Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

About three years ago now, GW and EA shut down Warhammer online: Age of reckoning. I believe last year a small team of hard-working developers decided to bring back the game in emulator form and better still, completely free. Thus Return of Reckoning was born (RoR). Below will be the Link to the website, which has all the installation instructions, files and forums.

http://www.returnofreckoning.com/


Here is my small review, keep in mind I never got the chance to play during live, so I don't have anything to compare the current state of the game to and have only been playing for about 4 weeks.

INSTALLATION:

First you must make an account on the website. This will be your forum account as well as login used for the game. Installation is pretty straight forward. If you have the original game disks they will not work as you still need the client. There is a 10 part download, Part 1 being the launcher and the 9 other parts being the game files. Each Part, except the launcher, is about 1gig ( there is also a torrent that has everything in one file but it was dead). It took me about 10 minutes for each part so not bad. After all is downloaded you only have to unzip just the Part 1 and all parts will be placing into the file. After its all in the file you have to right click on it and go into properties. Uncheck the Read Only option at the bottom and BLAM, you should be good to go. There is a ton of installation troubleshooting help on the forums if needed as well.

OVERALL GAME MECHANICS:

As of right now the level cap is 26, and only up to T2 is unlocked. No matter what race you choose EVERYONE starts in the Empire/Chaos realm. The other realms are fully functional (ie. the quests work) but most of the ORvR action in T1 takes place in Empire/Chaos.
The game plays very smooth, and most of the abilities are working. There are some game mechanics that haven't been implemented but will be added as they progress. The quests for the most part work, although some are buggy. Public Quests unfortunately are completely bugged and you will never be able to finish them. The RvR is very satisfying and the Scenarios are working great.

CLASS BALANCE:

Since the level cap is only 26, the game does have some class balance issues. Melee classes definitely are at a disadvantage ATM, although it recently just got better with a patch. Bright Wizards seem to be the strongest class in the game right now but from what I can tell, all classes are represented well. Again I never played live, but from what I have heard, Melee classes get stronger in later levels so thats something to look forward to. Nothing gamebreaking here.

COMMUNITY:

The community is pretty awesome and the devs are very active. Most players are more than willing to help out, but of course, this is a MMO so there are some trolls wandering about. There are some awesome guilds to join, and plenty of players online to really feel like the game is alive. My dwarf slayer is apart of a Roleplaying guild called the Bitterstone Thunderers, who throw weekly events and get together to tactically annihilate the Destruction factions. Many guilds have events like this and it is just awesome to see 30 dwarfs show up in rank and battle it out. Check out the forums for more details on the community.

BUGS/ISSUES:

This game has its fair share of bugs. For the most part I was surprised at how little there was. Sure there are some wonky things here and there, sometimes you have to click items 3 or 4 times to move them around in your inventory, things like that. Quests are mostly working and you'll know when one is not. The BIGGEST issue the game has right now is LAG. Recently the server has been getting maxed out with players. The server cap is 750 players and that has been getting maxed easily. The weekends are the worst obviously and server restarts are common. When you have almost all of the players online in one zone, trying to take a keep, things start to fall apart. The 2nd biggest issue is Xrealming. Xrealming is basically when you switch to the winning realms side to farm rewards for taking keeps. For example, Lets say Order and Destruction are having a relatively even battle. Order starts to get the upperhand, what happens is the Destruction players log off and log back on as their Order Characters because the rewards for defending keeps and objectives, pale in comparison to the rewards for taking keeps. This leads to Realm imbalances and a huge Zerg of players that can't be stopped by the remaining defenders. This problem got so bad a while ago that the devs wiped all the medallions and gear related to RvR. The devs are hard at work trying to fix these 2 issues and I have faith that it will be fixed in time. Again hit up the forums for more details on bugs and other players thoughts on ways to fix these.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This game can be freaking amazing. I haven't had this much fun online in quite some time and when it all comes together it is an amazing experience in gaming. The Developers are working extremely hard on this massive project and have been very involved throughout. If you decide to give this game a chance, come into it with reasonable expectations. Not everything works properly, there are some balance issues, the game WILL lag at certain times and players can be toxic. With these in mind, I say give it a try, afterall its free!!



Here is a video of the Bitterstone Thunderers in action at a recent event. You can see my Dwarf Slayer with the 2h axe in the back of the ranks. Good times for all involved!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmhqK0h_4k

Hmmm, thats very tempting. Pity the cap is so low at the moment however.
Will keep an eye out however, very happy memories of WAR.

Is it an MMO? Or an ARPG where the world you're playing in has other players too?

It is a MMO.

Ok. Bye bye interest. Hate MMOs. Have tried 4, hated all of em. The original AoR included.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Ok. Bye bye interest. Hate MMOs. Have tried 4, hated all of em. The original AoR included.

Why'd you think this would be completely different from Age of Reckoning?

I was hoping against hope.

Oh man, I remember when WAR came out, I had some great times, but once you hit max level there was almost nothing to do and they made way too many servers, thinning out the playerbase to the point of unsustainability on many servers.

Great times doing open world PVP however.

I'll probably be joining this once everything downloads... It's one of the few MMOs where I've actually had a max level character, and managed to have a bit of fun throughout the whole time I played.

I do remember when I left playing the live game, that the "nuke" classes were stupidly powerful, to the point where you almost needed a dedicated healer who's sole job was to heal the tanks.

Thats what I heard as well Ensis. But the devs are really active so if theres enough outcry they can balance things out. Hope you enjoy the game though!!

Fond memories of my Goblins. Will get back to it.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Fond memories of my Goblins. Will get back to it.

Ya, I loved my Shaman and Squig Herder. I loved everything about the Greenskins in that game, their names, skills, sounds, outfits etc.

Sounds interesting, I would like to take another go as a Black Orc.