GC '07: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Updated Impressions

LEIPZIG, Germany--One of our first ports of call when this year's Games Convention opened its doors was a press conference at which EA Mythic talked about Warhammer Online's High Elf and Dark Elf races for the first time. Plenty of good information came out of those 30 minutes but, you know us, we're never satisfied. So today we tracked down a couple of key members of the development team, locked ourselves in a box room with them, and refused to leave until we had enough new information to justify another story on the game. This one.

The first thing we were given during our private session was a more in-depth look at the witch elf career, which is Warhammer Online's answer to the rogues of World of Warcraft. Witch elves can't make themselves invisible like their WOW counterparts, but they're incredibly agile, and appear to be every bit as deadly.

Witch elves--who are all female, incidentally--like to surprise unsuspecting enemies from behind with powerful opening attacks, and then string together rapid combos as they work themselves into a frenzy and build up to a big finishing move. Their skimpy outfits hardly qualify as armor, though, and so a witch elf's best bet when taking a lot of damage will often be to retreat, and quickly at that. One of the ways that you'll be able to do this is using the "agile escape" move, which sees the witch elf kicking back off the enemy, performing a backflip in the air, and then landing a good distance away.

Like WOW's rogues, witch elves will be able to coat their daggers or swords with various poisons. They won't have to concern themselves with carrying around a load of ingredients to make the poisons with, though, because poisons are ability- rather than inventory-based. Furthermore, witch elves will have the ability to buff themselves with powerful elixirs, but we've learned today that elixirs will invariably have negative as well as positive effects when consumed. An elixir that dramatically improves your speed for a short time, for example, might also increase the amount of damage you take if you get hit.

Next up was a guided tour of the Empire's capital city, Altdorf, which dwarfs just about any city that we've seen in a massively multiplayer game to date. Altdorf's architecture has a distinctly European feel about it, and although the sheer size of the city is a little intimidating, there appear to be plenty of landmarks that'll go some way to ensuring that you don't get lost. The Bright Wizard College, for example, is a tower so tall that you can't even see the top of it from the ground. The college is continuously spewing smoke and ash into the air, which means that even on a sunny day, the skies close to it take on a deep red hue.

Other landmarks in the coastal city include a large square where criminals can be seen hanging from gallows, and the docks, from which you can stare across the water at a landmass that won't come into play until one of Warhammer Online's inevitable expansion packs is released. It's a little early to be talking about expansion packs, of course, but it's good to know that the core game is being designed with them in mind. A huge drawbridge that never opens is another example of this kind of forward planning, and we're told that all of Warhammer Online's capital cities will grow as the game does, to ensure that they never become obsolete.

And with that, our EA Mythic captives earned their freedom, though the only reason we kept up our end of the bargain and let them go was because the game will get finished more quickly with them on the team. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning still has plenty of time in development left before its release next year, and every time we see it, we're more excited to get our hands on it. Expect more information on this one just as soon as the current closed beta opens up and lets us in.