Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I've never played the table-top version of Warhammer, but this game seemed to be a fairly interesting take on the age-old elves, orcs, and dwarf formula that appears in so many games nowadays. I'm a huge fan of Relic's Dawn of War franchise, so I decided to pick this game up. Overall, I'm glad that I got this game; it's a solid product with lots of potential for expansion. However, it also has plenty of room for improvement, and I would suggest that anyone considering this game to play the demo first.
Gameplay: The game is true to the standard real-time strategy (RTS) formula, minus the harvesting and base building. You pick and customize your units before each battle and then fight it out against other armies in open fields or sieges. Some of the battles feel somewhat epic, especially the castle sieges. But there are never more than about 400-500 units on the map at any give time. Hero units play a huge role in the game. They can "level up" and collect items like heroes in roleplaying games, duel against other heroes, and give bonuses to the troops that they command. The hero system, as it stands now, needs to be refined a bit more so that heroes don't level up too fast (I had one go from 10th to 35th level in less than 5 minutes in one skirmish game!). However, I generally like what heroes add to gameplay. The game does have some tactical elements to it. Things such as morale, terrain, flanking, charges, and unit-counters do come into play. Units with broken morale will flee, which can end a battle quickly. Cavalry is underpowered and does not nearly justify its cost. There is friendly fire in this game, but only in the case of area-of-effect weapons like cannon. In my opinion, that's good enough. I killed too many of my own soldiers with Hellfire Cannon in the single-player campaign to want any more varieties of friendly fire!
There are two single-player campaigns that come with the game. One for Chaos and one for the Empire. Playing through each (about 20-25 hours all together) will allow you to use all four playable races (Men, Elves, Chaos, and Skaven), as well as some minor races (Orcs and Dwarves). There are a variety of missions, from sieges and kill-all-enemies maps to duels and some minor dungeon crawling. The campaigns tell a decent story , though a linear one with very little replay value. The game includes both a single-player skirmish mode and online modes. It's good fun, but my biggest gripe has to do with the very small number of maps. Even with the 1.2 patch that came out at the same time the game was released, there are only 15 skirmish maps. Of that number, only 8 can be played as single-player skirmishes! This is really a shame and inexcusable. As with all other RTS games, the shelf life of this one will depend on whether the developer provides strong support with patches that fix bugs and add new content (like maps), as well as whether modders kick in.
Graphics: This is an absolutely gorgeous game. The terrain and environments are beautifully done, and the models themselves are finely detailed. The only dull spot here is the animations, which are decent but not up to par with the likes of Relic's Dawn of War or EA's Battle for Middle Earth 2. The intro movie is phenomenal and the cutscenes are pretty good as well. The graphics go a long way toward setting the atmosphere of the game.
Sounds: Everything is pretty good in this area. Weapons sound appropriate, the music is boisterous and epic, and the voice acting is mostly solid. It actually sounds like some of the Chaos voice actors were imported from Dawn of War, which is fine with me since the voices are so appropriately wicked.
Technical issues: I have had no crashes, freezes, stutters, or any other problems with this game with the 1.2 patch installed. I am running it on a fairly good computer (E6600 dual-core processor, 2 gigs of RAM, Geforce 7900GTO video card). The game comes with a very good manual that explains the gameplay and units, and the in-game tutorial is pretty good. Also, I have had no issues with the camera, which rotates and zooms fine. For some reason, the game comes on 6 CDs, with no DVD option available. In this day and age, I don't think that any game that takes up more than 4 CDs should be released without a DVD option.
Value: As an RTS gamer, I liked this game very much. It's a good blend of tactical gaming, roleplaying elements, and a fantasy-based storyline. Due to the severe lack of maps, I don't think it's worth $50 (more like $30). However, if the developer steps up to the plate and releases several more (free) skirmish maps and makes some other adjustments with patches, I could recommend it more firmly. Also, a good, meaty, well-thought out expansion could do wonders for this game.
Rating: 3.75 stars (out of 5)
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