Until recently Warhammer Online was nearly impossible to try without purchasing a full retail version. That all changed with the new Warhammer Online Trial.

It used to be hard to get a trial for Warhammer Online, as you could only get a code by knowing someone with the full version of the game. That changed in the last month, with trial accounts freely available to anyone who wants one. However, these new trials come with a number of restrictions:

• Maximum level of 10
• Unable to enter "tier 2" areas or above (i.e. zones above level 10)
• Unable to send mail
• Unable to sell items on the auction house
• Limited to certain servers

Given these restrictions, what sort of impression will the trial give to those thinking about buying the game? Since I'm one of these people, I thought I'd give the trial a go in order to find out.

On logging in for the first time, one of the trial's restrictions is immediately apparent - having a limited selection of servers to choose from. This doesn't make a lot of sense, as while there are four different types of server, the trial (or the European one, at least) limits you to two "Core" servers. In other words, it's not possible to play on the Open Realm vs. Realm, Roleplaying, or ORvR / RP servers during the trial. Anyone wanting to play on these servers won't get a true picture of what they're like or if they're worth joining, without buying a full version of the game. Players also won't be able to play with or talk to their higher level friends during the trial, unless they play on one of the unrestricted servers. To someone specifically interested in playing on non-Core servers, the trial falls at the first hurdle. It might be possible to transfer characters to the restricted servers after buying the game, but how many people are going to know about this feature? Also, the whole point of a trial is to be able to see what the game's like to play before buying it - whoever made the decision to block off the additional server types needs to be shot.

Things improve on reaching the character creator, which is well presented and well laid out. The floating "WAR" placeholder graphics that can show up before the character models load in break immersion, but this is a minor niggle. The ability to see what your character could look like at max-level is a nice touch and helps to give you a feel for the available classes without needing to create one of each character type. However, the lack of male / female versions for some of the classes (and the lack of ANY female Orcs and Goblins) may disappoint players who aren't familiar with Warhammer's lore. Character creation on the whole is fairly robust, with the ability to customise your character with tattoos, scars and the like, although the lack of sliders to change your height and other physical attributes is something of a disappointment.

  Messages ask you to buy the game once you've reached a certain level.

On getting into the game, veterans of World of Warcraft could be forgiven for thinking that they're playing a sequel - someone I know has even gone so far to describe it as "WoW 2.0". However, while it may LOOK like WoW on the surface, delving deeper into the trial highlights some of the differences between the two games. For example, Warhammer differs from other MMOs in that it does away with traditional mana bars and replaces them with Action Points. These are spent using abilities during combat and regenerate while your character's fighting, meaning that combat's more tactical than simply casting spells until your mana runs out. Many classes also have a risk / reward feature as combat wears on; at least two classes in the game cause more damage the longer combat lasts, but at a risk of taking more damage themselves. They can also use abilities that reset these damage levels to normal, in exchange for powerful one-shot attacks. Managing risk in this way is to be commended and opens up new strategies for both PvE and PvP combat.

The system of Public Quests is also something that deserves praise. These quests are marked by treasure chest symbols on the map and entering their general area gives details of what needs to be done. Everyone in the area - whether they're grouped or not - can participate in the quest and receive credit for doing so. If the quest is completed successfully, participants "roll" for loot using a random number generator, receiving bonuses to their rolls depending on their contribution towards completing the quest. Public Quests are repeatable, allowing characters to receive multiple rewards from each one. However, repeating these isn't necessary in order to level up, as characters will reach level 10 before seeing even a third of the content open to them.

You'll need a group to complete the final stages of Public Quests.

Warhammer's lore and storyline have clearly been a focus of the game's developers, drawing heavily from the tabletop game's extensive backstory. Each character's "Tome of Knowledge" fills up as they progress through the game and experience new content, providing extra background information that can be accessed at any time. Many NPCs (or at least NPC types ) also have distinct personalities, meaning that an Orc quest reads differently than a Dark Elf's. Mythic has done a good job with the Orc characters in particular, injecting a real sense of humour into the game. A similar amount of effort has gone into certain areas of the game world, with some of the battlefields actually feeling like battlefields, rather than just another quest hub.

The conflict between races is definitely the focus of Warhammer Online, with players being encouraged to participate in PvP right from the start. There's no need to wait until your character's max level before being useful in PvP as, no matter what your level, there'll be something to suit your character's ability. For example, low level characters participating in Scenarios have their levels increased temporarily, in order to put them on a level playing field. The Scenarios available in the trial take the form of instanced PvP areas, with the aim being to capture and hold certain points on the map. These areas can be small and in some cases claustrophobic, meaning they're paced more like Unreal Tournament's "Domination" maps rather than traditional MMO PvP. Scenarios can be joined from anywhere in the world, with your character being teleported into battle and then back to its previous location when the fight is over.

As characters approach the trial's level cap, it becomes clear that Warhammer's very much centred on PvP. Even the Core servers have areas that flag characters for PvP when they enter, so anyone who doesn't like fighting other players will need to go out of their way in order to avoid it. It's not required to participate in PvP in order to level your character, but it DOES seem required in order to get reliable equipment upgrades without resorting to the auction house. It's here that Warhammer starts to run into problems, as a lot of equipment simply isn't available from normal vendors - if you want to purchase equipment from an NPC, you'll need to do it from a Renown Merchant. The items these merchants sell can only be equipped once you've reached a certain level of Renown, which can only be earned by participating in PvP, leaving those who don't take part out in the cold. In addition, Renown Points (which are earned each time you reach a new level of Renown) can be spent at trainers in order to improve various stats and add new abilities to your character. In other words, if you don't like PvP, Warhammer is NOT the game for you - if you refuse to participate, you're effectively gimping your character. A character that takes part in PvP is always going to be more powerful than one that doesn't.

You'll need to participate in PvP to get certain equipment upgrades.

As you might have guessed, we've reached the part of the article that contains some of the disappointments found in the trial. A couple of glaring omissions include the systems of Tactics and Masteries. Tactics, such as sacrificing defence for attack power, can be set up before combat, in order to specialise your character for the battle ahead. Meanwhile, the Mastery system behaves in a similar way to WoW's Talent trees, allowing your character to specialise in certain areas such as single target or area effect attacks. Neither of these systems plays any real part in the trial, as Tactics aren't available to lower level characters and Mastery points don't start being awarded until level 11 - one level above the trial's level cap. These omissions make it impossible for players to tell what effect these systems have on gameplay, which is surely the entire point of having a trial. "Morale" abilities (which charge up as your character fights) suffer somewhat as well, as these don't start to be awarded until level eight.

The game also suffers from problems which clearly aren't limited to the trial. For example, while playing I occasionally crashed out of the game, all the way to my PC's desktop. My map sometimes disappeared when moving to a different part of the zone and different sections of the game's text overlapped each other at times. Certain sections of the game's UI also overlapped before I reduced its size in the options menu. Tradeskills are disappointing (there's no way to create new armour and weapons, for example) and the world map is poor and disjointed, leaving you with no real feeling as to where you are in the world. Add to this a criminal amount of recycling of geometry sections in caves, and you've got a game that feels polished in some respects, but unfinished in others.

After hitting the level cap and maybe trying another class, I suspect many players will come away thinking that Warhammer's only worth playing for those who love PvP. It's also clear that the game was released before it was ready - elements of it feel unfinished, which isn't helped by the six races only have two capital cities between them. In other words, the trial shows that Warhammer Online has promise, but some of that promise has yet to be realised. So, will people playing the trial want to rush out and buy the game? At the moment, I'm not sure. It's probably more likely that they'll give it another go in six months, when it'll hopefully feel more like a finished product.

SAM "azerian" Maxted
Editor
ZAM.com