the front restarts again. That is, according to the MMO13 website, the RvR mode in Warhammer Online looks very worthy.

Summary

All in all, Warhammer Online features great graphics, a unique atmosphere, and a public quest system. All this makes this project a serious player in its genre.

Send

Once you get into the world of Warhammer, it is very difficult to return to reality: dozens of books, games, both computer and desktop, open the doors to another universe full of conspiracies and intrigues, Carroll's funny heroes and interracial warriors. EA Games could not ignore such success, and decided to unite under one roof millions of people who can create new chapters in the annals of empires. Mythic Entertainment, which was entrusted with the development of an MMORPG based on Warhammer, approached the matter with all responsibility: absolutely all aspects of modern online life will be reflected in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and the meticulously re-created atmosphere of horror and hopelessness should become the key to the hearts of fans.

How it was

At the forefront, it was decided to put the confrontation between people, dwarves and light elves on the one hand and distraught Homo sapiens, dark elves and an alliance of orcs and goblins on the other. Apparently, this time we won’t get away from the confrontation between good and evil, but if we recall the previous work of the British - Dark Age of Camelot, then the clichés, scolded by the critics, fell in love with the players. Sometimes even cliches can become a kind of locomotive that leads to success, and original ideas sometimes turn sour and make life in a fictional universe impossible.

World Warhammer so large that it would be foolish to hope for a detailed reproduction of the entire story, therefore Mythic Entertainment I decided to limit myself to one interracial war for the time being. This time the main villain will be the leader of the dark elves with a speaking name Malekith the Witch King, who, by all rights or wrongs, is trying to take revenge on his bright relatives for exile. And since legal ways it didn’t occur to him (for example, an appeal against the verdict), then he decided to unite the orcs and goblins around him, who only care about murder, robbery and other bad deeds. And the distraught people, who belong to Kashchenko, did not stand aside and decided that it was time to put their civilized colleagues from the Empire in their place. Like, enough books and theaters, give debauchery and more meat! The gnomes, as always, are out of business: they run around the mines, looking for some stones and ancient artifacts, and they don’t give a damn about the war, unless someone enters their territory, but there are few crazy people - to be surrounded by short-legged on their earth is fraught with serious consequences.

And in the meantime, while the allies share the skin of a still oh, like a living bear, a curse sweeps across the earth with the speed of an atom, turning respectable farmers and shepherds into monsters. They form their own armies, preying on both sides of the conflict. Perhaps, in additions, which will surely follow the original, an army of the undead will appear, without which no MMORPG can do today. In any case, in history Warhammer she played one of the key roles in the conquest of the world.

Take on brother

Otherwise, nothing special will stand out. There are a lot of professions to choose from, several so-called magic schools and endless duels with other players. You can turn into a crystal merchant and live a happy, quiet life in the capital of one of the races, risking losing one of your caravans in some narrow mountain isthmus once every six months. And if you don’t want to work hard and save every gold you earn for a rainy day, then there is an opportunity to become a robber, put together a small squad that will keep all the shuttles of the Empire at bay. Only the times are not what they used to be, and competent entrepreneurs do not send their cargo to other cities without proper protection, although there are plenty of frivolous misers.

However, even the most peaceful settlers will from time to time have to take up arms: the attack of the capital in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning it will be a matter of habit, therefore, if necessary, it is still necessary to be able to hit the forehead with a stick with a half-witted chill.

But the British did not stop there: the struggle for resources and especially valuable artifacts that allow you to change the balance of power in the universe in your favor will require the mobilization of all the forces of the races. All races will fight on the huge fields, so don't be surprised if they kill you literally every ten minutes - fortunately for a certain amount of gold you will immediately resurrect. But the payment for all the torment will be appropriate: world domination, piles of jewelry and a bunch of fans who want to join your empire. And then a royally attractive life will begin!

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is created by professionals in the online field, so you don’t need to cross your fingers for the technical implementation, but time will tell whether the new entertainment will become massive. The main thing is that an unpleasant incident does not happen and the Warhammer universe would not become another game with a huge space for the implementation of ideas, but without people who would be interested in it.