Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Updated Hands-On

We've written a good deal about EA Mythic's upcoming Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in the incredibly popular Warhammer universe. The game has recently entered into a closed beta period, which will allow the development team to finalize some features and fix some bugs before leading up to a public beta later this year. We had a chance to take the game for a spin at EA's spring press event this week, during which we got a chance to try a variety of characters and even create one from scratch.

We started off with a simple orc choppa, a green-skinned brute with a weapon that looked like an oversized butcher's cleaver. After running around a bit to get a feel for the game's responsiveness, we took up a few of the game's simple beginner quests--basic run and kill missions designed to get you used to the combat in the game. Our choppa had a handful of basic attacks--a ranged attack where he threw an axe at a foe, a basic automated attack, and a more powerful blow that needed to be activated for use. While playing as the choppa, our main opponents were dwarves. During one mission we had to investigate some mysterious barrels down by a nearby river; upon inspection, each barrel we investigated turned out to have a half-naked dwarf in it. We quickly disposed of the dwarf, but we were left wishing that we had read the quest description a bit more closely for an explanation.

After killing the barrel dwarves, we moved on to a level-one High Elf swordmaster. Unlike the hulking orc brute, the high elf was long and lithe, cradling his long two-handed sword in his arms almost like an infant. Though he moved like a fancy lad, he swung his sword with deadly purpose, as we found out during a beginners quest when we took on a number of frightening-looking witches that we found fighting with non player characters during our exploration. Though it might not be the case later in the game, the NPC warriors that we fought alongside weren't good for much; it was up to us and our dandy sword swinging to make short work of the evil witches.

After experiencing the low-level characters, we moved on to a level-20 Chaos Zealot, a character type that looks like it takes its worship of the Chaos gods very seriously. At level 20, you'll obviously have a lot of abilities on-hand and, having previously played two straightforward character types, it took some time to get used to the powers of our zealot, who focused on indirect attacks, as well as healing allies. The area we started in as the zealot was a farmland, and one of the nearby quests tasked us with sneaking into the nearby villagers homes to steal various objects from inside, a prospect that set the pesky villagers off. So sad that so many had to die for so little...

Our final stop with Warhammer was the character creator, which is as straightforward and easy to use as can be. After choosing your side--Order or Destruction--you can choose from one of six races (three apiece) and then choose your class, which varies depending on the race you choose. You'll have some pretty standard options for character customization from the outset--including hair color and style, as well as a number of face options. We ended up with a Dark Elf Disciple of Khaine, a dual-blade wielding badass that looked like a cross between a High Elf swordsman and the Chaos Zealot we played as previously.

Whatever kind of character you create, Warhammer Online will toss you into the eternal fray of war early. All starting areas for characters will be beset in some way by an enemy race, giving you plenty of opportunities to mix it up and get used to the combat system. In addition, such additions as public quests (where players work together to complete cooperative goals) and realm vs. realm combat look to prove that even in a universe that knows nothing but war, you can still have fun. Though there isn't a strict timeline yet, the public beta for Warhammer Online is set to begin later this year, and the game is due for release in the fourth quarter of 2008. Stay tuned for more on the game right here at GameSpot.