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Great Game, best I seen in a while

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: March 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game, true to the table top game universe while still being a great Real Time Strategy game. I enjoyed both the Chaos and good single player campaigns. The Online battles are the best part of the game, creating different armies and then battling players from all over the world. Be warned though, the game needs a really good graphics card, I upgraded to a PCI-E card with 512MB just so I could play this game and that card worked fine

Sweet game full of Warhammer goodness!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: November 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

So far the game has been a blast to play even though I've only gone through the Chaos side. The graphics are great and the storyline is nicely put together. I hope they make an expansion pack for this game.

awesome game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My husband is currently stationed in Iraq and needed something to do to pass the free time till he gets to come home to his family again so I got this for him and he finds it has helped to pass the time away without loads of stress!!!! Thanks!!!!

A good game, though room for improvement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 32 / 34
Date: November 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've never played the table-top version of Warhammer, but this game seemed to be a fairly interesting take on the age-old elves, orcs, and dwarf formula that appears in so many games nowadays. I'm a huge fan of Relic's Dawn of War franchise, so I decided to pick this game up. Overall, I'm glad that I got this game; it's a solid product with lots of potential for expansion. However, it also has plenty of room for improvement, and I would suggest that anyone considering this game to play the demo first.

Gameplay: The game is true to the standard real-time strategy (RTS) formula, minus the harvesting and base building. You pick and customize your units before each battle and then fight it out against other armies in open fields or sieges. Some of the battles feel somewhat epic, especially the castle sieges. But there are never more than about 400-500 units on the map at any give time. Hero units play a huge role in the game. They can "level up" and collect items like heroes in roleplaying games, duel against other heroes, and give bonuses to the troops that they command. The hero system, as it stands now, needs to be refined a bit more so that heroes don't level up too fast (I had one go from 10th to 35th level in less than 5 minutes in one skirmish game!). However, I generally like what heroes add to gameplay. The game does have some tactical elements to it. Things such as morale, terrain, flanking, charges, and unit-counters do come into play. Units with broken morale will flee, which can end a battle quickly. Cavalry is underpowered and does not nearly justify its cost. There is friendly fire in this game, but only in the case of area-of-effect weapons like cannon. In my opinion, that's good enough. I killed too many of my own soldiers with Hellfire Cannon in the single-player campaign to want any more varieties of friendly fire!

There are two single-player campaigns that come with the game. One for Chaos and one for the Empire. Playing through each (about 20-25 hours all together) will allow you to use all four playable races (Men, Elves, Chaos, and Skaven), as well as some minor races (Orcs and Dwarves). There are a variety of missions, from sieges and kill-all-enemies maps to duels and some minor dungeon crawling. The campaigns tell a decent story , though a linear one with very little replay value. The game includes both a single-player skirmish mode and online modes. It's good fun, but my biggest gripe has to do with the very small number of maps. Even with the 1.2 patch that came out at the same time the game was released, there are only 15 skirmish maps. Of that number, only 8 can be played as single-player skirmishes! This is really a shame and inexcusable. As with all other RTS games, the shelf life of this one will depend on whether the developer provides strong support with patches that fix bugs and add new content (like maps), as well as whether modders kick in.

Graphics: This is an absolutely gorgeous game. The terrain and environments are beautifully done, and the models themselves are finely detailed. The only dull spot here is the animations, which are decent but not up to par with the likes of Relic's Dawn of War or EA's Battle for Middle Earth 2. The intro movie is phenomenal and the cutscenes are pretty good as well. The graphics go a long way toward setting the atmosphere of the game.

Sounds: Everything is pretty good in this area. Weapons sound appropriate, the music is boisterous and epic, and the voice acting is mostly solid. It actually sounds like some of the Chaos voice actors were imported from Dawn of War, which is fine with me since the voices are so appropriately wicked.

Technical issues: I have had no crashes, freezes, stutters, or any other problems with this game with the 1.2 patch installed. I am running it on a fairly good computer (E6600 dual-core processor, 2 gigs of RAM, Geforce 7900GTO video card). The game comes with a very good manual that explains the gameplay and units, and the in-game tutorial is pretty good. Also, I have had no issues with the camera, which rotates and zooms fine. For some reason, the game comes on 6 CDs, with no DVD option available. In this day and age, I don't think that any game that takes up more than 4 CDs should be released without a DVD option.

Value: As an RTS gamer, I liked this game very much. It's a good blend of tactical gaming, roleplaying elements, and a fantasy-based storyline. Due to the severe lack of maps, I don't think it's worth $50 (more like $30). However, if the developer steps up to the plate and releases several more (free) skirmish maps and makes some other adjustments with patches, I could recommend it more firmly. Also, a good, meaty, well-thought out expansion could do wonders for this game.

Rating: 3.75 stars (out of 5)

Great Graphics - Be Sure to Update

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: March 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Warhammer - Mark of Chaos involves thousands of soldiers in a fantasy world clashing against each other. Elves, Goblins, Skaven and Humans battle it out for supremacy of the known world.

Before you even start playing this game, make sure you UPDATE it. It took us five tries to even get this game installed - the install utility kept crashing. We have a very new machine, too. There are countless tales of the gameplay crashing. If you do a full update - which can take an hour or more - you have the best possible chance of actually playing this game bug-free.

The graphics are gorgeous. You do need a high end computer to take full advantage of them, but you were due for an upgrade anyway, right? The elegance of the elves, the gritty darkness of the goblins, everything shows up with great detail and an eye for the cultures involved. When you're involved in the battles you can zoom out for a general overlook of the terrain, or zoom in close to watch individual soldiers duke it out.

The game is all about large scale battles. You choose what units you're going to send out against the foe, and then the battle commences. Think in terms of massive samurai battles with gigantic forces sweeping down against each other.

Speaking of samurai battles, you also get the one-on-one hero conflict that samurai warriors were so fond of. This gives you a break from the massive battle for a while, focussing on just one particular person, and the way he moves and swings.

Like most games of this ilk, the single-player gameplay is really more of a training mission than anything else. There are two, reasonably long (each perhaps a weekend of playing) scripted missions that help you learn the strengths and weaknesses of the various units. This helps you hone your skills against the enemy AI which isn't awful, but of course isn't great either. Then head into the one-player skirmish to test out the other maps and to set up situations to test your less-strong points, to get those worked out.

Once you've got those basics down, it's time to take on the real challenge - other humans!

Online gameplay is where all games like this shine. You're now playing against real humans, with real skills, ones who will spot your weaknesses and take cold advantage of them.

If you're a fan of epic warfare, of the likes seen in the Lord of the Rings movie and the 300, then this is definitely a game to check out. Just make sure your system is tweaked and that you download all the updates before you take it on!

Recommended.

A Great Start For The Warhammer RTS Franchise

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'll keep this review short:

The Good:
-4 Unique armies with many units and customization options, including mercenaries and individual soldier customization, as well as extensive hero customization and rpg-style leveling
-Amazing attention to detail and army composition options
-Decent multiplayer when there is no lag or dropping
-Single player storyline was pretty decent, and you can play from the side of Empire or Chaos
-The absolutely INSANE intro video when you start up the game

The Bad:
-I experienced many drops on Gamespy while attempting 4 player matches
-In large-scale skirmishes when huge armies would clash, my game would crash completely with no explanation, and I run a pretty sick gaming rig
-While the story itself was good, the single player cutscenes lacked and the campaign itself was waaaay too linear
-Lack of variety and depth in multiplayer maps, with only a handful of varient or siege maps

The odd:
-You have to start a lan game with cpu's to have a skirmish?

Overall:
4/5: It's a great attempt at this serious, and far from failed in my eyes. While it lacks in places, I feel if they expand on it at all, it could only do some good. This game will soar with enough attention to it by the developers and gaming community. Rock on Games Workshop!

A Solid Warhammer Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was a big fan of "Shadow of the Horned Rat" and "Dark Omen" and this game is very much in the same vein. It uses a combat engine similar to the Total War series of games, but as others have pointed out, it's a bit more simplistic. Like the previous games mentioned, the strategic element is quite simple as well, and is seperate from the combat portion. The ability to equip your heros with magical armor and weapons, as well as the ability to upgrade and outfit your troops is interresting and useful enough to justify the campaign mode.

The look of the game is very impressive, and the opening movie alone is worth owning the game for.

If you enjoyed the previous Warhammer Fantasy games mentioned above or enjoy Warhammer Fantasy in general, then you will probably enjoy this game too. If you are unfamilliar with Warhammer Fantasy, but loved the Total War series, be prepared that this game is not really the same sort of thing. It's a step up from the old Warcraft model of micromanaging individual units, and you don't have to mess with your economy and production while you fight, but it is not nearly as complex as the Total War series. It sits somewhere in-between...

So far.... not so good, but still hopeful!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I really wanted to love this game & I think now that my expectations may have been too high. I'm an old school table-top Warhammer player, but for many years now I have not had the time or money to invest in the requisite hours of collecting, painting, and gaming with models (not to mention some of the people who play the table-top version are REALLY annoying)! I thought this game would be the perfect compromise, but instead it has turned out to be a big dissapointment. Oh well, there is always the Warhammer Online game due to come out in Fall 2007. If you're new to Warhammer or don't know much about it then you might like this game, either way it is pretty cool when a giant picks up one of your screaming men in the middle of battle and eats him.

PROS: Good graphics, good model animations, good sound, units gain experience and can be kept throughout the game (unlike Dawn of War).

CONS: Boring gameplay, boring and linear storyline, really long load times between screens, annoying NPC characters, poor keyboard controls.

To War!! as soon as I finish loading...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: December 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I really wanted to like this game. It has the Warhammer universe to draw from for structure, storyline and gameplay but didn't seem to click. It didn't succesfully make the transition from a fun strategic tabletop game into a fun RTS game.

Firstly, the Loading times were unacceptably long which throws major breaks into your playtime. There is nothing worse than waiting almost a minute, in some cases, to make a transition from the battlefield to the campaign map. Speaking of the campaign map, it reminded me of the linear mapping of Final Fantasy Tactics. It really shouldn't have been implemented at all, but rather just take you from one battle to the next without the illusion of choice in the bigger scheme of things.

The graphics, visuals and voice-acting were great, but there is more to a game than watching trees sway and mist roll over hills. It seems the game developers focused too much on the ambience and less on gameplay.

The most appealing factor of warhammer is the strategic and tactical aspects of the game. Relic made a great transition with the Dawn of War franchise where it wasn't necessarily faithful to the tabletop game, but they combined both elements to deliver a fun game.

There is nothing really fun about this game. Your units bunch together on the map and you fight other units bunched together and they all slog it out. The maps are linear, cramped with no room for manuevering or grand-scale battles for the most part. In some instances during the campaign or on the multi-player maps you can face off and have a big battle, but it just turns into a slogging match of who has the most powerful units, not who can outplay the other. To top it off the game is very short.

They tried to take a page from the Total War franchise it seems to me. Having played the latest Medieval 2 and looking at it side by side there is much that could have been improved. However, it is not necessarily fair to compare and rather judge Mark of Chaos on its own merits and it doesn't stand very tall.

I'm generally lenient with bugs, that can be fixed with a patch. Even after a collosal 225ish MB patch the game still has technical problems. Could I slog through it to finish the campaigns? Yes.., but I got the infamous "Blue Screen of Death" and that has no excuse. If a company's software is so buggy it crashed my entire system and forces a reboot, file check, etc...then it has issues. Also, I have a 3.2 ghz, 1 gig ram, with a 6800 GT video card.

Overall, once I overcame the technical problems, I did enjoy some aspects like designing a hero, leveling up my units, but those good moments were few and far between the bad ones.

It has potential, but a 2.5 star game for me.

Pros:
- Beautiful Graphics
- Great tutorial
- Great voice-acting
- Heroes are fun to design.

Cons:
- Bugs...oh yes, bugs.
- Not very fun gameplay.
- Too much Real and Time, not enough Strategy.
- Blue Screen of Death included.
- The game is very short.

Warhammer Mark Of Chaos

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game it self is pretty cool. Long load times and fairly boring combat make it suck. I bought this game because I really enjoyed Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War. I still have more fun with Dawn of War and Dark Crusade. Hopefully the expansion for Mark of Chaos will be a huge improvement. (Like Dark Crusade was for Dawn of War.)

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