E3 06: Warhammer: Mark of Chaos Preshow Impressions
It's E3 season. Which is, of course, why we used this time to sneak in an advance look at Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, the upcoming strategy game from Black Hole Studios and Namco Bandai. This sprawling, epic game will pit armies from some of the most popular factions in Games Workshop's Warhammer tabletop universe against each other in huge, brutal battles where nobody plays fair.
Specifically, we had the opportunity to see much of the game's new content in action, like the forces of chaos. Chaos in the Warhammer world represents earthly life twisted by demonic corruption, which is why even the basic grunt units--chaos marauders--have a scaly skinned, twisted look, while the hunched sorcerer of the chaos unit hurls bolts of eldritch lightning, perhaps to draw attention away from the second face growing out of the back of its neck, or that gigantic flopping tentacle sticking out from its back. Lucky for the forces of chaos, these evil warriors can do more than just look unpleasant, especially when they're led by mighty heroes such as the demon prince of Khorne--a hulking, winged demon who sends mere mortal enemies flying with every swipe.
The demon prince will be just one of Mark of Chaos' hero units. Like in other real-time strategy games you might have played, exceptionally powerful hero units will be available to lead armies, grow in power by gaining experience points, and even take on a customized appearance and skill set by obtaining and equipping various items, weapons, and armor. However, no other real-time strategy game has included hero dueling, a unique feature that lets heroes challenge enemy heroes into single combat--a duel to the death with which no other beings may interfere. We watched a battle between the forces of chaos and orcs in a fairly early campaign mission. While the demonic host already had the battle mostly won on the field, once the demon prince challenged the orc war boss to single combat, the stakes became a lot higher.
Since heroes are exceptionally powerful, losing one of yours, whether in battle or in a duel, will be a devastating loss--but defeating your enemy heroes will mean a considerable advantage for you. Interestingly enough, you'll actually be able to use the game's experience system to develop a customized hero that excels either at leading soldiers on the battlefield, or at fighting individual duels. Both types of skills will be important in winning the day. For instance, battlefield-specialized heroes may be able to instill bonus morale in their troops. Since the game features massive battles, you don't command individual units, but rather, companies of troops with a combined health meter, and a combined morale meter (which leads to troops getting routed if their morale drops). However, duel-specialized heroes will be able to trounce enemy heroes in single combat, especially enemy heroes that have neglected their dueling skills--and to the victor go the spoils of not only more experience, but also the items of the fallen hero. Fortunately, over the course of the single-player campaign, you'll amass a small stable of three to four hero characters that you can specialize and customize whichever way you please.
We also had a look at the game's siege combat, which will take place in fixed locations of major castles. Each of the game's playable factions will have some kind of stronghold from which they'll base their operations before they come pouring out onto the game's strategic map to take over other quadrants. As we saw, castles are absolutely humongous structures with high, thick walls that must be breached before the castle itself is invaded. Since castles remain in one place throughout the single-player game, they can be upgraded with whatever resources you can spare until they become truly mighty fortresses. Building high walls will not only give your defenders a height advantage as they rain arrows down on their attackers, but it will also give you an important tactical defense, since high walls cut off line of sight and will cloak your courtyards from the encroaching enemy.
What we've seen so far suggests that Warhammer: Mark of Chaos will be a deep and epic real-time strategy game with a lot of very cool features. The game is scheduled for release later this year.
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