Warhammer does a lot of things similar to other MMOs, but it's the few additions that really make it stand out in the crowd. The main focus of the game is on realm versus realm (RvR) combat, so when the game begins, you must decide between playing Order or Destruction. The Order side is comprised of High Elves, Empire Humans, and Dwarves. The Destruction side is populated by Dark Elves, Chaos Humans, and Greenskins (Orcs and Goblins). There are 10 classes available to each side, and even though there are similar traits between the two sides, it's really 20 classes to choose from.

Even with the focus on RvR, there's plenty of player versus environment (PvE) content available and well implemented to boot. The game starts as you would expect any MMO to start, nabbing quests from people around town and progressing the story of your character's beginnings. It's the obligatory kill four of something, or collect three of something quests. These quests persist throughout the game and are the bread and butter of many other MMOs. In Warhammer they help you out by giving you shaded red areas on the map to figure out where the quest objectives are located. That little bit goes a long way in battling the frustrations and time sinks in many other games where it's easier to get lost or not understand the objective's location.

One of the additions that helps separate Warhammer is the Tome of Knowledge. As you take PvE quests, they get entered into the Tome of Knowledge. The quest descriptions in the Tome tell the story through the game's chapters and each game area, or Tier, contains multiple chapters of game content. That's if you're willing to read that much text, which there's a lot of. The Tome contains many other items as well, such as achievements for things like encountering other races, killing multiple monster types and doing oddball actions like clicking on yourself multiple times. These achievements count for bonuses such as extra XP and titles which you can attach to your character's nameplate.

By far one of my favorite new concepts is that of public quests. The most enjoyable parts of MMOs in the past have been instanced dungeons which you would run with a group of people. Public quests are a lot like bite-sized versions of those instances. They have multiple stages that involve killing any number of things, leading up to sub-boss and boss encounters. They take place right in the middle of PVE questing areas. The game notifies you when you enter a public quest area and like the name entails you just start fighting and you are fighting with others on the same quest. Fighting in public quests earns you both XP and influence points. If you fight well enough in the quest and the group beats the final boss, you'll have a shot at some pretty good loot. As a bonus, the influence points fill up a bar per chapter that can be redeemed for great rewards in that chapter's town.

You don't need a public quest to group more easily in Warhammer. There's a new system created where you can scan the local area to see who has an active group. Groups by default are public, meaning if there's an open spot you can just join. Of course there's an option to make it private if you just want to play with your friends and not let anyone else in. This makes grabbing help for quests or just meeting new people far easier than any other game, where you had to shout into the area that you're looking for group mates. These groups can also be linked together to form Warbands.

So now we finally get to Warhammer's claim to fame, realm versus realm. As someone who has shied away from player versus player combat in past games, I have to say I am pleasantly surprised at how much fun the team-based combat is in Warhammer. By level two you are already getting a quest asking you to participate in an RvR scenario. These scenarios are one of the two types of RvR action. Scenarios take place in one of the three contested areas. They are instanced areas, and in the first Tier fights are 12 versus 12. The objectives vary from territory to territory whether it's capture the flag or hold the keep. The battles I've seen last either 15 minutes or until one team scores 500 points. At the end of each scenario you are rewarded with renown and XP based on your, and your team's, performance. Scenarios can be queued and joined from anywhere in the world and when completed, you're put right back from where you entered.

The second part of RvR and perhaps the most important since it makes up the bulk of the end-game content is open world RvR. For reasons that you can read about in-game, Empire fights Chaos, High Elves battle Dark Elves, and Dwarves war with Greenskins. Those three wars are split across different lands connected by flight paths. Inside each land and subdivided into each Tier (1-4) there are areas where the two factions cross paths. Your initial quests will lead you to a war camp which is always right on the edge of an RvR area. Inside that area there's a battle against the other side as well as a battle over territorial structures within that zone. So far up to level 15 there have been quests that have taken me into the RvR area but there hasn't been a lot of action there yet. I would imagine that at the end game these areas will be very busy.

There are multiple levels and systems to get acquainted with in Warhammer. Not only do you have to be concerned with your character's main level, but you also need to be aware of influence points per chapter and your renown rank. Almost everything gives you XP towards your main level; public quests give you the influence points and fighting the opposite faction gives you renown points. So far renown points have been key in purchasing some of the best equipment at my level, and while the level cap for the game is 40, renown caps out at 80, encouraging you to fight well into the end game.

Other new concepts are based around fighting and fighting abilities. You purchase your class's ability at a trainer, as expected. You put mastery points into one of three paths, similar to Warcraft. But you also have the ability to spend renown points to buy passive and active abilities from another trainer. Some of these abilities come in the form of tactics. So far, I've seen career tactics, renown tactics, and Tome of Knowledge tactics. These tactics can be grouped together on one of five tactics bars that can be changed in between fights. For instance, my Chosen class is currently getting extra XP from RvR scenarios as well as a passive ability that grants him a shield 25% of the time. Something else new is the morale bar with morale abilities at four stages on the bar which works almost identically to the Street Fighter super gauge.

So far I'm completely engaged by Warhammer's game content. I love the public quests, the scenarios, and even a little PvE questing during downtimes. The character classes are varied and have unique and interesting skill sets whether it's twisting auras with the Chosen or throwing down horrific monsters with the Magus. Since I stopped playing Warcraft years ago no MMO has been able to hold my attention past the first couple of weeks yet I still look forward to nightly session with my friends in Warhammer. I'm still striving to hit the level cap and find out what the endgame is like, and if I make it, I'll be sure to report back with the full review.