Warhammer Online: Land of the Dead Hands-on Preview

I take it George A. Romero isn’t one of the 300,000 or so subscribers to Mythic’s MMORPG Warhammer Online, then. Had he been, I’m pretty sure he would have something to say about the game’s upcoming free expansion, Land of the Dead. Ring any bells? It should do. The famed director got in there first with his 2005 zombie chew-em-up flick, also called… you guessed it… Land of the Dead.

The similarities between the two Land of the Deads don’t stop at their titles, either. Warhammer’s Land of the Dead is full of the kind of horrible, nightmarish monsters (yes, there are plenty of zombies) that you’d expect from a Romero movie. And maybe a little more.

How do we know this? Because we’ve travelled across its sandy dunes, entered its creepy pyramid interiors, fought its bosses and returned with all the sexy loot we could carry. Guided by a couple of hugely knowledgeable community managers, we recently took a level 40 Warrior Priest for a spin in a small, six-man group that laughed heroically in the face of the very beasties that roam the Land of the Dead, and we only died twice. Or three times. At least.

Land of the Dead is a huge desert area to the south that looks like a cross between Stargate and The Mummy. It’s full of imposing pyramids, evil skeletons (there will be A LOT of Tome of Knowledge skeleton unlocks), monstrous mummies, giant stone statues and sand dunes that swirl as far as the eye can see. It’s even got its own city, The Necropolis of Zandri. It’s a beautiful place to gawp at, and is easily one of the better-looking MMO areas ever conceived (the approach to the Library of Zandri is jaw-dropping).

Before you get to see it for yourself, however, there’s work to be done. For one, you’ll have to be at least level 25 (Mythic recommends that you don’t try until you’re at least rank 30). The Land of the Dead is only accessible via Airships and Zeppelins, and only by one faction at any one time. To gain access you need to fill a resource meter by controlling Tier 4 zones and killing players in open RvR. Once done, your ride is fuelled and it’s off you go time.

18 new Public Quests (perhaps WAR’s most innovative feature) have been dreamed up by the guys and girls at Mythic for players to sink their swords into. Four of these are considered easy by the game and 14 require a full group to complete. As in the main game proper, the first stages of all the new PQs are doable with small groups. One of the best things about WAR is how small groups of players start on a PQ, then as they near stage two or stage three, more players join in until, hopefully, the group has snowballed into one big enough to kill the end boss. Mythic anticipates the same will be true of Land of the Dead PQs.

One PQ we played was set in the Library of Zandri, itself inside the Necropolis of Zandri. Inside skeletons were burning books from the old world, trying to destroy the secrets they contain. Stage one played out much like any WAR PQ: kill X amount of skeletons and extinguish X amount of bookshelves. At stage two the PQ began to show its spots. Players need to travel through portals that transport them into a fantasy world based on the contents of one of six books. In each an item needs to be recovered, guarded by mobs including Scaven and a yeti. While this is happening, all the other players defend the portal back at the Library from a skeleton assault. At stage three, six bosses are summoned, one after the other, that the group needs to kill. One’s a Follower of Khorne, another a Scaven. The PQ finishes with a face off against a big blue dragon. Kill it and it’s epic loot time.

Another PQ we tried, called Obelisk of Judgement, highlighted how console gameplay has been incorporated into WAR. It begins as you’d expect – kill 30 doomed skeletons. The difference is, however, that a great big damage dealing laser is firing down from the top of the obelisk. Stage two asks the group to destroy 50 condemned skeletons. At this point the laser comes in two forms – green for resurrecting skeletons and red for killing players. You need to dodge the laser beam while killing as many skeletons as possible. It’s chaos. Then stage three, which we would have seen but for a massive AOE spell from the obelisk itself that wiped out the entire group. Ouch.

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.

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.