Warhammer Online: Land of the Dead Preview

This guy's big. Very, very big.

So, what's different about these PQs? In Land of the Dead PQ mobs drop three types of glypths: Scarab, Falcon and Scorpion. These glyphs grant you access to lairs – instanced zones with an end boss. The lock-out times of these is only 18 hours, which means hardcore players will be able to run them once a day. And, because you only lose the glyph once you've killed the lair's end boss, failed attempts don't spell doom. There are four lairs in the game, all of which have been designed to include more console style gameplay. Jumping is important, for example (it never normally is in MMORPGs). So is dodging, as we've seen in Obelisk of Judgement.

The pinnacle of Land of the Dead's PvE challenge, however, is the gigantic Tomb of the Vulture Lord dungeon, which contains eight PQs on its own, multiple paths, timing and puzzle-based traps, and at least nine bosses. We saw it from the outside – it's guarded by a giant stone statue (which may or may not become animated once players are victorious and may or may not allow players to climb on top of him as he's tearing the world apart). Mythic says you'll need one of the better armour sets in the game to be able to take the damage that will be dished out in the Tomb. The high-level dungeons will also come with a whopping three day lock out. But, and this is a big but, Mythic tells us that the loot will be worth the effort. With a three day lock out, it had better be (four or five Talisman slots is a good start).

So, there's plenty to do on the PvE side of things, but we all know what's best about WAR, and that's PvP. Mythic's clearly thought long and hard about making the Land of the Dead as attractive a killing ground as possible for player killing fans. The way it's encouraged RvR here is ingenious: once your faction's gained enough resources to enter the area, the side that's currently in control will be told via an in-game alert that they're coming. That's your cue to sharpen your swords and buff your shields. That's your cue to panic.

Here comes the good bit: even when you're in an instanced lair you're not safe from RvR. The rival faction can enter the lair you're in and hunt you down in what's called a Purge. A purge flips a lair from being a pure PvE environment to something akin to a Scenario, WAR's version of WoW's Battlegrounds. The enemy has 30 minutes to purge the raiding group from the lair. If they succeed it becomes their lair and they can carry on where their victims left off, including taking on the end boss and grabbing the loot. Why would you even bother? Special PQs for the victors, and their associated rewards, will be motivation enough.

Purging is perhaps the best new feature Land of the Dead will bring

So, the Land of the Dead looks like a great addition to WAR's virtual world. In many ways it provides more of the same, but Mythic hopes players will feel a greater sense of importance than they do in the existing game world. Because Order and Destruction will be constantly vying for control of the area, and because only one realm can zone in and respawn in the Land of the Dead at any given time, there's more at stake when you start a fight. Mythic reckons six-man ninja groups will form that will stalk other groups around, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. This sounds great.

For us, though, it's the prospect of new loot and cleverly-designed RvR action that is of most interest. Purging instanced lairs, in particular, could turn out to be the best thing in the whole game. A brief six-man tour can't possibly hope to reveal how Land of the Dead will turn out, but from what we've seen George A. Romero would be proud.

Warhammer Online: Land of the Dead is due to launch in June.