Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Mythic has dutifully done everything it needs to to compete with Blizzard's jack of all trades and master of most. Crafting is weak, and dungeons - the small, instanced experiences that really cement the group dynamics in an MMO - are frustratingly rare, but aside from that WAR does it all, and does it well. That said, you can very easily tell which parts of this grand enterprise Mythic's heart was in, and those parts - RVR and Public Quests - are completely thrilling, and surprisingly accessible. But they're also fragile. They're at the whim of an unpredictable player base and a hundred other factors besides. They're utterly dependent on en even balance between the two realms on each server - and at beta stage, there's a worrying bias towards Destruction on all servers. That means that, until it's been out in the wild a while, this extremely well-made and highly enjoyable MMO remains unproven.

"If you're looking for a new online RPG to entertain you when you're bored of WoW, WAR should easily be at the top of your list. It's the smoothest MMO launch in history, and within its first month is arguably the best on the market."

"We don't just want to avoid the creation of pure support classes; we want to make it positively counterproductive to play any career that way. This is Warhammer Online. Everybody fights. Nobody hangs back. There's no crying in Warhammer."

"It's puzzling how engaging it can be, once you realise that you're mostly just hitting a number key when the right icon lights up on your ability bar, and stabbing at a health potion when needed. The one-on-one encounters that occur when wandering through RvR areas are - for us, at least - much more entertaining than the caught-in-an-exploding-fireworks-factory feel of the larger battles."

"Scheduled for release later this year, Warhammer Online is really starting to stand out from the crowded field of fantasy MMOs. Depending on how well the realm vs. realm action comes together and how clearly it's presented to players, Warhammer Online definitely has more potential than most of its competitors."