Realm vs Realm - like being part of a football crowd
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning integrates and expands on the Realm versus Realm (RvR) game play that EA Mythic first created for its medieval fantasy RPG, Dark Age of Camelot.Sadly, we didn't get to try the four different types of RvR play, but what we did try has whetted our appetite for what's in store. Each RvR gameplay type is points-based and all points gained go towards the overall campaign score, in which the sides of Order and Destruction continually play out a battle for overall control of specific zones in the world, such as capital cities.
First up, we'll look at the RvR combat types that we didn't play: Skirmishes, Battlefields and Campaigns.
Skirmishes are PvP encounters that are triggered when you enter a specific zone within a land. This type of RvR is instanced and they are the most basic of the RvR combat scenarios within the game, merely involving a 1vs1 or group vs. group battle. You could be standing there fighting a 'mob' and a human-controlled player and his mates could start taking a chunk out of you. With each kill that you gain you earn victory points for your team. Although we didn't get to play or see this mode in action, we can imagine that you'll get players lurking around these areas with a bunch of friends keen to wrack up some easy kills from unsuspecting folk.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageSecondly, there are 'Battlefields', which take place around an important landmark and involve the two teams going head to head in a battle as one defends and another attacks a stronghold. These will normally consist of three stages: Breach the exterior of, Breach the keep's inner sanctum and Defeat the Keep Lord. The reward for winning or defending the area will be a significant amount of victory points for your team.
Finally, there's the 'Campaign' RvR battles, which sounds like a lot of fun and involves taking over the zones and the capital city of the opposite realm. This may involve up to 100 players fighting their way into the city whilst 100 others defend it. It sounds absolutely hectic and when we flagged our concerns about performance issues to EA Mythic they said:
We've been optimising this game for a long time and we have regular breakthroughs. The city performance now is better than it was a month ago. We were having so many problems in terms of getting the frame rate up, then we had a massive breakthrough and the frame-rate jumped up to 40 frames a second instead of 5. The optimisation team are working on it all the time, it's really important to us. We haven't decided yet what the right size will be for these battles, whether it will be 50, 75 or 120 a side. We need to keep it fun and that means that the game has to be playable; and it will be.
If they can pull it off, then these sieges will be visually spectacular, not to mention a whole heap of fun. When you've got X amount of team-mates all striving for the same goal and realm pride it should be an intense experience and a battle that no-one will want to lose.
