Today at Gamescom, BioWare Mythic announced a new game called Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes. You might remember that a few weeks ago several bloggers, including myself, were invited down to the Mythic HQ. I wrote that we saw something pretty significant, and this is it. Read on for more details about Wrath of Heroes.
Wrath of Heroes is based off of Warhammer Online, but it is a separate game. Later this week, I will post about how this affects WAR Proper (or Live) and my thoughts about it. For now though, lets talk about the new game and what it is all about.
A word of warning, some of this information may have changed since I last saw the game.
Scenarios. Wrath of Heroes is based around WAR scenarios. During our visit, we were able to play in a modified version of Mourkain Temple.
Play 4 Free. That's right, it is free. There will likely be some store involved though.
6 vs 6 vs 6. WoH features three sided matches instead of the normal two. As such, maps like Mourkain Temple have been changed to support the third side. There are no realms in this game, teams are made up of individual Heroes chosen by the players. It is kind of like Warhammer Skirmish in that regard.
Lobby. There are no traditional servers in WoH, instead players log in to a lobby and queue from there.
Heroes. There are no classes or careers in Wrath of Heroes. Instead, you choose from a wide selection of pre-made Heroes. Many of these are based off of traditional WAR careers, for example I played an Engineer Hero, whose name I forget, during our trip. It is similar to the way games like League of Legends use Champions.
Heroes range from WAR careers to Trolls, Ogre's, Vampire Counts and more. It sounds like anything from the Warhammer fantasy universe is fair game. Tons of potential here.
For more information on Heroes, check out this post.
Hero Selection. Players will have the ability to change their Hero during a scenario.
Abilities. The ability system has be redone for WoH. Gone are cast times, instead nearly everything is instant-cast (possibly channeled) and cooldown based. Each Hero has a selection of five abilities to use. Crowd control has also been revamped for this game.
Tactics. As a player progresses, they will be able to unlock tactics, which will add some customization to the game. These are not Hero specific, instead will provide more general bonuses which will be better for some Heroes and not others.
Armor. While there are no items in a traditional sense, players will be able to use different Armor skins.
All of the above is, of course, subject to change.
Tomorrow, I will post more about my impressions from when I played Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes. Spoiler: It was fun.
Sign up for beta at: http://www.wrathofheroes.com/
